Fans supporting area high school teams in state playoffs from hometowns

MARATHON COUNTY (WSAW) - Longtime football rivals Stratford and Edgar are both celebrating state championships today and for the first time ever in the same year.

While both teams were well represented down in Madison, a few people had to hold down the fort back home. Separated by less than 15 miles, we visited both towns to see who was left behind.

“It was just fun, doing it with – first - being the first state championship ever, of any sport in Edgar. And just doing it with my friends, that was a memory a guy will never forget. It’s great to see, you know, a lot of these kids are second generation kids that Jerry coached already and being such a, you know, forty-year difference, but still talking about the same things that they went through that we went through,” said Bill Tess, linebacker for the 1979 Edgar State Championship Team.

Dalton Lehman, who was on three Edgar State Championship teams, said, “We went to State, three years in a row. 2009, 10, and 11, and then I was the starting quarterback for the 2011 State Championship team. I knew a few of these guys too at a young age, so it’s pretty cool to see them do kinda what I’ve done and what many others have done in the past.”

He added, “The longevity in Coach Sinz, is really a big mentor for a lot of the kids who come through the program, and I think he’s a huge part of the reason as to why we’ve had so much success.”

Stratford fan Mary Leick shared, “In our younger days, we went to all the games and now we come out to the shack. [We] have a good group of people that comes out every week and watches the games.”

Fellow Stratford supporter Sharon Moeller said, “It’s good community spirit and we have a great community in Stratford.” “This is second best to being down there,”

Leick said, “It’s an experience I wish every town could have.”

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