Mary Langenfeld
Will Hartland Arrowhead triumph over rival Kimberly this year? It’s worth witnessing.
Although Lodi is the only Madison-area high school football team headed to Camp Randall Stadium Nov. 19 and 20 for the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association state championships, that doesn’t mean local sports fans need to stay at home.
The WIAA holds statewide competitions in only a handful of cities, including Green Bay, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Rapids and Madison, and we should try to take advantage of the spectating opportunities afforded us when the games are here in the capital city.
Lodi, a top seed in its Division 4 bracket, will bring an undefeated record into Camp Randall on Thursday for a 7 p.m. kickoff against Osceola — a team that lost only one game all season.
The Lodi Blue Devils plowed through three teams en route to the state final, winning those games by a combined score of 109-34. The team’s biggest test came a couple weeks ago against Columbus, when all the Blue Devils could muster were five field goals in a narrow 15-14 victory in the state quarterfinals.
But then Lodi shut out Omro, 23-0, on Nov. 13 to earn a trip to the championship game. Lodi’s previous three trips to the state semifinals ended in losses; a win at Camp Randall this week would be the school’s first state title.
If you’ve never experienced the intensity, spirit and stakes of watching a state competition, I highly recommend it — even if your team’s not playing. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, most of those kids will never come this close to athletic immortality again. And that is worth witnessing.
My wife and I took off from work in 2012 to watch our alma mater, Waukesha Catholic Memorial, wallop Waupaca, 42-7, in the Division 3 football title game.
This year’s Division 1 football championship matchup Friday at 4 p.m. will be a dandy — and a rematch of last year’s state game: Big Eight Conference nemesis Hartland Arrowhead will meet defending state champion Kimberly, an upstart from the Fox Valley playing only its second year in Division 1.
In other state football action, Waukesha West faces Homestead in Division 2 (Friday, 1 p.m.), and Waukesha Catholic Memorial (again!) will meet Green Bay Notre Dame in the Division 3 (Friday, 10 a.m.).
Single-game tickets cost $8, while $20 will get you into all four of Thursday’s games, and $15 will secure a seat for Friday’s three games. Two-day passes are available for $30. See wiaawi.org/Tickets for details.