Friend Newspaper Covers DHS-MHS Football & Wrestling Co-op

Our friends at the Friend Sentinel have devoted considerable space to the temporary

athletics merger (football and wrestling) between Dorchester and Milford high schools.  We wanted to share it with our readers.

Starting this fall, Milford High School and Dorchester Public Schools will join forces for football and wrestling.  The coop is a two-year trial, so there will not be major changes to uniforms, Kevin Wingard, MPS superintendent, said. The coop will be for junior high and high school football and wrestling only, at this time. 

The high school football team, now known as the Milford-Dorchester Eagles, will remain in Class C-1. The high school wrestling team, also known as Milford-Dorchester, will  remain in Class B.  Since the coop is starting in the middle of the two-year schedule the Nebraska School Activities Association sets, seniors coming from Dorchester will not be able to play on the varsity team this season. Instead, they will play on the junior varsity, Wingard said. Next year’s seniors will be able to play varsity, since that will be in a new two-year schedule. “They set our schedules and it was mid-cycle, so they ruled it wouldn’t be fair to the schools on our schedule adding kids mid-year, so they ruled they only can play junior varsity,” Wingard said.

The coop was necessary due to the decreasing numbers of players interested in the football and wrestling programs at Dorchester.  Mitch Kupicek, DPS superintendent, said the coop is a great opportunity for the district’s athletes. “While we would like to have our own team, we were excited for the opportunity to compete at the 11-man game as well,” Kupicek said. “We’re excited that Milford was willing to work with us.”

The football team will still wear purple uniforms with an “Eagles” decal on the side of the helmet. The helmets will also feature a sticker of an interlocking “MD,” that will be about one and three-fourths inches in size, Marty Hingst, MHS football coach and athletic director, said. “From the stands, I imagine you’ll be able to see sort of what that looks like,” he said. “It’s primarily to remind ourselves.” Hingst said the team has already had a full contact camp earlier in the summer, and about nine players from Dorchester were in attendance. 

Hingst said usually, seniors are not allowed to play on the junior varsity, but this is a special scenario. “There are three seniors who showed interest,” he said. “You have to respect those seniors to go out and not play varsity.” 

The rest of the players from Dorchester will also join the junior varsity team and make progress with their teammates, Hingst said. The players from Dorchester have been adjusting well from 8-man football, Hingst said.  “Even in camp, the second day they were doing a really good job and had things figured out on their own,” he said.

In addition to the athletes from Dorchester, Ryan Voelker and Brent Zoubek, the two co-head coaches for Dorchester, will be joining the MHS coaching staff, Hingst said. “They’re really great guys,” Hingst said. “They also went to camp with us. The staff over here in Milford has been together for 31 years, we’re used to each other.”

Hingst said the two new coaches will give the staff a nice mixture.  He said the last coach who came onto the staff did so in 1983. “They represent probably a little different generation,” Hingst said. “So now these guys were in high school at that time. It’s good. It will give us some different perspectives.”

Kupicek said DPS wanted to continue to support its athletes by allowing the two coaches to join the staff. “The two coaches here, Brent and Ryan, have done an outstanding job over the years and we’re excited for them to be a part of the program,” Kupicek said.  Zach Rosenboom, from DPS will be the coach for the junior high football team.

The coop also includes wrestling, a winter sport. “We’ve done some planning with wrestling — not as much as football,” Kupicek said. “Our wrestlers have had the opportunity to meet the coach, there’s still a lot of planning to go.” Hingst said there have been about six to eight students from Dorchester interested in joining the wrestling program.

For those who would like to watch the Milford varsity squad and get a glimpse of next year's competition for DHS players, here is this season's Milford varsity schedule:

09/06/13   Lincoln Christian
09/13/13   Ashland-Greenwood
09/20/13   @ Grand Island Central Catholic
09/27/13   Wilber-Clatonia
10/04/13   @ Fillmore Central
10/11/13   Sandy Creek
10/18/13   @ Fairbury
10/24/13   @ Auburn