Edgar reloads for 2021 season

‘Cats will battle Colby in Marawood

By Casey Krautkramer

Four seasons ago, Karson Butt was Edgar’s senior quarterback who helped lead the Wildcats to their last state championship in 2016. Although it’s not fair to compare Karson with his younger brother, new Edgar senior starting signal caller Mattison Butt, the Wildcats still expect to be in contention to win a state title every season with whoever is under center.

Mattison Butt dons the same No. 11 jersey that Karson wore during his Edgar football playing career, as he takes over as the team’s starting quarterback from Konnor Wolf who graduated in spring. One of Edgar’s top returners on defense this season, senior outside linebacker Jordan Bunkelman, also wears the same No. 20 jersey his older brother, Shawn Bunkelman, wore on the 2016 Edgar state title squad.

Jerry Sinz is back for his 47th season as the Edgar football team’s head coach with a record of 440 wins and 85 losses. The Wildcats only return four starting players on offense and defense from last year’s squad that finished the wacky COVID-19 season with a 9-0 record. Edgar destroyed Iola- Scandinavia, 56-8, in a home regional championship last season; there were no state championship games in Madison because of COVID-19.

Edgar’s other top returning starters on defense besides Jordan Bunkelman are senior defensive end Ayden Weisenberger and senior defensive backs Everet Brehm and Ashton Schuett. The Wildcats’ returning starters on offense are all offensive lineman including senior offensive guards Waylon Wirkus and Brady Stencil, senior offensive tackle Jace Kohel and junior offensive tackle Parker Schuette.

The team’s other top returning players besides Mattison Butt, who also plays defensive back, are junior center and defensive tackle Carver Higgins; senior wide receiver and defensive back Peyton Dahlke, senior tight end and linebacker Owen Bauman and senior wide receiver and linebacker Stetson Lemmer.

Edgar’s newcomers who’ll contribute on the varsity squad this season are sophomore running back and linebacker Karter Butt, junior running back and linebacker Keghan Hartway, junior wide receiver and defensive back Avery Normington, junior center and linebacker Justin Davis, sophomore offensive lineman and linebacker Kohlbe Weisenberger, sophomore tight end and defensive end Brett Baumgartner, sophomore quarterback and defensive back Teegan Streit and sophomore offensive and defensive lineman Harrison Graveen.

Coach Sinz will rely on new quarterback Mattison Butt to guide the team as it begins its regular-season schedule with a pair of tough non-conference road games at Lakeland Union in Minocqua this Friday, Aug. 20, and at arch-rival Stratford on Friday, Aug. 27. He’s confident Mattison Butt can get the job done on the field.

“Mattison Butt has an excellent arm and he is a very good all around football player,” Sinz said.

Coach Sinz is concerned right now with the quality of player depth on the bench behind his starters.

“We many times do not return a big group of starters, as is the case again this year,” he said. “The main challenge facing us is we played very few JV or JV 2 level games last year due to the COVID-19 virus, thus our varsity players will have to improve quickly to be ready. We expect to improve greatly as the year progresses and we hope to be very strong by playoff time.”

Football fans believe Edgar and Colby will be the top two squads battling for the Marawood Conference championship this year. The two teams didn’t face each other in conference action last season because Colby had too many positive COVID-19 cases. The squad will hopefully be able to play each other this season for the first time since Colby joined the conference.

Edgar’s assistant football coaches this season are Greg Streit, Andrew Lukasko, Chris Trawicki, Zach Paul, Nathan Dahl, Jon Peterlik, Adam Decker and Troy Andreshak.