Mark Fredy looked across the field and saw a familiar face.
The first-year coach of the Marion/Tigerton faced his brother, Bob, who is in his first season of coaching Iola-Scandinavia’s varsity team.
The two teams met Aug. 20 in the season opener for both programs, as Mark Fredy’s Thundercatz met Bob Fredy’s Thunderbirds in a nonconference matchup of 8-player teams. Iola-Scandinavia won 34-8.
Two months ago, the idea of the Fredy brothers coaching against each other didn’t sound like it would happen, at least not this season. However, low participation numbers caused Iola-Scandinavia school officials to move from the 11-player format to 8-player, which Marion/Tigerton has competed in since 2019.
The two teams weren’t scheduled to play each other this season, but that all changed when Gillett decided to suspend its varsity football program this season. Marion/Tigerton was originally scheduled to open its season against Gillett but suddenly had an opening.
Iola-Scandinavia began looking for teams to play earlier this summer after the 8-player switch.
“That’s my brother, and that was his first coaching game,” Mark Fredy said shortly after his team came up short. “Their (former) head coach, Scott Erickson, retired.”
Erickson stepped down earlier this year after coaching the team to 236 wins, 11 conference championships and four trips to state, including the WIAA Division 6 state championship in 2018.
“The phone’s been blowing up the last couple of weeks once word got out,” Mark Fredy said. “Me and him don’t really care to talk about it. We played sports together and played college football together on the same team. We competed in the front yard playing basketball, baseball, football. We’ve competed at the table for seconds. We’ve been competitive our whole lives. He got his first win, and I’m sure I’ll hear about it. They’re going to win a lot of games and score a lot of points.”
Although Fredy is in his first season as the Thundercatz’ coach after taking over for Micah Schwantes, he’s no stranger to the program. He’s in his 25th year as a coach or assistant coach.
One of the first tasks for Fredy, who also serves as athletic director for the Marion School District, was to inform his players that the Thundercatz wouldn’t be eligible for the WIAA’s 8-player playoffs this season because of the combined enrollment average of Marion and Tigerton high schools, the two schools that formed the co-op program in 2019.
The co-op’s three-year average is 209, which exceeds the threshold for the WIAA’s 8-player postseason division.
“Being the athletic director, I’ve been in contact with the WIAA,” he said. “Our enrollment was over 200 last year, but I knew the three-year average was going to put us over this year. I knew that was going to happen.”
Marion/Tigerton will now miss the 2026 playoffs after winning a Central Wisconsin Conference championship last year and advancing to the second round of the 8-player playoffs.
“Our focus is to control what we can control,” Fredy said. “We can’t control our enrollment. We can’t control a lot of things with rules and regulations, but we can make sure that when we take the field each Thursday or Friday night, we’re going to give everything we have.
“We’re still playing in a conference and still have a chance to win a conference championship. There are a lot of things out there that we can still look forward to.”
The co-op football program has worked well for both communities, according to Fredy.
“I’m a little frustrated that the WIAA wants you to co-op to save programs and then say, ‘Oh, you’re now over 200 (students),’” he said. “It’s not like we’re 700 kids. We’re at 211 or something like that. Before last year, we hadn’t been in the playoffs for a while and got kicked around a little.”
Fredy said he talked to his team about the situation.
“I’ve been very open with them,” he said. “With today’s day and age, there’s so much out there on the internet. I wanted them to hear the truth from me. We talked about it but don’t dwell on it.”
