Elk Mound football hoping to maintain last season’s successes

By Cara L. Dempski

ELK MOUND — A gambler likely wouldn’t have bet on Dave Lew’s Mounders to have a 7-3 season last year. After grim 1-8 seasons in both 2013 and 2014, the pattern seemed likely to continue. The seniors sat down with the underclassmen last year and said “no more.” That attitude turned the Mounders’ season into a three-way tie with Durand and Mondovi for second place in the Dunn-St. Croix. Despite graduating eight seniors from his 50-man roster in 2015, Lew returns to the 2016 season with the bulk of his starting lineup intact.

Lew stated that “playing through adversity the past few seasons will be one of our biggest strengths.” Despite the uphill climb last season presented, his team seems ready to try climbing further this year.

Ben Mack, the team’s second leading rusher is one player lost to graduation. Cole Tyman and Alex Hollister also graduated in May; both led the 2015 receivers. Hollister served on both the offense and defense, while Tyman completed 22 punts for 782 yards. He had one touchback on the season. Also leaving the receiver corp were Colin Svee and Jordan VanSchoonhoven. Other graduating 2015 players were Chase Morris, Teegan Peterson, and Justin Erpenbach.

Twenty-two letter winners return to the 2016 roster. Among them is senior Noah Zurbuchen, who last year completed a whopping 1354 yards rushing and was named the Dunn-St. Croix’s Offensive Player of the year. Joining him will be the two Mounders who followed him for team rushing yards, Tyler Sahm and Hunter Adleman. Dane Lew also returns to the team after finishing as its leading tackler in 2015 and being named to the first team as an all-conference defensive back. He will again serve as the starting quarterback.

Hunter Johnson, Andrew Benson, and Conner Mavis finish the returning letter winners who were named all-conference players. Johnson racked up 6.5 sacks and 6 tackles for losses in 2015 and was first team defensive end. Benson was named a second team offensive lineman, and Mavis was an honorable mention offensive lineman. The other letter winners are Hunter Bulingame, Bryce Kasper, George Friberg, Aric Jensen, Dylan Black, Chandler Schreiber, Trey Mohr, Christopher Lee, Brett Lew, Brady Redwine, Will Muzynski, Tyler Brantner, Brandon Gilbertson, Ben Lambele and Brandon Redwine.

Coach Lew stated “the young men on this team are hardworking, very coachable, and love the game of football.” He went on to share that he has a strong class of juniors and seniors.

This year’s seniors include a respectable group of offensive and defensive players. In 10 games, Dane Lew threw for 32 completions and seven touchdowns, which are a definite counter to having thrown three interceptions. He will have some solid assistance in not only Sahm, Adleman, and Lew, but in Christopher Lee, Trey Mohr, and Brady Redwine, who completed a collective eight carries for a total of 96 yards. Defensively, the Mounders can again look to Lew, Adleman, Zurbuchen, and Johnson for some solid coverage.

“We plan to play hard every week,” Lew says of his team, adding that the leadership of the upperclassmen and the team’s work ethic will help the team maintain last season’s success. The team’s goals for 2016 are to play hard, have fun and play all the way to the end of each game.

Lew is in his fourth season as the head coach in Elk Mound, having served previously as an assistant under Dan Pederson. His overall record is 9-19. As Lew looks at the upcoming season, he sees Mondovi, Durand and Spring Valley as again being very tough teams. He will be assisted this year by Eric Young, Brandon Powell, Jesse Zurbuchen, Jon Chisholm and Dan Hay.

The Mounders open their season with an August 19 home game against Chetek-Weyerhauser before going on the road August 25 for a game against the Cardinals of Eleva-Strum. Their conference play starts September 2 with a home game against Glenwood City.

Roster

• Seniors: Dane Lew, Trey Mohr, Hunter Johnson, Hunter Adleman, Tyler Sahm, Noah Zurbuchen, George Friberg, Chandler Schreiber.

• Juniors: Brandon Redwine, Dylan Black, Jaylen Emberson, Ben Lambele, Christopher Lee, Will Muzynski, Bryce Kasper, Conner Mavis, Aric Jensen, Andrew Benson, Hunter Burlingame, Brandon Gilbertson, Tyler Brantner, Blake Rosenthal, Dakota Bedell.

• Sophomores: Colton Ward, Marcus Kinblom, Brady Redwine, Ethan Kaanta, Tyler Bauer, Brett Lew, Max Marquardt, Marquis Kasakaitas, Ryan Zurbuchen, Mitchell Fox, Rian Flynn, Jack Emberson, Mason Close, Isaiah Wald.

• Freshmen: Chase Rhude, Blaze Todd, Dominic Hall, Derek Falkner, Griffin Erdman, Jacob Miller, Nate Sweeney, Carter Brantner.