The Minnewaska Area football team is set to open up the season at 7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 1 at Royalton followed by the home opener at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 9 against Pierz.

Minnewaska Area, which took part in a full-contact scrimmage Saturday at Melrose, will be coached this year by first-year head coach Jared Lyle, who will be assisted by Nathan Snider, Ryan Christianson, Trevor Solem, Jason Weber, Chris Lence, Brian Walker, Andrew Goracke, Dan Dahl and Matt Meagher.

Other home games for the Lakers are set for Friday, Sept. 16 (Melrose), Friday, Sept. 30 (Rockford for Homecoming) and Friday, Oct. 14 (Howard Lake-WW).

The Minnewaska Area varsity football team includes 37 players this year, including nine seniors, 12 juniors and 16 sophomores. 

•  Minnewaska Area plays in the Mid State 1 sub-district for the regular season and Section 6AAA for the postseason.  Last year, Rockford won the sub-district title with a 5-0 record, followed by Pierz (4-1), Morris Area-CA (3-2), Melrose Area (2-3), Montevideo (1-4), and Minnewaska Area (0-5).

In the Section 6AAA Tourney, Minnewaska Area was seeded seventh of the seven teams and lost to second-seeded Pierz in the quarterfinals, 48-18.  NLS, the fourth seed, beat Melrose (42-6), top-seeded Albany (14-12) and Pierz (28-24) to win the section title.

At state, NLS fell to Esko in the Class AAA quarterfinals, 28-21.

On page 2B is a look at the complete varsity football roster for the 2022 Lakers.

Minnewaska Area Lakers football team for 2022

1-Austin Ballhagen WR-DB 150 11 

2-Paul Johnson, Jr. QB-LB 180 12

4-Carter Meyer RB-DB 150 10

5-Zachary Gugisberg WR-DB 140 10

7-Conner Stein WR-DB 170 12

8-Brady McCrory WR-DB 145 10

9-Levi Johnson QB-DB 155 10

10-Joshua Hippe WR-DB 135 10

11-Austin Weber RB-LB 165 11 12-Blake Andreas WR-DB 155 12

20-Bode DeZelar WR-DB 150 11

21-Connor Frey WR-LB 150 10

22-Jack Majerus RB-DB 160 11

23-Hunter Kloos WR-DB 180 12

27-Owen Meulebroeck RB-LB 175 10

28-Myles Reichmann RB-LB 170 11

44-Cole Baker RB-LB 165 12

48-Ethan Barron RB-LB 165 12

52-Chase Boelke OL-DL 195 12

53-Brady Blair OL-DL 255 12

54-Jack Larson OL-LB 175 12

55-Austin Hoverud OL-DL 190 11

57-Cole Kittelson OL-LB 180 11

58-Ken Czech OL-DL 185 11

63-Koulten Hoffman OL-DL 180 10

65-Dakota Amiot OL-DL 225 11

67-John Jenson OL-DL 190 11

72-Christopher Claunch OL-DL 205 11

73-Jacob Mrnak OL-DL 165 10

74-Ben Jenson OL-DL 180 11

75-Lucas Tauber OL-DL 195 10

76-Kaiden Harvey OL-DL 185 10

77-Ty Koubsky OL-DL 280 10

79-Drew Winter OL-LB 185 10

82-Noah Jensen OL-DL 195 10

88-Oliver Rieland WR-DB 130 10

90-Lucky Hippe OL-DL 185 10

(Head coach:  Jared Lyle . . . Assistants:  Nathan Snider, Ryan Christianson, Trevor Solem, Jason Weber, Chris Lence, Brian Walker, Andrew Goracke, Dan Dahl and Matt Meagher)