Randolph football team has some big shoes to fill

RANDOLPH —It was not a stellar season in 2019 for the Randolph Cardinals football team, but they still made the Class D2 playoffs.

The first-round loss wrapped up a 3-6 campaign which included a 2-3 district mark and now 15th year head coach Mark Lech is hoping to add to his resume with another playoff season.

With four returning starters on both sides of the ball, that could be a very strong possibility for the Cards as RB/ LB Justin Haselhorst, RB/LB Cadein Villwok, WR Tyson Junck, OL/DL Colby Wathor, WR Collyn Beal and OL Andy Hausmann lead the charge of veterans onto the gridiron when Randolph opens the season Aug. 28 at home against Class D1 Hartington-Newcastle.

“The Randolph Cardinals will be having quite a few changes this season,” Lech said. “One strength is the return of Justin as our starting running back and linebacker. Justin led the Cardinals last year in just about every offensive category and was a leading tackler on defense.”

Randolph will have to find a new starting quarterback and replace its leading receiver. Keaton Backhaus. Backhaus was also an outstanding kicker and punter that will have to be replaced.

“The offensive and defensive line will have size and be a mix of youth and experience. The challenge will be to plug in new skill players on offense and defense to replace three-year starters.”

Haselhorst feels relief knowing that the state will allow the smaller schools to play fall sports.

“I was a little bit nervous, but smalltown Randolph, our schedule is pretty local, so I didn’t think of it that much,” Haselhorst said.

Haselhorst who “will play anything they need me to be,” notes the loss of a lot of leadership, but he believes losing teams like Bloomfield from the schedule can help the Cardinals cause.

“We had a lot of good young guys and they are hungry and want to play,” Haselhorst said. “We have some good freshmen coming in and a big lineman who should be getting some varsity experience along with some of our other linemen coming back. We have the fundamentals down and we have the main components of a good team and it starts with a good line.” Haselhorst said he and his classmates are due for some success.

“My class hasn’t won much so we want to change that. With an easier schedule, we want to go out there and prove that we can win for the community and the coaches. Randolph has always been a big football team and they always talk about how the team is going to do. It makes you want to go out there and give it your all to make them happy.”

Randolph runs multiple formations on both sides of the line of scrimmage depending on the opponent and personnel matchups.

“We will be a more run heavy team this year,” Lech said.

The five-team district D2-3 will consist of Wausa, Winside, Osmond and Wynot and Lech thinks it’s going to be a shootout for the top spots after everyone had a perceived down year last fall.

“I feel that the district is wide open for anyone to go on a run and win,” Lech said. “Wynot is traditionally a strong team and in my opinion would be the team to beat in the district.”

The other opponent on the schedule will be the COVID-19 virus that Randolph and everyone else will have to go head-to-head against.

“We are a small enough school with no cases in the building that we were able to have our summer workouts with good participation,” Lech said. “The kids and coaches have been together since June 1 and plan on continuing to follow the protocol and manage what we can. The unknowns about the season is a little unnerving to some but returning to practice has helped establish a familiar routine.”

Lech said the team has to find the right combination in order to win.

“Our goals for the program are to first gain some confidence in our new team. We will have a different signal caller and we will need new players to step up and lead. We feel like we drew a favorable schedule, so we want to be competitive. Our goals always start with trying to do well in our district and to improve week to week to set ourselves up for success later in the season.”

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