The Orland Park Pioneers football and cheerleading organization has been around for half of a century.
On Sept. 21, the Orland Park Village Board honored the Pioneers as the Community Organization of the Month at the Committee of the Whole Meeting.
“The Pioneers are about teamwork, discipline, leadership and personal development providing thousands of young athletes with valuable skills and enduring relationships that extend beyond the field,” Mayor James Dodge read in a proclamation.
“Pioneers alumni have gone on to success at the highest levels of football including Super Bowl 50 champion Michael Schofield III, Green Bay Packers players Steve Budick and Steve Wirtel, BCS national champion Jake Lembke and former Northwestern University head coach Pat Fitzgerald.”
The organization started in 1976 and has been going strong ever since. Recently, the Pioneers were able to enjoy playing in their own practice facility – the Michael Schofield III Sports Complex at Schussler Park. They play many home games at Sandburg’s field.
Pioneers representative Dan McMillan, who has coached football for the organization, said that the Pioneers are successful on and off the field.
“If you play football for the Pioneers, you were that much better – it made you so much better,” he said. “What we did was that we didn’t worry just about winning. I won a few (River Valley Youth Football League) Super Bowls, but what was just important was when we were 3-6. They worked hard and they were better people for it.”
He added that Schofield, a star offensive lineman who helped lead the Denver Broncos to a Super Bowl title, had to pay some dues with the Pioneers.
“Here’s what’s important – Michael Schofield as an eighth-grader played on varsity, but he didn’t start,” McMillan said. “Here was somebody that was going to block for Peyton Manning in a Super Bowl.
“He wasn’t a starter for the Pioneers, but he got a lot of reps and his parents understood that we were developing him. We’ve developed so many young men over the years and that’s the important part.”
