ST. JOSEPH, Ill. (WCIA) — The sting of SJO’s second round playoff loss to Unity is still felt by Cameron Wagner.

“It’s all I think about,” Wagner said. “During film and conditioning, that’s all they [coaches] were saying. “They were like, that’s all you need to think about, that’s all you should need to fuel you for this week to have a great week of practice.

The Spartan junior is the highest-rated offensive lineman in Illinois in the Class of 2027, but that’s not stopping him from chasing improvement.

“Since track season ended and it started getting warmer, I would go up to the school at like 5:30 before school and just do foot speed workouts, conditioning, stuff like that, and then working some sets and some offensive line stuff just working on getting faster in the open field and firing off the ball,” Wagner said.

“I think he’s much like the rest of our players, you see him getting better every week,” SJO head coach Shawn Skinner said. “Part of that is his preparation during the week, his work habits in practice, and that’s translating to Friday night.”

The four-star prospect has taken gameday visits to power four schools like Notre Dame, Oklahoma, and Ohio State this year, but he decided to make Unity game week a time he won’t travel.

“When do I need to lock in extra,” Wagner reflected. “I was like yeah, Unity week would be a good week.” “There’s just not really any games this week that I felt like it was necessary to go to.”

Throughout his high-profile recruitment. He’s following advice from his parents, who were once college athletes.

“Don’t let anybody tell you where to go and do your own thing,” Wagner said. “They were like, if you want to go JUCO and just go play, or if you don’t wanna play football at all, just do whatever you want to do.”

Wagner won’t go far for another gameday visit to Illinois. He’ll be at Gies Memorial Stadium to see the Illini play Ohio State in front of a sellout crowd.