GREEN BAY – The Green Bay West football team is coming off its best season in more than 20 years.
The Wildcats only went 3-6 in 2024, but it was just the second time this century they won three games and the first time since 2002. When they beat Green Bay East in Week 9, they walked off the field having won a regular season finale for the first time since 2003.
They scored 168 total points, the most in decades, and have averaged 15.2 or more in each of the last two seasons after scoring just 4.6 a contest in 2022.
West has even welcomed the return of Drew Brusoe for a fourth year as coach, no small feat considering the previous eight lasted an average of 2.9 seasons.
All this to say the program is enjoying more positive vibes than it has in a long time, but it does leave an important question entering 2025.
Can the Wildcats keep the momentum going?
The 2024 class was instrumental in restoring some respectability to the team in the last couple years.
Sam Hemery gave them a spark at quarterback last season with both his arm and legs. He had legitimate talent to throw to in all-conference standout Dakotah Montez, fellow receiver Ke Lor and tight end Brandon Wilson. The team even had one of the best offensive tackles in the Fox River Classic Conference-South in Calvin McLaurin.
The Wildcats must replace six to seven starters on offense and another nine on defense, but the mood remains positive.
That senior class made a difference not just on the field but off it, helping drum up interest in the program to student-athletes who might previously have opted not to play.
Perhaps that’s why there are nine seniors on the team this season who have not been with the program each year for the past three, including some coming out for the first time.
West held weightlifting sessions four days per week starting at 6 a.m. this summer. There always were at least 20 kids who showed up and sometimes 40 or more, which wouldn’t have been realistic a few short years ago.
It was another opportunity to develop chemistry and trust.
“I think the big message was, at least football-wise being around it for a long time, if you have younger kids or at minimum inexperienced kids playing a lot of varsity competition and reps early, they are going to take their lumps,” said Brusoe, who Press-Gazette readers voted as the local football coach of the year last season. “You saw that with the ’25 class. The year before I came in, even in ’22, was not very successful. But you saw the laying of the foundation, the value system, the standards, the accountability piece.
“It seems like the standard and accountability piece has transferred over to these younger classes now that are having to step up when they don’t have very much varsity experience. … From a leadership standpoint as a unit, from a culture standpoint and setting the standard and holding teammates accountable as an entire group, I think we are farther ahead in that aspect than what we had in years past.”
Green Bay West concentrates on getting better
The Wildcats’ goal last season was to make the playoffs, something that might have happened had it won one more game.
The players returning this season have the same expectations. Brusoe believes there is a legitimate opportunity to be successful.
It would be big if the team could start the season with success in nonconference games on the road against Omro and Peshtigo before starting FRCC-South play with a tough matchup against Menasha.
Omro went 1-8 last season, while Peshtigo finished 3-7 and made the WIAA playoffs.
Win or lose, the overall feeling around the program is completely different than when Brusoe took over in 2022.
He feels it every day.
“Kids used to come dreading practice,” Brusoe said. “In years past the record showed, in the kids’ eyes, did it really matter how much they showed up to practice or how hard they worked, because they thought the results were going to be the same no matter what.
“I think this last class kind of showed, they took their lumps early and often, but the work the last class put in, they started to reap the benefits. … Outside the core, we are doing a lot better. We are getting kids to come out and play that maybe played a couple years ago or haven’t played at all at the high school level.”
Green Bay West can depend on emerging leader
Junior running back-linebacker Luke Rissling is one of the few starters returning this season.
The 5-foot-10, 200-pound Rissling has been on varsity each of his first two seasons and was the Wildcats’ leading rusher last year with 409 yards. He also contributed 54 total tackles, one sack and one fumble recovery.
While fellow junior Urijah Moore gets acclimated as the new starter at quarterback — he attempted just one pass last season — and the team breaks in several new receivers, it won’t be a surprise if West turns to Rissling as its top offensive option and biggest voice in the locker room.
He’s already an extension of the coaching staff and the one who led group chats among the team, often sending messages, reminders and encouragement.
Rissling was like this even before his freshman season, wanting to set up meetings with his 2027 class and coaches to get everybody on the same page.
“When we reach out to kids or extend information, it only reaches the kids so far,” Brusoe said. “But to have a leader, and there are a handful of other guys doing the same thing, where it means more when your teammates are the ones leading the team.
“Is it a coach-led team or is it a player-led team? I think we are on the cusp of this being a player-led team.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay West football will turn to new faces after best season in decades
Reporting by Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
