By Adam Roberts – 10/26/2020
In a football season unlike any other, high school athletes still need the opportunity to showcase their skills to those making recruiting decisions at the next level. Over the weekend, the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association held their annual Fall Combine, and while there are usually decent performances from Coulee Region athletes, this year featured some insane 40 yard dash times from a couple of our up and coming football players.
Despite both of their seasons on hold until spring, La Crosse Central junior running back Mason Herlitzke and Sparta sophomore wide receiver Carson Kelsey each ran 4.53 40s on Saturday. To put that into perspective, that’s the same average speed for an NFL free safety at the combine! On average, a high school football player will usually finish somewhere between 4.9 and 5.6, so this young men definitely deserve some respect! They weren’t the only Coulee Region speedsters, however; Sparta senior wideout Corbin Hauser ran is own blistering 40 at 4.59.
Elsewhere, Spartan senior Abram Edie hit a 35.3 inch vertical jump and also ran the third fastest L-drill at 6.78. Herlitzke and Edie tied for the best Coulee Region broad jumpers at 9’9″ while Quinn Servais and Ethan Shepard of Central also had good broad jumps at 9’5″ and 9’4″ respectively, and teammate Cole Lapp and Hauser hit 9 feet even.
Congrats to all the area athletes who had the honor of getting to test their athletic abilities!