Luxemburg-Casco & Wrightstown prepare for state football

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - The N.E.C. reigns supreme in high school football.

We have 2 area teams heading to state, with both hailing from that conference: Luxemburg-Casco in Division 4 and Wrightstown in Division 5.

Luxemburg-Casco is headed to state for the first time ever. In the playoffs, they beat Two Rivers by 3 points, then Catholic Memorial by 2 to advance to Camp Randall.

The N.E.C. champion Spartans are buoyed by belief.

And now L-C gets to strut its stuff against undefeated Lodi -- which is far less experienced in close games. Its closest contest? Decided by 13 points. Spartans quarterback Max Ronsmann leads the team in both passing and running.

“Our team, we just believe,” Ronsmann said. “We come in, just about every game, as underdogs, and we just gotta believe with each other. It’s been working out, we made it to the state finals.”

“That’s really the whole thing, the brotherhood of the belief,” said Trace Schoenenbeck, who kicked the game-winning field goal last week. “If we believe we can do it... we should always believe in what we are doing and it will work out.”

“You know I think sometimes when you win by a lot you don’t know how to handle adversity when it comes to you,” said coach Neil Seering. “So I think we have had both examples. We have had a loss this year, so we know what that feels like as well. We have played some really good teams the last few weeks, all the way from Wrightstown in the last week of the regular season in that rain storm. And then being underdogs against Kiels, underdogs against Two Rivers, underdogs against Catholic Memorial, and we will be underdogs again this week again. We are a yellow bus team. We aren’t taking a coach bus. That’s just who we are. We don’t need prizes. Last week our trophy was broken before we got it. And I thought that was great. That just symbolizes everything about our team because we don’t care about that. We just care about each other.”

How about Coach Steve Klister’s Wrightstown Tigers? They are back to state for the first time in 12 years.

And Wrightstown is up against 2-time defending champ Aquinas. But the tigers aren’t afraid of any fight, especially in the trenches.

They will ground you. And they will pound you. And they don’t care if you know what’s coming.

They simply execute their plays and believe it will bring home a Gold Ball. The Tigers aren’t afraid to shout their identity from the mountaintops.

“Our offensive line,” Klister said. “Big strong kids up front. We gotta be able to run the ball. And Aiden Humphries and Trevor Vande Hey have done a great job picking holes and making plays.”

“It feels great to be honest,” said left guard Trent Vande Hey. “Our goal up front is just to manhandle that guy. If we push that guy back, if the line does our jobs correctly, we should get yards on every single play.”

“This is an absolute fantastic experience,” said right tackle Charlie Garvey. “Once if a lifetime for those of us here right now.”

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