In the last three years, the city of Burlington has seen four state volleyball champions, five state volleyball appearances and a whopping nine volleyball sectional finals trips.
Right now, when people think of high school sports in Burlington, they think of volleyball. Both the Burlington and Catholic Central girls teams are state powers, and the Burlington boys have become a top-10 program in the state.
If you like to bump, set and spike, it’s a good time to be living in the city.
But this used to be a football town. Remember the good old days?
Head coach Don Dalton’s men struck fear in opponents’ hearts. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Demons routinely dispatched of lesser foes in the weak Southern Lakes Conference. I’m pretty sure they won at least 10 conference titles in a row at one point.
Names like Ryan Dussault, Mike Deans, Steve Tenhagen, Mark Shepherdson, Tony Romo and many more dominated the league with an iron fist, relying on a run-first attitude that featured punch-you-in-the-mouth play at the line of scrimmage.
Then, it was experiment time. In 1997, the Demons joined the Southeast Conference, going from biggest fish in the sea to David to everyone’s Goliath.
State heavyweights like Oak Creek, Franklin and Kenosha Tremper had their way with Burlington just about every year except 2005 and 2006. In ’05, the Demons, led by Ross Wiemer, Kyle Steffen and Derek Franco, advanced all the way to the Division 2 final four.
The next year, they were ousted early at home.
The Demons endured five more non-playoff seasons before qualifying again in 2012 with a 6-2 record. Then, this past fall, the boys, equipped with five returning starting offensive linemen, began the season 3-0.
Things were looking great and a playoff berth was almost certain, but the wheels slowly came off. A competitive first half at Badger turned into a blowout loss.
The next week, the Demons’ offense was anemic in a close home loss to Waterford. A bounce-back victory over Westosha Central could’ve salvaged the season, but the Demons closed with three straight losses to Delavan-Darien, Wilmot and Elkhorn.
While the Delavan loss was a heartbreaker, the Panthers and Elks embarrassed the Demons in easy fashion. Burlington was left stunned and searching for answers.
For the fifth time in the past seven years, the Demons finished 4-5. In 2010, they were 3-6.
Disregarding 2007 and 2008 because they were in the Southeast, the Demons are a painfully mediocre 21-24 since rejoining the Southern Lakes Conference in 2009.
That’s alarming. Burlington is the second-largest school in the conference. For a long time, it was the largest school until Lake Geneva Badger ballooned its enrollment.
How did the Demons go from perennial conference champions to middle dwellers? It doesn’t make sense.
For starters, the SLC has improved dramatically since the 1990s. Badger, Wilmot, Waterford, Union Grove and Westosha Central are all now over 1,000 students. They are no longer the laughing stocks. In fact, Badger, Waterford and Wilmot have become football powerhouses.
I’m not sure if it’s that big of a deal, but Burlington started boys volleyball in 1997, and it has taken off since. Now, the best athletes in the fall aren’t necessarily joining the football team. Coincidentally, Westosha hasn’t had much football success of late but battles to go to state in boys volleyball (with Burlington) just about every year.
One could argue that basketball players play volleyball and wouldn’t join football anyway, but it is something to at least consider.
Third, numbers are on the decline.
“The overall numbers in our program is a concern as we only had 97 players playing football this past season,” said Burlington head coach Hans Block. “That’s down from 105 the year before.”
Though parents are fearing concussions more than ever and preventing their kids from playing, youth football continues to shine in the city.
In the fall, there are two tackle football programs, the Spiders and Blue Devils, and there is a new flag football program for kids. Coaches in those programs assure me that numbers and interest are high, and there is plenty of talent in this town.
Look no further than Catholic Central to see there’s talent in Burlington. Cole Kresken, Ben Heiligenthal and Tyler Burzawa, three absolute studs, are homegrown kids.
So what’s going on with the Demons?
If you ask Block and some of the players, it’s simple – kids need to get stronger. That starts in the offseason.
“Our problem was we didn’t work hard enough in the offseason,” said junior running back Hunter Melby. “Then when the season started, we didn’t want to win as much as the other teams.”
Senior offensive lineman Greg Miller echoed Melby’s concerns.
“Melby was absolutely right,” Miller said. “We had a good year last year, and due to success we got complacent. We played a tough three games but then after the first sign of a challenge, we started dropping our heads. We consistently lose to Badger and Waterford because they were flat-out better athletes. Also, I played rugby with many key players from Elkhorn, and I know for a fact they lift year-round. Until the players put forth the effort in the offseason to win games, no blame can be put on the coaches.”
I ran into seniors Larry Meeks and Luke Dahl, two key contributors for the Demons this past season, and they agreed. Dahl said less than 10 players consistently hit the weight room in the offseason.
That’s not going to cut it. Badger has a state-of-the-art weight room, and it is full every day with athletes. Burlington’s facility is plenty good enough.
Good things may be on the horizon.
“The majority of our players need to make a serious commitment to getting stronger in the offseason,” Block said. “We had a good number of underclassmen play a considerable amount of playing time this past season, and our lower levels had a good amount of success and showed a lot of promise for the future. We had 38 athletes in the weight room after school the other day, so the process has been set into motion.”
The talent is there. Quarterback Brad Burling, Melby, receivers James Tully, Brian Dankle and Skyler VanDusseldorp all showed promise as they will be senior leaders next season.
The offensive line will be entirely brand new, but the old-school theories of running may be gone. Burling has a cannon for a throwing arm and Tully (6-3) and VanDusseldorp (6-4) can go up and get it. Also, Dankle is a talented slot receiver.
Along with offseason training, the Demons must find an identity on offense. Too often this fall, the defense kept the boys in games, but the offense couldn’t keep up.
A big turning point was the Waterford game, where the Demons lost 13-10 but were held scoreless on five fourth-quarter possessions. Their inability to run at all forced an excessive amount of passes. The Wolverines just pinned their ears back and blitzed every play.
To end the season, the offense was nonexistent, with a shutout loss to Wilmot in a must-win situation and only mustering six points at Elkhorn.
Burlington averaged a mere 180 yards of total offense in those two losses and only 35 on the ground.
“Offensively, we lacked consistency,” Block said of the Elkhorn loss. “We need to take a look at if the offense we are running to see if it fits our personnel.”
Since the talent is there, there is every reason to believe this ship will be righted. As a former Demon player, I will always be a fan. I can remember driving to Janesville with my brother-in-law when I was 10 to see Dussault and company in the playoffs against teams like Monroe.
The Demons will always have a place in my heart.
It will take a committed core of athletes in the weight room for the next eight months and maybe an increase in numbers, but it can be done.
The offense must decide if it’s run-first or pass-first and game plan accordingly, and the defense can keep doing what it’s been doing.
All the makings are there for a perennial playoff team. Will the staff figure it out before Badger, Waterford and Wilmot run away with the conference?
Something must change, or 4-5 seasons will continue to be as commonplace as volleyball trips to state.
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You interviewed the problem. Delavan players knew BHS’ plays before they ran them! It is time for a change for Burlington. Block has worn out his welcome. This team needs new blood. Things will only change with a new regime!
The implication of this article appears to direct blame for the demise of Burlington football on the shoulders of the young men who have had the courage to participate in it. It is easy to say the answer here is “they need to lift more” when the reality is they need proper and competent direction and most importantly, inspiration and motivation. They have had the courage to stick it out in a varsity program that has been stagnant and lifeless for years. They grew to love football in their younger years starting with county football, enjoyed tremendous success throughout the spider program, and even mostly winning records through freshman and junior varsity ball. Then what happens? All of a sudden they become varsity level and they can’t compete with the same athletes they had been beating all the previous years. It has been said that varsity level “is a whole new ballgame” and you can’t extrapolate previous success to it. Some of that may be true but don’t assume or suggest the answer to improve is simply “to lift more”. I truly wish it was that simple. Unfortunately, it will be a lot more complex. The whole program needs new direction with inspirational and motivated coaches. The prolonged number of losing seasons has led to a culture throughout the program that mediocracy is acceptable and that feeds on itself year after year. Find leaders who can motivate and inspire and the numbers will improve and yes, the iron will be lifted.
Once upon a time Burlington was a football dynasty. It is time to restore the pride, tradition, and success of the football program. For years the excuse was that we were in the Southeast Conference and playing against school much bigger than us. What is the excuse now that we cannot compete on the Varsity level in the Southern Lakes Conference where we are the 2nd largest school? There seems to be success and winning at every level of football in Burlington EXCEPT for Varsity. It has echoed through the stands for years “Block needs to go”… The play calling is both questionable and predictable, and the most athletic kids are not even used to their full potential or ability. It is time to get rid of the small town politics of some kids receiving playing time based on their current grade or their last name. It is time for kids to get playing time based off their hard work, athleticism, and overall ability. It is time to bring in someone who the kids will “want” to play for and who will shock the current culture of Burlington Football. These boys love football, and most will continue to play because they love the sport, but until you bring in someone new, someone that the kids respect and believe in as a head coach, the boys are not going to buy into the program and in turn give 110% in both the season and off season. Simply put, it is time for a change.
How can a coach blame his players? Not even NFL coaches do this.
The blame squarely falls a the top.
The Defense can tell what kind of plays are coming at them all the time, we are to darn predictable.
They need inspiration, and new direction, time for a change.
Running formation = 3 backs, 2 tight ends, run up the middle.
Passing formation = 2 receivers on each side, throw to the sideline.
Blocking scheme = stand straight up, let the defense end have a free run to the backfield and let the back try to block him
Predictable = losing season.
As someone who has been a fan of Burlington football for many many years, I too have become frustrated with the losses. One thing that has become abundantly clear to me in the past few years is the lack of talent that the team has fielded. Burlington has been out-classed in talent, and no matter how good or bad the coaches are, the team will be doomed to fail. In the Dalton years, Burlington had more talent based on the advantage in school enrollment. Now that Burlington no longer enjoys that same advantage, they have struggled. I don’t care who the coach is, if the talent isn’t there, no coach will win. One thing that I’ve learned through watching high school football for so many years is talent is cyclical. Right now, other teams have more talent. Just look at the players that Badger has right now. They are bigger, stronger, and faster than the ones Burlington has. Hopefully in the near future the talent will swing back in Burlington’s direction. The fact is, those players that Coach Dalton had in the 80’s, and 90’s were heads and shoulders better than the athletes that Coach Block has now. High school football is a game of players, it’s not a coaches game. Players win out every time, and right now Burlington just doesn’t have the players. Sometimes there just isn’t anyone to blame.
No disrespect Voice of Reason, but there have been plenty of talented athletes that played BHS football the past few years. It is difficult for talent to prevail when the head coach doesn’t know or understand how to utilize it to his advantage. Just in last year’s senior class alone, there are 5 kids that are currently on college football rosters, not too shabby for not having any talent!
What a breath of fresh air! Great article! You can sugar coated all you want but when you have constant failure year after year it’s no longer the kids to blame. It’s long past the time to look at the coach. This is Varsity football right? Where you put the best athletes on the field to give your team the best chance to win that day, then it shouldn’t matter what your last name is, if your mom or dad is a co-worker of the coach, that your mom and dad’s business donated money to the program or that you’re a freshman, sophomore, junior or a senior. Playing time is earned not a right. Burlington needs to go in a new direction, I am sure there is talented coaches in the school district but we need a whole new vision. I’m sorry but we need a football coach that is also a teacher not a teacher that happens to be a football coach.
I think there is a large part of the blame that should be shifted to the Athletic Director and the school in general on these issues. The lifting is a big part of the football success but we have a barely usable weight room with limited hours without quality supervision.Is this the coaches fault? If the coach is not performing then the AD has to step in an motivate just like the coaches have to motiviate their players. I don’t think it is fair to hold up Catholic Centrals continual success with Burlingtons just because of the scale of competition that they participate in. Not trying to take away from Catholic Central but in this article school size and player size and quality were mentioned, I have a hard time believing that the kids mentioned as studs would have the same affect or success on the Demons. Perhaps i am wrong but logically speaking, I believe they would have success but not to the same extent. There are many fronts to blame especially some of the small town politics that were mentioned. Some kids have actual PR groups encouraging and stressing kids to get bumped before they mature physically and mentally. I think as of late our different programs have suffered because of these pressures. Groups of kids have missed their chance to mature as JV players because Freshmen were brought up and certain Jv players missed ther chance because younger classmates got “the bump”. Development takes time and too many people talk about” natural athletes” and forget that Freshmen thru Senior year is formative both cognitivally and physically, that is why kids need play time at different levels to develop. I would state that we are suffering from quality play time and mentoring at the lower levels. We have kids at varsity level football that can’t break down for a tackle properly and on Varsity basketball, can’t properly box out or play close defense. All things that are missed during the maturing levels of play in the Freshmen and JV play. Yes we need a fresh look and a recharge, that goes without saying but that isn’t just Varsity level..that is a change on every level it mentality and quality instruction. Perhaps in the attitudes of parents that think their kid should be bumped up right away and perhaps more of a deaf ear should be employed by coaches that get bombarded with that type of influence. Let’s have more assistants at every level to teach position play and work one on one more. Im most cases you are talking about hours of instruction to make a kid better..not weeks months or years. We have small town attitude towards sports and we all need to evolve. We should look at power houses in the state and emulate their behaviors in regards to our suffering sports programs. Make no mistake this is all of our fault. All of this being said, I give every Coach, Asst. Coach and Athletic Director a lot of room on issues because they put in the time and effort while most of us get just snapshots to form opinions, they get to see the entire movie. For their hard work and dedication, they deserve a certain amount of respect and consideration.
How can we expect these you men when they are belittled and told that they are “nothing but a bunch of failures”. This is a comment from one of the coaches during film. If you are constantly put down you will start to believe it. These coaches are educators and should try to inspire them than make them feel like they can do nothing correct. In business, when a company has a lot of turn over you look at the manager. I thing its time that we look at the top first then the workers. Our coaches are here to be leaderss and examples for our you men. Personally I would be very upset if my son acted like these coaches. Unfortunately the good coaches are being lumped into a bad category.
Demon Dude, I think that it is fair and practical to hold up BHS to CCHS’s standard. CCHS with an enrollment of about 100 boys in the school (with less than half playing football) is able to year in and year out produce quality football against schools that are more than twice their own size. You cannot discount the competition that they play. It is like holding UW-Whitewater to the competition standard of Wisconsin. Could the CCHS studs play at BHS? Sure. The difference is that CCHS may have 5 studs on their roster where a larger school will have 10.
What I see/hear in CCHS football is a well-coached athletes, good facilities, competitive schedule, players who want to be a part of the program and are committed to its success. In an “era” where there are many alternatives to playing football and schools CCHS size are going to 8-man, they are thriving. Why wouldn’t BHS look to that as a model?
Where is the support and recognition of last years team & Seniors who lead the team to 6-3 record and a trip to the playoffs for the first time in 6 years? It’s funny to read the responses from people saying that Burlington hasn’t had the “talent” in the last few years. These Seniors displayed great talent. Several players went on to play on the college level. (UW-Oshkosh- Jay Essman QB, Chad Redmer RB, Spencer Warner Kicker. UW-Stevens Point- Kasey Solofra WR. Minnesota State Mankato- Ty Dennis WR. Carthage- Jimmy Penzel DL. Concordia- Matt Lunsman OL.) These kids put in countless hours into their Senior football season. Each player deserves respect. Respect needs to be given to the players who continued their football careers all the way down to the players who didn’t see the field at all. Just remember next time you decide to rip on the teams of the past don’t forget about the 2012 team that actually changed the culture of Burlington football, even if it was for one season.
Talent is a bit relative. Just because an athlete plays college football does not mean, he or she is overly talented. Many state colleges have huge rosters and will take anyone willing to play.
That being said, I thought it would be fun to compile of list of the top players of the past 20 years who played at Burlington. I go to probably on average about 7 games a year, so I’ve watched a lot of Burlington football. My list goes back 20 years, although I could go back much farther. I’ve estimated graduating years. Sorry no O-lineman on my list, they are difficult to evaluate. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few stars, but here is my list.
1. Tony Romo (QB) 97
2. Reid Oldenburg (RB) 03
3. Steve Tenhagen (WR) 96
4. Ryan Hoffman (QB) 95
5. Justin Schmalfelt (DT) 05
6. Ryan Stenson (LB) 95
7. Mark Shepardson (RB) 95
8. Dane Benson (RB) 98
9. Nate Newholm (DE) 03
10. Ty Dennis (WR) 13
11. Max Zinnen (QB) 05
12. Keith Kendall (DT) 95
13. Austin Grisham (S) 07
14. Kyle Steffen (WR) 05
15. Ross Wiemer (RB) 05
HM: Jeremy James (WR) 97, Joel Santos (S) 05, Lee Braam (S) 05, Marcus Krien (DT) 09, Matt Guth (S) 98, Brad Koballa (DL) 95, Jayden Essman (QB) 12
“You guys will be remembered as the team that returned to the SLC and got your a** kicked”. That was Coach Block’s parting words to my senior class. Of course he took no blame for that losing season or any of the other ones while he has been head coach. I was a member of the varsity teams during the 4-5 records of ’07, ’08 and ’09. These seasons came after a 1 loss freshman season and a 1 loss jv season in which I loved the sport and respected the coaches. Everything changed when I played on varsity. Coach Block has been using the “kids need to lift more” excuse for as long as I can remember. I agree this would help but there needs to be motivation for the players to work hard during the off season. Every year season starts and its the same old predictable offense for the Demons. Block’s “3 yards and a cloud of dust” offense just doesn’t work anymore. If opposing coaches just make sure their defense flows with our fullback then thats all the preparation they need. When the Demons actually throw the ball they run the same routes over and over again so the qb can never find an open receiver. Saturday morning 3 hour film time is a waste since all the coaches do is criticize and laugh at the players for how bad they played the previous night. All the blame on the players. The awful play calling and lack of depth and diversity in the offensive playbook would never be mentioned. Great motivation for kids to work hard during the off season when this is what they get to look forward to. Other teams are beating us not solely because they lift more but because they enjoy the game due to the fact that they have respectable coaches who motivate them and they run an offense that didn’t originate in the 1950’s. Many talented athletes have played for this program over the years with little success. I encourage the athletes to do their job and lift during the off season but I also encourage the Athletic Director to finally do his job and find a new head coach. Change is vital in order for this program to not only succeed, but to survive!
pepperridge farm remembers