By John Raffel
MaxPreps.com
Eleva-Strum is defending its Division 7 state football championship and got off to a good start on Friday with a season-opening victory over Tri-County at Plainfield 15-6.
“We were OK,” Eleva-Strum coach Warren Behm said. “Defensively, we played a real good game. Our kids will be tough on the run. As for our secondary, we have a little more work to do on pass defense. The other team had 18 attempts, only seven completions and we had two interceptions.
"(On offense) we've got to work on our ball handling. There's always improvement from that first game. Our timing on the option play needs work.”
The Strum school is coming off a state championship season in 2007, beating Southwestern 41-6 in the title game.
The Cardinals were 14-0. Behm has been head coach four seasons and has been with the program 17 years.
“Starting with the 2007 season, we had a good share of the team back from 2006,” Behm said. “It was a goal everyone was looking at. You get lucky every now and then. We had a good group of athletes that made a difference in team chemistry. These guys from grade school on up were very involved in athletics and for the most part were good at it.
“The thing that is an asset to any team is good intelligence and leadership of the student-athlete.”
The school has an enrollment of 215.
“We're by no means a big school. That's one of the difficulties,” Behm said. “But last year we had 52 players for football. This year we have 54 kids sign up. That's a very astonishing number. It shows that you have a good interest in football.”
This year's team returns just two starters and will look very different from the state championship squad of a year ago.
“We had a major overhaul on what our offense and defense might look like in terms of personnel," Behm said. "But the kids who are juniors give us nine seniors this year and five of them were very instrumental in playing. The junior group is a good squad of 17. They love football and they have somewhat the same chemistry as last year. As a whole they're not quite as athletic. You take some preparation and desire and that will take you a long ways as well.”
Senior quarterback Shane Knudtson leads the way for the Cardinals. He did not start last year with Lance Rongstad holding the job.
“But Shane's a very athletic kid and was a state 200-meter dash finalist this past spring. He has good speed to work with,” Behm said. “He's a safety and cornerback on the defensive side and will be an asset for us.”
Another key player will be Jared Bechel at halfback and defensive cornerback. He had an interception in the state title game.
Rongstad is among the players whose shoes won't be easy to fill. He passed for 79 yards and rushed for 59 yards last year in the 41-6 state championship victory over Hazel Green Southwestern.
Eleva-Strum won the Dairyland Conference last season with a 7-0 record. Trying to win the state title again is one thing. Repeating as Dairyland champs won't be easy either. Last season, Alma was 7-2 overall and 6-1 in the league, losing only to the Cardinals. Independence-Gilmanton was 5-2 in the conference, losing only to Alma and Eleva-Strum in league play.
Girls Golf
Onalaska enters the 2008 season as two-time defending Division 1 runner-up. After finishing second place the past two seasons, head coach Daren Simms wouldn't mind seeing his team win it all this fall.
“We did not trail last year the entire season until the second day of the state tournament,” Simms said. “I had three very good seniors who have all graduated and they're playing college. Our freshman, who was our No. 4, got hurt the second nine of the first day. She scored in the 90s as a result of that. She averaged 81 on the year. We ended up losing by seven strokes.
“Madison Edgewood is extremely good. Green Bay Notre Dame is extremely good. We beat both of those schools head-to-head a couple of times and nobody beats us. Going into the state tournament we felt we had a pretty good opportunity. But there's a lot of kids around the country who wouldn't mind a second place.”
Green Bay Notre Dame has taken first place in Division 1 the last two seasons. Madison Edgewood won the Division 2 title last year.
“This year, Madison Edgewood is extremely good again,” Simms said.
The champs will enter the fall without their top three players from a year ago.
“We may be inexperienced, but we're young too. We're rebuilding this year for sure.”
Alli Plath, last year's No. 4 player as a freshman, takes over as her team's No. 1 player this fall in her sophomore season.
“She's just over 5-feet tall,” Simms said. “She golfs quite a bit in tournaments around the state. She'll be very good. She just turned 15. She has a lot of golf in front of her.”
Onalaska still hopes to make a run at the state tournament this season. Despite being in a rebuilding mode, Simms has a notion his team can make things interesting in the bid for title honors.
In last year's tournament, Onalaska had a 663 score compared to 654 for Notre Dame. Simms' team graduated seniors Katie Tabbert and McKenzie Holthaus, who tied for sixth and eighth place in the individual standings last year. Emily Swift is the senior who was the No. 3 player for Onalaska last season.
The individual state champion from last season, Tory Bauman from Nicolet, who had 18-hole totals of 78 and 72 for a 150 in the 2007 state tournament, returns for her senior year.
Allyssa Ferrell of Cambridge/Edgerton, who shot a 152 for a fourth-place individual finish at the state finals, is back for her junior campaign.
