Waukon football team returns large collection of varsity experience for 2016 campaign


2016 Waukon football returning letterwinners: Left to right: Brayden Mulholland, Max Swartz, Tanner Mathis, Aaron Sherman, Brandon Regan, Abe Schwartz, Mitchell Snitker, Kyle Gordon, Nathan Benzing, Andrew Dickson, Carson Schwartzhoff, Alex Brink, Evan Armstead. Not pictured: Blain Swenson, Lukas Larson, Jadon Johnson, Jared Campbell, Isaiah Welch, Tristan Hansmeier, Chance Opperman, Colin Waters, Tanner Peterson, Landon Berns, Ethan Krueger, Dalton Brookins.

2016 Waukon football freshmen through seniors: Left to right - Front row: Dawson Palmer, Lance Egan, Logan Houg, Carson Jones, Logan Kucera, Christian Hernandez, Justin Strub, John Ronan, Tyler Block, Miles Hansmeier, Tanner Mitchell, Carter Benzing, Dawson Baures, Baldemar Villarreal. Middle row: Max Swartz, Colin Waters, Isaiah Welch, Tanner Mathis, Riley Wyninger, Tanner Peterson, Brandon Regan, Abe Schwartz, Mitchell Snitker, Kyle Gordon, Nathan Benzing, Andrew Dickson, Carson Schwartzhoff, Ethan Krueger, Chance Opperman, Alex Brink, Landon Berns. Back row: Reed Kelly, Pryce Hesse, Logan Sullivan, Lars Larson, Brandon Bieber, Peyton Bieber, Michael Sweeney, Brayden Mulholland, Tristan Hansmeier, Jadon Johnson, Evan Armstead, Aaron Sherman, Luke Pladsen, Asher Fahey, Nathan Johnson, Kaedan Snitker, Zach Thornton. Not pictured: Jared Campbell, Blain Swenson, Thomas Byrnes, Lukas Larson, Robbie Drew, Connor Berryman, Brock Hatlan, Carson Wille, Brixen Hanson, Alyx Ede, Bren Regan.

The 2016 Waukon football team looks to return a long list of players with varsity experience from a team that played to a 10-2 overall record last fall and the third State Play-Off venture to at least the quarterfinal round of postseason play in the last four seasons. Fourth-year coach Chad Beermann lists 25 young men as returning letterwinners, many of them gaining that letterwinning experience due to the success of last season’s squad that won a share of the Class 2A District 3 season championship and made another deep play-off run.

“One of the benefits of getting to play 12 games last season instead of just nine was to get the sophomores in practice with the varsity for three weeks,” Coach Beerman explained. “That helps them. We don’t have a large group of seniors, but several of them worked very hard.  They have to set the tone to keep everyone moving and on the same page.”

This season’s 10 senior leaders include a pair of All-District honorees in Second Team wide receiver Tanner Mathis and Honorable Mention Blain Swenson. Rounding out those veteran upperclassmen returnees will be Nathan Benzing, Max Swartz, Aaron Sherman, Kyle Gordon, Brandon Regan, Carson Schwartzhoff and Andrew Dickson, with Riley Wyninger returning to the field this year to round out that senior list.

Also among the veterans listed as returning letterwinners will be another All-District Honorable Mention in junior Mitchell Snitker. Joining him among those letterwinning returnee ranks will be fellow juniors Abe Schwartz, Evan Armstead, Jadon Johnson, Brayden Mulholland, Jared Campbell, Isaiah Welch, Tristan Hansmeier, Lukas Larson, Chance Opperman, Colin Waters, Alex Brink, Tanner Peterson, Landon Berns, Ethan Krueger and Dalton Brookins.

Although the youngest of the gridiron Tribe’s returning All-District trio, Snitker brings back the team’s best returning offensive balance with 345 yards rushing and 320 yards receiving. Mathis leads all returnees with 670 receiving yards and 11 total touchdowns through the air, with Swenson also seeing the end zone multiple times through the Indians’ potent passing attack last fall.

“In Blain, Tanner and Mitchell we have three receivers who have caught quite a few footballs, and run quite a bit too,” Coach Beermann explained. “Abe Schwartz is coming along nicely at quarterback, and (sophomore) Michael Sweeney gives us depth and flexibility there.”

Absent from that Indian passing game will be school record-setting graduated senior Peyton Hesse and his favorite target from last season, Wyatt Wille, both of whom have taken their football talents to Coe College in Cedar Rapids this fall. Also key to last season’s success but in need of replacement this season will be the Indians’ entire starting offensive and defensive lines, as the graduation of 12 seniors this past May cleared those ranks.

“The biggest area of concern is replacing the entire offensive line and defensive front seven,” Coach Beermann said. “While we lost some excellent skill players, the loss of the entire offensive line leaves the biggest hole.”

Graduation also took eight of the Tribe’s top 10 tacklers from last season, including the top three in linebackers Chris Miller and Colin Steiber, and defensive end Haden Hammel. Steiber and fellow graduated senior Austin Hogan shouldered much of last year’s offensive ground game load as well. Hesse and Wille picked off team highs of five and three interceptions last season, respectively, but two of the Tribe’s top three fumble recoverers, Snitker and Swenson, both return this season.

Despite the heavy toll graduation took on his squad from last season, Coach Beermann knows that the key to success in any season is putting the right pieces of the puzzle together on the field. “One of the keys to last year’s success was the ability of the kids to play well together, to mesh into a team,” he said. “So far, we seem to be fitting together well this year. We’ll need to learn how to play well as a team as we go, keep improving from week to week, and stay healthy. This season we are looking to platoon as much as possible, and the kids seem to be sharing time well.”

With the changes made by the Iowa High School Athletic Union in cutting the number of State Play-Off qualifying teams in half for this season, Coach Beermann knows that extending the Tribe’s play-off qualification consistency to a fourth time in five seasons will be a more difficult task. That change was made to lengthen the recovery time between play-off games in the interest of player health and safety and now cuts the number of automatic play-off qualifiers from each district in half to just two, with two additional wild card qualifiers also allowed for a total of 16 qualifying teams.

“Making the play-offs is much tougher again, but we’ll see how things sort themselves out,” Coach Beermann said. “We’ll work to improve throughout the season, and play as close to our best as possible each week.”

Making that State Play-Off qualifying task that much more difficult is the fact that, along with the Indians, four other play-off qualifying teams will make up more than half the squads in the Indians’ new home, Class 2A District 3, including State semifinalist North Fayette Valley, Dyersville Beckman, Cascade and Union.

“North Fayette Valley should be tough,” Coach Beermann said, speculating on the upcoming season. “Union had so much size last year, and has the most returns with a great back. Dyersville-Beckman is in the mix yearly. We’ll see about the rest, with so many new teams and at least one new coach.”

The Indians will begin their 2016 quest this Friday with a road game at Class 1A MFL/MarMac, where former Indian head coach Tom Oppelt serves as head coach and former Waukon player Brody Baxter is listed as an assistant coach. The Indians will round out their non-district schedule with their first home game Friday, September 2 against New Hampton, another State Play-Off qualifier from last season.