Intercepting Division Drop Rumors

By Llani Froeber

Section Editor

October 2022

After concluding the football season last school year, with six losses and three wins, the football team discovered that their up-and-coming 2022 season would look different moving forward. It left both the community and the student body confused and curious as to what that could mean for them.

Different speculations floated around, like whether or not the team was dropping a division and if they were, whether it was because of the number of losses they had racked up.

Varsity football coach Brad Dement cleared up rumors. “We did not drop a division—we’re still a Division One football team. Playing at a conference that has Division Two football teams, but it can fluctuate.”

Instead of being apart of the Big Eight conference, we are now in the Southern Lakes Conference. We face new teams such as Lake Geneva, Badger, Waterford, Burlington, and Union Grove.

Varsity assistant coach Sean Williams explained that this was the result of Sun Prairie’s student body growing too large. They had to split up into two separate schools, but both were still in the Big Eight. One school had to drop out from the conference, and so our school took the opportunity to remove ourselves from it as a result.

Williams added, “ Conference realignment and stuff like that happens pretty regularly in high school sports. It’s not that we lost. I mean, we’ve had a losing record for over twenty years. If that was the case it would’ve happened ten years or more ago.”

When word got out about the conference change for this year's football season it caused not only some students, but even some of our very own football players to feel down and upset at the sudden change.

Senior linebacker Sylon Southall stated, “At first we were all mad and disappointed in ourselves, each other, and the coaches, but we felt more anger towards the other teams in the division that doubted us.”

The players had fought so hard, and once everyone discovered that Beloit Memorial was switching conferences, it caused many outsiders to disagree with the new placement.

“They should have kept us in the Big Eight. They moved us down because of last year, since we lost so many games, but they should have given us another chance,” Sophomore Jaria Gardner said.

Lots of people saw this as a negative thing, but senior running back Cavari Kramer has a positive mind-set. He said, “ It just made us a brand new team facing more brand new teams, because we’ve never heard of these schools before.”

Coach Dement added, “Football is football. If you’re not prepared to play, the other team will beat you.”

“Going against teams they don’t know gives them some hope. It’s a false sense of hope, but they [ultimately] control their preparation.”

According to coaches and staff, the only way Beloit Memorial’s football team will be able to attain a good season this year is with the help of the community, student body, and the players themselves.

“Unfortunately and fortunately, [for] a lot of high school athletic programs, their success is almost directly related to how much the town cares about them,” Williams agreed. “And up in cities that do really well, they will do anything for their high school programs. Not so much here, at least not in the recent years.”

The assistant coach for Varsity added, “ It kind of goes hand-in-hand. If we put a better football program on the field every Friday night and we start to win more, then more people are likely to buy in. Once people buy in more that makes kids want to show up more, which leads to more wins.”

“We did implement football back into the Intermediate schools [this year] and we have over one hundred kids playing,” stated Athletic Director Jonathan Dupuis. “We’re excited to see how that transfers up to the high school level,”

He went on to say, “ With all sports it’s commitment, during season and off. We have a great weight room so participating in that and getting exposure outside at camps and clinics [helps].”

Although these resources may help, Dement explained that it almost directly goes back to the football players’ mind sets.

He said, “They need to believe in our system and what we’re doing. Trust in that and to trust each other. Sacrifice for each other. Once they believe in those things then that is what’s gonna be special. We’re still in the process, they’re not completely there yet, but they’re starting to learn what it takes to win. [I believe] that we’re going to get there.”