Prep football starts on its normal schedule
The first day of high school football practice is a rite of summer that came right on time this year.
Tuesday marked the first day of practice for teams in Wisconsin, and across the southeast part of the state nearly 100 programs began their quest to make the most of a season that, hopefully, is played to its natural conclusion.
Last year the COVID-19 pandemic robbed Wisconsin of state championships for the first time since the advent of the football playoffs. It also forced everyone to wait an extra month as the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association pushed back the start of the season.
This year the sport is back on its normal schedule. Tuesday marked a longawaited return for City Conference teams that had not suited up since 2019 and a quick turnaround for others, who wrapped up the alternate spring season May 7.
All those teams have their sights set on their season openers. The first day for regular-season games is Aug. 19
Here is how Day 1 looked around the Milwaukee area.
Long-awaited return
No teams took a bigger hit due to the pandemic than those from the Milwaukee Public Schools. The district was the only one in the area that did not play last fall or during the alternate fall season (spring) the WIAA approved to accommodate schools that weren't ready to play at the traditional time.
As a result, many of the district's programs started the season trying to bolster their roster numbers. King and Reagan, however, the 2019 champions of the Richardson and Blackbourn divisions, respectively, were exceptions.
While King will be able to lean on the experience of senior receiver Jerry Cross, a Penn State recruit, and senior defensive end Cam Done, a Division I prospect, Reagan is starting over in some respects.
“The vast majority of those kids out there have never put on a helmet for Reagan,” Huskies coach Greg Roman said. “We have to teach them the culture and the offense and the defense. We just have a lot of stuff to do, but I thought the attitude was upbeat and I thought we got a lot accomplished for the first day.”
The Huskies don't have any returning starters from 2019, and like everyone else in the conference neither their freshman nor sophomore classes have taken the field in a high school game.
“I'm excited because it's a chance to work with a new set of kids and do what we do at Reagan,” Roman said. “We have a particular style of play. We're not going to alter that. We're excited as a coaching staff. We love to coach and we didn't do that for how long.”
Reload in Muskego
No look at the first day of practice would be complete without Muskego, which has a 37-game winning streak. The Warriors, however, suffered substantial graduation losses that include safety Hunter Wohler and running back Alex Current, the Journal Sentinel's offensive and defensive players of the year last season.
Just five starters, all seniors, return: quarterback Dylan Krause, fullback Carson Holman, offensive lineman Hayden Wagner and linebackers Adam Balcerak and Austin Elger.
But before you consider the team vulnerable, remember the Warriors aren't your average program. There were 124 sophomores, juniors and seniors on the roster for the first day of practice and the lower levels of the program have been exceptionally strong in recent years. The team's juniors and seniors, presumably the leaders of the team this year, have not lost a game.
Success at the junior varsity and freshman levels won't guarantee success at the varsity level of the Classic 8, arguably the state's toughest conference, but it does show the team's players know how to play winning football.
“You can tell the older guys know our system and our program,” Ken Krause said. “Now it's their turn, so hopefully they'll take advantage of the opportunity.”
Homestead looking for a bounce-back
Homestead coach Drake Zortman thought carefully about the question before choosing the words for his answer. Considering the ups and downs of last season, is there a greater sense of optimism heading into this season knowing all the players returning with varsity experience and a full season ahead?
"I think there's a sense of being able to get the team ready the way we like to," Zortman said.
With Zortman sharing head coaching duties a year ago in his first year at the helm for the Highlanders, the quick start to the season and the shortened regular season schedule made it challenging for Homestead to get acclimated as fast as it needed to be. Toss in a year full of various players having to quarantine and miss time, and Homestead went an uncharacteristic 4-5.
"I feel like we now have more optimism. I feel like our ability to try, both players and coaches, to prepare the way we like is important for us," Zortman said.
Sabers return to the field
Expectations are always high at Franklin, but even more so this year.
The Sabers bring back nine starters on offense and six on defense from a team that went 5-0 last season, but still ended on a sour note.
Franklin's season ended due to a COVID-19 outbreak at the school that forced the team to shut down before the two-week postseason. That meant the Sabers never got a crack at two-time defending state champion Muskego.
It made sense, then, that Franklin was champing at the bit to take the field Tuesday.
"This team just needs to do what we need to do," senior quarterback Myles Burkett said. "If we do what we need to do and play together, I think we might be raising a gold ball in November."
Pritzl steps up for Hale
Two weeks ago, West Allis Hale's Scott Pritzl wasn't planning to be at the first day of football practice.
The school found itself in a pinch, though, after Scott Flood resigned as coach less than two weeks before the start of practice. Faced with the daunting task of finding a permanent replacement quickly, the school turned to Pritzl, a former assistant coach who accepted the job on an interim basis.
“For the kids, absolutely,” he said when the school asked him to take the job. “I don't think it's the right thing to find someone this close to the season. I want them to find their next coach who will be here for the next 10-15 years.”
Pritzl, a former Hale boys basketball coach who is entering his 23rd year at the school, takes charge of a program that enjoyed a solid alternate (spring) season in the Woodland.
The Huskies opened the year with about 70 players in the program and will face a tougher challenge due to their return to the Greater Metro this fall.
The team, however, enjoyed a solid alternate season that was followed by the allowed summer contact days that were run while Flood was still coach. It is upon that foundation that Pritzl hopes to build for the next coach.
“I'm going to try to keep the status quo,” he said. “A lot of these kids were here last year, so why try to change something, and then when they hire the new coach, I'm sure they'll bring their own thing. That's part of the reason the administration was on board. I was on board. I know these kids. I've taught them. I've coached them.”