MANITOWOC — Last season, the Manitowoc Lutheran Lancers football team was a little bit of a surprise.
Less than a decade from the program almost folding, Manitowoc Lutheran made it all the way to the WIAA Division 6 state semifinals before losing its first game.
With a huge chunk of last year’s team having graduated, the challenge now becomes finding a way to make the success stick.
“Excitement,” Lancers coach Ryan Hulse said of the mood of the team entering the new season. “A lot of the guys who played last year during that run and got minutes in important parts of the game.”
Senior running back/linebacker Josiah Martin says the foundation has already been laid.
“We know we can do it, now it’s just a matter of going out and doing it,” Martin said.
Added junior quarterback Aaden Krause, “Now we know what success looks like.”
Confidence is important, but Hulse understands just assuming the gains of last year will transition to 2026 is a bad habit that won’t be allowed to start.
“‘Well, we did it last year, so we’ll just do it again,’ that is a little bit of a fear of mine,” Hulse said. “To get these guys to understand that these guys need to go out and do it now. Because it happened last year doesn’t mean it’ll happen this year.”
The players aren’t about to let that happen, though.
“We have to not have a big ego and almost forget about last season because this is the season that matters now,” Martin said.
There’s already been a crash course in adversity with Krause set to miss approximately the first month of the season with an injury to his throwing hand.
He’s expected back for the Big East conference season, but it’s giving the team a chance to grow quicker than expected.
“It’s an opportunity to do that next-man-up already,” Hulse said. “It’s nice that we’ve got athletes, so we move some pieces around.”
And it’ll help Krause grow as a leader, he says.
“Being the best teammate I can be, helping whoever the quarterback is,” Krause said.
Before 2025, Manitowoc Lutheran had never won more than one playoff game and was one game away from the state championship.
The seeds for keeping that success growing have been planted.
“From the coaching side, it’s just getting guys to continue to buy into what we’re doing,” Hulse said. “Getting the numbers to show up. Getting guys to work hard in the offseason. Buying into our culture and family.”
Contact Tom Dombeck at 920-686-2965 or tdombeck@htrnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Tom_Dombeck.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc Lutheran football to prove historic season wasn’t a fluke
Reporting by Tom Dombeck, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter / Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tom Dombeck, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter | USA TODAY Network
