N.E.W. Lutheran finds itself in new position

The N.E.W. Lutheran football team finds itself in a different position this year.

Actually, it’s more like positions.

“Everybody is playing a different position from last year for the most part,” N.E.W. Lutheran football coach Dick Hasseler said.

Not only are the players taking on new roles on the field, the Blazers enter the season in the unfamiliar position of not being the heavy favorite to win their conference.

After combining to go 35-4 during its first four years as an 8-player team, N.E.W. Lutheran went 6-4 overall last season, which included sustaining its first ever Great 8 North Conference loss.

This year the Blazers will be contending to win the conference title in the newly formed MONLPC-8, which will include Gillett and Wausaukee as newcomers to 8-player football at the varsity level.

The nine-team conference is filled with tougher competition and is a far cry from N.E.W. Lutheran’s early seasons as an 8-player team when it simply dominated most of the other squads in the region.

“I think that inner competition that you always want is there more often,” N.E.W. Lutheran senior Bennett Reisler said. “It’s a great time when you know it’s going to be a fight every single week.

“I think it’s made our team grow closer together because we know we need to band together and it’s going to take every single one of us to come out on top.”

Follow PrepsAgenda.com on Facebook

Reisler is one of those players making a position switch this year, going from the offensive line to running back.

The other seniors on the team this year include Tristan Tucker, Chip Kindt and Matt Zeimer.

Kindt and junior Adam Gosse will be transitioning from playing tackle to tight end.

Junior Luke Bukowski is taking over at quarterback after being a backup tailback last season.

“We’re young and inexperienced for sure,” Hasseler said.

“We have to teach the little things better than we have in the past. It’s a combination of that and getting these to believe that they can actually do it.”

N.E.W. Lutheran’s beliefs have carried it a long way since it started its football program from scratch with a freshman team in 2008.

The Blazers are celebrating their 10th season this year and that accomplishment may be just as important as any win the team has had.

“For u, the biggest key to success always is where’s our focus,” Hasseler said. “If it’s on winning and losing, then we already lost. We’re a Christian school so we try to maintain and teach these guys Christlike character and if we continue to do that then we’ll have success no matter what we do.”