Remember the Tigers: 1992-1993 OHS football teams set to return Friday
Some of the greatest on field successes in Osmond High School (OHS) athletics came during early ‘90s when several classes of talented boys went through the school.
The 1992 and 1993 football teams played a role in this combining for a 19-2 record and a semi-final appearance. (Of course, the basketball team was the Nebraska Class C2 Runner-up in basketball for the 1993-1994 season.)
However, the story of these boys (now men with families who have experienced nearly twenty-five years of life without football) is more than one about a talented group of players.
It’s one about the beauty of school pride, community, and life in rural America.
The Osmond Tigers had always produced 11-man football teams, even through the ‘80s when the school’s enrollment flirted line for classification as an 8-man team.
The school’s enrollment was high enough where the team was forced to 11-man. But not high enough to where it could produce a team that had the depth to compete with most area schools.
At one point, the Tigers had eighteen players to play 11-man football.
They got their first taste of 8-man football in a 1985 game against Wausa.
Then, in 1989, 8-man became a reality.
The Tigers began their history as an 8-man school under the leadership of then social studies teacher and then Randolph resident Loren Hansen.
Although moving down to 8-man wasn’t an overnight success for the football program, Hansen and colleagues could see the talent rising closer and closer to the high school level.
“We could see the talent coming up, and those kids had pretty good success all the way up through elementary and junior high,” Hansen said.
Then in 1991, when student-athletes from the classes of ’93 and ’94 were juniors and seniors, their formation as a formidable group at the high school ranks began to get attention.
In the last game of the ’91 regular season, the Tigers faced off against a strong Humphrey High School team in Humphrey on a bitterly cold, late October night.
With the help of Mr. Randy Jochum (a career-long teacher, coach, and administrator at OHS) and several of the players’ dads, the Tigers not only survived the conditions but upended the Bulldogs in a lop-sided affair.
Jochum and the dads constructed a make-shift tent on the sideline for the players not in the game to keep warm and concentrate on the game.
Then defeating Polk-Hortville 48-34 in the opening round of the playoffs, the Tigers had tasted success and were ready to make a run in the ’92 season.
“The Humphrey game was where it all started to click,” Hansen said. “Most of the players on the ’91 team were sophomores and juniors and we could see them getting better.”
The Tigers had high expectations for the ’92 season, but little did they know, they were about to embark one what was one of the best football seasons in OHS football history.
However, it did not come without its twists and turns, starting with game one against Beemer, a team that included what would be the Lewis and Clark Conference’s leading rusher Brock Eickelberger (now head coach of the O’Neill High Eagles).
“We had an ‘all-state’ type of running back in senior Mike Scott,” Hansen said. “We planned on having him carry quite a bit of the load.”
He broke his arm as part of a 28-8 win against the Bobcats. He missed six games before returning back to the lineup versus Wynot.
In the mean-time, Jason Mackling, Dave Jones, and Jeremey Faubel manned the backfield. At least one of the three rushed for over 100 yards each game until Scott’s return.
Mackling alone had 334 yards total in back-to-back contests, first against Coach Bart Kneifl’s Newcastle Red Raiders team that finished 7-3 and then against the Wynot Blue Devils. He ran for just over 1,000 yards on the year with ten touchdowns.
He was one of ten juniors on the team. (Jeremy Faubel, Bob Schaefer, Jeff Luhr, Ben Aschoff, Jason vonRentzell, Cory Turpin, Brandon Jackson, Ben Mackling, and Tim Schultze were also juniors.)
Senior Dave Jones, a 6-2-210 lb. running back, also had a great senior campaign, running for over just about 750 yards and accounting for eighty-six of the team’s points.
Of all the athletes who have played football for the Tigers, Jones might be the most recognizable, or at least the one who developed his football talent furthest.
He was offered a football scholarship to the University of Nebraska-Kearney, while at the same time was offered to walk-on at UNL.
After spending a year at UNK, he transferred to the UNL to play.
Jones holds one of the three OHS track and field records set during that era still standing today. He threw the shot put 54’4”. (Tim Schultze, a junior on the ’92 team, holds the other two records: High Jump-6’9” and Triple Jump—44’6”.)
Anchoring the team on the line was Jason vonRentzell (Jr.). He was the leading vote-getter in the All-Lewis and Clark Conference voting for linemen.
And, while the team him and his linemen teammates helped spur three runners with over four hundred yards on the ground, they proved tough defensively.
vonRentzell, along with Ben Meckling and Ben Aschoff, proved formidable throughout the season. Meckling lead the team with eight sacks and five fumble recoveries.
Each of the linemen had over ninety-five tackle points.
Brad Huwaldt (Sr.) led the team with 139 tackles. He one of two players from that team who currently has a son on the 2017 OHS team: Zach Huwaldt, a freshman end and lineman.
Schultze is the other. His son Graysen is a back and defensive back for this year’s team.
On the back end, Jeff Luhr finished the season with six interceptions. His knack for finding the ball would only increase headed into his senior year.
Scott came back healthy to the team with two weeks left in the regular season. He contributed to a 36-6 win against Wynot, and then three consecutive solid games against Humphrey, East Butler, and Spencer-Naper.
He scored two touchdowns on nine carries with eighty-five rushing yards; he was a big part a monster attack against East Butler. (He had two fumble recoveries in that game.) And, he ran for 101 yards against Spencer-Naper.
Scott was just one piece to the puzzle in one of OHS’s most notable playoff victories, as they came out on top 22-12 in a highly-anticipated matchup against East Butler.
The game is remembered for a variety of reasons. First, leading up to the game, the area experienced a fierce winter storm, and throughout the week, special preparations were made so the game would be playable.
Hansen remembers that, throughout the week, students in study hall classes were asked to shovel off snow from the field.
Then, when it came to preparing for and playing the game, the Tigers faced a 1992 East Butler team featuring a player who would become one of the most famed rural Nebraska athletes to play at the University of Nebraska: Joel Makovicka.
Although Makovicka was only a junior and despite the fact that, at the time, no one could have predicted the role he would play as one of the more accomplished backs in Husker history (not to mention a brief career in the National Football League), the Tigers’ ability to hold him in check that proved memorable.
While they didn’t completely shut Makovicka down, the Tigers outgained East Butler’s running attack 343-144.
This set up a matchup against the Spencer-Naper Pirates led by hall-of-fame caliber coach Bill Mimick. The Tigers’ run in the playoffs on a come-from-behind effort by the Pirates who scored in the games waning minutes to win 20-18.
Coming off the win against East Butler, the loss was a disappointment. The game itself was played on somewhat of an odd night.
“It was a cold night and a heavy fog set in and we could hardly see across the field to the other sideline,” Hansen said. “I can remember being so close to taking the next step.”
And, despite losing a strong class of senior, the Tigers’ returners proved ready to move to the next level.
But the year would prove to be a special time for Hansen whose three sons John (Jr.), Jeremey (Fr.), and Nicholas (student manager) all were on the team after transferring to OHS from Randolph.
“This time in my life was a little bit of a blur because I was teaching, coaching, raising a family, and building a house east of town,” Hansen said.
“It was special because the first games I actually got to see my sons play were when they transferred to Osmond and I was coaching them.”
Of his three sons, Nicholas suffered a hip injury his freshman year of football. They injury steered him away from football and towards track and field.
Hansen coached with long-time head track and field coach and industrial tech teacher Joe Ortmeier.
Nicholas ultimately ended up running cross country at Wayne State College.
Back on the football field, the Tigers again worked through the regular season undefeated. This included wins against three eventual Class D2 playoff teams: Beemer (6-3), Coleridge (7-2), and Newcastle (6-3).
Their offense was held only twice below thirty-eight point in the regular season. This included a 20-8 win over Winside on Homecoming and a 21-8 win over Newcastle.
The team showed resiliency on a couple occasions. They were down 8-6 at halftime of against Winside before scoring fourteen unanswered third quarter points, and they were down 10-0 to Coleridge at halftime where they scored thirty-eight unanswered second half points.
Jason Mackling surpassed his stellar performance as a junior by running for 1,205 yards and eighteen touchdowns.
Jeremy Faubel also showed impressive improvement as he scored fifteen touchdowns, ran for 796 yards, and threw for another 718.
Stable, again, as a receiver, Luhr had seven touchdowns and 331 receiving yards.
Emerging, though, in place of some of the firepower that the Tigers lost from ’92 was Brian Hoffman. He had 545 yards rushing and 252 yards receiving.
Of course, it helped that vonRentzell, Ben Mackling, and Ben Aschoff returned to the line. vonRentzell again was the leading vote-getter for Lewis and Clark Conference All-First Team.
Defensively, the Tigers were consistently strong, holding opponents to fourteen points or fewer in five of eight games. The Tigers’ defense racked up twenty-eight interceptions, recovered twenty-four fumbles, and had twenty-three sacks.
Luhr had a record-breaking year with eighteen interceptions. This along with the six interceptions he had as a junior earned him a state record for career interceptions. (He had four against Wausa.)
There were three players who boasted over 100 tackle points: Ben Mackling (177), Ben Aschoff (161), and Jason vonRentzell (122).
Aschoff, alone, had six fumble recoveries, while vonRentzell had seven sacks.
In the playoffs, the Tigers found another level. They came into a matchup with the Leigh Panthers as the number one overall seed in class D1.
They hosted the #16 seed Leigh, who despite their ranking, was well-known for their offensive firepower. The team included current Hartington-Cedar Catholic Head Coach Chad Cattua (WR).
The opening round game took place on November 3rd, a chill fall evening. And, before the game, the Tigers were going through their pre-game warm-up routine that included warming up on the field and then meeting as team north of the field and school to discuss any final directives.
Coach Hansen addressed the team one final time by asking his players to take off their jerseys (a predominantly orange jersey with black and white letters and stripes).
“I told the guys to take off their jerseys, and most of them looked at me like I was nuts,” Hansen said.
However, the players followed their coach’s demand.
While taking off the jerseys; however, Mr. Jochum and Mr. Ortmeier walked up with boxes—the contents included brand-new black Osmond jerseys with orange and white lettering.
Unbeknownst to the players, their parents had been working in secret to purchase the jerseys for the team to wear during the state playoffs.
“The players played so hard that night,” Hansen said.
“Since that night, I’ve had players from that team come up and talk to me about those jerseys and tear up with pride.”
The Tigers ended up winning the game 60-31 in a game that featured over 800 yards of offense, 568 of which came from the Tigers.
Luhr also had three interceptions that night.
After defeating the Panthers, the Tigers hosted Verdigre five days later. They routed the Eagles 34-12, setting up a semi-final round contest against Adams (now Freeman High School), the only other undefeated team left in the state.
Adams had defeated Nebraska City Lourdes 43-8 in the opening round and then disposed of defending champion Sterling 49-34 in the quarterfinals.
The game was held in Adams and the advantage immediately went to the home team.
“I just remember that we had an off-day, and Adams played well,” Hansen said.
Jason Mackling had a nice game statistically speaking. He ran for 115 yards and two touchdowns on fifteen carries, but the Adams defense disrupted Faubel.
He ran the ball nine times for a total of negative twenty-two yards. He was 3-for-20 passing the ball (78 yards).
Defensively, Ben Mackling had twenty-eight tackles and Luhr had three interceptions. The Tigers had six players with over ten tackle points (B. Mackling, Aschoff, von Rentzell, J. Mackling, Luhr, and Ryan Buchanan). But, it wasn’t enough to keep them from gaining 318 yards (212 came on the ground).
North Loup-Scotia would defeat Adams in the championship game.
After the senior class from the ’93 team graduated, the Tigers had a difficult time recovering. They went 0-8 the next season.
The Tigers eventually bumped back to 11-man and again struggled with numbers.
Since ’92 and ’93; however, the Tigers have had some quality players, coaches, and teams. They didn’t make it back to the playoffs until 2002 (26-22 loss to Humphrey-St. Francis).
Their next playoff win came against Meridian (12-8) in 2009. This led to a quarterfinals appearance in 2010 after beating Deshler 61-12 and Winside 43-12.
This was part of a run where the Tigers made the playoffs four consecutive years (2009-2012).
The Tigers have boasted some notable individuals as well. This includes hall-of-fame caliber coach Rod Brummels.
They boast ten members who played in the Nebraska 8-Man Football Coaches Association All-Star Game in Hastings: Jason Luhr (1992), David Jones (1993), Ben Mackling (1994), Brody Friedrich (1996), Mitchell Schultze (1997), Michael Koehler (2011), James Stuechrath (2012), Carlin Krienert (2013), Max Frank (2016), and Tyler Reikofski (2017).
Several have participated in the Northeast Nebraska All-Star Game in Norfolk: Krienert (2013), Andrew Folkers (2013), Frank (2016), Brock Johnson (2017), and Reikofski (2017).
Frank also participated in the 2016 Nebraska Shrine Bowl.
Several others have moved on to play football at the next level: Wyatt Schuettler (Wayne State College), Krienert (Nebraska Wesleyan), Folkers (Morningside), Frank (Wyoming), Tyler Reikofski (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology) and Bryan Manzer (Morningside).
All of the young men, including those on the ’92 and ’93 teams and ultimately anyone who has ever put on a Tiger jersey, They represent their teammates, classmates, teachers, moms, dads, and anyone just plain bleeds black and orange.
They represent the beauty of a community, the beauty of small-town America.
But most of all, they remind us of the importance of striving for excellence, for remembering that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, something where everyone plays an important role.