New-look Raiders hope to get up to speed quickly 
by Matt Frey
The Star News
August 27, 2009 —  The departures of 16 letter winners have left the 2009 Medford football team short on varsity experience, but that hasn’t forced the team to change its pre-season goals.
The Raiders still expect to be competitive. They expect to be a factor in the Great Northern Conference race and they think they can be a playoff team.
“We want to get better as the season goes on,” senior captain Seth Higgins said Monday. “We want to contend for the conference title.”
“We want to make the playoffs, and then win a couple of games in the playoffs,” senior captain Nick Meyer said.
Wanting those things is a start. The work that goes into accomplishing them started in the off-season and has continued right through the first two-plus weeks of practice. Scrimmage sessions last Friday against Eau Claire Memorial and Edgar were good tests.
Now, it all starts for real on Friday when Medford hosts Rice Lake at Raider Field at 7 p.m. in non-conference play.
For head coach Ted Wilson, the players’ willingness to work and to try new positions as the coaches try to figure out what the team’s most effective lineups might be has been refreshing. But, he, like everyone else is anxious to see what happens under the Friday night lights.
“Over at the scrimmage, we learned that we need to play faster,” Wilson said. “Edgar specifically showed us that. The really good teams play fast. That served as a wake-up call I think for our kids that we need to play faster.”
The players didn’t disagree.
“The scrimmage showed us what we have to get better at,” captain Jesse Metcalf said.
“We got an idea of how fast we have to play,” Higgins said.
Medford not only hopes to play fast, it hopes to learn fast with new starters at most positions, especially on offense.
The Raiders will have some solid athletes at the skill positions. Meyer takes over as the starting quarterback, while junior Marshall Strebig is taking snaps as the number-two man. Meyer provides a strong arm, ideal height for the position and some running ability if needed.
“It’s an exciting new challenge,” Meyer said. “It’s about maintaining my intensity. Hopefully it all comes together by Friday.”
Higgins and junior Brent Stiglich, who saw all of their action a year ago on defense, now are the featured halfbacks, while senior strongman Jake Dassow, the team’s fourth captain, is back at fullback. Senior Kolton Klemm is back at a tight end spot, while athletic juniors Taylor Reinhardt and Jordan Christianson will get the majority of snaps in the wide receiver or wingback spots.
How well the offense excels will depend on the performance of a rebuilt line. Junior Jace Purdy starts the year at right tackle, senior Bob Scheithauer is the right guard, Metcalf moves to center for the first time, senior Chase Mahner is the left guard and senior Zach Wernberg gets the nod at left tackle.
“We lost our whole line,” Wilson said. “We were playing all seniors on our line. Now it’s time for these kids to step up their games and contribute. Athletically, I think we’re OK. Mentally, how fast will everyone come along? The game is a lot faster at the varsity level than it is at the JV level.”
“It’s all a matter of getting off the ball and beating the guy on the other side,” Metcalf said.
“I’m really excited to play running back,” Higgins said. “I remember dreaming about that way back in Pop Warner, and I remember coming to games on Friday nights and watching the good running backs we’d have.”
Defensively, the key again is going to be how new guys up front hold up on the line of scrimmage. Meyer and Higgins bring starting experience to the secondary, while Wilson said Reinhardt will bring a lot of ability to the defensive backfield too. Metcalf and Stiglich are back at linebacker positions after ranking among the team’s top tacklers in 2008.
From there, inexperienced players move into key roles. Dassow is moving to defensive end, a move he said he likes. Ben Zenner, Troy Fox, Mahner and Scheithauer also figure to get plenty of snaps on the line. Klemm, senior Jacob Draszkiewicz and juniors Ryan Schumacher and Andrew Fehlhaber will find spots on the defensive unit as well.
While Medford isn’t blessed with great size overall, Wilson said the team might be stronger than it looks. Unfortunately, a lack of depth is a concern again.
“We had more kids this year than we’ve had in the last few years who made what we call our 700-pound club, which combines their maximum weights lifted in the bench press, squat and power lift,” Wilson said. “For a high school kid to do 700 pounds in those means he’s fairly strong. To have the most that we’ve had in a couple years is a good sign that they did some work in the summer and last winter and prepared well for this season.”

Tough as usual

As usual, Medford’s schedule features no breaks. Five Great Northern Conference games should all provide unique challenges. The GNC put five of its seven teams into the WIAA tournament last fall in its first year. The non-conference schedule features three playoff teams from a year ago. The one that didn’t make it, Rice Lake, is expected to challenge Medford’s inexperienced defense with an option offense and physical play.
“The conference is always going to be tough,” Wilson said. “These are all good programs with good coaching staffs who always have their teams prepared. They’re all going to be tough.”
Lakeland and Antigo were co-champions a year ago with 5-1 league records each. Merrill (4-2) and Mosinee (3-3) got in as well. Wilson expects Tomahawk (1-5) to be improved.
Each GNC team will get credit for a forfeit win over Northland Pines, who pulled out of conference play. Medford will get credit for that win when it hosts La Crosse Logan September 25. Logan features 6-5, 290-pound all-state lineman Matt Eggen, who has verbally committed to attend the University of Minnesota.
“Our conference is fairly tough,” Dassow said. “Teams like Lakeland and Mosinee are always tough. Antigo has a lot of players back. There are no gimme games.”
2009 Medford varsity football schedule

Aug. 28 RICE LAKE, 7 p.m. Oct. 16 at Mosinee, 7 p.m.
Sept. 4 at Ashland, 7 p.m. Oct. 22 at Luxemburg-Casco, 6 p.m.
Sept. 11 TOMAHAWK, 7 p.m. Oct. 27 WIAA Level 1 playoff, 7 p.m.
Sept. 18 at Lakeland, 7 p.m. Oct. 31 WIAA Level 2 playoff, TBA
Sept. 25 LA CROSSE LOGAN, 7 p.m. Nov. 6 or 7 WIAA Level 3 playoff, TBA
Oct. 2 at Merrill, 7 p.m. Nov. 13 or 14 WIAA Level 4 playoff, TBA
Oct. 9 ANTIGO, 7 p.m. Nov. 20 WIAA state championship, 10 a.m.

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