WCA football aims for improvements to start 2024 season

Sam Peterson
Grant County Herald

The West Central Area football has just got back into the swing of things as practice started Aug. 12. The Knights are coming off a three-win season in 2023 and hope to show improvements throughout the season to increase their win total and make some noise in the playoffs in 2024.

West Central Area is coming off a season that saw them finish 3-6 on the season. The Knights finished 2-5 in the Mid Northwest (Gopher-Gold) District to finish sixth out of eight teams. They earned the third seed in the Section 6A playoffs and lost in the first round to New York Mills to end their season.

The Knights will have to replace a large group of seniors who made up the 2023 roster. Those 12 now graduated players include: Adam Lohse, Adam Merkins, Ben Nyreen, Brady Lindquist, Cam Anderson, Grant Lindquist, Jackson Nadgwick, Nas Dotts, Tristan Fagre, Weston Ulrich, Will Rustan and Lorenzo Somerset. 

WCA still has eight players returning to the team with significant varsity experience and will have plenty of senior leadership. Senior tight-end and linebacker Ben Bye returns and led the team with 37 receptions and was second with 225 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Senior running back and linebacker Hunter Gruchow will start for the third season and missed the majority of last season due to injury. Senior running back and linebacker Sam Hanson finished last season as the leading rusher with 476 yards and two touchdowns and also was the leader in receiving yards with 292 and touchdowns with four. Sophomore Owen Gruchow played safety on varsity last season and will take over as the quarterback this year. Seniors Gavin Flint, Owen Sanstead and Zach Vick will help fortify the offensive and defensive lines. Senior wide receiver Tucker McGee finished last season third on the team in rushing with 136 yards and fifth in tackles with 27.

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