ROCHESTER, Ill. (WAND) - Rochester High School football is ready to step back onto the gridiron again.

"I haven't been sleeping well," Connor Broughton, a senior defensive end and fullback, said excitedly. "I've been getting like two, three hours of sleep. I'm ready for the season."

Head Coach Derek Leonard said of preseason practice, "You know you're close to that game one. And really right now you're just waiting for game one. You're getting kind of tired of practicing and hitting each other. Need to play somebody else."

In 2024, the Rockets were 4-1 in the CS8 and made the playoffs, losing in overtime. That was not good enough for the proud program.

"You know, a lot of teams would be thrilled with that, and we're not," Leonard said. "We weren't physical enough that last game, and we

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