The Bonduel High School football team was eliminated from the playoffs a season ago with a 36-22 loss to Central Wisconsin Conference-8 foe Manawa in the homecoming game.
The sting of that loss hasn’t left the players retuning this season.
“For this year, we have to push each other that much harder just to make the playoffs,” said 5-foot-10, 175-pound senior linebacker Jacob Wudtke. “Maybe even make a good dent in the conference this year. … (The) goal is definitely the playoffs. Conference is always the goal, but on the list of goals I think playoffs is No. 1 for us this year.”
Wudtke, a second-team all-conference selection at linebacker last year, will anchor the defense, a role he embraces.
“I feel like my role as a leader has to be bumped up a notch since we didn’t make the playoffs last year,” Wudtke said.
Last season provided Bonduel coach James Westrich a chance to preach the importance of every game to his players.
“Our conference is always tough. Last year is a perfect example,” Westrich said. “Every team is competitive. You have to be ready to go every game. You can’t look past anybody. That might be the one game that you need to get into the playoffs.”
The Bears (2-5, 2-4 CWC-8) lost a lot of starters to graduation over the last two years — including first-team all-conference safety and honorable mention quarterback Jacob DeBauch, second-team all-conference lineman Joey Tauchen, honorable mention guard/linebacker Dylan Kroening and honorable mention all-conference tight end Abel Shoup — which has translated into a lot of competition in practice so far.
“We’re trying to fill those roles,” Westruch said. “Those are question marks right now. We have competition at every spot, so we’re not just trying to throw guys in there. We’re competing at every position.”
Westrich hopes to have those competitions settled by the time Bonduel starts playing conference games Sept. 6.
“We’re going to have a tough schedule in front of us,” he said. “We have to take every game one game at a time and focus on doing everything we can to get that W that week.”
The team has a few returning starters on each side of the ball, including Hunter VanderLinden, a 5-foot-10, 185-pound running back/linebacker.
“We have Hunter back, that’s a big help for us in the backfield,” Westrich said.
VanderLinden, a first-team all-conference selection a year ago, was third in rushing in the conference with 97 rushes for 676 yards and seven touchdowns.
How successfully VanderLinden runs will depend on the guys up front.
“We’ll have to wait and see how our line unfolds,” Westrich said. “We’re filling a lot of spots there. We have to be able to block before we can run. We have to be able to block before we can pass. We’re going to see where our strength is on the line and then try to cater to our skills.”
Under center the Bears have a pair of players competing for the job.
“Colton Dobratz is the front-runner for that position,” Westrich said. “He’s been a backup for two years in a row. We kind of started molding him as a freshman a little bit. … He’s really confident with the position.”
Pushing DoBratz, a 5-foot-10, 160-pound junior, for the quarterback job is sophomore Trevor Pedersen.
“He’s very calm and cool,” the coach said. “I think both of those two will do a nice job for us.”
Connor Rosin will play wide receiver and try to fill DeBauch’s shoes at safety.
Wudtke said the team is coming together and could surprise a lot of folks this year.
“A lot of people aren’t looking at us for anything, but we’re actually doing really well in practice,” Wudtke said. “From what I’m seeing, we’re going to do really well this year.”
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