GILMAN FOOTBALL PREVIEW - Tough end to 2024 adds motivation for Pirates in 2025
Being on the outside looking in at last season’s WIAA 8-player football playoffs was something no one associated with the Gilman Pirates expected. But, that was the price of suffering two close losses in what most would call the state’s toughest 8player conference.
This year, the odds of Gilman watching the post-season grew even smaller with 32 teams now being invited to the tournament rather than 16. But, the Pirates also have a roster plenty capable of not having to worry when the playoff field is set in mid-October.
Players and coaches alike are happy with the progress made in practice in the first two weeks. The Pirates did some good things in scrimmages at Cornell last Friday with Frederic, Flambeau and De Soto, yet there were enough mistakes to learn from. Now Gilman gets things going for real this Friday with about as big of a week one game as the Pirates have had, as they host defending North Central East Conference and WIAA state champion Owen-Withee at 7 p.m.
Originally scheduled to be the last game of the season, the game had to be moved up to accommodate the extra round of WIAA playoffs this year. Opening day for practice also was moved up a week to do that.
“We just have to try to beat the team we couldn’t beat last year to get into the playoffs,” senior lineman Dawson Robinson said.
“It’s been pretty good,” head coach Robin Rosemeyer said of the season’s start. “We bring back a lot of experience, a lot of juniors and seniors which is nice. We’ve moved a couple of kids to new positions to add to our depth so to speak, just to make sure we have depth everywhere, and the kids have adjusted to that pretty well.
“With fundamental offensive stuff and fundamental defensive stuff I think they’re doing a good job,” he added. “When you have the experience back, it makes practice go a little cleaner and you can do different things offensively and defensively. We are doing some different formations and things. But we’re trying not to overload them at the same time.”
The Pirates did lose a solid senior core from last year’s 6-2 team, but along with a healthy number of experienced players back, a few key players that missed most or all of last season return. That has the players themselves really excited about the new season.
“(Last season) was good and then we just started to struggle for people,” senior Cooper Krug said. “Everyone was getting hurt and we were losing some of our better options at some positions.”
“It felt like every game we lost a guy,” said senior Alex Copenhaver, one of those who missed time.
On the offensive side of things, Gilman will have some new faces stepping into bigger roles, but the Pirates are confident they’ll be able to maintain their high-scoring ways.
Junior Logan Halida takes over at quarterback. While it’s his first time as the true starter, he got quality snaps at the end of his freshman year when Dawson Krizan was injured and he saw a fair amount of snaps last year as well. At running back, Gilman lost three of its top leading rushers in Krizan, Chad Konsella and Brady McAlpine, but senior Tony Syryczuk is back after logging 268 yards on 8.6 yards per carry and five touchdowns. Copenhaver, Kolby Keepers and Lucas Halida are the other top backs in the rotation. Copenhaver brings a physical presence to the backfield. Keepers, who missed all of last year, brings speed and athleticism. Halida averaged 6.3 yards on his 15 varsity carries last year. Logan Halida brings a running dimension from the quarterback position as well. While Gilman has always tried to play with physicality, this year’s offensive line might be one of its most physical groups yet. Robinson moves up to the starting center role with junior Taydyn Angell back as a starting guard and senior Dawson Grunseth back with experience. Junior Henry Syryczuk moves to the position and adds depth along with juniors Connor Nichols and Elijah Madlon. Andy Copenhaver is a solid back-up at center.
Tight ends play an important role in Gilman’s blocking schemes. Seniors Krug and Sawyer Winger are the returning leaders there with juniors James Wojcik and Wyatt Orth backing them up.
“We hope to be able to run the ball and throw the ball,” Rosemeyer said. “We think we can. We have good running backs, including our quarterback. Hopefully we can complete some passes to our tight ends. We’ll mostly be doubletight, but we’ll split them out at times too.”
“We feel like we’ll have a lot bigger and more physical line over last year,” Robinson said. “It should be better on the run plays.”
“We’re probably not quite as fast, but I think the more straight forward stuff we’ll be better at this year,” Tony Syryczuk said.
Defensively, the Pirates certainly have a chance to improve on last year’s 9.8 points and 184 yards per game simply because, knock on wood, they have their pieces back.
Keepers has the potential to be a disruptive force at defensive and Henry Syryczuk is back at middle linebacker after he was lost in the first game last August.
Copenhaver is also back at a linebacker position. Up front, Angell, a two-time WIAA state wrestling qualifier, is the other starting defensive end with Grunseth and Nichols backing them up.
“ All four had good scrimmages at the D-end spot,” Rosemeyer said.
Robinson, Andy Copenhaver and Madlon fill the depth chart at nose guard.
The return of the middle linebackers allows Tony Syryczuk to go back to his more natural position outside. His 2024 move inside, though, was so good it earned him All-State honorable mention.
“I just want to do my best again,” Syryczuk said. “Hopefully we’re a lot stronger (defensively). I think we can be a lot more physical than last year.”
Krug, Wojcik and Lucas Halida also figure to get time on the outside. In the defensive backfield, Logan Halida and Sawyer Winger start at the safety spots with Pockat and Orth backing them up.
“They just add so much more physicality and speed that we didn’t have last year, especially the physicalness,” Rosemeyer said of having everyone back. “They are fast, they read plays well, they’re good tacklers. It really brings another dimension to our defense, so to speak, and adds to our potential.”
“We have depth,” Krug said. “We have good people at all positions.”
The North Central East Conference will again bring a couple of tough challenges. Not only does it feature the defending state champion, but it also includes McDonell Central, who is getting mention as a state title contender in what will be the Macks’ final year in 8-player football. They go back to 11-man next year. Those are the two teams that beat Gilman last year. McDonell won 22-14 in week four, while Owen-Withee won the regular-season finale 24-22, just enough to keep Gilman out of the playoffs.
“McDonell has a lot of seniors, so it might be their year,” Rosemeyer said. “It’s their last year of 8-man. They do have a lot of size, a lot of speed. They have experience back, so they’re the team to beat in the conference. We’ll see where everybody else fits in. It will be nice to have Owen-Withee and McDonell at home this year. We’ll have that to our advantage a little bit.”
After Owen-Withee, Gilman hosts Rib Lake in non-conference play, a team that went 5-3 in its first eight-man season last year. The Redmen were teetering on not having enough players to field a team last week, but they are now back up and running. The Gilman game will be their opener. In week three, Gilman hosts Frederic in its North Central Conference crossover. Rosemeyer expects the Vikings to bring a solid, veteran team to Gilman on Sept. 5.
As for this week, even though both teams lost some key names, Rosemeyer expects Friday’s opener to be a typical Owen-Withee/Gilman battle in the trenches.
“We have the defending state champion coming into town,” he said. “They’re on a 12-game winning streak. They lost a good number of kids also. They lost their seniors, we lost our seniors. We probably bring back a little more experience than they’re going to bring back, but they’re still Owen. They were the best team at their scrimmage. They had several long touchdown runs. They’re still going to do what they do. They’re not going to throw the ball much. They’re going to run it.
“We have to keep it away from 3 yards and a cloud of dust where they can control the clock. We have to be able to get stops and get them off the field on offense. We have to be a little bit better than we were at the line of scrimmage than we were last year against them and be able to move the ball better. It’s going to come down to who can run the ball the best probably.”
