Give Wisconsin prep football coaches credit for something.
They may be slow to change sometimes, but when they see something work they copy it faster than Kinko's on an express delivery.
And if what we witnessed on opening weekend Aug. 28-29 was any sign of a trend, prepare for more passes, more strange formations, more wide receivers and more high-scoring games this fall than in the last five seasons combined, because the spread formation and all its wildly combustible variants have come to southeastern Wisconsin.
It was on the cover of Sports Illustrated a few weeks ago in its college preview issue.
"If it's good enough for Sports Illustrated, it's good enough for us," quipped 40-year veteran Germantown coach Phil Datka whose team is trying it out for the first time this fall. Datka, who started out in the run-based wishbone all those years ago, has adapted more than a few times in his illustrous career and it appears more than a few of his coaching comrades in southeastern Wisconsin have joined him in taking on some form of the high-speed confusion and entertainment that is the spread.
We got the first warning signs of this on Aug. 28, when Greendale and Milwaukee Lutheran, no strangers to the concept of the forward pass, filled the skies with 53 attempts. The Panthers' Chris Ridgway was almost crazy efficient as he hit 16 of 19 passes for three TDs and 214 yards as the Panthers pulled away for a 57-21 win.
But Community Newspapers-area aerialists were just getting started. In a high-powered non-conference match-up the next night that wasn't decided until almost the last play, New Berlin Eisenhower senior Niko Koshak completed only 13 of 36 passes, but they went for 258 yards and four TDs in a 38-35 defeat at the hands of the more ground-based D.C. Everest.
Then there was the latest quarterback du jour at Franklin, a team that has been pass-happy for years, and which showed the state an offense that is not "three-yards and a cloud of dust" can succeed when it beat Brookfield Central two years ago for a state division 2 title in what is now commonly referred to as the best championship game in the 32 years Wisconsin has been sponsoring football playoffs.
Saber triggerman Lance Baretz debuted with 349 yards and four TDs in Franklin's 58-26 rout of Burlington.
And there were others. Cudahy's James Hellmich completed 15 of 20 for 264 yards and a TD, while St. Francis' Cory Knapp was only eight of 11, but went for 185 yards and three scores and Whitefish Bay's Jimmy Sherburne completed 24 of 35 for 300 yards and two TDs. West Allis Central's Ryan Barwick also lit up Watertown for 267 yards and four TDs in a 40-6 rout for the Bulldogs.
Even traditionally ground-based powers as returning state runner-up Homestead have adopted some bits and pieces of the attack, as veteran quarterback Casey Barnes hit 10 attempts in 14 tries for 212 yards and two scores, including a 99-yarder to Mike Collins on the Highlanders first series of the season.
Then there was the tumult you heard out in Kettle Moraine as Cedarburg, which has made a very high living this past decade torturing the opposition with the "now you see it, now you don't" run-based double-wing attack went all pass-crazy. Quarterback Chip Rank threw three count-'em three TD passes as reciever Joey Fazio caught two of the scores and seven passes all told for 132 yards in a 45-38 free-for-all Bulldog victory.
Times were in the recent past, where the Bulldogs wouldn't throw for 132 yards in a season.
In short, if the ground is shifting in Cedarburg, then chances are there are going to be a lot more skyscrapers in football around here this season than earthmovers.
Prepare for some fun.
