Neuman brings new belief to Denmark
DENMARK – Tom Neuman’s first game as Denmark’s head football coach was a home game.
Still, the new coach asked his players to board a bus last Friday.
“Who is going on the belief bus with me?” Neuman said.
The Vikings appear to be headed in the right direction with Neuman in the driver’s seat.
“He’s been stressing believe, believe, believe,” Denmark senior Jack Satori said.
A hard-fought 14-7 loss to Luxemburg-Casco in the opener was evidence of how far Denmark has come already under Neuman, who is well traveled, having previously coached for more than in a decade in Texas.
While the close score may have been one of the biggest surprises of Week 1 to some, it wasn’t to those that know Neuman best.
The Wautoma native is packed with passion and intensity.
Check out photos from the season-opening game between NEC rivals. Luxemburg-Casco Spartan Football & Denmark High School
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“He’s just a high-energy guy,” said Mark Heck, who grew up with Neuman. “When we were in high school, he wasn’t the prototypical basketball player, but he had a goal that he was going to be the first guy down the floor every time on defense. How many people have that as a goal?”
Although Neuman wants to turnaround a program that has enjoyed only one winning season since 2009, his biggest goal at Denmark is to make sure the team produces high-character people first.
“As much X’s and O’s, and as much practice and technique you do, they’re kids first,” said Neuman, who is also track and field coach at Denmark. “They’re teenagers. They’re young men that I want to be men of character when they graduate from here. I told them that’s going to be my No. 1 priority.”
Neuman came to the Denmark midway through the 2017-18 school year to oversee the new career academy, which helps teach and foster growth for students interested in a trade as a career.
“I’m a small-town guy,” Neuman said. “After spending 15 years surrounded by 10 million people, being in the wide open is fantastic.”
Neuman previously was the assistant head football coach at Newman Smith High School in Carrollton, Texas, which is a suburb of Dallas with more than 130,000 people.
With his daughter now in college at Texas Tech, Neuman made the decision to move back to Wisconsin, where he played his college football and got his coaching start at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls before going on to coach at UW-Oshkosh.
“He lives and breathes it,” Tracy Hess said about her brother’s passion for football. “Besides his daughter and family, football is it. He’s going to do great things here I think.”
After coaching in monstrous high school stadiums in Texas, Neuman is laying the foundation for his team in Denmark with a makeshift locker room at the moment.
While construction on a $14 million addition to the school is being done, the Vikings’ temporary home has been the storage shed next to the field and a trailer.
“We have no home,” Neuman said. “It has been a lot of adversity and these guys just keep knocking it down and keep moving it forward, and that’s where this program is going is forward.
“I think they’re starting to buy into the fact that you play like you practice. Our practices our very upbeat and a lot of energy and a lot of intensity.”
That was evident in giving the L-C offense fits last Friday before a turnover led to the Spartans’ game-winning touchdown.
“Tom has done a great job coming in here,” L-C coach Dillon Maney said. “In one year, he has turned that culture around completely. His kids play hard for him, and he’s going to win some football games this year.”
After coming up just short against the 2016 North Eastern Conference champion, the Vikings’ schedule doesn’t get any easier this week as it welcomes in Wrightstown, last year’s NEC champion.
It will certainly be another challenge, but Neuman will make sure Denmark’s belief bus is full driving into the game.
“We have talent,” Neuman said. “We have to get the numbers up. We just got to believe, and these guys believe.
“Denmark is a great community, great support. They’re smart fans. They want us to win as badly as I want us to win.”