Polar Bears’ season begins tonight
By Erik Buchinger
Hortonville football has been a consistent participant in the WIAA playoffs, but the Polar Bears fell short last season and will look to return to the postseason in 2018.
Head coach Tom Kolosso said the team talked about what went wrong in 2017 and what can be fixed.
“We spent a lot of time since last season ended trying to figure out what happened,” Kolosso said. “What was different last year? How do we fix it? We did that, and I feel good about our plan this year and where we are with things right now.”
This will be a crucial season for the Polar Bears, Kolosso said.
“This is as important of a year as Hortonville has ever had because we’re looking to bounce back here,” Kolosso said. “We’re looking to show people what we’re about and that we’ve moved on from last year. We’re going to be a team that works hard, plays together and hopefully we have a lot of fun in the process.”
Kolosso said Hortonville will go back to what has made the Polar Bears successful in previous years.
“Last year was last year, and the kids don’t want to keep hearing about us not having the kind of season we expected,” Kolosso said. “Right now, it’s back to what has made us successful from the beginning here and going back to what we’ve always done and re-identifying those things. The wins and playoffs will take care of themselves. We’re not changing. We’re just getting getter at the things we used to be really good at and we’re recommitting to those things.”
Hortonville wide receiver Josh Giese said this year’s team is hoping to put last season behind them.
“I can say for the whole team the minute that game ended we were already looking at the next season,” Giese said. “We looked at how we can get better, what we can improve on.”
Hortonville will attempt to make it back to the playoffs while playing on its new turf field.
“We’ve got a great facility now we can be proud of,” Kolosso said. “A lot of people in the community and in the school have stepped up, and I think we feel a responsibility to put a quality product out there on the football side of things.”
On the field, Kolosso said he is excited about the playmakers in the skill positions with Giese and Jayqon Owens at receiver and Jose Concepcion and Dylan Schmidt playing running back.
Giese narrowed down his college football options to Winona State and Northern Michigan, and he said he hopes to finish out his high school career with a big season.
“I’m hoping to do things that people around here aren’t used to doing,” Giese said. “That means advancing in the playoffs, winning conference and leaving a lasting impression on our class for the community.”
Kolosso said Giese has been a great player on and off the football field.
“The first thing with Josh is he’s just a great kid, and he’s a great leader,” Kolosso said. “That’s another part of moving on from last year. We need guys that we can trust, guys who aren’t suddenly going to be ineligible because they made bad decisions, but guys that will be good leaders in the locker room and the school and in the community. Josh is that kid in every sense of that.
“Out here, he’s a great athlete, a track guy who can run and jump. He’s a much better route runner the last couple years. He’s a leader out here as one of our captains. He’s doing a great job with the leadership stuff, so we’re leaning on him in a lot of different ways this year.”
Kyle Allen started a few games last season at quarterback and will be the starter this season.
“One of the positives from last year was there were a lot of underclassmen who got playing time at different times,” Kolosso said. “We have a pretty good base coming in this year with guys with experience.”
Kolosso said other players to watch this season include Gage Payne as an H-back on offense and Luke Diedrich, Jackson Weister and Schmidt on defense.
Hortonville’s offensive and defensive lines will ultimately determine how far the Polar Bears can go this season, according to Kolosso.
“I want to have a team that plays up to its potential,” Kolosso said. “I think that’s the most disappointing thing about last year is we had a really good team last year, but for a bunch of different reasons we just didn’t play to our potential. It’s about getting the most out of this team and feeling at the end of the year to look and say that we did everything we could with what we had this year, and that would be a successful season. Hopefully that means a lot of wins.”