NEW GLARUS — When New Glarus-Monticello took the last snap in its Level 1 playoff game against Aquinas on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023, it marked the end of the more than 40-year co-op between the two schools.
The agreement between the two began in 1982 and has spanned six conferences, four head coaches and many generations of families.
Greater Opportunities
In spring 1982, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) made an amendment to its Constitution, Bylaws and Rules of Eligibility that allowed cooperative teams.
The decision caught the attention of then-New Glarus superintendent Peter Etter, who brought the idea to his high school principal, athletic director and football coach at the time, Duane Schober.
By that fall, the New Glarus and Monticello administrations — Schober, Etter, Monticello athletic director Linn Lederman and Monticello superintendent Ben Campa — had agreed on a co-op for football.
Prior to the co-op, Monticello did not have a football team, while the New Glarus program had been long-standing, with Schober at the helm since 1974. The joining of the two schools fit within the spirit of co-ops.
“It was a no-brainer,” Schober said. “It fit perfectly with what they were looking for, as Monticello did not have football at the time. It gave the Monticello students an opportunity they otherwise wouldn’t have had.”
Not only did the collaboration benefit Monticello athletes, but it also benefited the New Glarus football team. With additional players from the neighboring city six miles away, the Knights would have greater depth, thus making them more competitive.
While the decision was highly anticipated, the administrations and coaching staff soon began to learn what it took to have a cooperative team.
Logistics
Fine details that long-standing co-ops have established today — such as budgeting, transportation and scheduling — were difficult to navigate in the first couple of years.
Schober remembers coordinating with each school about homecoming preparations, transportation to practices and cost of equipment. Desmond Breadon, who became head coach in 2012, reflects that having these points figured out years prior was a huge weight off his shoulders.
“Having those expectations set in was a lot easier,” Breadon said. “The practice times, bussing — all those took some stress off.”
Determining enrollment and division placement also caused some headaches. Per WIAA, “the total enrollment of schools involved in the cooperative team will determine classification of competition in WIAA tournament series.” With the addition of Monticello’s enrollment, the co-op moved up a division.
“It created a numbers problem, not only with playoffs but the league (conference) you were in,” Schober said.
New Glarus was a member of the State Line League and quickly became one of the larger members of the conference as New Glarus-Monticello. It truly became a problem when Belleville joined the co-op in 1994. Sugar River, as it was known then, moved to the Capitol South Conference, taking the place of Verona, which moved to the Badger. Once Belleville’s numbers rose to have its own team again in 2000, NGM moved to the Trailways Conference.
As numbers and enrollment fluctuated and the WIAA realigned to promote competitive equity, the co-op went back to the Capitol South, then spent two years in the SWC and played its final two seasons again in the Capitol — although the conference membership had changed drastically.
In addition to the numbers, aesthetic changes were made. Schober recollects that, for the first couple of years, the team name was simply New Glarus — Monticello didn’t get added until later. In addition to the name, the uniforms underwent some changes. The Knights went from wearing New Glarus red jerseys to blue, a color that was part of both schools’ schemes, and the helmets said NGM instead of just NG.
Perhaps the largest challenge, though, was creating a cohesive team.
A True Blend
A team can’t thrive if there is division, and that can be a problem when combining kids from two different schools. The line between ‘us’ and ‘them’ is readily apparent.
Schober attacked the problem head on, starting with his coaching staff. When the co-op began in ’82, there were no Monticello employees on staff. In the following years, Monticello coaches hopped on board, improving relations among the whole team.
The effort didn’t go unnoticed by players, who started spending time together outside of football. Jeff Eichelkraut, who went on to coach NGM for 19 years from 1999-2011 and 2016-2021, played under Schober from 1988-1991. Even six years into the joint program, Eichelkraut felt a sense of community.
“Coach Schober did a fabulous job. I felt he blended the two towns together,” Eichelkraut said. “I’m not sure I would have known some of the guys I got to meet through football. Most of them are still my friends today.”
Eichelkraut made sure that the team chemistry continued when he took over for Schober in 1999. Breadon did the same when he began 2012, as did DJ Schuett these last two years.
“We had a new assistant coach come in during 2009, and he said he couldn’t tell which kids were from which schools,” Breadon said. “That’s a sign of a really good co-op.”
In fact, many lessons that Schober started continued throughout the remainder of the co-op, as his former players began to take over.
“We’ve had four different coaches, so the continuity in the program has played a big part in the success,” Eichelkraut said. “When I took over for Duane, we kept a lot of the same things he did with a little different flavor.”
Eichelkraut and Schuett were classmates and played under Schober. Two years later, Eichelkraut rejoined the team, this time as an assistant coach. After learning under his mentor for another six years, Eichelkraut took the reins from Schober in 1999.
“This program has always been special to me. Coach Schober has always been a mentor of mine,” Eichelkraut said. “He took a chance on me to come back and be an assistant. It ultimately led me into education.”
Eichelkraut left the team in 2011 to focus on his principal duties, turning NGM over to Breadon. Breadon, a Monroe graduate, entered the program as the head freshman coach in 2005 and became the varsity defensive coordinator in 2006. Like Eichelkraut, Breadon wanted the program to continue growing.
“I didn’t want to see all the hard work we had put in get thrown away with someone new coming in,” Breadon said. “I didn’t want them to come in and change up the system.”
Staying true to the foundation that Schober had set and Eichelkraut continued was easy for Breadon, as he lived across the street from Schober and Eichelkraut kept close to the program as New Glarus’s principal.
“I could go over and talk a lot with Duane,” Breadon said. “I had a good relationship with Eich, so I could go through things with him being in the building.”
The same was true for Schuett. As classmates, Schuett and Eichelkraut developed a relationship in the trenches as linemen that continued into adulthood.
“We spent a lot of time outside of football hanging out,” Schuett said. “When I started back coaching on the high school staff, we had Sunday morning ‘church’ during the season where we would talk about the previous and upcoming weeks. He is still there if I need to bounce something off him or just to support my superstitious nature as a friend.”
Life Lessons
One life lesson each coach made sure to carry on more than any lesson taught on the football field was that of character.
Even when Eichelkraut played for Schober, he knew that winning was important but the type of kids you coached trumped it all.
“You want to win games and have a successful program, but what I really learned from Duane was finding a role for every kid that signed up,” Eichelkraut said. “On a football team, every person plays an important role.”
Breadon took it a step further and taught character lessons during practice. The commitment to integrity came to fruition in 2013 in NGM’s playoff game against Clinton. With the Knights trailing at halftime, seniors Jim Chenoweth and Josh Kolasch approached Breadon with an offer.
“They said, ‘If you have to sit us so we can win the game, we are fine with it,’” Breadon said. “They put the team first. They bought into those character lessons. If all I had taught them was Xs and Os, I would have failed them as a coach.”
Chenoweth and Kolasch were named Capitol South Offensive POY and Lineman of the Year, respectively, that season.
The culture that these lessons created showed not just on the field but also off the field. When linebacker Craig Stenbroten expressed a desire to continue playing football in college, Eichelkraut encouraged his dream and even drove Stenbroten to a college visit.
“It just shows the type of person he is,” Stenbroten said. “He really inspired me to keep coaching. I even ended up student teaching with Eich.”
Stenbroten went on to play football at UW-Oshkosh, where he has been a defensive coordinator and linebacker coach for 15 years. As he teaches his athletes, Stenbroten takes lessons from his years in the NGM program under Eichelkraut.
“As a coach, I strive to build meaningful lifelong relationships with our players,” Stenbroten said. “This was taught to me in high school by the NGM staff, especially coach Eich. Playing at NGM wasn’t just a four-year commitment. It has led to a life-long bond with players and coaches.”
Numbers Problem
Despite the relationships created and success along the way — the program boasts a 195-183 record in the last 38 years — participation numbers continued to be a problem.
Since 2016, participation from the team as a whole has decreased. While New Glarus has gone in waves, Monticello has steadily declined each year. The program offers just varsity and JV teams, with many players dressing for both.
The problem came to a head in the fall of 2022, as NGM approached another renewal period. Per WIAA, co-ops must renew their agreement every two years with fall sports making their decision on or before October 1. Looking at declining numbers and player safety, New Glarus ultimately decided to dissolve the co-op on Sept. 26, 2022 in a school board meeting.
“We are grateful to have worked together in our football co-op with Monticello for 40-plus years, and we ultimately want to see both programs provide a safe and positive football experience for students in the future, after the programs are officially divided following the 2023 season,” current New Glarus athletic Director Mitchell Cernek told the Times in 2022.
Although Schuett and his coaching staff did not put an emphasis on the final year of the co-op, the team had a season to remember. The Knights won their first four games, including victories against Belleville and Edgewood — two teams that beat them the year prior. NGM finished in the middle of the pack in the Capitol Conference and made the playoffs for the first time in four years.
On Oct. 13, 2023, the team played its last home game on New Glarus Stadium Field with alumni in the crowd to honor the occasion. In addition to the co-op dissolving, next year’s Knights will play football on a new field as part of last year’s referendum. On Oct. 16, the school broke ground on the field — the location of the new primary school.
“To be honest, we did not talk about it very much,” Schuett said of the co-op dissolving. “We decided as a staff that we were just going to coach them as normal and play our season out. Our main focus was on teaching the kids football and life just like we would have normally done in any other year.”
In 2024, New Glarus will continue with regular, 11-man football in the SWC. Monticello will continue to offer football but play 8-player in the Ridge & Valley Conference. Despite the split, the bonds created over the years will continue.
“There will be a few less faces in our day-to-day next year when football rolls around,” Schuett said. “But I am sure that I will still be watching that part of our football family and rooting for success for them also.”
