By Gene Kemmeter
of The Gazette
Almond-Bancroft High School is coming off the finest football season in its history, its first Central Wisconsin Conference Small Division Championship.
The Eagles went 11-1 in 2002, dropping a 27-19 decision to Pacelli High School of Stevens Point in the Division 7 playoffs, while winning the conference with a 7-0 mark.
Almond-Bancroft enters the 2003 season with a number of changes, with Jeff Kujawa taking over as head coach from Rodney Wedig. Gone are a number of key performers, plus some assistant coaches from last year.
Last year, six Eagles were named to the All-CWC small first team, led by seniors Jacob Warzynski and Dave Johnson and junior Heslyn Menadue, who were named to the first team on both sides of the ball. Senior Joel Erickson was named to the first team at both quarterback and kicker, and was joined on offense by Johnson at receiver, Menadue at offensive line, and Warzynski at running back. Junior running back Jason Sanchez and senior offensive lineman Jacob Barden were named to the second team.
On defense, defensive lineman Menadue, Warzynski at linebacker and defensive back Johnson were named to the first team, while seniors Chris Lamb (linebacker) and Brian Scheel (defensive back) were named to the second team.
Kujawa steps into the coaching position without varsity experience, but he's coached the middle school program at Almond-Bancroft for three years, so some of his former players are now moving into the varsity ranks.
Last year he was also on the scout team for the Eagles, videotaping games and preparing scouting reports.
Coming back to assist Kujawa is Andrew Bradley, a University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student who played his high school ball at Almond-Bancroft and has served as an assistant coach the last few years. "He's a good assistant coach who's really helping me," Kujawa said. "I wouldn't be able to do it without him. He's really dedicated. He puts in the hours."
"We've met all summer long," Kujawa said. "I want him to be a big part. I tried to keep everything as close to last year as I can. I'm catching on as he goes over things."
Also helping has been Kujawa's son, John, but he'll be leaving after the first game to go back to UW-SP where he runs cross country, so he'll miss most games.
In addition, another Almond-Bancroft graduate, Nick Sanchez helped a little bit with the initial practices. "I would have liked to have kept him but he had to go back to school," Kujawa said.
On the field, Kujawa knows there will be a lot of new players. "We won't be able to replace them," he said about last year's graduating seniors. "We just have to focus on the strength of the team and work from that. The linemen will have to be quicker than other years. The last two weeks we just worked on footwork and techniques. All that stuff is new to them. If they did that well without it, that could be the ticket to success."
Kujawa will leave running the offense to Bradley. "We'll open it up more," Kujawa said. "Last year, everything we ran was between the tackles. We have to be more creative this year. We have the skill people."
Jason Sanchez leads the returning group and Kujawa said he'll get the bulk of the work at running back, with senior Larry Sanchez and sophomores Travis Borchert, Kurtis Goman and Sam Barden in the mix. "Those are the guys fighting for the other running back positions," he said, adding that he's leaning toward Barden as the fullback. "He's strong, but not big enough for the line. We need some bigger guys to step up and block."
Austin Lamb, a sophomore, leads among the quarterbacks, Kujawa said. "He's one of the fastest guys on the team. He's a leader on the field."
Senior Sean Penza will be one receiver and junior Greg Otto will be the tight end, Kujawa said. Sophomores Justin Spritka and Josh McIntee are among the receiving corps that should see varsity action.
In the line, Kujawa said senior Fred Clark will be the center, with seniors Nathan Degroff, Judd Barden, Sam Danforth and Corey Newby; junior Brad Bembenek and sophomore Brad Skibba in the mix for the other line positions.
"They'll go offense and defense," Kujawa said. "They'll probably either start or play a lot of the game.
"Newby is extremely fast and on defense he's not afraid of anybody. He sticks his head in front of everybody. We'll pull him on the offensive line. We're also leaning toward him as a linebacker on defense."
On defense, junior Randy Berry will line up at the middle linebacker spot, with Jason Sanchez on the outside on one side. Newby will be either on the line or at linebacker, with Skibba and Barden possibly at linebacker also. "They'll be a big part of the defense," Kujawa said, adding that Barden may also start at nose tackle once in a while."
Scott Menadue, a freshman, has also shown some promise, and Kujawa said he hopes to get him some experience at outside linebacker or running back.
Lamb started at cornerback on defense and will probably be back there this season. Penza will probably be the safety with senior Wes Schulke at cornerback along with Larry Sanchez.
"Austin Beigel, a ninth-grader, may play some special teams," Kujawa said. "He's pretty strong and sticks his head in there."
One thing Kujawa would like to see change for next year is players using the weight room more. "I put up an article about going in the weight room last week and challenged them. I haven't lifted weights in 10 years but I still outlifted them."
By his challenge, he said he hoped he did two things. First, he hopes he earned a little respect by showing what he can do. Secondly, he said, "I wanted to really show them that if a 40-year-old man didn't lift weights for 10 years and can do that, it will show them how strong they can get."
Kujawa said he wants to start a weight program and he had the weight room open all summer but only two or three players came to use it regularly. "I have to sell people on the program. I think once we begin meeting with them, I think we can do something. We can get the competitive thing going. That's a big part of the football season."
This year's team will also achieve something that last year's team didn't - they'll play in Madison. The Eagles have been picked to play Bowler at Camp Randall Stadium, site of the state football tournament, on Saturday, Oct. 4, at 10 a.m.