Friday Night Lights takes on different meaning as football teams honor severely injured student

Michael Lois fresh in minds of entire conference

The Sept. 21 Southern Lakes Conference matchup between Elkhorn Area and Waterford Union high schools lacked the feeling of raucous, innocent fun associated with the bright lights of football on a fall Friday night.

The contest played out with the recent injury to the Elks’ Michael Lois fresh in everyone’s mind.

Waterford defeated the Elks 42-7. With the victory the Wolverines are eligible for the WIAA Division 2 playoffs for the eighth consecutive season. Waterford is ranked 10th in Division 2 in the latest Wisconsin Football Coaches Association state poll.

Elkhorn needs two more victories in SLC play to advance to the Division 3 playoffs. The Elks last advanced to the playoffs in 2014.

Waterford (5-1, 4-0 SLC) plays an SLC game Friday against Westosha Central (0-6, 0-4 SLC) at Paddock Lake. The Elks (2-4, 2-2 SLC) play a SLC game Friday at Union Grove (3-3, 2-2 SLC).

Lois is a junior defensive end for the Elks who suffered a neck injury Sept. 16 while jumping into a pool. Lois broke three vertebrae in his neck.

News of the injury spread quick through the Elkhorn community.

Staff at The Elkhorn Independent and Southern Lakes Newspapers – the Independent’s parent company – knew of the injury soon after it happened.

Staff at The Independent and SLN did not immediately report on Lois’ injury out of respect for the family and in accordance with their wishes.

Lois is recovering after surgery at Milwaukee’s Children’s Hospital. The information Southern Lakes Newspapers is sharing on Lois’ condition is from a fundraising page created for the family through an Elkhorn Area School District-sanctioned web site – https://www.classmunity.com/elkhornwi/index.php.

According to Facebook, the Lois family returned home to Elkhorn over the weekend, where Michael will continue physical therapy. Michael’s mother Hayley posted it is still a “long recovery” and there could be another surgery.

Please read Thursday’s Elkhorn Independent for more on this developing story.

The Independent and SLN is not aware of Lois’ prognosis, but a video posted to social media by Lois’ mother shows him already participating in physical therapy.

At Friday’s game a banner wishing the Lois family well hung on the Wolverines’ sideline. The Elkhorn cheerleading squad wore hair ribbons memorializing Lois that featured his name and number, which is 90.

Throughout the SLC during Friday night’s games, players wore Lois’ number on a decal on their helmets. Ceremonies and acknowledgement were given to Lois and his family at Westosha Central, Wilmot and Delavan-Darien high schools.

According to the Elks roster Lois, a junior, is 6-foot-4 inches tall and weighs 260 pounds. He plays on the defensive line and as an h-back for the Elks. The h-back is considered a hybrid between a tight end and a fullback.

According to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Lois committed to the University of Iowa football team on Sept. 1. The Press-Citizen reported that Lois is considered a three-star recruit and is ranked as the No. 474 overall prospect in the Class of 2020, and the No. 23 strong-side defensive end.

Wolverines’ public address announcer Derek Machan acknowledged the Lois family and their recent plight and extended support and well wishes on behalf of the Waterford community to the assembled crowd.

Machan also implored the crowd to keep injured Waterford running back and defensive end Jake Mittlestaedt in mind. MIttlestaedt is out for the season, and led the Wolverines on the field on crutches.

In other SLC injury news, Burlington senior Nick Webley, the league’s leading receiver, broke his fibula Friday and will undergo surgery, according to Webley in a text message Saturday. He will most likely, though nothing is certain, miss the rest of the season.

“It was tough,” Lee said. “Monday was not a typical Monday for us, trying to game plan. The kids, I thought, did the best they could.”

Lee said Waterford came out very physical, and added that the Elks did not answer in kind.

“They played a heck of a game,” Lee said. “We were just not ourselves tonight.”

The Wolverines scored all of their 42 points in the first half on the strength of a dominant rushing attack from Tanner Keller and Dominic Miller. Waterford rushed for 413 yards.

Keller finished with 187 yards and scored on runs of 53, nine and 61 yards. Miller rushed for 140 yards and scored twice.

The Wolverines wasted little time exerting their offensive dominance on the Elks. Keller’s 53-yard touchdown run came on the game’s third play from scrimmage.

“Offensively, we had everything going,” Wolverines coach Adam Bakken said. “To put up 42 points in a half is difficult to do. Our backs are good, and when our line gives them a crease or a lane they’re hard to bring down.”

To their credit, the Elks experienced some offensive success in the first quarter with a quick-rhythm passing game that featured Elkhorn’s receiving corps and quarterback Mason Buelow taking short drops and throwing quick in an effort to neutralize Waterford’s defense.

In the end the Elks could not overcome Waterford’s ferocity and intensity on either side of the ball, nor could they put aside the events of the week.