Kewaunee gets lift from big senior class
The Kewaunee football team is hoping to find strength in numbers.
The Storm enters the season with a majority of its lineup returning intact after having only five seniors a year ago.
Its roster features 18 seniors, giving the program one of its biggest classes since the turn of the century.
“It’s definitely something unique,” Kewaunee coach Randy Charles said. “It’s something I worked with our seniors to start up some new programs for our freshmen to try keeping that. It’s a close-knit group to have a senior class like that with 18 of them still out. It has been a long time since we’ve had classes that size.”
The large group of seniors has big goals in wanting to win a playoff game for the first time since 2013 and capture the program’s first conference title since 2010.
The latter will be especially challenging in the new seven-team conference Kewaunee is a part of for football.
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The MONLPC-Large consists of Coleman and Peshtigo, the top two teams from the M&O Conference last year, and Southern Door, which won the Packerland Conference the past two years.
The Storm is familiar with Peshtigo, having played the Bulldogs regularly in nonconference play.
Meanwhile, Charles is more familiar with the territory that comes with being a head coach. Kewaunee went 5-5 in his first year, falling to Southern Door in a WIAA Division 5 first-round playoff game.
“There was definitely a very big learning curve,” Charles said. “That’s like it for anybody starting off their very first year. This year I’ve put a lot more responsibility on my assistants and learned to give them more responsibilities.”
Kewaunee’s large senior class includes Michael Barribeau, Lincoln Barta, Cody Bultman, William Collins-McGovern, Brock Duescher, Sterling Gardner, Michael Halada, Evan Hall, Cameron Hanrahan, Cameron Konop, Samuel LeCaptain, Lane Narlock, Riley Paplham, Conner Parkman, Justin Parma, Brandon Petrina, Trevor Pribek, Andrew Richard and Kyle Steinhorst.
Bultman will be responsible for leading the Storm on offense again this season. The senior quarterback is hoping for a better start after missing the first part of last year with an injury.
Although it had few seniors in 2016, Kewaunee does have some big shoes to fill at the receiver spot with the graduation losses of Mitch Kudick and Wes Gallenberger.
Richard provides a big target at tight end and will be used in various roles on defense.
“It’s something every coach looks for is those handful of guys that can play anywhere for you,” Charles said.
Barribeau and Barta return as the team’s leading rushers.
LeCaptain, Gardner, Paplham, sophomore Tanor Bortolini, junior Paul Wery and junior Elliot VanGoethem will be in the mix on the offensive line. Bortolini received second-team all-conference honors as a freshman.
Halada was a second-team all-conference choice at tight end and defensive back. He’ll be joined in the secondary by senior Cam Hanrahan and Barribeau.
The defensive line will consist of Collins-McGovern, Konop and Steinhorst, while Barta, LeCaptain, Duescher and junior Wyatt Kruse will see time at linebacker.
Overall, Kewaunee’s numbers are up this year with 54 players out at a school with an enrollment of 310 students.
“Everyone is working hard,” Barribeau said. “We have a lot of big goals this year and we’re ready to achieve them.”