BV brings plenty of returning letterwinners back to gridiron for 2021
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THE 2021 BOYCEVILLE Football team is looking to build on last season’s 7-1 finish. Members of the high school teams are pictured avbove. Front row (L to R): Jack Gruenhagen, Paul Kurschner, Ryker Benitz, Nick Olson, Braden Roemhild, Jack Phillips, Jake Bialzik, Zach Kersten, Brayan Vasquez-Martinez and RIley Schutz. Middle row (L to R): Dawson McRoberts, Keegan Plemon, Preston Coombs, Tyler Dormanen, Jacob Granley, Ira Bialzik, Peyton Ponath, Bash Nielson, Caden Wold and Dawson Standaert. Back row (L to R): Mason Bowell, Parker Coombs, Jacob Wheeler, Grant Kaiser, John Klefstad, Isaac Bartz, Peter Wheeldon, Corbin Krenz, Treylin Thorson and Devin Halama. Missing are Nathan Jensen, Connor Gilpin and Brandon Dunn. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
BOYCEVILLE -— After finishing last season with a 7-1 record in the short season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Boyceville football team has high expectations for the upcoming season.
Out of the 33 players who showed up for practice last week, 16 of them are returning letterwinners which will definitely be a strength for the team, according to third-year head coach Michael Roemhild.
Only three players were lost from the team through graduation – Brady Helland, Brendan Hazelton and Nate Stuart.
Leading this year’s class are three seniors who were named second team all-conference as juniors including Tyler Dormanen as a running back and defensive end, Jacob Granley as defensive back and punter, and John Klefstad as a lineman. Fellow senior Isaac Bartz was chosen honorable mention as a lineman, also.
Other returning letterwinners include Ira Bialzik, Preston Coombs, Dawson McRoberts, Keegan Plemon, Peyton Ponath, Mason Bowell, Bash Nielson, Jack Phillips, Parker Coombs, Grant Kaiser, Nick Olson,and Braden Roemhild.
Bialzik and Olson are competing for the quarterback and defensive back positions while the rest will all be fighting for spots as running backs, wide receivers, defensive backs, linebackers or lineman on both sides of the ball.
In addition, sophomore speedster Caden Wold is returning after taking a year off and should contribute on both offense and defense.
“If you can’t tell, we are having great competitions at our practices,” coach Roemhild said. “The difference this year is we have more depth. Which means there isn’t one guy on the team who can feel that he has a spot locked up, and he is really going to have to earn it this year,” he stated.
Although the Bulldogs finished 5-1 in the newly arranged Dunn-St. Croix Conference, Spring Valley went 5-0 and the teams did not get to play each other with COVID-19 problems. Boyceville won a Level 1 playoff game against Webster and a Level 2 game against Turtle Lake was cancelled, again due to COVID problems.
“Because of the COVID problems last year, our goals were to take advantage of every game we were allowed to play,” coach Roemhild said. “We had a huge turnaround in personnel from the year before and last years team bought into teamwork and winning games, not individual stats.’ he added.
“The strength of this team is that they love football,” he continued. “Success from last year really has them excited this year. I have some great leaders on this team, some amazing athletes, and just overall great young men.Our main weakness will be mentally, How will they handle splitting time? If we can overcome that, great things will happen,” he added.
Roemhild also believes his team will need to be more dominant and explosive on offense, and defensively, they will need to get more turnovers and have more players fly to the ball.
Spring Valley should be a contender for a conference championship, but Roemhild looks for Turtle Lake and Glenwood City to be a challenge this year, also.
“After last year’s success and the success many of these guys had in baseball, they are no longer willing to accept defeat,” Roemhild said. “The days of losing and being okay with it are over.”
“This group has a large senior and sophomore class with a bunch of overall good athletes. I also have a lot of three sport athletes who love to compete.We are looking forward to being able to play in front of a large crowd at home again,” he concluded.
Boyceville opens the season at home this Friday night in a non-conference game against Independence/Gilmanton before wrapping up the out-of-league portion of its schedule in Cameron next Friday, August 27. The Bulldogs will host Cadott in the D-SC opener on September 3.
2021 Roster
Seniors: Ira Bialzik, Jacob Granley, Tyler Dormanen, John Klefstad, Preston Coombs, Dawson McRoberts, Issac Bartz, Keegan Plemon, Peyton Ponath.
Juniors: Bash Nielson, Mason Bowell, Jack Phillips, Jacob Wheeler, Corbin Krenz, Bryan Vasquez-Martinez, Dawson Standaert, Brandon Dunn.
Sophomores: Braden Roemhild, Nick Olson, Caden Wold, Grant Kaiser, Parker Coombs, Devin Halama, Paul Kurschner, Peter Wheeldon, Treylin Thorson, Connor Gilpin, Zach Kersten.
Freshmen: Riley Schutz, Jack Gruenhagen, Jake Bialzik, Nathan Jensen, Ryker Benitz.