Red Hawks prep for first season under coach Wiseman, new offense
New Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau head football coach Jeff Wiseman directed his players during practice on Monday. (Times photograph by Benjamin Pierce
Jeff Wiseman has a big decision to make ahead of his first game as head football coach at Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School on Friday.
Two players — 2020 alternate fall season starting quarterback Justice Vaaler and junior Benjamin Hilton — are deep into a competition to see who will lead the team under center this fall.
As of Monday, the race was too tight to call, Wiseman said. He said he would trust either player to start for the Red Hawks this season.
“I haven’t made a decision yet,” Wiseman said Monday’s practice. “I know I’m dragging my feet. I’m trying not to hurt the team, but I literally have not made a decision yet.”
He said the players provide a similar approach for the offense, and he has been impressed with both of their athletic abilities and preparation so far.
He didn’t rule out the possibility of letting the competition leak into the regular season, possibly using both quarterbacks through the first couple of games. The Red Hawks open the season on Friday against West Salem at home and play their first four opponents at G-E-T High School.
“I feel confident with either one of them going in at quarterback, and that’s why this decision is so hard and eating me alive. I don’t want to have to break one of their hearts. Maybe we try for the first couple games rotating quarterbacks and see what happens and then go from there.”
Regardless of who starts at quarterback, though, Wiseman plans to bring more of a pass-heavy approach to the team than G-E-T has utilized in the past. It will be a new look offense for the Red Hawks after 26 years under Jon Steffenhagen, who retired earlier this year.
Steffenhagen typically relied on a run-heavy attack, particularly in 2020 with senior running back Luke Vance, who received honorable mention Associated Press All-State honors after rushing for more than 800 yards and 11 touchdowns in five games on a G-E-T team that finished 4-1 in the shortened season.
Under Wiseman, running backs will still play a key role, but he hopes to have more of a dynamic and consistent passing attack, too. The Red Hawks combined for just 111 yards passing and one touchdown in 2020.
Wiseman said the GET tradition of relying on a combination of strong, stable lineman and athletic, bruising runners is one he believes in. He’s talked with Steffenhagen multiple times this season and picked his brain on different ideas. He plans to stay in touch with the former coach.
They talked after the team’s scrimmage last weekend, and Wiseman knows he has a useful tool just a phone call away this season as he navigates his first year as a head coach.
“A lot of people seem to think that I’m changing things up so that means that I don’t agree with Jon Steffenhagen,” Wiseman said. “And that’s not true at all. It’s just a different philosophy sort of thing. But he and I are very similar, we talk all the time, and he’s been really helpful to me.”
But he also hopes his offense will be able to utilize more passing plays than it did in the COVID-shortened season and the seasons prior, regardless of whether it’s the senior in Vaaler or the junior Hilton playing quarterback.
“We’re mixing up the formations and things and trying to get our athletes the ball in space and going under shotgun and doing some different things,” Wiseman said. “At the heart of it, we’re still going to be a running team first, but we want to be able to mix in the pass a little bit more.”
Whichever quarterback takes the job will have a young weapon as support in junior running back Brady Seiling, who ran for 436 yards and six touchdowns on 55 carries in 2021. On defense, the Red Hawks will continue to play in a 3-5-3 formation with three down linemen and three linebackers.
Four starters return for G-E-T on both sides of the ball, including both inside linebackers on defense in Vaaler and Nate Schaller.
His defense will be “a bit green” on defense, and one solution will be to avoid playing young players on both sides of the ball while they adjust to the speed of varsity football.
“There’s not a lot of full-time experience there,” Wiseman said. “We’re kind of trying to piece together a puzzle with this junior class and these sophomores and mixing and matching.”
Some fans may have seen the coach appear as neighbor boy Mitch Murphy in “Home Alone,” as Wiseman used to be a child actor. He said while his run of fame as a child was fun, he is glad it eventually led him to G-E-T High School.
“I had my 15 minutes (of fame). I peaked in fourth grade,” he joked before cracking a smile.
“Now I’m here doing this, and football is a passion of mine. I love football. I love being out here with the kids. I love working. I love teaching. I just love coaching football.”
