A season after advancing three wrestlers to the WIAA state meet, the Oconto Falls High School team is changing its practice routine for the new season.
Last season, the Panthers worked more on the wrestling mats and correcting individuals’ techniques.
Head coach Marc Kinziger is emphasizing weightlifting this season.
“It has a lot to do with the makeup of the team. They wanted it, they bought into it. Last year’s team wasn’t so much,” Kinziger said. “They wanted more mat time. More mat time last year just converted into, ‘Hey, let’s get stronger this year.’”
With the graduation of talented seniors Dewey Krueger and Sam Konitzer, Kinziger has seen the Panthers evolve into more of a team.
In recent years, wrestlers such as Krueger, Konitzer, Jake Morrissey and Mitch Friedman were among the best in the state and celebrated several state championships. With that kind of tradition, Kinziger believes it is easy to get caught up in the individual accolades instead of a team-first mentality.
“I think they really have this team aspect. … When we won team state, that was a very big piece of those guys,” Kinziger said. “They’d do anything. They would wrestle any weight class.
“They would take a loss on their record if that was the best thing to do on the team’s part. I would say that’s come back a little stronger. It never went away, we’ve always truly had that. I think it is coming back to that.”
Junior Nate Trepanier appears poised to be one of the team’s leader. He finished third at state last year at 145 pounds, ultimately defeating the wrestler who had knocked him into the consolation bracket in the quarterfinals.
Nearly two weeks ago, Trepanier took home a title in a preseason event in La Crosse, which can give him confidence moving into the season.
“It helps a lot because I wrestled some guys from Wisconsin there and just knowing that I can win, it’s a good feeling,” Trepanier said.
The Panthers return five other wrestlers who qualified for sectionals: sophomores Noah Stary and Bryce Peterson, juniors Bryce Ash and Brice Delzer, and senior Kaleb Westcott.
Oconto Falls has a rough road in front of it, with perennial powers Freedom, Wrightstown, Luxemburg-Casco and Denmark all awaiting the Panthers in conference duels before the WIAA Division 2 tourney series begins.
“But our goal is to beat Freedom, to beat Luxemburg, to beat Wrightstown and be down in Madison,” Kinziger said. “To do that, when we get to Madison, I’ll take our chances with anybody else in the other parts of the state.”
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