Muskego just pounds away at opponents
Prior to the 2019 prep football season, the Journal Sentinel will reveal the Supreme 17, a look at the top players in the area to watch. Each day between the first day of practice on Aug. 6 to the first day of games on Aug. 22, one player will be revealed.
In the days leading up to a game, opponents of Muskego know exactly what is headed their way come Friday night.
For four quarters, blow by blow, they are going to get punched in the mouth repeatedly by the Warriors' rushing attack.
And yet there seems to not be a mouth guard in the world that can keep a defense's teeth from getting knocked in.
“We just want to move somebody against their will,” said senior right tackle Jacob Leszczynski.
Leszczynski and junior running back Alex Current are among the cornerstones of the offense and are the central figures on position units that dominated opposing teams last fall.
Muskego's dangerous Wing-T attack has rushed for 8,810 yards at a clip of 8.1 yards per carry and scored 115 touchdowns over the past two seasons, capped by winning the Division 1 state championship in 2018.
Teams prepare for the run but still can't stop it, the cause for a great sense of pride in the Muskego offensive meeting rooms.
“Everyone knows that we don't have that many plays,” Leszczynski said. “But we have so many ways that we can block different plays and our coaches watch so much film that we work on every little detail. We know to the teeth what we're going to do.”
All signs point toward Current being primed for a big junior season this fall.
After all, not very many players are endowed with state player of the year honors as a sophomore.
Current erupted onto the scene last year after having to step into a significant role when returning all-state running back RJ Bosshart broke his collarbone minutes into the first game of the season. He ran for 1,542 yards and 23 touchdowns, torching all rules about yards per carry regression as volume increases by averaging 13.4 yards every rush. He also led the team with 17 receptions going for 222 yards and four scores.
“I was just getting used to varsity games,” he said. “And then it was just getting better each game as it goes on. No individual game was really a decision from me to try to get noticed more. I was trying to do my job.”
Simply doing your job is what can make Muskego's offense work so fluidly, and Current does just that. His ability to dissect all the moving pieces of the Wing T and read his blocks, along with his state track gold medal speed, is what sets him apart.
“I always like to go and then just cut it off of those guys,” Current said. “If you can read the right blocks, you can get an extra five yards and sometimes break it away.”
Quite often, Current ended up breaking loose, finishing the year with 14 touchdowns of at least 40 yards. His longest touchdown of the season was one of the most critical ones: a 74-yard scamper off of Leszczynski at right tackle on the first play from scrimmage after Kimberly opened up the scoring in the Division 1 state title game.
Leszcyznski had nerves coursing through his body as he watched the opening kickoff of the state final last fall.
But that's nothing compared to what he experienced just four months prior, walking out to the bullpen to warm up to start the state summer baseball championship as a sophomore.
“If you mess up as the pitcher, you mess up the whole game,” Leszczynski said. “So it was nerve-racking for both (sports), but there's a lot more pressure on you as a pitcher.”
On both big stages, Leszczynski delivered.
In baseball, a game the Warriors would win, 2-1, on a walk-off single in extra innings, Leszczynski shut out Pius XI for five innings, allowing just one hit.
Against the Papermakers, he helped pave the road for 303 yards rushing against a defense that allowed just over 200 total yards per game coming in.
“What we've noticed is that if a kid is a football player and plays varsity sports in another sport very successfully, it will carry over to football," head football coach Ken Krause said.
That is most certainly the case for Leszczynski. A starter since his sophomore year, he has been named all-conference twice, including first-team honors in 2018.
In addition to his athletic abilities, Leszczynski knows Muskego's offense as well as the coaching staff and isn't afraid to let his voice be heard.
“I actually have to tell him in our chalk talk sessions to quit talking because he'll start answering for everyone,” Krause said.
Leszczynski uses his voice to provide his teammates with plenty of motivation, as well.
“Everybody wants to defeat the defending champs,” he said. “I would say that definitely more teams this year are gunning for us, but I don't really care. We're going to get everyone's best game and we know that.
“The best team is going to win.”