L-C ready to take on repeat challenge
The Luxemburg-Casco football team knows the road to repeating as the North Eastern Conference champion won’t be easy.
In fact, the journey to do so this year actually started with the Spartans going off road for a little bit.
The L-C players were challenged to work in teams of two to three people to navigate the Wolf River at Big Smokey Falls Rafting in Keshena during the first week of practice as part of a team-building exercise.
“It can be bumpy, like the season,” L-C senior lineman Gabe Frontuto said about the rafting experience.
“But the more we worked together, the faster we went. The more teamwork we have in the season, the farther we’re going to go.”
The Spartans are hoping to go even farther than they did last year when the program advanced to the WIAA Division 3 quarterfinals after winning a conference title for the first time since 2005.
“We’re just trying to get better every day because we knew where we were and that wasn’t good enough,” L-C senior lineman Nathan Yagodinski said. “If we do everything harder than we did last year, that will get us to where we want to be.”
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L-C has a handful of first-team all-NEC performers that will be hard to replace, including a pair of two-way honorees in running back/linebacker Dalton Smerchek and lineman Trevor VandenBush.
The 1,924 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns Jon Deprey produced at quarterback also be tough to replace for an offense that averaged 36.6 points per game.
“It might look a little different from what we did last year, but we still want to put up the points that we did,” L-C coach Dillon Maney said.
Garrit Aissen will be taking over at quarterback and is more of a traditional pocket passer. The 6-foot-2 junior has a strong arm and would have probably been a varsity starter for most teams last year.
“His football IQ is through the roof,” L-C senior Austin Tlachac said of Aissen. “He’s so fundamentally sound.”
Tlachac has the ability to attack defenses from the backfield or split out as a receiver, totaling 1,250 all-purpose yards and 12 touchdowns last year.
“Austin has some experience, but other than that we’re pretty young at those positions,” Maney said.
Junior Dakota Robinson saw some time at running back, while junior Nathan Coisman played at tight end.
Junior Bryce Scholze, who moved to the school district from Kansas City, will see time at fullback and is one of the strongest players on the team, according to Maney.
L-C has experienced lines on both sides of the ball.
The offensive line returns Frontuto, Yagodinski, senior Alex Lau and senior Nate Lloyd. Lau is a three-year starter, while Frontuto and Yagodinski both earned all-conference recognition last year. Lloyd is a state-medaling wrestler.
Seniors Austin LeRoy and Dawson Gmeinder received all-conference accolades on the defensive line. They return to the defensive front along with senior Mason Ravet.
Coisman is 6-foot-5 and was a first-team all-NEC performer at outside linebacker. However, the rest of the linebacking corps is rather inexperienced at the varsity level with a host of players competing in preseason practices to fill those roles.
Junior Colton Worachek could fill one of the spots or be used as a safety in the secondary, which will feature three new starters.
“We have an array of kids,” said Maney, who has 83 players out this year. “We just have to find the best kids that we trust.
“We went rafting to build that togetherness and that chemistry and the need to be there for other people. There was a lot of meaning behind it. We hope it pays off as we move the season along.”