Youth grinders shine at Fargodome

With the football season drawing to a close, it's time to look back at how New Rockford's youth football teams fared this year.

The fifth and sixth grade team, coached by high school principal Avolt Baumbach, finished their season with three wins and four losses, but ended the year on high note in the Fargodome.

On Oct. 3, The Rockets staged a second half comeback against the undefeated Wyndmere-Lidgerwood squad, taking fourth place in the tournament. As they had all year long, the young players from New Rockford resembled a brick wall on defense, a fact coach Baumbach was very proud of.

"The boys played great defense. [We have a running back, #25,] who had a great game up there, by far his best of the season," said Baumbach. "We were down eight to nothing at half, and then we came back and scored two touchdowns. They scored on one of their first plays of the game, but we adjusted and they never got close to scoring again. Just a testament to the boys' defense this year more than anything."

Baumbach added, "It was such an experience and the kids were wide-eyed. We didn't know it, but Wyndmere-Lidgerwood had actually been undefeated at 6-0, so we were glad we didn't know that before the game."

Before their big win versus Wyndmere-Lidgerwood, NR-S suffered a pair of close playoff losses to Carrington and Rugby, who went on to finish first and third in the tournament, respectively. However, Baumbach believes the Rockets were just a few plays away from competing for the championship.

"Injuries were a challenge for us with our low numbers. On offense we struggled a little bit with those injuries, but we were in every game because of our defense," explained Baumbach. "A play here or there and I think we could have contended for the championship this year."

During the regular season, NR-S dominated Rugby and Griggs by a margin 39-13 and 30-10, respectively, and the Rockets came within six points of defeating Carrington, who went on to win the championship.

Coach Baumbach expressed how much he enjoyed coaching the boys and how impressed he was by the progress his team made this season.

"I really enjoy coaching the boys," said Baumbach. "I know my assistants, Travis Peterson and Bryant Huso, did a great job helping the kids. Sometimes the practices can be long and it's hot, but boy the games are about as close as I can get to playing football again, so I enjoy it."

"They definitely grew and became very physical," Baumbach added. "We're definitely not the biggest team, we only had 14 players and we played 11-man, so the kids were very physical and I was always impressed with our defense."

The third and fourth graders were coached by Justin Ystaas, Cade Melaas and Jeremy Risovi. Watch next week's paper for a recap of their season.