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Parker draws Badger in first round of football playoffs

Sort of like retrieving a recording of that old-time rock-and-roll music, Joe Dye had to pull an old football film from the dusty shelves.

Amazingly, possibly for the first time in his 18 years as a head football coach, Dye did not have a film of his next Janesville Parker opponent—Lake Geneva Badger. So, for the time being, he settled for the next-best thing.

Parker High has drawn Badger in the first round of the WIAA Division 1 playoffs at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Lake Geneva And it just so happens the Badgers are coached by Matt Hensler, son of the longtime, highly successful and now-retired Mukwonago coach, Keith Hensler.

Dye and his Vikings have had lots of experience against Mukwonago, losing five of seven playoff games since 1997 against the older Hensler’s option teams. So the Parker coach has a good idea of what to expect against the son.

“They’re a very good football team,” Dye said of the Badgers (5-4, 5-2), who have won five straight in tying for second place in the Southern Lakes Conference. “And they run that option just like his (Matt’s) dad and the old Mukwonago teams.”

Dye is now getting a close look the Badger option after the coaches exchanged films. But the early going was the result of an unexpected development in the WIAA lineup of playoff qualifiers.

“Most projections had Badger as one the top teams (in school size) in Division 2,” Dye said of the WIAA breakdown, which has 32 schools in each division, based on school size.

So, at that point, there appeared to be no reason for Dye’s scouts to film the Badgers.

But with its 1,342 enrollment, compared to Parker’s 1,758, Badger wound up as the smallest school in Division 1. And that places Badger at that level for the first time in 14 playoff appearances.

“That came us a surprise to us, too,” Matt Hensler said. “We’ll know after Tuesday if we’re ready for that, but I think we’re improving.’’

After starting the season with a 33-14 loss to Mukwonago, their coach’s alma mater, the Badgers fell to 0-4 against strong competition, including offensive powerhouse Delavan-Darien. Since then, the Badgers have gotten back close to the devastating ground game that carried them to the third round of the Division 2 playoffs last year before being nipped, 27-26, by perennial power Franklin.

“From what I’ve seen of Badger in track,” Dye said of his spring experiences as also a head coach in that sport, “I know they’ve got athletes. And they’ve got speed.”

So, even though Parker is back at a high level, with Adam Vesterfelt having gained more than 800 yards in a three-game win streak that carried the Vikings to a 6-3 finish in the Big Eight, Dye is bracing for tough playoff opener.

“Football is football,” he said. “And this going to be a good football game.”

And the winner can plan on a pretty good challenge the second round. The likely opponent is Kenosha Bradford (8-1), which has scored over 60 points in four of its last five games and will be an overwhelming favorite over Milwaukee Bay View (5-3) in the first round.

Preliminary pairings had Parker matched against Bradford in the first round. But after a review of the participants’ mileage situation, the match-ups were changed.

Meanwhile, after some question of whether it would move up, Walworth Big Foot

(7-2) is delighted to be back in the Division 4 it won a year ago. And the Chiefs are eager to make a deep penetration for the third straight year.

“When Ripon and West Salem won their games (Thursday night), we thought things were looking good,” Big Foot coach Rodney Wedig of the Chiefs’ chances to remain in Division 4. “So we were happy last (Thursday) night.

“I don’t know a lot about the teams in our division,’’ said Wedig, whose Chiefs open at home against Lake Mills (5-4) for the second straight year, “but New Holstein (6-3) could be a sleeper. They gave us all kinds trouble last year, and they were junior-dominated.

“And with Division 4, there is no traditional division powerhouse.”

Unless it’s Big Foot, whose 34-3 record over the last three years puts it on record that the Chiefs can rock and roll with the best. And there’s no dust covering the memories of that.