(Audubon) The senior class at Audubon is preparing to play their last home regular season game this week. The 5-1 Wheelers welcome 3-3 West Harrison.
It’s been a special group for coach Sean Birks. The team has gone a remarkable 20-1 at home of the past four season. “Practice wise we’ve had very few bad practices and I give a lot of credit to those seniors because they bring it everyday. They are not yelling and screaming, but they get after it and work hard. They know when we are there it is business. They are a joy. We’ve seen this coming for a few years. We knew when they were coming in as freshmen we had a chance to have a special run with them. Their sophomore year we made it to the dome, junior year we were one game shy and felt like we should have made it, and now their senior year we have a chance to get back there.”
Wheeler coach Sean Birks says the Hawkeyes are no slouch. They’ve won back-to-back games over Coon Rapids-Bayard and Woodbine and are averaging 50 points per game in those contests. “They are more physical than they have ever been. They play with more edge, they play with more attitude. They are definitely a team to respect. I’ve been impressed with them.”
Ranked in the top ten all season long, Audubon hasn’t had much to be concerned about this season, but coach Birks would like to see them get off to quicker starts. “We trailed two different times early in the game last Friday against Coon Rapids-Bayard and let them get some confidence and stick around. The week before against CAM we spotted them 24, so we have to start faster and cleaner. We have to clean up the penalties. We had ten penalties last week. We haven’t put together four quarters of consistent football with offense, defense, and special teams yet.”
The Wheeler continue to be without two key assets. Seniors Matt Beisswenger and Joey Schramm have each missed the last two games. Each were two way starters plus Matt Beisswenger did a lot on special teams. “You lose two guys, but when you look at it in reality it ends up being like seven or eight different roles that those guys were playing. So those are big losses for us. We are fortunate we’ve had some juniors and seniors ready to step up. Obviously we’ll be excited if we can got those guys back, but we are definitely building depth for the stretch run.” Brandon Jensen, Manny Beisswenger, Gavin Larsen, and Alex Foran are all players who have expanded their roles to fill the void.
Gavin Smith had yet another big night last week. In a 63-23 win at Coon Rapids-Bayard, Smith carried 20 times for 187 yards and five TD’s. He completed 6/9 passes for 183 yards and two scores. Smith’s career numbers include 2,635 passing yards with 45 TD’s and 2,633 rushing yards with 64 TD’s. He also has 130 career tackles with ten interceptions including one pick six.
Audubon coach Sean Birks:
