Colby aspires for repeat season
The last time the Colby Hornets football team took the field, they were stepping foot onto the turf of Camp Randall in Madison. Four quarters of football later, they were celebrating as the 2021 Division 6 state champions, having beaten Saint Mary’s Springs 22-7. The next time they step onto the field, they will be doing so with a clean slate, but aspirations to reach similar heights.
Last season, the team went 16-1 overall and 7-0 in conference play, which allowed them to claim their second straight Marawood conference title en route to their fourth football state championship in the school’s history. With the beginning of the 2022 season right around the corner, the Hornets are back to work, eyeing a deep playoff run that would bring them back to the state’s capital and the home field of the Wisconsin Badgers. Doing so is often easier said than done, however, and this year’s team will have a different look to it. Sixteen seniors from last season’s championship-winning roster have graduated, and filling those holes is not something that should be taken lightly. That’s something that head coach Jim Hagen and his staff made sure to make clear to their players long before this season’s practices began.
“Back in the spring when we did our sign ups,” Hagen said, “I gave them a piece of paper that had some goals on it - academic goals, weight room goals. And one of the things that it said on there was ‘don’t rest on the success of last year.’” That being said, this is nothing new to Colby’s varsity coaching staff, and there will be several key players returning from last year’s squad that are looking to make an even bigger impact now.
On offense, the 2022 Hornets will be without last season’s top rushers Brent Jeske and Mason Voss, both of whom amassed over 1,000 yards on the ground last season. However, they will be returning senior Caden Healy, the third piece to an explosive offense that averaged over 30 points per game. In his junior season, Healy had 696 rushing yards on 92 attempts and scored 14 touchdowns on the ground. Going into this season, Hagen is expecting Healy to take over as the rushing attack’s top option.
“Our workhorse player is going to be Healy,” Hagen said. “He can run as fast as a lot of guys in the state of Wisconsin. He’s going to carry the ball a lot, yes, but also catch balls out of the backfield.”
That second element of his game was part of what made Healy so valuable to last year’s squad. He led the team with 14 catches for 305 yards and four receiving touchdowns. Add that to his rushing statistics and the full picture of what Healy can offer the offense starts to take shape.
Healy will be sharing the bulk of his rushing duties with fellow senior Mateo Lopez, who will have a greatly expanded role on the offense this season. Lopez, while he had established himself on the varsity defense last season, did not get as many reps on the offensive side of the ball, due to a crowded backfield depth chart. However, he still managed to display some of his potential with the opportunities he was given. He averaged 7.8 yards per carry, finishing the season with 15 rushes for 117 yards and a touchdown. As the other half of the Hornets perceived rushing attack, he will certainly see an increase in carries this season.
And while Hagen foresees the pair to be the main driving force behind the Hornet’s offensive efforts, he says that he’s been impressed by many of the position players that will see action this fall.
“I’m very encouraged by some of the skill players that we have coming back,” he stated, “Mateo, Caden, [seniors] Tevin Rue, Nathaniel Robida, who has some speed at the split end position, and Kaden Wiese, who plays tight end for us.”
The Hornets will be giving their opponents a different look at quarterback this year, as senior Tucker Meyer will be taking over as Colby’s chief signal caller. After two seasons with Brent Jeske at the helm, Meyer will offer a skill set that deviates slightly from his predecessor’s, opening up different options for the offense.
“We’re still going to run him on the bootkeep and maybe a quarterback draw or something,” Hagen said of his new quarterback, “but he’s not going to carry the ball like we’ve seen the last two years with Brent. But I think we can throw the ball a little bit more effectively though. I’m really looking forward to how I think we can stretch the field that way.”
The 754 yards that Colby gained through the air last year is dwarfed by the 3,808 yards they gained on the ground by comparison, and a large portion of those yards were gained by Healy out of the backfield. While the balance certainly worked for the Hornets last season and the Colby offense is once again likely to focus on the run, the coaching staff likes the versatility that Meyer will add to the passing game.
“We’re going to expect a lot out of him and his leadership,” Hagen added.
The biggest question mark on offense looks to be how the line will shape up, with many mainstays graduating.
“We’re pretty much replacing our whole line,” Hagen said, “The guys we have coming in are inexperienced, so we’re maybe going to see some growing pains at first, but we’re pretty confident that they’ll come along and do a good job.”
There are several players along the line who are starting to step up already.
“Grant Oelrich is playing center for us and so far he’s done a really nice job,” Hagen said when asked about who he sees filling those roles on the offensive line. “He’s shown a lot of leadership, getting the line ready and organized and calling out blitzes. Oscar Zamora, who is going to be playing right guard for us, has really done a lot in the weight room this spring and summer. And there is Logan Stuttgen, who started for us quite a bit last year when Derek Jeske got hurt. I think those three guys are going to really need to be leaders on the line of scrimmage.”
Defensively, the Hornets seem to have similar strengths and potential weaknesses. Questions still need to be answered on the line of scrimmage, where the Hornets are still playing with different pieces to try to replace what was a senior-dominated line.
However, the coaching staff does feel like they’ve ironed out a lot of the defensive back and linebacker positions.
“Our linebacking corps has a chance to be really good once again, with Caden Healy in the middle and then Kaden Wiese and Tevin Rue,” Hagen said of his defense. “Our d-backs have a chance to be really good as well; we’ve got some speed back there. Mateo Lopez is a ball hawk. He just has a knack for knowing where the football is going.”
While there are certainly some things to be worked on before the start of the season, Hagen and his coaching staff are excited by the way the 2022 Hornets are shaping up.
“My expectation is that we can compete for a conference championship again,” Hagen said when asked about what goals the team has set for itself. “I really think we have that kind of team. I think we can certainly be in the playoffs again for the sixteenth year in a row. That’s not an easy thing to do. And then once you get into the playoffs, you kind of let the chips fall where they may. But I’m very excited. I think we have a very good football team.”
The Hornets start their season off at home, taking on an old Cloverbelt rival, Neillsville/Granton, this Friday, August 19. They will follow that up with three more non-conference games before beginning their conference schedule with a showdown in Edgar against the Wildcats on September 16.
