De Soto High School football coach Ev Wick is excited to get rolling on a new season with the Pirates.
While it is nearly time to start practicing with the players who will make up his team this fall, Wick is in Oshkosh for a week to coach some all-stars in a series of games for the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association.
Wick has been an assistant coach for these games before, but he will lead the 8-player South team in a Friday night game against the North at J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium.
Wick and his assistants — one of whom is De Soto assistant Nick Mooney — arrived in Oshkosh on Sunday to prepare for Monday’s arrival of players, who will practice a couple of times daily to figure out Wick’s game plan for the all-star game.
“I knew I kind of wanted to do it,” Wick said of leading an all-star coaching staff. “I wanted to do it when I’d have a player or players there, too, and it’s been a few years since I weas there as an assistant.
“Being able to have Mooney there was also a good opportunity for him, too.”
Wick and Mooney are accompanied by tight end Bryce Schultz, who played all over the field for the Pirates as a senior. He caught 27 passes for 650 yards and 10 touchdowns, carried 41 times for 441 yards and three TDs and was in on 72 tackles — 51 solo — with five for loss and three sacks. Schultz also threw a 25-yard touchdown pass and gave his team eight 2-point conversions.
Wick said the players would practice once on Monday and twice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. One afternoon between practices, he said, would include meeting a family from Children’s Wisconsin, which is partnered with the WFCA for the charity games.
Players used their nomination for the teams to raise funds for the organization, which is an independent health care system that provides medical care, dental care, counseling and foster care to families with children in need.
“The family comes in and shares its story,” Wick said. “It shows (the players) why it was important for them to fundraise for this.”
The 8-player game kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday and is the first of three during the weekend. The North and South small-school teams will kick off at noon on Saturday, and the North and South large-school teams will follow that at 4 p.m.
Aquinas wide receiver Logan Becker and linebacker Waylon Hargrove will play for the North’s small-school team.
Becker caught 35 passes for 585 yards and seven touchdowns as a senior, and Hargrove was in on 59 tackles — 13 for loss and 5.5 sacks — as the Blugolds won the Coulee Conference.
Holmen defensive lineman and Northern Michigan commit Jagger Jepson, Onalaska offensive lineman and Minnesota-Mankato commit Aiden Knopp and Central running back Christian Rudrud will play for the North’s large-school team.
Jepson made six tackles for loss and was credited with 2.5 sacks for the Vikings, while Knopp helped the Hilltoppers average 340 total yards per game and made nine tackles for loss with 3.5 sacks.
Rudrud, who will play at UW-La Crosse, rushed for 1,698 yards and 25 touchdowns and passed for 911 yards and nine touchdowns, for the RiverHawks.
