He was walking alone off the football field after a disappointing loss at West Salem High School.
It was two years ago, and Arcadia had just pushed the Panthers as hard as anyone during a season that ended in a WIAA Division 4 state championship.
Sophomore Kyle Tamke was proud of the way he and the rest of the Raiders performed in a 28-21 loss, but losing a game it nearly tied — West Salem forced a fumble around its own 10-yard line and ran out the clock — at the end of regulation was painful.
The linebacker wasn’t happy with the outcome, but he had an immediate understanding of what it could mean to the future. The Raiders had a roster filled with sophomores, and they’d just played well enough together to make an eventual state champion relieved to win a football game against them.
Derek Updike was there, but he was a spectator and not a coach. Little did he know at the time that he’d be the one trying to help this team win a state championship of its own like he is today.
“That game was a very good indicator of what these kids could do,” Updike said. “One thing I noticed about a lot of these guys long ago is that they just don’t get intimidated.
“It doesn’t matter who they are playing, and they know teams will try to do it, but that doesn’t bother them.”
Quarterback A.J. Bellville wasn’t intimidated by the Panthers two years ago, and the pass he threw 30 yards in the air to Alex Lettner late in the fourth quarter proved it. There’s no telling what would have happened or how this program would have changed if Jacob Welch hadn’t knocked the ball out of Lettner’s grasp near the goal-line that night.
Maybe it would have benefitted in some way sooner. Maybe it would have qualified for the playoffs last season instead of just missing out on a winning conference record yet again.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the Raiders (11-2) have knocked off some very impressive teams in its current playoff run. Osseo-Fairchild, Marathon and Brillion had great football seasons, yet none of them was able to give Arcadia much of a game.
We’ll find out today if the Raiders have one more big game left in their tank, but what they’ve done so far means that anything is possible with a good opponent lined up across the field.
“When I look back on some of the teams these guys have played over the years,” Updike said, “they’ve played some of their best ball against the best teams they’ve faced.”
Fond du Lac St. Mary’s Springs (13-0) promises to be one of the best teams on that list today.
It has a coach — Bob Hyland — who has won 347 career games against 99 losses. It has a program that has played in 17 WISAA and WIAA championship games and won nine of them. It is a team that has allowed just two opponents to score more than seven points in a game this year.
Updike said a pep rally was held at the high school on Wednesday before the team completed its final practice together. He said it even fired him up.
“I was ready to cover a kick after that,” Updike said with a laugh.
The Raiders’ season will come to an end today, and it will be accompanied by tears of joy or tears of sadness. But it will end on the turf of Camp Randall Stadium.
That’s something that can never be taken away from a dynamic senior class that set this plan in motion long before this season ever began.
