Where does this Menomonie team rank?

Needless to say, there have been some pretty darn good football teams at Menomonie over the years.

This was the first one I got to experience up close for a whole season, but I've admired the Indians program from afar for the last five years. And although I don't have much experience covering the team, I can't imagine a squad that got more out of less than this year's bunch, which ended its season with a 35-14 loss to Kimberly on Friday night at D.C. Everest.

Sure, Jon Heimler is a legit Division II wide receiver, Isaac Harris is a tough back to wrap up and Jared Sawle is a pure playmaker, but the rest of the team was undersized and inexperienced.

Yet, there they were. A few plays from making it back to Camp Randall Stadium and the state championship game.

"If anyone would have seen us in our first scrimmage, we were a terrible football team," Menomonie coach Joe LaBuda told me after the game. "We started the season with no returning starters on defense. When you are that young to begin with and you lose five full-time starters to injury and you still get this far, it has to do with one thing, and that's integrity. This was a great group of kids, one of the greatest groups of character I've ever had.

"We weren't the biggest Menomonie football team, we weren't the fastest Menomonie football team, we weren't the most athletic Menomonie football team, but we got to the final four based on the type of kids that we have."

- John Casper Jr.