By Dan Truttschel~Sports Correspondent
The second season is upon us — and for the Wilmot football team, that means a little home cooking.
Wilmot, which tied for the Southern Lakes Conference title with Waterford and Badger, closed the year at 7-2 overall after a 28-7 win over Westosha Central in its regular-season finale last week.
The Panthers drew the No. 4 seed in its regional grouping and will host Whitefish Bay Friday night at 7 p.m. The Knights finished the year at 6-3 overall and 4-3 in the North Shore Conference.
The winner will advance to a Level 2 contest next week against either top-seeded Waukesha West or eighth-seeded Milwaukee Bradley Tech.
Attempts to contact Wilmot head coach Mike Greinke were unsuccessful by press time.
While the Panthers prepare to extend their season, over at nearby Westosha Central, plans already are in place for the 2014 campaign.
The Falcons struggled to an 0-9 overall record under first-year head coach Tyson Mengel, but it wasn’t too much of a secret the program
began the 2013 campaign in a rebuilding mode.
Now it’s time to move forward with the lessons they learned the past
three months.
“We improved in every asset of the game this season,” Mengel said.
“Offensively, we improved in the running game and passing game.
Defensively, our guys did improve their tackling and knowledge of the game.
“We still need to learn how to watch film with a purpose to know what teams plan to do against us.”
Mengel said the work toward next year begins now — and the first step is to improve his team’s overall strength.
“We will hit the weight room very hard this off-season,” he said. “The players will hopefully take ownership in the weight room and hold their teammates accountable for the time and effort they put in.
“Also, we are recruiting as many kids as we can to be a part of this team. Excitement has been built around the program this season, which I have been pleasantly surprised with. Typically, a team that goes 0-9 does not get players to join the next season, but that is just not the case this year.”