IT ALL STARTS UP FRONT

MEDFORD FOOTBALL PREVIEW

Size and experience on line, QB’s return key

The Medford Raiders hope bigger will mean better when it comes to a couple aspects of their 2022 football team.

Stop by practice and the first thing you’ll notice is more bodies on the field with about 80 players in the program between grades 9-12. The second thing you may notice is more size and strength compared to recent years on the offensive and defensive lines, which the Raiders hope to use to their advantage.

Included in those 80 players is a group of 23 seniors. While they carry varying talents and experience levels, the Raiders feel having that much older depth will only help as they look to improve upon a 5-5 campaign in 2021 that ended in Level 1 of the WIAA Division 3 playoffs with a beat-up group being no match for eventual state runner-up Rice Lake.

“It’s good to have bodies around,” 17th-year head coach Ted Wilson said Monday. “It’s good to have kids playing football. It’s a numbers game and as many kids as we can get out is good for us. The more seniors you can have, the better we’re going to be. That’s how you win games. You win games with seniors and I’ve always thought that.”

“I think football is kind of the one sport where if you have a bunch of seniors that have been playing for awhile you get the advantage right off the bat,” senior quarterback and safety Logan Baumgartner said. “With having seniors this year, we’re bigger, stronger, faster than we were. It’s just a big advantage all around.” The Raiders shook off some rust last Friday with scrimmage sessions against Eau Claire Regis, Menomonie and Edgar and will kick things off for real this Friday with a 7 p.m. non-conference game at New Richmond. Medford hasn’t played the Tigers since 2016 when it lost to them in WIAA Division 3 post-season play for the second straight year.

The Raiders will be at Amherst on Aug. 26 before finally playing on Raider Field Sept. 2 against Merrill in the Great Northern Conference opener.

The Raiders enter 2022 with a starting lineup that has more varsity games played than they did at this point last year and having Baumgartner back after he missed most of last year due to injury adds to this fall’s optimism. But, there are question marks and the Raiders know they’ll have to put in the work to get where they want to be at season’s end.

“It’s so far, so good,” Wilson said. “There were some good things we did on Friday in the scrimmage. There’s been some real good days in practice and some days haven’t been so good. It’s just that whole process of learning to get better and learning to practice hard every day and learning to become a more consistent football player.”

How things unfold offensively might be this fall’s great mystery. As always, production starts with the offensive line, which was an area of great inexperience in 2021, but it’s hoped those struggles turn into benefits in 2022. The penciledin starters are seniors Alex Kraegenbrink, Braxton Crabb, Will Haavisto, Riley Brandner and All-GNC tackle from a year ago Bryce Sperl from left to right. All but Crabb saw significant numbers of snaps last year. Seniors Ty Metz, Charlie Kleist and junior Cameron Bull are the top tight ends.

Wilson and senior captains Baumgartner and Tucker Kraemer all agreed the potential is there for that group to dominate. Communication is the key.

“It’s definitely nice to have a baseline from last year to now,” Kraemer said. “We definitely have a baseline now. They just have to lock in.”

“When they talk, they’re perfect, nothing goes wrong,” Baumgartner said.

Not only does Medford have senior experience on the line, they’re adding juniors Braxton Weissmiller and Max Dietzman as extra blockers in the backfi eld. Throw in senior bruiser Tukker Schreiner at running back and the potential is there to physically wear down opposing defenses in second halves.

“We’re just trying to maximize what our talent level is and where we can put guys in,” Wilson said. “(Weissmiller and Dietzman) probably should be playing on the line, but at this moment this year we don’t really need them there. I think we’re good with what we have there and so being able to use them as extra blockers coming out the backfield is the correct move. That’s a lot of beef sometimes.”

Schreiner, who ran for 412 yards and five touchdowns last year, joins seniors Kraemer and Peyton Gilles as the team’s primary ball carriers. Kraemer had no varsity carries last year, but Wilson said hard off-season work has put him in a position to succeed in his senior year.

“We won’t necessarily have that one kid like Ean (Wilson) was or Aiden (Gardner) was where they’re getting 90% of the carries, but we’ll have a stable of guys to be able to put together in packages and maximize their talents going forward,” Wilson said.

While ground and pound figures to be the foundation of the offense, the Raiders also want to use Baumgartner’s passing talents. A starter since the middle of his freshman year, his abilities should help Medford give defenses more to think about and prepare for.

“It’s going to feel good getting back out there,” Baumgartner said. “I definitely missed it last year, watching these guys. Wished I could’ve helped them out. This year, it will be fun. It feels like I never left.”

“He missed out on most of the year last year, which really stinks,” Wilson said. “It hampered his development a little bit, but he’s smart, he makes good decisions, he’s been doing this for awhile and he’s got a good understanding of the concepts that we want to try to get done. He’s got a good arm. It’s nice to have him. Hopefully we can find a way to put the ball in the air a little bit this year.”

Medford’s receiving options include the tight ends as well as senior wideout Cole Dassow, who is back from injury, and Kraemer and senior Landen Viergutz who have made plays in the pre-season from slot receiver positions. Metz made a nice touchdown catch in the scrimmage with Regis, winning a battle for a 50-50 ball at the goal line.

“Our offense, it’s going to be good because we have our ground and pound,” Kraemer said. “That’s what we’re known for and now this year, Bummy’s back and we have that passing to back it up. We’re definitely versatile and that’s going to be big.”

Defensively, the Raiders have some experience questions in certain spots, but, like the offense, they aren’t quite as green as they started out last year either. They think Baumgartner and Kleist can be very effective run stoppers and pass defenders at the safety positions, Kraemer returns as a starter at cornerback and the Raiders have the most depth they’ve had in awhile on the interior of the defensive line. Dietzman, a secondteam All-GNC defender last year, Schreiner and Haavisto will probably start the opener, but Weissmiller, Sperl and Kraegenbrink will all be able to rotate in to spread out the snaps.

“We have quite a few bodies to throw at that and that could change from week to week,” Wilson said. “Hopefully we’ll be fairly stout against the run. Charlie and Logan give us some really good options of both being able to fill on the run and be able to cover people.” Metz, Viergutz and Bull expect to create a solid three-man rotation at defensive end. Viergutz has been one of the most improved players in camp early on. “He spent a ton of time getting himself prepped in the weight room this offseason and he does a lot of things right,” Wilson said. “He’s looked good so far.” Senior Alex Dittrich and junior Logan Kawa hold down the starting linebacker spots with Gilles figuring to get snaps as well. Dittrich and Kawa both got spot starts last year when injuries cropped up and had good moments. Now they’ll be counted on to do it consistently. Senior Matt Gebert and first-year senior Miles Searles appear to be the top candidates to fill the second cornerback spot.

Expect to contend

Like most years, the Raiders expect to be contending for a GNC title and to be in playoff contention at season’s end. Like every year, Wilson said they must take the short view to get there.

“We’ll just try to buckle in and try to get better every day and put our best foot forward,” Wilson said. “At the end of the day depending on how we transition, how we play, how we work to get better, will show up in the score. Your goal is always to make the playoffs first and foremost. You have to win four conference games. I think we can be right there vying for a possible conference championship. We have to stay healthy. It’s just like anybody else. We have to stay healthy and see how things turn out.”

Mosinee is the defending conference champion and the likely favorite among most observers. The Indians have some stars in senior receiver Davin Stoffel, a South Dakota State commit, and speedy junior receiver Keagan Jirschele. But they did go through a coaching change in the off-season and lost a couple of bigtime players in quarterback Trevor Garski and linebacker Nolan Harris.

Rhinelander went 6-1 in league play and 9-2 overall in its best season in years, but has 15 starting positions to replace. Lakeland could be an interesting squad with some talented, experienced skill players. Hayward made a jump last year under first-year coach Noah LeBlanc, Ashland should bring back some experience on its front lines while Merrill and Antigo are looking to make uphill climbs after falling on uncharacteristic hard times.

“I’m feeling great about it,” Baumgartner said of the team’s GNC chances. “We can’t take teams lightly. Obviously Mosinee will have a good passing game again this year. Lakeland was young last year, they’ll be coming on. Rhinelander is always our rival. They’ll play us tough. Even Merrill, last year we didn’t really handle them like we should have. You never know with any team in the conference.”

Medford cornerback Matt Gebert breaks up a potential touchdown pass during the Raiders’ scrimmage session with Edgar Friday at Eau Claire Regis.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS