S/C marks quarter century of football co-op

MARSHFIELD – When the Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association (WISAA) completed its merger with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) in 2000, the long and storied history of football at Columbus Catholic High School in Marshfield came to an end.

After 51 seasons, the Dons had amassed 15 CWCC championships and four WISAA state titles under nine different head coaches – most notably Walt Kroll, who spent 31 seasons at Columbus.

But after just one season without football, a new opportunity for Columbus student-athletes arose in the fall of 2002. A cooperative arrangement with Spencer High School just nine miles away had been agreed upon, and the Spencer/Columbus Rockets celebrated their inaugural season in 2002, under head coach, Adam Yaeger.

Now in its 25th season, the S/C coop is still going strong, now under current head coach, Jason Gorst.

“It’s allowed a lot of football players through the years to be football players and play competitive football,” Gorst told Hub City Times recently. “We often talk about the S/C brotherhood and I think there’s some real meaning behind that.”

Gorst, now in his 16th season as S/C head coach, joined the program in 2011. He says S/C is a great fit for him, after playing for a co-op team in high school.

“I’m from Granton originally, so I was able to play football in Neillsville and had some great opportunities and experiences there,” Gorst told us.

“I would argue it’s one of the – if not the – most successful co-op football programs in the state,” Gorst added. “We’ve had many playoff runs and some great years, great memories formed and [I am] proud of what we’ve accomplished and hoping to continue to grow it and accomplish more.”

The S/C football co-op has competed in three different conferences. From 2002 to 2007, the Rockets were in the Marawood Conference. Between 2008 and 2019, S/C was a member of the Cloverbelt Conference. In 2020, the Rockets joined the CWC-Large.

The program has had three head coaches – Yaeger for six seasons, Greg Oestreich for three and Gorst since 2011.

The program’s overall record through 2025 was 125-117.

The Spencer/Columbus Rockets enjoyed their best season to date in 2015, compiling a 13-1 record while advancing to the WIAA Div. 5 State Championship, where they suffered their only setback of the season – a 42-0 loss to Amherst.

Three seasons later, the Rockets were on the doorstep of a return trip to Camp Randall, when they lost a WIAA Level 4 playoff contest to Stratford, 22-6, at Medford High School.

Overall, the co-op has enjoyed 12 winning seasons and 11 playoff runs.

The current Rockets are hoping to add to both totals.

“Overall, guys are working very hard,” said Gorst. “I really think they enjoy playing the sport of football and I think they’re interested in getting better week after week. We have not been at full strength yet this year, but we’re looking forward to getting as close to that as we can. Obviously, the loss of Bryce Griepentrog to an injury, it definitely hurts because that will be for the season, but we’ll be looking to get a few other guys back in the next few weeks here and just hoping to continue to build our depth and just build as a team.”

Despite the loss of Griepentrog along the offensive and defensive lines, Gorst says those areas are the strength of this year’s squad.

“We have Jackson Manicke, Reven Zschernitz [and] Jake Soback all returning. They’re seniors this year. They’ve been playing for a couple of years for us and do a real nice job. And then Brock Wieland is our new starter at center this year. And Tyler Hargraves, as a sophomore, has done a really nice job for us, stepping in. We unfortunately lost Bryce Griepentrog to injury, but Emmett Erickson’s been stepping up as of late.”

Ryan Bernick has moved from center to running back and is currently S/C’s leading rusher. Jack Hoeper and Devin Phillips have also been featured out of the backfield.

Junior Jack Gorst is in his first season as the Rockets’ starting quarterback.

“We’ve morphed in the last couple of years,” Gorst said of his offense. “Our run game I would refer to as a gap scheme. We run some iso and some power. We’re a fan of the duo concept and this year we’ve added some wide zone stuff, so that’s been a little bit of a tweak for us in the run game. And then we try to marry that with a screen game and with some air raid concepts from the [shot] gun. So, you kind of have that power gap scheme run up front with some spacing concepts and try to get guys the ball in space and then allow them to use their athletic ability with the passing game.”

Featured within the S/C passing game is top target, Wes Nieman.

“He’s doing a real nice job as a slot receiver,” Gorst said. “He’ll line up in the backfield sometimes. We’ll move him all over a little bit. Really does a nice job catching the football.

Roe Wheeler is also another receiver for the Rockets this year.

Bernick and Kayleb Pankratz have both been used as tight ends in the passing game as well.

“I think that we need to use our size up front to physically move people more and to create bigger holes,” Gorst told us, prior to S/C’s win over Weyauwega-Fremont. “From there I’d like us to get more dynamic when it comes to breaking tackles or making guys miss and try to be a little bit more explosive with the offense overall.”

On the defensive side, Erickson, Zschernitz, Hargraves, Jakob Fleischman, and Vickram Sinha are anchoring the line up front.

Manicke, Soback and Wieland have been rotating at the inside linebacker position, while Bernick has transitioned from defensive end to more of an outside linebacker, with Pankratz opposite him.

Hoeper, meanwhile, will rotate between linebacker, lineman and defensive back.

Wheeler and Phillips have seen the most reps at the two cornerback spots, while Nolan Frane, Holden Lomax, and Jameson Berger have settled into the safety positions.

“A 4-2-5 is our base defense,” Gorst shared. “So, four linemen, two inside backers and then the ‘5’ kind of refers to the d-backs, but we have some overhang outside linebackers or walkup safeties – kind of a hybrid-type player that does a lot of stuff in both the pass coverage game and also the run defense and even pass rush as well.”

Sam Buchberger is in his first season as the S/C defensive coordinator, while Joe Konieczny, Colten Schillinger and Aaron Zenner are several other new faces among the varsity coaching staff.

Andy Hogden returns as special teams coordinator.

Also returning are veteran assistants Greg Oestreich, Brian Abel and Luke Hilegemann.

The Rockets visit Wittenberg-Birnamwood on Sept. 18 before hosting Amherst on Sept. 25.