Wildcats are bringing back some experience
— Mike Renning Cedar County News HARTINGTON — Hartington-Newcastle head coach Corey Uldrich returns for his seventh campaign at the helm of Wildcat football and has enough talent returning to improve on his 26-25 career record at the school.
“We have a lot of guys returning on defense and some talented guys on offense,” Uldich said of his 2022 team. “We will need some guys to step forward in the oensive and defensive lines - but we have guys we feel can step up and play there.”
Hartington-Newcastle returns seven starters on oense and seven starters on defense.
The Wildcats were 3-5 last season. One of those returning starters is Riley Sudbeck who looks to start under center for Uldrich again in his junior season.
“Riley has a big arm,” Uldrich said. “And last year he learned to run behind his pads - and he’s a great defender on the other side of the ball.”
Sudbeck was injured early in week six last season, but had already accumulated some fairly impressive statistics.
He completed 46 of 82 passes in just over five games for 757 yards and eight touchdowns while only throwing three interceptions. He also ran for 369 yards and six TD’s, had 34 tackles on defensive with an interception and a couple of pass deflections.
Joining Sudbeck as returning two-way starters will be seniors, Lane Heimes, Dan- iel Steen and Turner Dendinger and junior Kale Korth.
Heimes and Korth return in the oen - sive backfield and Uldrich calls Heimes a “team leader”.
Korth will monitor the defense from his linebacker post while Heimes will roam around in the defensive backfield.
Steen and Dendinger will anchor both lines and Uldrich looks for Dendinger to work his way into the Wildcat oense as a receiver.
“We will really need to develop some receivers,” Uldrich said. “Turner is a good place to start for that.”
Ayden Rosener, a tight end, worked his way to the starting lineup as a freshman and should become more involved in the oensive scheme this season.
Kam Hoesing also returns as a starter on the oensive line while Dayton Sudbeck re - turns as a starter in the defensive backfield.
“Our size and experience should be a real help this year,” Uldrich said. “And we're very solid in both the oensive and defensive backfields." He is looking for Seth Schaecher and Mason Buschkamp to step up and contribute in both lines and Logan Opfer, Jack Seen and Trevin Scoggan to develop to add depth along the line.
Uldrich pointed out Cole Heimes as a "talented kid who should find a role some where on the team.
The Wildcat schedule is full of obstacles including their opening game of the season against always competitive Wynot.
“They’ll be very athletic,” Uldrich said. “We’ll have to play well - they are a very good team.”
As for other bumps in the road, the coach expects Crofton, which dropped to eightman this season, Laurel-Concord-Coleridge and Plainview to be tough teams.
After opening at home against the Blue Devils in a 3 p.m. game, HartingtonNewcastle will travel to Plainview in Week 2 before back-to-back home games with Elkhorn Valley in Week 3 and Crofton in Week 4. Wakefield is the destination for a Week 5 match up then the Cats hit the road for Tri County Northeast in Week 6.
LCC is scheduled to come to Russ Hochstein Field for Week 8 and the regular season will end on the road against Homer.
The Wildcats are scheduled for a week 9 bye before the playos.
“We have put in the work over the summer,” Uldrich said. “Summer lifting was very good and we saw improvements throughout the group - we had eight days of camp and I thought we used those days effectively and got good reps for everyone.”
Now it’s time to put that work to good use.