Pirates aim to run with league contenders again

GILMAN FOOTBALL PREVIEW

Just like last fall, the Gilman Pirates, Owen-Withee Blackhawks and Thorp Cardinals are the projected front-runners in Central Wisconsin East eight-player football conference as the 2023 season.

Despite the loss of six graduates, the Pirates expect to run with those teams again –– literally.

Speed and quickness are among the key strengths Gilman will rely upon in its fourth year of eight-player football. The first three were great successes with Gilman compiling a 24-5 overall record in that stretch.

Heading into head coach Robin Rosemeyer’s 19th season in that position, Gilman aims to succeed behind four seniors and a growing young group behind them. The program has now swelled to 32 players with the addition of 12 freshmen and a handful of others it’s picked up along the way since transitioning out of 11-man football.

“I feel we try to motivate everybody to work hard so we can have a good senior year,” said Troy Duellman, who will be a big two-way piece to Gilman’s 2023 puzzle. “I think we’re going to be pretty solid this year. The kids that are stepping in are solid.”

“They’re going to fill their spots well, this year and next year,” senior lineman Dalton Wisocky said.

The Pirates kick off the new season Friday by hosting Lake Holcombe at 7 p.m. in a non-conference matchup. Gilman won last year’s meeting 50-0. The Pirates’ 2023 schedule is exactly the same as last year’s. The sites, each week, are just reversed.

Rosemeyer and his coaching staff are pretty comfortable with where their offensive unit sits going into week one.

The Pirates are breaking in a new starting quarterback in junior Dawson Krizan and some running backs will get more varsity carries than they’ve ever seen. But, they also have a go-to guy in Duellman, experience and strength up front and speed that will hopefully create some mismatches in open space.

“We do have some speed,” Rosemeyer said. “Dawson is pretty fast at quarterback. Our guards move well when we pull them. It kinda begins there and then our tight ends have the quickness to hook the defensive ends also when needed. We do bring some speed with Troy Duellman, Tony Syryczuk, Chad Konsella at running back. Alex Copenhaver isn’t slow either. Brady McAlpine is a track kid too.”

Duellman ran for 890 yards in 10 games last year, scoring 15 touchdowns and averaging 9.3 yards per carry. He got just 96 carries mainly because most of Gilman’s seven wins were fairly lopsided and was a secondteam all-conference pick. McAlpine scored four touchdowns on just 19 carries and averaged 9.9 yards per attempt.

Up front, the rest of Gilman’s seniors lead the way with Nathan Bertsinger returning at center, Wisocky taking the right guard spot and Caleb Marion returning at tight end.

Junior Joey Syryczuk takes over at left guard for the graduated Braeden Person. Rosemeyer said Gilman has dependable depth on the line with junior Lee Zagorski, who moves from a running back spot, junior Talyn Podolak, sophomore Dawson Grunseth and freshman Taydyn Angell ready to play if needed at guard and junior Brayden Olynick being a dependable center who has some varsity snaps to his credit.

Junior Max Ustianowski is Gilman’s other starting end, replacing his older brother Branden. Junior Trevor Vick and sophomores Cooper Krug and Sawyer Winger are the backups.

“Our linemen, our center and guards are pretty quick. They’re strong,” Marion said of his teammates on the offensive side of the ball.

“I feel like our running backs and tight ends are just quick,” Duellman said. “A lot of speed. Our linemen are big enough to block, yet small enough to be quick and get where they have to. We definitely have more formation options this year than we’ve had in the past.”

Rosemeyer agreed saying Gilman may look to use some spread formations more than it has in the past. Krizan is a big part of making that happen. He ran for two touchdowns in varsity play last year and produced under pressure in a 52-42 playoff win over Three Lakes-Phelps when Grady Kroeplin was injured.

“The game that sticks out is the Three Lakes game, the playoff game,” Rosemeyer said. “He did a good job of running the offense and in the fourth quarter led us to a couple of scores. He’s fairly fast. When we’re able to get him outside he does a good job with his speed and he’s also a pretty physical runner. He’s throwing a good ball this year, whether it’s off the play action or quick passes. That’s important because we have some kids who can catch it and run with it so with that little short passing game, we need to be accurate. So far, so good.”

All six of Gilman’s 2022 seniors started defensively, making that side of the ball a little more of an unknown early on.

What varsity experience there is lies up front. Wisocky and Marion are back at defensive end and Bertsigner can play both end or nose tackle. Joey Syryczuk will get snaps inside as well and Olynick is also a capable defensive end.

Zagorski, a junior, could bounce between middle linebacker and nose tackle.

“We’re not real big by any means but we do have some experience there and we have kids that I think can keep their gap control,” Rosemeyer said. “We’d like to make teams bounce it outside where we have the speed to take care of some things.”

Duellman got honorable mention in the conference last year as an outside linebacker. Tony Syryczuk and Krizan are leading contenders for outside linebacker spots and with Krug also potentially seeing time.

“Lee Zagorski has always been a middle linebacker but to get more speed on the field there will be times where Troy is going to play middle linebacker,” Rosemeyer said. “Depending on what we’re seeing that week we’ll have some options there.”

Gilman graduated both of its starting safeties from a year ago in Branden Ustianowski and Casey Grunseth.

“We have depth there,” Rosemeyer said. “We just have to figure out which two are the best as far as coverage but then also being good tacklers against the run game.”

Max Ustianowski brings some experience, joining McAlpine, Vick, Konsella and Winger as those vying for playing time.

“We’re quick,” Duellman said of the defense. “We definitely have a lot of speed. The defensive backs are really fast, even our linebackers are very fast. We’re not the biggest but we can definitely wrap up and tackle.”

Thorp (7-1 last year) appears to be the early-season favorite in the conference. Despite losing an outstanding two-way player in Aiden Rosemeyer, the Cardinals bring back two college-caliber players in Denzel Sutton and Logan Hanson. Sutton, a receiver and defensive back last year is reportedly shifting to quarterback. Hanson led the conference in rushing last year with 1,305 yards. Owen-Withee (8-0) won the conference title in 2022, beating Thorp 60-40 in the regular-season finale. Those teams were ineligible for the WIAA playoffs but are eligible this year. Gilman was the league’s only playoff team, getting to Level 2 where the Pirates lost to state champion Newman Catholic. The Blackhawks were hit with some key losses, highlighted by quarterback/defensive back Logan Amacher, but Rosemeyer expects they’ll be a senior-dominated, physical football team, as always.

Early reports are Alma Center Lincoln looked much better in its scrimmage last weekend under second-year head coach. Greenwood figures to have a young team and won’t have a lot of depth in its final year of eight-man football before the Indians start a co-op with Loyal. Athens is a bit of an unknown after a couple of key graduation hits. Gilman won’t see the Blue Jays until week eight.

After going 5-2 in league play and 7-3 overall last fall, the Pirates are motivated to better that. In the conference last year they lost 30-14 at Owen-Withee and 31-30 at Thorp. They’ll have both of those games at home this year.

“In the off-season, a lot of kids were going into the weight room and every Wednesday we’d just come in with no coaches and just run routes on our own,” Marion said.

Brayden Olynick attacks the tackling wheel during Gilman’s Aug. 16 practice.