Program Profile: Milaca Wolves

In my sixth of many program profiles for the 2019 season, I debut another central Minnesota program, the Milaca Wolves. I got to chat with head coach, Kevin Armbrust who is a former assistant at Sauk Rapids-Rice and is entering his 3rd year as the head coach of the Wolves program. The Milaca Wolves Offense The first player of note on this roster is senior wide receiver, Logan Molacek. From what I've seen on tape, Molacek has good hands and good timing on his jumps which makes sense being that he also plays basketball for the Wolves as well. At tailback, the Wolves has junior Henry Truebenbach who is an uphill runner who is very hard to tackle. Another junior tailback is Aiden Mickla who also is on the Milaca track team, which shows why his acceleration is so quick up the field. This one, two punch at tailback should push Milaca's offense this year to an even higher level. These tailbacks will be pushed by the two tackles upfront in Zyon Evans and Jack Olson who will lead the offensive line upfront. The Milaca Wolves Defense One of the two-way players is strong safety/quarterback Nick Brink who has a great tackling ability along with a great instinct for knowing where the football is on the field. Another strong force on the defensive side of the ball is 6'0 225 pound Rylan Blake at linebacker. This kid loves to put offensive blockers on their rear end with tons of force making him the hard hitter on the Milaca defense, keep him out of your backfield as well as he will make you pay. To get started on the defensive line, you have to look at defensive end Bodee Zens for one of the Wolves upfront on the defensive line. Zens also lines up at tight end on the offensive side of the ball so that gives him a great football IQ from typically blocking defensive ends and being a defensive end himself. Coaching Mentor When I asked Armbrust about his coaching mentor, he mentioned the longtime New York Giants and Jacksonville Jaguars head coach, Tom Coughlin who is now back with the Jaguars as the Executive VP of Football Operations. The coaching style of Coughlin is a frame of two words, effort and discipline. If you look at the résumé of Coughlin, he was a coach that always got the most out of his players regardless of the game they were playing in. He also was one of the most disciplined coaches in the NFL, and challenged players regardless if they were a rookie or a 12 year all-pro to the same respect. It's very clear to me on why Coach Armbrust mentors his Milaca Wolves squad after this legendary NFL coach. Section Toughness One of the toughest parts of the section Milaca plays in is the quality of opponents the section has from top to bottom. An example from last year would be the Annandale Cardinals who was ranked #1 in the section last year, but still only was able to make it to the section semifinals. It will be interesting to see if Milaca can get the section championship this year. Milaca Wolves Goals When asking Coach Armbrust about goals, he had three good ones in mind. "Get better than the week before, regardless of who we are playing that week" Coach Armbrust said for the Wolves first goal. The second goal is something I touched on in the last section, getting to the section championship is goal number #2. The last goal is to improve the overall record from the year before. That's Milaca Wolves Football goals, very straight forward and to the point. Most Wolves Play Both Ways On average the Wolves have 6 of their 11 players play on both sides of the ball which is just under 55% of the average squad of 40 players for Milaca, play defense and offense. That is a very common practice in Milaca's section to play both ways. Wolves Alumni Coming Back to Help Most programs I've covered have had a good share of players coming back to help in the weight room or at summer practices, Milaca just has a few I wanted to name. Coach Armbrust named Dylan Ash, who now plays football at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa as a player that has come back to help out the Wolves this off-season. Another player that has done so is Cade Sorensen, who played football, basketball and baseball at Milaca. It's not about the number of players you have coming to help, it's the dedication a few individuals just like Milaca have done to give back to the Wolves program. What should the state of Minnesota know about Milaca Football? This is a crucial year for the Milaca Wolves to see what's in store for their future in their section and the central Minnesota football landscape they play in. Only time will tell to see how the Wolves fare this season as they will kick off this season two days from today on August 29th at home against New London-Spicer at 7 PM.