Flash back to 2002.
The Williams Bay football team won six games, qualified for the WIAA playoffs, and life was good in the village if you were a fan of Bulldogs football.
Playing in the Indian Trails Conference, the Bay had a comparable enrollment to schools like Ethan Allen and Alden-Hebron, Ill.
Then, in 2006, the school decided to take a step up in competition by joining the Trailways Conference.
Not only were schools larger, but road trips suddenly went from 45 minutes to 2 ½ hours.
And something else happened in the district. Due to several consecutive losing seasons, kids weren’t coming out for the team. The Bulldogs would routinely have around 20-25 players in all four grades each fall.
Having worked directly with the team from 2008-2013, I know there were rumblings that parents simply didn’t want their kids going out for football because of injury concerns.
By late 2011, after four straight winless campaigns, the program had become a laughing stock.
Then coach Buddy Breen, a former star player who bled orange and black, stepped down from his coaching post because the lack of success was breaking his heart.
The program needed a spark. It needed a football junkie that would revolutionize the football culture of the village and get the youth back on the football field.
The village had no youth football program, as kids would have to travel to Big Foot or Badger, two football giants. And kids weren’t putting on a helmet and pads until they were freshmen at the earliest.
Athletic Director Mike Coolidge went out on a limb and hired Derek Diehl, who at the time had just brought the semi-pro Lake Geneva Generals to Williams Bay.
Diehl had zero high school coaching experience, and though he knows the game inside and out, it wasn’t going to be easy for anyone to endure blowout loss after blowout loss.
From Day One of the Diehl era, there was a different attitude among the Bulldogs. Kids were excited about his knowledge of the game and his ability to make working hard and playing to the whistle fun.
Diehl’s first year, 2012, almost was another winless season. But the 40-year-old’s principles of dedication in the weight room, offensive innovation and defensive disruption started to pay off.
After five blowout losses mirrored the previous four years, something clicked in Week 6. In a game at Oakfield, the Bay, led by quarterback Jake Sutter, threw the ball all over the field and trailed by only a touchdown late.
The Bulldogs couldn’t get the onside kick, but the 28-21 loss was a building block for a team desperate for change.
The momentum carried over the next two weeks. Despite a 21-7 and an 18-13 loss, the Bulldogs began to believe in themselves. They knew they could hang with these teams.
By the final game of the year, the Bay fired on all cylinders. In the season finale, the Bay crushed Kenosha Christian Life, 34-8, behind Sutter’s two passing scores and Jacob Clark’s 133 yards on the ground.
Though Christian Life was a JV team at the time, it was a bigger school and a win was a win. Five years of despair was erased in one magical night.
That was only the beginning. This year, led by sophomore quarterback John Higgins, an absolute beast at 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, the Bulldogs were a legit playoff contender for the first time in 11 years.
The explosive offense, led by Higgins, Michael Guss, Ryan Bonamarte, Clark and Jonah VanVleet, opened the season with a 41-0 shellacking of Christian Life.
Two weeks later, the Bay dispatched Johnson Creek for its first Trailways victory since 2007.
However, history repeated itself, and three straight losses left the Bay at 2-4 and in jeopardy of another forgettable year.
But the resilient team knocked off Martinsville, Ill, and exorcised some demons with a 52-22 win over Hustisford, and the once-hapless Bulldogs were all of a sudden playoff contenders at 4-4.
It all came down to last Friday night, Oct. 18.
The Bay needed a win at Cambria-Friesland to become eligible for the postseason. The fact that the playoffs were even a possibility seemed surreal to me, because for years, the Bay was losing by an average of 40 points per contest.
But these aren’t your brother’s or sister’s Bulldogs. And they played that way Friday night.
Even when things got tough, they got going. The Bay jumped out to a 7-0 lead on a touchdown toss from Higgins to Bonamarte, but Cambria, who needed a win to automatically qualify for the playoffs, came alive.
They fired off three touchdowns, 22 unanswered points, to take a commanding lead in the third quarter.
However, there is no quit in this Bay team.
Even after a pick-six put his team down by 15 points, Higgins simply wouldn’t let his team die. With a key fourth-down run and a 20-yard completion to Andrew Breen on 4th and 15, Higgins had the ‘Dogs deep in Cambria territory early in the fourth quarter.
On a called run, Higgins found some room off left tackle, kicked it outside and walked into the end zone untouched from 23 yards out to cut the lead to 22-15.
Bay’s defense held, and the boys had one last chance to tie the game. However, on a 4th and 2, Higgins came up inches shy of the first down on a questionable play call.
With no lead blocker, it was all on Higgins to pick up the yardage out of a shotgun formation. Cambria read it perfectly.
After the turnover on downs, Cambria only had to go 30 yards to effectively end Bay’s season, but the Bulldogs had other ideas. On a 3rd and goal at the Bay 12, the Bulldogs stuffed a screen pass for a three-yard loss.
Facing a 4th and goal from the 15 with 3:40 to play, Cambria went for it and ran the same exact play. Bennett Koopmans rolled to his right beyond the tackle box and quickly stopped. He then threw the ball back across the field to the left on a screen pass to Owen Scaalma.
Scaalma broke one tackle, followed his blocker and wound up in the corner of the end zone for the dagger.
Bay’s playoffs hopes were dashed. A season of change and a rebuilt football culture would have to wait until next year to reach the promised land.
A bright future
But the loss didn’t really matter. The Bulldogs finished with their most wins since 2002, they averaged 26 points per game, 15 better than last year, and they established themselves as a contender for next year.
Even with a sophomore quarterback and several underclassmen at key positions, this team competed at the highest level and erased years of anguish and frustration.
And the future is bright. Of the Bay’s 27 players this fall, only five, that’s right, five, were seniors.
After the game, Diehl explained that a losing season is still a losing season, even if it was a promising year.
“This is not the standard,” Diehl said of the 4-5 season. “The Bay has never had the pressure of a playoff-like game. Everything’s a building process. There are no guarantees. Maybe this is part of the building process. I’m proud of the boys.”
“We didn’t have a great weight season,” he added. “It’s imperative that we train. I wasn’t happy with the weight room attendance. If you’re going to commit to football excellence, you have to work in the offseason. Maybe this will inspire us to get into the weight room.”
Diehl said the Bulldogs wanted a winning record.
“This is not a great season, but it’s 100 percent a step in the right direction,” he said. “It’s not where we were, but it’s not where we want to be.”
Senior Frank Flores, who won the team’s MVP rock after the game, said team chemistry helped.
“Some of us hated each other at first, but in the end we loved each other,” he said. “We’re like brothers. We worked hard, we got further than most people thought we could.”
Senior A.J. Sanders said the Bulldogs beat themselves against Cambria.
“He came in a bit cocky, because we’ve been doing so well,” he said. “I’m not disappointed to not make the playoffs. I’m extremely proud of the underclassmen, and I’m excited for their season next year.”
With four wins, the Bulldogs proved plenty of naysayers wrong.
Flores won the team MVP thanks to perseverance and dedication.
“Franky has been a Bay football player for two years,” Diehl said. “He quit a job, which doesn’t always happen, to make sure he was at practice. He’s one of those kids that sometimes you lose in the scuffle of life. He beat the odds and performed great for us.”
Sanders played three years for the ‘Dogs.
“At the end of last year, I became committed and focused on the team in the offseason,” he said. “I learned commitment and brotherhood, and I’m excited for the program.”
Flores wishes he could’ve played all four years.
“I learned to be loyal to my teammates,” he said. “I learned every position on defense, and I learned to trust the guys next to me.”
Commitment. Trust. Hard work.
These three “pillars,” as Sanders called them, have the Bay rebuilding process in full swing. With more than 20 players potentially returning, the sky’s the limit for this program.
With a new tackle football program at the middle school experiencing success and record numbers, more and more kids in the village can’t wait to play for Diehl.
The Bulldogs were my first beat back in 2008, and I couldn’t be more proud of the players, coaches and administration. They’ve taken an almost-dead football culture and made it cool once again to check out the game on Friday night.
With Diehl and his staff in tow, Higgins running the show on the field and prospects waiting in the wings, consider a culture restored.
The playoffs are no longer a pipe dream. Next year, they will be a reality.
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