Witt-Birn football team with high aspirations as season nears

Offense should feature balanced attack
By: 
Morgan Rode
Sports Editor

WITTENBERG — The Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School football team enters the 2019 season with some big goals.

The Chargers are coming off a 3-6 season in which they earned a 1-6 mark in the Central Wisconsin Conference-Large Division. Despite not returning a single all-conference player, Witt-Birn believes it can challenge for the conference crown.

“I expect us to win a bunch of games. We’re going to have to work pretty hard to do that but we should be able to,” said senior Jacob Groshek. “Coach (Bernard Holsey) gave us the goal of conference champs. I think we can get there, but it’s going to take a lot of effort from everybody and we’re going to have to work together as a team.”

“Our big expectation is to win conference. That will take a lot of hard work and execution. But we’re halfway there because of what we did in the offseason,” said senior Logan Balliett.

Groshek and Balliett join seniors Luis Rodriguez, Allen Uttecht, and Travin Day and juniors Austin Gibson and Larken Betry as returning starters from last year’s team.

Regardless of what position a player may have started at last fall, that doesn’t mean those spots will automatically go to those same players for the upcoming season. Coach Holsey wasn’t ready to name starters with two weeks to go before the team’s season opener.

Witt-Birn’s lone all-conference selection in 2018, Jack Stewart, served as the team’s primary playmaker on the offensive side of the ball. With Stewart now graduated, Holsey believes several individuals could fill the void.

“I think we have a group that’s not selfish,” said Holsey, who noted the offense will change a bit from last year. “I’m not saying that any group we had was selfish, but last year when we had Jack, we kind of knew he was our go-to guy. We don’t really have a go-to guy (this year) so everybody has to be the go-to guy. It encourages kids to be that guy each game and every series…”

Witt-Birn will scrimmage at Athens High School on Friday before hosting Northland Pines in the first regular season game on Aug. 23.

The Chargers next two games will be on the road, with their week three game against Amherst opening CWC-Large play.