District 4- one of only two districts that sent two teams to the quarterfinals (along with Van Meter and ACGC in District 7).
D4 Champ- Beckman Catholic (who beat West Branch) graduated 15 senior football players but returns one of the best athletes in the district (QB Gassman) and District MVP lineman (RG Burlage) along with a couple more good linemen and a talented SS (Wulfekuhle) who I assume will take over the role at RB with the graduation of Huengarth. A favorite to win D4 until someone beats them.
D4 Runner-up Columbus Catholic graduated most of the starting skill guys, including D4 MVP Gallagher (QB). Return several good O/D-linemen (Hartz, Knapp, Magayna) and WR Holthaus, but can they fill the other skill positions with quality kids?
D4 3rd place MFL (who beat Regina) made a deep run last year and graduated only 4 starters, but two of them were all-state RB and FB (McShane & McGeough). Return most starting linemen, QB, TE, SE along with speedster Decker as the wingback. Also 2 starting LBs and a couple DL return. They should be pretty good and should be even better in 2023, they started like 6 sophs & a freshman last year against Regina.
D4 4th place Cascade graduates a fair amount of starters but returns Menster, a 2x 1000 yd rusher and a really good DL kid (Rausch) who was their 220 wrestler that qualified for state. They will be solid again but not sure they can crack the top 2 in this district.
D4 5th place Sumner-Fredericksburg returns almost everything, they were mostly sophs and even several freshmen started for them last season. Graduated the QB (Schmitz) and a pretty good 6'6 O/D-lineman (Seehase) but everyone else is back. They should be much better, but good enough to contend with the big dogs, I doubt it.
D4 6th place Postville canceled their season after week 5 last year and sounds like they won't be any better this year. They have a couple decent kids (Downing and Check) but the program is in trouble. Hopefully they at least field a team and don't forfeit their games.
