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How in the world do the Pirates only get four players on the all-conference team?!? Out of 23 all-conference players named, only four are from Grantsburg.

They only went undefeated in the conference.

No conference team scored more than 19 points on them and that only happened once.

The average score of a conference set was 25-11!

The four girls who were recognized as all-conference (Emily Cole, Kortney Morrin, Annie Palmquist and Lauren Romanowski) were also recognized as part of the all-state tournament team. Three of them (Emily, Kortney and Annie) were ALL-STATE.

You're telling me that this conference is so loaded with talent that there was just no room for Larissa Wilhelm? or Kallie Thoreson? or Tiff Meyer? or Sarah Wald?

It is ridiculous that some of these players are not getting recognized! All of them would start and be one of the best players on ANY OTHER TEAM in this conference.

Look at the Flyway Conference all-conference team. They have Laconia (Grantsburg annihilated them in the state semi-finals) and Kettle Moraine Lutheran. KML is a volleyball powerhouse and won the conference. Laconia finished third. That conference recognized SIX Laconia players.

This rant of mine is not intended to take away from the other 19 girls who were recognized by the coaches… it's just to say that the process is flawed when a team can have such a dominating season and have clearly superior talent yet only four are recognized.

To me it is unfortunate.

It took a while, but the West Lakeland conference volleyball team has been announced and here it is…

Grantsburg
Emily Cole, junior
Kortney Morrin, junior
Annie Palmquist, senior
Lauren Romanowski, senior

Clayton
Annie Grossenbacher
Ashley Grossenbacher
Lindsey LaBlanc
Krystal Kohnen – honorable mention

Clear Lake
Rachel Norby – honorable mention
Jaici Vangsness – honorable mention

Frederic
Chrissy Chenal

Luck
Morgan Denny, junior

Shell Lake
Ashley Anderson
Stephanie Clark – honorable mention

Siren
Carley Emery – honorable mention

St. Croix Falls
Sarah Petznick
Megan Yunker

Turtle Lake
Ashley Lahti
Tricia Hanson – honorable mention
Alex Tschida – honorable mention

Unity
Crystal Donahue – honorable mention

Webster
Mary Johnson
Siiri Larsen – honorable mention

Some of the state champion Grantsburg volleyball team stopped by the WCMP/WXCX station to discuss their season with myself and Sam Klemet (sports director).

Here’s the article in the Sentinel.

All five Grantsburg starters make All-conference… what an accomplishment! I don’t know if that has ever happened before (probably) but Grantsburg finished second in the conference. It shows that it was truly a team effort for those guys.

I feel like Siren sort of got snubbed with selections as they had a very good season and I thought that Charlie Brown definitely had a good enough season to warrant an All-conference selection.

I like the fact that Gab Witzany got an honorable mention. She had a good season and really played well at the end of the season.

I think the conference is going to be highly competitive for the next couple years as a lot of the players on this list are sophomores (Morrin, Carley Emery, Ashley Guevara, Michelle Gibbs) and Witzany is a freshman. I might have missed a couple younger players, but that would only strengthen my arguement.

I have received a lot of hits regarding the death of St. Croix Falls senior Zach Foeller, an all-conference defensive back and homecoming king. According to this Sentinel article the young man took his own life last week.

If you happen to be one of Zach’s family, friend or someone else who was touched by his life, please accept my condolences, and with this I’m confident I can speak for the entire community of Grantsburg that our prayers are with you.

I did not know Zach personally and only watched him play ball, but anytime a young person takes his or her own life it is about the worst thing loved ones can go through. May God give you peace at this time.

The reason this site has been getting traffic about this subject is because in November I listed the all-conference selections for the Large Lakeland football teams, and Zach was on there so Google pointed people here.

Grantsburg only had two players named to the all-conference teams and both were on second team. Grantsburg finished winless and obviously record corrolates into all-conference selections.

Senior Trent Bonneville (LB) and junior Allen Lindus (G) were the two named to the teams.

1st team Defense:

Ryan Larson, DL, St. Croix Falls, junior
Grant Hulter, DL, Webster, senior
Woody Reindahl, DL, Clear Lake, senior
Travis Moser, LB, Webster, senior
Joe Raygor, LB, St. Croix Falls, junior
Brayden Wienke, LB, Clear Lake, junior
Mitch Warner, LB, Clear Lake, senior
Joe Spanel, LB, Cameron, junior
Zach Quigley, DB, Webster, senior
Zach Foeller, DB, St. Croix Falls, senior
Jordan Olson, DB, Clear Lake, senior
Nick Morgan, DB, Luck, senior

1st Team Offense:

Matt O’Connell, QB, Clear Lake, sophomore
Dan Pope, RB, Webster, junior
Chase Bushweiler, RB, St. Croix Falls, senior
Dustin McKinney, RB, Unity, junior
Jake Espeseth, WR, Clear Lake, senior
Jason Vlansnick, WR, Unity, sophomore
Derrick Bender, OL, Cameron, senior
Jordan Werdier, OL, Webster, senior
Darrin Lee, OL, Clear Lake, junior
Jake Leintz, OL, Clear Lake, sophomore
Andy Laurison, OL, St. Croix Falls, senior
Sam Schmidt, K, St. Croix Falls, senior

2nd Team Defense:

Derrick Bender, DL, Cameron, senior
Josh Yunker, DL, St. Croix Falls, senior
Chad French, DL, Webster, junior
Trent Bonneville, LB, Grantsburg, senior
Eric Goulet, LB, Unity, senior
Tom Columbo, LB, St. Croix Falls, senior
Ryan Crotteau, LB, Cameron, junior
Matt O’Connell, LB, Clear Lake, sophomore
Kyle Godfrey, DB, Webster, senior
Dan Pope, DB, Webster, junior
Dustin McKinney, DB, Unity, junior
Jake Espeseth, DB, Clear Lake, senior

2nd Team Offense

Tanner Linsmeyer, QB, Cameron, junior
Zach Quigley, RB, Webster, senior
Nick Johnson, RB, St. Croix Falls, sophomore
Cody Lien, RB, Clear Lake, junior
Ben Harm, WR, Cameron, junior
Jordan Olson, WR, Clear Lake, senior
Allen Lindus, OL, Grantsburg, junior
Seth McKenzie, OL, Unity, senior
Mitch Sullwold, OL, Clear Lake, sophomore
Matt Jacobs, OL, St. Croix Falls, senior
Travis Moser, OL, Webster, senior
Ryan Larson, TE, St. Croix Falls, junior

Congratulations to the Pirates after a succesful season as a team, the individual accolades come in. Notice the youth of the Grantsburg All-conference winners… all but one will be back next year… Grantsburg reloads again for next year.

Here is the all-conference team from Grantsburg and the rest of the West Lakeland:

First Team:

Emily Cole, Grantsburg, 2010
Annie Palmquist, Grantsburg, 2010
Lauren Romanowski, Grantsburg, 2010
Kortney Morrin, Grantsburg, 2011

Loreto Stange, Webster, 2010
Chrissy Chenal, Frederic, 2010
Amanda Kuske, Unity, 2009
Alex Tschida, Turtle Lake, 2011
Ashley Anderson, Shell Lake (graduation year unknown)
Hillary Friendshuh, Clear Lake (graduation year unknown)
Amanda Larson, Saint Croix Falls (graduation year unknown)
Annie Grossenbacher, Clayton, 2010
Clairiann Thompson, Clayton, 2010
Sadie Schradle, Clayton, 2009

Honorable Mention:

Ingrid Ames, Grantsburg, 2009
Larissa Wilhelm, Grantsburg, 2010

Megan Anderson, Frederic (graduation year unknown)
Cailin Turner, Unity (graduation year unknown)
Sarah Jamme, Shell Lake (graduation year unknown)
Krystal Stage, Siren (graduation year unknown)
Janey Emery, Siren (graduation year unknown)
Michelle Gibbs, Webster (graduation year unknown)
Lindsay LaBlanc, Clayton, 2011
Alex Confer, Saint Croix Falls (graduation year unknown)
Rachel Nordby, Clear Lake (graduation year unknown)
Kayla Steffen, Turtle Lake (graduation year unknown)
Ashley Lahti, Turtle Lake (graduation year unknown)

Cross country is a sport that I admittedly don’t get. Don’t mistake that for disrespecting, heck my wife was a  great CC’er in high school and college. Her favorite poster was one that said, “Cross country runners get to enjoy four years of high school, football players get five.”

I suppose cross country would be about the most enduring sport in the sense that it must be considered one of the first. Of course back in the day people would run to catch stuff or to not be caught. Now they run around on a golf course or through the woods to beat one another.

We Are Grantsburg would like to congratulate all-conference runners from Grantsburg.

Girls:

Michelle Lund
Angela Gaffney
Jessica Banks
Aimee Vantatenhove

Boys:

Steven McKinley
Matt Emerson

Congratulations!