Justin Maratik named Offensive “Player of the Year”
The accolades deservingly heaped on Fond du Lac running back Justin Maratik are all humbly appreciated. But 10 or 15 years down the road, when he proudly steps foot back at his alma mater — maybe with a few more pounds and a little less hair — there is one achievement that he’s going to want to start talking about right away.
“Winning the conference championship. That was our goal to become conference champs and it’s satisfying that we did that,” Maratik said. “Those are the memories that you will never forget. After 10 years, we’re all going to meet as a team and get back together and enjoy the memory.”
Maratik certainly played a key role in the Cardinals earning that championship and is the 2015 Action Reporter Media All-Area Offensive Football Player of the Year. The 6-foot, 190-pounder ran for 1,731 yards and 25 touchdowns, while averaging nearly 22 carries per game. He topped the 200-yard mark three different times, including a season-high 294 yards against Kaukauna in Week 2, and after double-figure per-carry averages against Kaukauna (10.5), Wisconsin Rapids (12.1) and Milwaukee Vincent (11.4).
For Maratik, though, the game that sticks out most from his senior season is the 26-21 victory over Hortonville when his 3-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter provided the winning margin. “I just remember on that final drive, talking in the huddle the whole way and then getting (the touchdown),” said Maratik, a repeat winner of the area’s top offensive player award. “That game I just remember quite a bit. The rest of them are a bit of a blur. It goes by pretty quick.”
Maratik, a first-team all-VFA South selection and an honorable mention all-state honoree, put up his big numbers despite facing defenses that were geared on stopping him. After a breakout junior season, all eyes were on him entering this year and Maratik delivered — admittedly with a lot of help. “I have to give a lot of credit to our (offensive) line. Those are the real horses on the team, the ones putting in all of the work,” Maratik said. “This year, teams knew what we were going to do and they would just stack the box. What it is the, who can out-power one another and who has more heart. “We beat 11 teams doing that so there is a lot of pride.”
Maratik also felt he added to his game for his senior season. He said he was stronger and faster this year and believed his vision as a runner had improved over his junior year. He also brought something else to the table that isn’t measured on any stat sheet. “My senior year, I had to be more of a leader and I felt like I really gained in that aspect,” said Maratik, who is still going through the recruiting process to decide his football future. “Personally, I met my goals and offensively and defensively, we did well.”
Most importantly for Maratik, Fond du Lac’s football program is back where he figures it’s supposed to be. It’s a regular member of the WIAA playoff field capable of making deep runs. It’s racking up wins on Friday night on a routine almost expected basis. And Fond du Lac is winning conference championships – something that as a freshman may not have seemed possible.
“We weren’t very good when I started high school but all of us trusted our coaches that they were going lead us to greatness, I think we achieved that. It’s a great feeling,” Maratik said. “Obviously, we didn’t get to where we wanted to be this year, but it was still a great season.”
Jake Walgenbach named Defensive “Player of the Year”
Up until last season, Jake Walgenbach was a quarterback. Seems hard to imagine that now. For the past two years, Walgenbach has made his name on defense as one of the best safeties in the area. Then again, with what Walgenbach was able to do at safety for the Fond du Lac football team, he was essentially the quarterback of the defense. The skills he developed under center translated perfectly to his new role and made him an invaluable player for the Cardinals.
Walgenbach is the 2015 Action Reporter Media All-Area Defensive Football Player of the Year, an honor that comes after a season in which the 6-foot-4 senior helped guide Fond du Lac to the Valley Football Association South title and Level 3 of the WIAA Division 1 playoffs.
Back in 2013, when Walgenbach was a sophomore, his path as a football player seemed unclear. With starting quarterback Jack Nejedlo’s season-ending knee injury early on, Walgenbach was thrust into the backup QB role behind Quinn Woelfel and even started a varsity game when Woelfel was sick. But with Nejedlo returning for his senior season and Woelfel back as well, it was obvious that Walgenbach wasn’t going to see much time as a quarterback for Fond du Lac.
Moving to defense, Walgenbach soon began to play safety for the JV team and earned the starting role on the varsity squad a few games into his junior season. He’s been there ever since — earning first team all-VFA South honors both as a junior and senior. This year, he was named to the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All-Northeast Region team as a defensive back and was an honorable mention on the WFCA all-state team.
The numbers (37 tackles, 2 interceptions, 1 fumble recovery) don’t even begin to tell the story of how important Walgenbach was for a Cardinals defense that allowed just 13.5 points per game in 2015. “He’s really smart,” Fond du Lac coach Mike Gnewuch said of Walgenbach. “When it comes to football, he really was. He made all the calls. We’re a split-field team, which means we’re running two different coverages every single play and he was making calls on both sides. He was telling strong side what to do, as well as weak side. Having a junior in Keagan (Berandt) playing right next to him, I think he really helped Keagan out and helped him along throughout the season. I think he made Keagan a better football player, which is something you’re always looking for in seniors.”
At 6-foot-4, Walgenbach’s height and wingspan gave him a natural advantage that many defensive backs don’t possess. Factor in his speed, ball skills and knowledge of the passing game and he was able to roam the field like few others could. “He was tremendous as far as his ball skills go,” Gnewuch said. “If a ball was ever up in the air, you never had to question it because Jake was going to go get it. That was something he showed he could do last year as well as this year. He covered so much ground in the secondary, too. When Marquette ran that fullback option pass late in the game against us (in Level 3 of the playoffs), the ground that Jake covered was unbelievable. I saw we had a guy there so I wasn’t worried about them completing the pass, but to pick it off — and Jake came from the backside all the way across the field to pick it off. So he was able to cover a tremendous area of grass.”
As the last line of defense, Walgenbach was crucial not only in the passing game, but also against the run. Although he didn’t make a ton of tackles in 2015 — which in itself showed the strength of Fond du Lac’s defense — he would almost always succeed when forced to do so. “He was probably the best tackler on the team,” Gnewuch said. “Everybody misses tackles, Jake had by far the fewest amount of tackles missed. Percentage-wise, he was the best tackler on the team. You put that all together and he was just a sound, sound football player and had a tremendous season.”
While all of his physical skills contributed to Walgenbach’s success in 2015, it was his knowledge of the passing game that ultimately bumped him from a good safety to a great one. That all goes back to his days as a quarterback. “It helped out because some of the formations I knew, and it just made it easier on me because I was recently a quarterback,” Walgenbach said. “I was cornerback at the beginning of last year for JV and they moved me to safety once in a while. I played cornerback, safety and quarterback in JV games at the beginning of last year and once Kyle (Pierce) got hurt, I stepped in at safety.” Added Gnewuch: “He’s learned the game, he’s become a student of the game. … He’s got experience on both sides of the ball and I think that helped him on the defensive side, having that knowledge. I really do think the sky’s the limit for him.”
However, all of that still doesn’t completely account for how important Walgenbach was for Fond du Lac this year. As the Cardinals’ punter, Walgenbach made a huge impact on the game from special teams as well, flipping field position on numerous occasions and helping his own cause on defense. A first team all-VFA South selection in that position as well, Walgenbach excelled in his first year as a punter.
“Jason (Toshner) punted for three years for us and Jake had a higher average than Jason did any one of the three years,” Gnewuch said. “He averaged about 40 yards a kick and some of the games he just turned the field because of his punts. One that kind of jumps out is the first time we played Neenah and he had some punts that pinned them deep. We were still young offensively and to be able to turn the field like that, because we played pretty good on defense that game, I think was a huge help to our offense. “Having an athlete at punter is such a huge, tremendous asset that I know coaches don’t overlook, but I think people might tend to overlook that from time to time. ‘Oh, he’s just a punter.’ No, he’s not just a punter, he’s a huge part of the game.”
All told, it was a tremendous senior season for Walgenbach. Transitioning from quarterback to defense isn’t easy, yet Walgenbach made it look that way. With two outstanding years as a safety and one as a punter, Walgenbach was the real deal. “I’ll miss him. He’s a kid that it was always ‘Yes, Coach,’ ‘Sure, Coach,’ ‘I’ll do whatever it takes, Coach.’” Gnewuch said. “He never once questioned anything we did in four years. We moved him from the offensive side of the ball to the defensive side of the ball, which he was in a pretty prestigious position at quarterback. There was never once an issue. Whatever it takes to make the team better is what Jake did and I’m going to miss him, that’s for sure.”
2015 Action Reporter Media All-Area Football Team
Offense
RB, Justin Maratik, Fond du Lac, Sr.
OL, Mark Dilling, Fond du Lac, Sr.
OL, Brett VandenBoogaard, Fond du Lac, Sr.
P, Jake Walgenbach, Fond du Lac, Sr.
Defense
DL, Aron Frank, Fond du Lac, Sr.
DL, Gage Zahradnik, Fond du Lac, Sr.
LB, Devon Krzanowski, Fond du Lac, Jr.
LB, Noah Ahlswede, Fond du Lac, Sr.
DB, Ryan Collien, Fond du Lac, Sr.
DB, Jake Walgenbach, Fond du Lac, Sr.
Honorable mentions: Fond du Lac: Will Wright, sr., te; Quinn Woelfel, sr., qb.
