8-Player Football- The game of football has become so popular that not everyone can wait for week one to participate in their first round of action; so, week zero is where we find a couple of our eight-player teams for District 6. Let’s look at the upcoming season for our local teams.
Winfield-Mt. Union
The District 6 champions from last season finished a game away from the state championship after falling in the semi-finals to Bishop Garrigan 34-20. Nevertheless, the Wolves went 11-1 and outscored their opponents 594 to 177 in a truly dominating season.
The Wolves had eight All-District First Team honorees, including a defensive MVP in Cam Buffington and Cooper Buffington earned Lineman MVP. The issue is six of those First-Team players were seniors; in fact, the seniors accounted for most of the team’s production.
Rushing: 91% of the team’s yards and 44 of the team’s 50 rushing touchdowns.
Receiving: Max Edwards was the only non-senior to catch the ball, and he ended the season with 2 catches for 26 yards and a touchdown.
Defense: 71% of the tackles, 76% of tackles for loss, 8 fumble recoveries, and 8 of the team’s 9 interceptions.
Last year’s team made history for having the first player earn a football scholarship to a Division I college and they had two players accomplish that feat in Cam Buffington (Iowa) and Abram Edwards (Army)—Edwards led the team in tackles for loss and tied for the team lead in sacks with 11.5.
Head coach Scott McCarty returns for his 14th season at the helm and understands that last year’s expectations should not weigh down his players.
“Yeah, just since we have to replace so many parts from last year to make sure the kids understand where they’re supposed to be, what they’re supposed to do, and also, they have the mentality is that I don’t need you to be the player” said coach McCarty. “Last year that played that position, I need you to be you and do the best you can at your position, you know at your ability at that level, you know we graduated some really nice ballplayers, and it’s unfair to think and have the expectations of the kids this year to be those kids. So just make sure they have the understanding that we want the best version of themselves and that they’re, you know, lining up and trying to do what they’re supposed to do at a high level.”
Coach McCarty is excited for what the season brings as he does return some talent from last year’s squad, including Cooper Buffington and First Team All-District quarterback Jake Edwards.
Edwards tossed 26 touchdowns and last year’s MVP of the lineman should pave a path for anyone running the football and his 11.5 sacks last season will help bolster a new defense. Add in Second Team All-District lineman Grant Anderson and this front will be something to fear.
The Wolves will host Central City on Friday, August 30th, with kickoff slated for 7 pm.
Biggest Strength: Offensive Line
Biggest Question: Wide Receivers
WACO
WACO had their district crown usurped for the first time in two years and suffered their first regular season loss in the same amount of time. Despite that the Warriors finished 7-2 and nearly took on Winfield-Mt. Union in the quarterfinal for their rematch.
After their tough loss to the Wolves, the Warrior offense took off, scoring 51 points or more in the five games leading up to their 28-20 loss to Don Bosco in the second round of the playoffs.
The Warriors had eight First Team All-District members, which included five seniors. Chase Waterhouse—a walk-on at UNI—and Colton Leichty will be two big missing pieces of the offensive and defensive lines and Hunter Hughes was a ballhawk with six interceptions.
WACO does return last season’s offensive MVP in Louden Huisenga and starting quarterback Clayton Miller. This duo will be the focal point for success for head coach Chad Edeker’s 24th season,
“Well, you know, like I said, you know we like to run the ball here and we’re hoping that we can develop some offense alignment here in the first couple of weeks and get some kids that will help us. You know, we’re just going to, we’re going to be the same thing that we’ve done the past. I mean, Clayton, we had 18 touchdowns and two interceptions last year. And I think both interceptions came against Winfield. Really, really good catches by the defenders. I mean, not balls that Clayton put in the wrong spot, but they made really nice plays. So I think you know protecting the ball, you know we didn’t, we didn’t fumble the ball a ton last year and obviously only two interceptions, you know, keeping hold of the ball is going to be big for us and you know can we get first downs, can we use our passing game to get first downs where we used to use our running game a little bit more. But when I say we’re not going to run it’s not that we’re not going to run, we got Louden. He had almost 800 yards rushing last year and is a huge part of our offense in the backfield, so we’re definitely going to run the ball still too, but it’s just, you know, making mistakes and getting a couple kids to develop is going to be our biggest thing.”
The seniors accounted for 34 of the team’s 53 touchdowns. Additionally, Huisenga led the team in tackles with 54, while recovering two fumbles and nabbing three interceptions; Miller proved just as lethal through the air on defense with four interceptions.
With seven returning starters, including fellow All-District First Teamer Joel Meyer, this team will be set at the key leadership positions heading into their week zero matchup against Central City at home this Friday at 7 pm.
“And you know, we know most of the eight-man formations that we’re going to see” said Coach Edeker. “So, we can put that out there now and then that week against Central City, we’ll just, you know, just fine tune it and make sure we know what we’re going to do against them. It’s gonna be a tough one for us though, because they got a new coach this year, so. They had run a sort of unique, very similar to us. They ran it off-balanced power formation, which we knew pretty well the last couple of years, and they got a new coach. So, we don’t know exactly what they’re going to run so we got to have all our bases covered…”
Biggest Strength: Skill Positions
Biggest Question: Offensive and Defensive Line (Do return Owen Wolf and Adam Stafford)
Iowa Valley
Iowa Valley continued their ascent through the ranks after making the playoffs in 2022 with a 6-4 offense that was headlined by Evan Kearney—All-District Offensive MVP. The Tigers followed that up with a 7-3 season, making the playoffs and winning 78-77 in their round one matchup.
The amazing element of their team was their general youth. Of course, they lost Dawson Smith—accounted for 16 rushing touchdowns and led the team with 67.5 tackles and two interceptions—and offensive and defensive linemen Garrett Hoyt and Taite Peach.
The Tigers do return freshman phenom Nolan Kriegel, who was the only underclassman to make the All-District Team never mind the First Team. Kriegel threw for 13 touchdowns and rushed for another 20 while accounting for 2,336 total yards. He also caught two touchdowns.
Also returning is their top pass catcher in Caleb Haack as he reeled in 31 of the team’s 62 receptions and finished with six touchdowns and their second leading tackler Layne Peska, who was also a freshman.
This is a team that averaged 47 points last season and scored over 50 points in five games last season with a freshman at the reigns. Casey Krull should have another fun offense as they take on BGM in a week zero matchup on the road this Friday at 7 pm.
Biggest Strength: Nolan Kriegel
Biggest Question: Offensive Line
English Valleys
English Valleys ended last season on a two-game winning streak to finish the year with a 4-5 record. It was the second consecutive losing season for the Bears after collecting a 14-4 record from 2020 to 2021.
The Bears struggled to score points against better opponents last season, managing a measly 34 points in their five losses. Their rushing game was strong with 2,001 yards as a team with 24 touchdowns. Ben Coffman, an All-District First Team honoree, rushed for 639 yards and six touchdowns, averaging nearly seven yards per carry.
The Bears lost Myles Grove and Luke Moore, two First Team defenders, as the duo accounted for five turnovers, 80.5 tackles, and six sacks. Defense has been the main culprit for the past two seasons as their wins still saw the Bears allow 134 points.
Brennen Grimm will lead his squad to Calamus-Wheatland this Friday at 7 pm for their week zero matchup. The Bears won last season 62-48.
Biggest Strength: Running Game
Biggest Question: Quarterback
New London
New London had to fight against some adversity last year as the Tigers fielded a limited roster and when injuries reared its ugly head it forced a forfeit and nearly a halt to their season.
Nevertheless, after a successful appeal to the Iowa High School Athletic Association, the Tigers won the next week against the co-op team of HLV 36-28 before falling in their final three weeks to finish the season 1-7.
In a season of resilience, the Tigers made it to the finish line with a roster of mostly underclassmen. Michael Raines, an All-District Second Team honoree, and Griffin Swanson were the only seniors on the club.
The roster was thrown into the deep end of the pool and told to swim. One of the returning players who managed to do more than just swim will be senior Gavin Menke-Bailey.
The starting quarterback threw for 935 yards and 12 touchdowns, while also leading the ground game with 547 yards and six touchdowns. Additionally, he led the team with 59.5 tackles.
Nicholas Loyd returned two fumbles for touchdowns last season and Cale Westerbeck and Logan Franklin each captured an interception. Head coach Dominick Loyd returns to the sideline with a team of experience and still a fair amount of youth behind them.
The Tigers will stay at home for their week one matchup against Easton Valley at 7 pm.
Biggest Strength: Experience and Menke-Bailey
Biggest Question: Secondary Offensive Options
HLV
The Warriors were joined by the Tri-County Trojans before the start of last season after Tri-County announced they were unable to produce enough players for a team. The result was a 2-8 finish for HLV, their greatest number of wins since their 5-4 record in 2020.
Unfortunately, the Warriors had experienced nearly a decade straight of winning season, averaging 8 wins per season before their last three season produced only four total wins. Rub in the fact that both their All-District players from last season were seniors.
HLV did see some talented underclassmen show up and exceed expectations with the bright star being Cael Weisskopf. The freshman threw a touchdown, led the team with 623 rushing yards and seven touchdowns, led the team in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns, and led the team in tackles with 76.5.
The loss of Brighton Wear will be tough on their defensive line as he led the team with three sacks and nine tackles for loss. This team will have to figure out their offense as they averaged only 16.1 points per game.
The Warriors, led by Kevin Smith, will start their season against Montezuma at home this Friday at 7 pm.
Biggest Strength: Cael Weisskopf
Biggest Question: Defense