FOOTBALL

Wausau East begins run as an independent football program

Tim Johnson
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Wausau East football coach Tom Tourtillott, middle, leads the Lumberjacks into their first season as an independent program this fall.  .

WAUSAU – Caleb Moses enters his senior year with the Wausau East football team knowing that there is no chance to compete for a state championship. A berth in the WIAA postseason is not even in the discussion.

That doesn’t mean the Lumberjacks veteran running back and defensive back doesn’t have things to accomplish this season.

“Ever since ninth grade, my class hasn’t won a football game,” Moses said during a recent team practice. “That’s though freshman, junior varsity and varsity football. But that just has created a really, really strong bond between us, we really are brothers. I hang out with them more than I do with my family on most days during football season.”

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The Lumberajacks' 13 seniors enter the final season of their prep football careers in what is a new direction for the program overall. East will play an independent schedule this fall after leaving the Valley Football Association last year over concerns that it was at a competitive disadvantage in the conference and player safety.

East, which has not won a game since Sept. 12, 2014, opens its schedule Friday at Osceola and will be matched against similar-sized programs throughout the fall. Four of the nine teams the Lumberjacks will face are from the Great Northern Conference and East also has matchups with former VFA-foes Wisconsin Rapids and Wausau West. as well.

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The Lumberjacks will not be eligible for postseason play this year due to the move to independent status.

“It’s not like we were making the playoffs last year,” Moses said. “I was in favor of the independent status and felt we needed to move from the conference we were in because of the numbers and size of our team. I’m excited to see what we can do with a different schedule and not facing the state champs (Kimberly) this year.”

East’s schedule is not exactly stacked with cupcake games, either. Osceola and Southern Door, the first two teams the Lumberjacks face, both went 10-1 last season and made deep postseason runs. Southern Door reached the state semifinals in Division 5, while  Osceola also made it to Level 3 in Division 4

The Lumberjacks also play three of their first four games on the road, including back-to-back weeks at Rhinelander and Merrill at the start of September. 

“A lot of the teams we are playing are really good. But if we prepare well, we will put up a great fight,” East senior offensive lineman/linebacker Nathan Rodman said.

The majority of East’s players are two-way starters on offense and defense, and it is the same situation for the programs that the Lumberjacks will face as an independent program.

“That playing field has leveled out,” East coach Tom Tourtillott said of the difference from the teams East played in the VFA. “It creates more opportunities for us to be successful.”

The overall measure success for the East will be to build the program’s numbers up. Tourtillott said the Lumberjacks had 37 freshmen out for football this season and the goal is to have that number reach at least 50.

East is independent this season but ultimately would like to join a conference again. The school has made an initial request to join the GNC for football three years ago. The WIAA denied the request last fall but East officials have not abandoned that goal.

“The biggest thing is that you have to worry about the things that you can control. We don’t have any control over that,” Tourtillott said. “(The GNC) has some scheduling problems being a seven-team conference and that would be a natural fit for us, but we can’t worry a whole lot about that right now.”