Thursday, September 19, 2024
OCONTO – The Oconto High football team, under new head coach Jake Reichow, is laying the groundwork for future success, while holding on to expectations for some Packerland Conference wins in the short term.
Last year, in Head Coach Dave Ruechel’s final season before retiring after 32 years of leading the team, the Blue Devils battled their way to a 4-6 record and earned a trip to the playoffs, where they lost in the opening round to Kewaunee.
This year’s group of Blue Devils, made up of 22 freshmen, 7 sophomores, 6 juniors and 10 seniors, will come with plenty of youth and inexperience in crucial spots like along the offensive line but Coach Reichow is hoping familiarity will go a long way in speeding things along.
“This is a group I’ve had since 7th grade basketball,” said Coach Reichow, who was a student teacher at Manitowoc and coached under Kevin Fix before spending a year as an assistant at Green Bay East, followed by two years of assisting Coach Ruechel in Oconto, of the 22 freshmen in the Oconto program this season. “We’ve built a pretty good atmosphere and a lot of those guys came out so
it’s going to be good to see them grow over the next couple of years.”
Accountability
After practice, the players are expected to maintain the locker room and clean up anything that was brought onto the field for practice. This year’s Blue Devils will be expected to participate and even lead locker room discussions on what they see happening on the field.
Expectations
Right now, coach Reichow and his staff’s main concern is simple: Change the team’s culture.
“We have to change, no, we are changing the culture and the outlook of this football program. Since I got hired, that’s what I’ve been preaching is culture change and that’s what we’re doing. We’re doing it through things like making our athletes apply to be captains, we had 19 applicants. We’re holding them responsible for lifting in the summer, tracking weight room attendance.”
The Oconto High coaching staff has also developed a 1000-point scale by which to test an athlete’s ability to play at varsity level. This test, according to Coach Reichow, has helped the staff at Oconto High identify strengths among its young players.
The X’s and O’s
Ran a pistol-style offense last season and will rely on a similar approach this year with more of an emphasis on zone reading and having a triple-option set up for each play, as explained by coach Reichow.
“We’re going to be fast and try to do a lot of different things off of one look.” he said before adding that patience is something he is stressing to his players and his coaching staff, Assistant Head Coach Tony Mossakowski and assistants Ben Helenore, Jeff Berth, Joe Reed, Ryan Otradovec, Jonah Carlson and Dylan Boucher. “We’re not looking for our best football to happen next Friday, we want it to be at the end of the year.”
Looking ahead
The future of the Oconto High football program, according to coach Reichow, is bright. A recent youth camp made up of 5th and 6th graders drew 75 participants, some of whom will no doubt end up on the varsity roster a few short years down the road.
“We understand that wins and losses are important but we’re here to impact these young men’s lives for the future,” said Coach Reichow, who played his college ball for the Muskies of Lakeland University. “So that when they’re my age, they can reflect on their time as a Blue Devil and have positive memories and understand that they worked hard and had to earn it the whole way and also had a lot of fun with their buddies.”
