WEST SALEM — Landon Michlig gained a lot of confidence as a West Salem High School football player last fall.
A non-football medial collateral ligament injury sidelined the junior defensive end for part of the season, but he returned to finish the season leading the Panthers with 18 tackles behind the line of scrimmage and 4 1/2 sacks.
That transformed his previous future plan of pursuing a college opportunity as a punter into playing defense at the next level.
Instead of playing basketball — he started the season but didn’t finish it — and baseball, he worked at getting stronger and faster to take full advantage of his ability to blow up an opponent’s offensive backfield so consistently.
“He’s explosive, he has good hands, and you can’t teach 6-foot-4, 240 pounds,” West Salem coach Ryan Olson said of Michlig. “There were times where he could take away half the field, and if you have someone like that, it helps your defense tremendously.”
With a handful of summer camps under his belt, Michlig is back to see how disruptive he can be as a senior for a team that expects to challenge for the Coulee Conference championship.
“It’s been a really busy summer, but you only get to experience this once, so you take full advantage,” Michlig said of the recruiting process, which has included six offers from Division II and Division III programs to this point. “I went to five or six camps, starting with some at smaller schools and then going to some bigger ones.”
Michlig participated and pushed himself while competing in Eau Claire and River Falls before heading to the University of Wisconsin, North Dakota, North Dakota State and Augustana (S.D.). He took something different away from each one after such a wide variety of coaching.
“There were drills I did there that I’d already done here, and there were new drills,” Michlig. “The new drills are something I can bring back here, too.”
Those new ideas could be part of his expanded role as a team leader. The graduated Miles Olson handled last year much of what falls to Michlig this year.
The senior will also reprise his role as West Salem’s punter after averaging 37.2 yards per attempt as a junior and 38.7 per attempt as a sophomore. Michlig attended punting camps when younger before breaking through as a defensive lineman last season.
“The drop is the biggest part (of the punt),” Michlig said. “I worked on punting a lot with my dad in the backyard. We worked on fundamentals like step-ups and drops, and it’s hard to have a good punt with a bad drop.”
Michlig will get an additional opportunity at snaps on the offensive side of the ball as a senior. For the first time since he played football i the Boys and Girls Club, he’ll be a tight end for quarterback Drew McConkey.
Expect the Panthers to take advantage of Michlig’s size for some intermediate passes as McConkey enters his junior season and second as the starter.
“It’s great,” Michlig said. “It will be nice to get the ball, run people over and maybe score some touchdowns.”
