View from the cheap seats
A weekly perspective on sports
Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review
Marawood Conference commissioner Mark Lacke alerted me this week of the inevitable, that the Edgar against Stratford football rivalry game likely wouldn’t occur this season, now that non-conference games are cancelled.
Edgar’s football team remains in the realigned Marawood Conference while Stratford’s football team switches to the Central Wisconsin Large Conference this season. Edgar was originally scheduled to play at home against Stratford on Friday, Aug. 28, in a nonconference game on the same night as the Edgar PTO tailgate party.
Lacke said there is a slim chance the Edgar vs. Stratford football rivalry game could happen this season. He said the only possibility of Edgar and Stratford playing each other would be if their conference opponents both cancel their games in the same week because of COVID-19 outbreaks in their schools. If this would occur, then Edgar and Stratford could schedule to play against each other that week.
It’s been 13 years since an anomaly in the schedule wouldn’t allow the Edgar and Stratford football teams to play against each other in the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
Stratford’s football team beat Edgar, 13-7, in their first game against each other in 1965. Edgar, however, has held the wins advantage against Stratford in games since then. The Wildcats hold a 28 to 25 advantage in regular-season football wins against the Tigers. Edgar also has a 6 to 2 lead in the football playoffs against Stratford. In combined football games played, the Wildcats have a 34 to 27 advantage against the Tigers.
The Marawood Conference deciding this week to play fall sports now instead of next spring helps student athletes, such as Edgar running back and linebacker Austin Dahlke, continue to display their talent on the field to provide tapes to potential colleges that could give them athletic scholarships.
The college scouting website Rivals. com lists the following 10 colleges that have shown some interest in Dahlke’s football skills thus far: Drake, Eastern Illinois, Illinois St., Iowa, Iowa St., Montana, North Dakota, North Dakota St., Northern Iowa and Wyoming.
I’m sure local high school student athletes such as Athens High School cross country runner Elizabeth Van Rixel and volleyball player Shauna Belter from Athens; volleyball player
Reagan Borchardt and football player
Konnor Wolf of Edgar; cross country runner Jada Prihoda and football player Noah Gage of Marathon and volleyball player Mikayla Guldan and cross country runner Ella Heidmann of Stratford are happy they’ll at least be able to start their 2020-21 fall sports seasons now.
How long their fall sports seasons last this year during COVID-19 still remains to be seen.
