Photo courtesy of Photoworks The 2023 Wabasso Rabbits football team includes, front row (from left to right): manager Lane Taylor, Garrett Marotzke, Noah Anderson, Joe Liebl, Zach Timm, Boston Brand, Preston Remiger, manager Weston Taylor. Second row (L to R): Wyatt Brockberg, Josh Timm, Nolan Hanson, Brayden Guetter, Zeke Olson, Gavin Marotzke, Christian Ricketts. Third row (L to R): Caden Frericks, Kaysen Harms, Mason Kampsen, Cason Olson, Owen Morrall, Griffyn Hillesheim, Elijah Walgren, Calvin Hanna. Fourth row (L to R): manager Cameron Kittelson, Joe Rohlik, Mikale Goblirsch, Chase Lensing, Anthony Mertens, Jack Burns, Sam Zeug. Back row: Troy Ours, Nolan Leopold, Coach Olson, Coach Kittelson, Coach Ellanson, Coach Schmidt, Zach Skoblik, Nathan Riley. Not Pictured: Jayson Marotzke, Tyson Lightfoot, manager Callie Olson.

WABASSO — While the Wabasso football team had its share of struggles in its 0-8 campaign last season, the Rabbits return the vast majority of their roster from last season. With plenty of energy and plenty of youth, Wabasso will look to take a step forward this year. 

“When you look at how our team was built last year, we graduated three seniors. So you can tell just from that information that we were young and over the course of the season, those younger gentlemen gained a lot of experience,” Wabasso head coach Cody Kittelson said. “We’re still playing a lot of sophomores, but you can tell just by going through concepts that they get the game a little bit better. They’re able to recall that information from last year and, kind of like those teams in the past when we were very successful, those teams had to play on and they went through their beats a little bit too.”

Wabasso wasn’t a senior-heavy team by any stretch of the imagination last year, but Adryen Tietz was particularly impactful. The three-sport athlete, currently pitching for the Bethany Lutheran baseball team, was the Rabbits’ quarterback. His athleticism will be missed, but Joe Liebl will look to step up and be effective as the Rabbits’ new quarterback. They’ll be looking to spread the ball out to receivers like Kaysen Harms since the team is on the smaller size, Kittelson said, so Liebl’s ability to air the ball out and Harms’ ability to find open grass will be key to the team’s success.

Mason Kampsen will also return to the offensive line for Wabasso. He played running back for the Rabbits as a freshman due to injuries in the backfield but his size will prove valuable as a guard.

“We lost both of our running backs. All right, well, here we go, just go to next guy up, we’ve got to move around, so he did,” Kittelson said. “He did a great job and was our leading rusher last year.”

The Rabbits went winles last season, but Kittelson still has optimism for this year’s team. The roster is composed mainly of sophomores and seniors, giving the Rabbits necessary veteran leadership and the youth to help develop success in the long team.

“We’re excited for our scrimmage tomorrow to see what it’s going to look like now. We’re still not big because we’re playing a lot of younger guys but we feel like we’re faster than we were last year,” Kittelson said. “I’d like to see confidence in the kids. You’d like to see them go out and follow the rules, whether it’s blocking or key reads or anything like that.

“I’ve coached both sides of the ball, so you know you want to see your kids on offense execute. You know the offense is always a little hard to gain speed because of the fact that there’s rules involved with a lot of those things, but we’d like to see our offense just move the ball and we’d like to see our defensive squad play fast and physical.”

The Rabbits will kick off their season with a road matchup against MACCRAY on Thursday at 7 p.m.