RIB LAKE FOOTBALL PREVIEW - New eight-man era of Rib Lake football begins with young team
RIB LAKE FOOTBALL PREVIEW
A new era of football at Rib Lake High School begins Thursday in a 7 p.m. kickoff against the visiting Gilman Pirates.
About two years since the difficult decision was made to end a 35-year football co-op with Prentice, the Rib Lake Redmen will play their first game as a stand-alone eight-player program. Tonight’s game will also be the first varsity-level contest played at Rib Lake since October of 2022. Last year, the Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks closed out their partnership as a JV-only squad due to low numbers.
The Redmen are quite young with the majority of their 19-player roster being sophomores and freshmen. Only three players –– seniors Brady Heiser and Logan Schmittfranz and junior Ethan Cook –– are entering their third or fourth years of high school football.
But that trio of veterans said last week this is an exciting time.
“I feel like people are more excited about it,” Schmittfranz said. “They feel we have a better chance of winning than we did in previous years, so that makes people excited, going to a game and actually having a chance to win and watching a winning team.”
“It’s the start of a new tradition,” Heiser said. “I think it’ll be a lot of fun. We won’t have as much travel time anymore. I think it’s pretty cool just to be the start of it and hopefully we can start off on a good note.”
Head coach Jonah Campbell echoed those sentiments on Tuesday.
“The community, the school, the players, everybody is super excited for a fresh start. It’s sparked some kids into coming back out for football after the last few years,” he said. “The first couple of weeks have been pretty exciting. They’re having fun, which is the big thing. We’re building some some solid team camaraderie as we get started.”
Rib Lake will play an eight-game regularseason schedule as part of the newly-created Northwoods East Conference. The league includes former Marawood Conference teams such as Athens, Phillips, Prentice and Chequamegon as well as Flambeau and Hurley. League play opens with a Saturday, Sept. 7 matinee at 1 p.m. at home against Chequamegon.
While Rib Lake is young, the program possesses some athletic talent. The freshman class in particular is one that has had a lot of athletic success while growing up and additions in the junior class give the coaching staff a foundation to work with.
That staff has gained a football knowledge boost, adding Tom Noennig and Kevin Grundy in the off-season. Both are recent inductees into the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame. Noennig was recognized for his work at Hartford and Mayville, while Grundy is well-known in this area for successful coaching stints at Newman Catholic, Antigo, Wausau West and Wausau East.
“Our new additions to the coaching staff, I think that’s really helped,” Heiser said. “They have a lot of knowledge and, like they’ve said, it’s been a learning experience for them because they’ve been 11-man the whole time. But I think it’s really helped having their knowledge here.”
Campbell said Noennig, who helped out some last year after a brief stint as the school’s athletic director has been particularly helpful on the defensive side.
“I was extremely grateful that he wanted to come on board,” Campbell said. “One of the big things we get from Tom is his complete understanding of fundamentals at every position. He’s not just a scheme guy who knows what defensive technique and fundamentals need to look like. He can teach footwork at every position on defense. He can coach every drill from every position.”
Grundy has lent his expertise on the offensive side.
“I really liked his offense,” Campbell said. “It resonates with what I’m used to, but it’s out of a different formation or set. He had connections with Dan Sharp from Joliet Catholic (lll.) who was able to come up and help us install some of the offense in our July camp. He kind of lives with that offensive line, getting the timing right, understanding jobs and communication and calls to make.”
Those who played with the JV team last fall got a taste of the eight-man game with contests against teams like Newman Catholic, Hurley and Phillips.
“It was a good learning year,” Cook said. “But part of it was a little sad not having a varsity team.”
“It’s a faster game,” Schmittfranz said. “There’s not as many people on the field so you always have to make sure you’re doing your part because there’s nobody there to back you up.”
“It’s a lot more fast-paced,” Heiser said. “It’s still the same concepts of football, but it is definitely a different game than 11-man. I think that will take a little bit to get used to. Us upperclassmen have some experience with it from last year.”
Offensively, Rib Lake will prefer to establish its running game with Schmittfranz and junior Tucker Phillips being the lead backs. Junior Talon Scheithauer, in his first year with the high school program, will start at quarterback.
“Logan is a returning guy who is an extremely hard runner,” Campbell said. “Both of those two are going to hit holes hard and fight for every yard that they can.
Talon’s just has a very good sports IQ overall. We can make adjustments with him. Hopefully we can get to a stage, like we’ve talked about in the past, where he’s that general on the field who knows exactly what the coach is thinking. He’s not quite there yet, but he’s a guy who can fit the mold of a passing threat and a running threat in his first year back since middle school.”
The top candidates to fill the tight end positions are both freshmen, Blake Henderson and Lucas Cook. They may be young but Campbell said they bring enough physicality and an understanding of what’s needed to play there immediately.
“We have a lot of young guys coming in,” Ethan Cook said. “They’ll need to step up for sure. It will be interesting to see what they can do on the field when the time comes.”
As he has the past couple of years, Heiser will anchor the line at center with Ethan Cook lining up next to him at one guard spot. The hope was to put Gavin Phillips at the other guard spot, but an injury may hold him back. Campbell said sophomores Keaton Schmidtfranz and Brevin Brahmer are looking to fill the spots if Phillips can’t go.
“Last year Ethan was thought to be a tight end,” Campbell said. “Then we ended up moving him to running back and then we moved him to quarterback. This year we were going to move him back to tight end and then from tight end we put it in his ear that for this offense to really go, we’re going to need guards that can pull and move and even if you’re not pulling, they need to be quicker than the defense.”
“Hopefully we’ll have a really good run game which will open up the passing game,” Schmittfranz said of the offense. “I think we’ re going to have a really clean running game this year.”
“We’re just keeping it simple and trying to run it to perfection,” Heiser said.
Defensively, Heiser is again the anchor in the middle of the front line, while Tucker Phillips and, again, Schmidtfranz or Brahmer could be the other end. The Redmen like their personnel at linebacker and in the backfield. “Defense is where we think we have an advantage,” Campbell said. “We have a lot of speed out there and a lot of guys who play physical. Ethan and Logan are looking to be our experienced linebackers. Logan usually has some pretty good instincts and a nose for finding the ball. Ethan likes to play very physical.”
Junior Seth Borchardt and freshman Slade Scheithauer start the season as Rib Lake’s top cornerbacks.
“Slade has been extremely impressive as a freshman understanding the position on routes, understanding how to read his keys,” Campbell said. “He’s been very quick there. He has a natural ability to read a play and stay in coverage. He’s been tough to beat in oneon- ones.” Talon Scheithauer fills the safety spot, able to provide pass coverage while being physical enough to provide run support as well.
“I think it’ll be good,” Heiser said of the defense. “We have to be quick, but that comes with the game. It’s a faster-paced game and you have to be quick or you’ll get beat.”
The Redmen know they’re in for quite a challenge tonight against Gilman, who sits second in the state’s eight-player pre-season rankings. In the conference, however, they feel they can compete as long as they stay healthy.
Phillips has typically been a solid eightman program, Hurley is in its first eight-man season as well after fielding several good 11man teams. Athens hopes to improve after fielding a young squad last year and the Chequamegon Co-op is coming off a 3-6 season.
“A winning season. Definitely, that’s the goal,” Schmittfranz said.
Rib Lake’s Seth Borchardt makes a two-handed catch on a pass during the team’s Aug. 20 practice. The Redmen open their first season of eight-player football tonight, Thursday, with a tough assignment against the state’s pre-season second-ranked team, Gilman. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
