The River Falls High School football team has never spent less time on the practice field ahead of its season opener, which is Thursday at Wisconsin Rapids, than this year. And that’s a good thing. Because less can indeed be more if you’re working with abundance.
That requires some explanation. The Wildcats had 87 players in the high school program in Ryan Scherz’s first year as head coach in 2021. That number has ballooned to 125 this year.
Fewer than 20 of those are seniors, an indication of the groundswell of participation that has been building in the younger ranks. For that, Scherz credits the work done at the youth levels. River Falls plays small-team flag football only through the sixth grade, a switch in strategy devised by the high school coaches to promote participation.
The middle school program is also growing in strength. That all funnels more and more kids to the higher grade levels. Scherz then noted the strong culture built in the high school program, and added the success in recent years.
Excluding the 2020 COVID year, the Wildcats have reached the playoffs in five straight seasons, its own form of promotion. That’s a big reason why that success is seemingly building off itself. The boost in numbers is paying off in a major way specifically this season.
For the first time in Scherz’s tenure, River Falls will deploy a two-platoon system with very limited crossover between offensive and defensive personnel. Offensive players play offense, and vice ver.
