Wednesday, September 18, 2024
The Clintonville Truckers will begin the post-Kade Rosenow era in 2024. Rosenow led a potent passing attack at quarterback for the Truckers. Rosenow passed for over 2,000 yards in his two seasons as the team’s starting signal caller.
The Truckers made a playoff appearance in 2023 despite a 3-9 record but went 3-4 in the Northwoods conference to qualify for the postseason before losing 46-8 to Wittenberg-Birnamwood in the first round.
Clintonville Head Coach Nick Raasch on the impact of losing Kade Rosenow, “Losing Kade is about as tough as it gets, having a guy like that graduate, talking about the kind of player he is, he can do anything for you, the type of leader he is and the type of teammate he is. It’s not a hard-to-replace thing; it’s an impossible-to-replace thing, with that guy.”
Rosenow, who was a two-time All-State Honorable-Mention, graduated along with two-way Northwoods All-Conference honorees offensive lineman/defensive lineman Peyton Kautz, wide receiver/defensive lineman Zander Schroeder, and wide receiver/defensive back Jack Yaeger, as well as Honorable Mention defensive players, defensive back Jonathan Scherschel and linebacker Kaine Killips.
Both sides of the ball will lean heavily on Sam Wegener, a 2023 unanimous first-team Northwoods selection at wide receiver and a second-team all-conference defensive back. Wegener is the top target for the Truckers, catching 59 passes for 963 yards and 12 touchdowns a season ago. Wegener is a key contributor on defense for the Truckers, voted second-team Northwoods at defensive back, contributing 57 tackles and two interceptions on the year.
Wegener said of his 2023 campaign, “It did a lot to build my confidence, as a player and a person, just knowing that I can go out there and beat the person in front of me, or two people or whatever they send at me.”
Coach Raasch on building the offense around Wegener, “It’s no secret that our offense runs through him, we like to get him singled up a lot, that’s the number one guy on our team, running our offense through him makes things easy.”
Wegener is not the only weapon on offense, as Zach Johnson, a second-team Northwoods selection at wide receiver with 38 receptions, 421 yards, and four touchdowns. Johnson will have even higher expectations this season with a new starting quarterback leaning on experienced playmakers.
“I’m trying to at least either match, or surpass as many receptions as I had last year, and get that First-Team All-Conference,” Johnson said of goals for the upcoming season, “obviously make the playoffs and get a playoff win.”
All-Conference Honorable Mention Ryan Gauthier will lead the offensive line for the Truckers this season as they look to improve on a running game that only produced 337 yards rushing a season ago and allowed 38 sacks on the year.
“Really it comes down to lineman on both sides of the ball,” said coach Raasch, “for much of the season we were starting three sophomore linemen and they were in some tough spots, especially running the ball and that was not our strong suit last year, those guys are another year older and stronger and they can take a big leap for us.”
Clintonville will start the season on the road against Marinette on Friday, Aug. 23.
