BERLIN – The Berlin football team won nine games a season ago, the most since 2019. It won a playoff game and won conference for the first time since 2016.
But don’t tell the team that.
“No one cares what you did last year. There’s not an opponent on our schedules that says, ‘oh no they won last year,’” Berlin head coach Joe Stellmacher said. “We’re the hunted team now, and you got to have that sense of urgency day in and day out at practice that we don’t want to fall off. We want to be in that spot again.”
Berlin’s 2025 campaign will get started at 7 p.m., Friday at Weyauwega-Fremont.
“I’m excited. Senior year so you gotta leave it all out there,” Berlin senior Carter Hess said. “I’ve been waiting for it since last year when we lost.”
There will be some change for Berlin as quarterback Aaron Bartol graduated after a season where he was named to the South Central Conference first team. Replacing him will be Hess who was hardly on the sideline as a junior.
“Carter Hess who was a first-team all-conference running back, a first-team all-conference defensive back and a first-team all-conference kick returner last year, we’re moving him to quarterback,” Stellmacher said. “The ball is going to be in his hands almost every play and he’s doing a great job there these first few weeks.”
Berlin is a senior laden team. There are five seniors, including Hess, on the roster who earned first or second team all-conference honors as juniors. Trent Tetting was a unanimous first team selection as an offensive guard, Hayden Redington was a unanimous first team selection at tight end, Jakob Martin was the conference defensive player of the year and second team as a running back and Carsen Whitney was second team all-conference at offensive guard.
Most of them have been playing together since they were 10-years-old.
“It’s awesome. It’s legendary. I don’t even know how to explain it,” Martin said. “It’s like oh my God we’re already seniors. It’s time to actually play now.”
Since 2014 Berlin has made it past Level 2 once and that was in 2019. Last season it had a chance to move on but fell to Mayville 28-26. It’s looking to change that in 2025.
“It would be a big accomplishment for us and a big step,” Redington said. “Sophomore year we got knocked out round one by Winneconne, junior year, round two and senior year we want to break that hump and make a deep run.”
The goals that Berlin has for the season are known inside the locker room and to accomplish them Stellmacher said it will take a one week at a time approach.
“We talked our team goals. I’m not going to share them with you right now, but the guys know,” Stellmacher said. “I’ll share one with you, is an undefeated non-conference. That’s team goal number one.”
To enter week three of the season 2-0 would mean a win over Weyauwega-Fremont and a win at home over Kiel who gave Berlin its only regular season loss in 2024 by a score of 45-34.
When each week starts again, the goals will be made clear inside the Berlin locker room.
“We talk about them each week. Every Monday we come in, we review the film from the previous week, we say where we’re at in our goal timeline, guys know and you refresh it with them,” Stellmacher said. “One week at a time. First goal is to be undefeated in non-conference and we got to win week one to achieve that.”
Contact or send game stats/info to Ben Schultz at BSchultz@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @benschultz52.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Berlin will rely on a plethora of returning starters this season
Reporting by Ben Schultz, Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
