Today, we will be looking into 247Sports to see where each top player in the State of Wisconsin is heading after high school to play College Football while we see many different Division 1 prospects from this 2024 class in the state, we will review the rankings later in the article, this season is going to be a great season as it is slated to begin this Thursday, we will also look at those teams below that fit my special phrases for the 2023 season.
READ MORE: WISCONSIN SPORTS HEROICS WISCONSIN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PRESEASON RANKINGS
That always tough team:
Every year we always seem to see top recruits coming out of schools like Catholic Memorial, for example, running back Corey Smith was named the fastest player in the nation according to VNN Sports a couple of weeks ago. Currently, one thing that also sits special at Catholic Memorial is head coach Bill Young sits with lots of past success, being the 19th active winningest coach in America for High School Football according to MaxPreps with a 392-121 record as a high school coach and nine state championships all time, last year they fell short to Columbus in the Division 4 State Championship game so I would rate Catholic Memorial as a team to always watch out for, you will see them mentioned in the 247Sports Player rankings below quite a bit.
The team everyone should lookout to make a run this year:
Looking at these rankings for this season one team that is expected to impress is the Arrowhead Warhawks coached by Matt Harris, they have tons of talent with a 2025 Quarterback out of Vance Holtz, but lots of great talent ranked high in the top 2024 player rankings this could be a team you potentially can see making a for sure run at the Classic Eight title but very likely could compete for the Division 1 Championship, below we will show you how many players are ranked from this impressive squad out of the 2024 class. Arrowhead ranks #2 in Division 1 on average in every preseason poll released, as well as Wisconsin Sports Heroics Preseason rankings.
The Dominating Decade Team:
If you’re a Wisconsin High School Football fan you are aware that the Kimberly Papermakers have been a dominating football team over the past decade when it all started under head coaches Steve Jorgenson and Steve Jones but it has seemingly been on a trend to continue as after Steve Jones announced his resignation as football coach and a teacher in the district in Spring 2022, Chad Michalkiewicz came over from De Pere and he took the Kimberly Papermakers to the Division 1 State Championship and won a title over Mukwonago in an extremely tight game. Once again Kimberly brings back a decent team as they are set up extremely well in the Class of 2024 but one Edge Rusher you will see in the rankings below.
The Comeback team last year, who will still impress:
After falling to 1-2 last season one Milwaukee area team came out during Game 4 of the season and started turning on the lights, that’s correct that would be the Kettle Moraine Lasers in Week 4 getting on a roll to beat Oconomowoc after losing two games early, and then Week 8 would defeat the #1 ranked Mukwonago at home later that season and then the momentum went towards Kettle Moraine as they only lost one game after that to Muskego and carried through the Playoffs to win the Division 2 State Championship. Head Coach Matt Mcdonnell returns a pretty good class although he lost his Quarterback Chase Spellman from last year who graduated I would still not count Kettle Moraine as they are featured with three players in the top 2024 player rankings.
Who will have the toughest conference in 2023?
When looking at football conferences in the State of Wisconsin you will see that it would be very tough to be out of the Classic Eight conference especially when you see a State Champion, State Runner Up, and two teams that reached Level 3 in 2022 as well. You are competing with Mukwonago, Kettle Moraine, Arrowhead, and Muskego, then you look at Waukesha West as well as Oconomowoc are not always easy run-over opponents either. I will put it this way when whatever team gets in the playoffs out of this conference the record should not symbolize them especially if each team has 2-3 losses with the strength of schedule each of these teams may have.
Which Rivalry Game may really impact a Conference or Seeding?
The Southeast Conference brings in a great rivalry every year but now it may play tricks on a Conference Championship, for awhile the Franklin Sabers who have been coached by Louis Brown have had a dominating record over the Oak Creek Knights over the past decade but last year things seem to really change when Oak Creek went into Franklin and won 35-7 last season but eventually ended up sharing a conference title with Franklin last season, due to falling to Racine Park later in the season, the Sabers will have Joey Kallay has a starting QB this year and will still have stud RB Terrence Shelton. The Oak Creek Knights return an impressive team once again with a great offensive line, running game, and defense and coached by Joel Paar as they had a slight quarterback change with Cade Palkowski announcing he is not playing in 2023 due to a Baseball Scholarship with North Carolina, so now Sophomore QB Izayah Angeles will start for the Knights now. This matchup is expected to take place on Thursday, September 21st, and will be broadcasted by Wisconsin Sports Network on YouTube.
2024 Class Rankings and Commitments:
Now we are going to show you the table of where each of the top Wisconsin High School Football players in the Class of 2024 is committed to, as this class brings in lots of great talent and will boost lots of teams’ State Championship odds.
(247Sports 2024 Wisconsin High School Football Player Rankings)
# | Name | Position | High School | Commitment |
#1 | Nathan Roy | IOL | Mukwonago | Minnesota |
#2 | Donovan Harbour | IOL | Catholic Memorial | Penn State |
#3 | Corey Smith | RB | Catholic Memorial | Penn State |
#4 | Garrett Sexton | OT | Arrowhead | Penn State |
#5 | Rob Booker | TE | Waunakee | UCLA |
#6 | Sam Pilof | LB | Middleton | Rutgers |
#7 | Derek Jensen | OT | Arrowhead | Wisconsin |
#8 | Jace Gilbert | DL | Arrowhead | Iowa State |
#9 | Miles Sillas | LB | Hortonville | No Decision |
#10 | Landon Gauthier | LB | Bay Port | Wisconsin |
#11 | Austin Leibfried | OT | Mount Horeb | Indiana |
#12 | Carter Kadow | OT | Middleton | Rutgers |
#13 | Adrian Thomas | WR | Nicolet | Northern Illinois |
#14 | Matthew Stenbroten | LB | Lake Mills | Syracuse |
#15 | Carson Van Dinter | S | Kaukauna | Iowa State |
#16 | Brock Arndt | EDGE | Appleton North | No Decision |
#17 | Terrance Shelton | RB | Franklin | Buffalo |
#18 | Mitch Verstegen | IOL | Kaukauna | Indiana |
#19 | JJ Douglas | WR | Janesville Parker | Central Michigan |
#20 | Ross Liegel | DL | Baraboo | Northern Illinois |
#21 | Jamison Klein | DL | Oconomowoc | Air Force |
#22 | Grey Rumohr | OT | Kettle Moraine | Northern Illinois |
#23 | Bryce Jaworski | TE | Wausau West | Army |
#24 | Jace Miller | DL | Franklin | No Decision |
#25 | Drew Braam | LB | Oak Creek | South Dakota State |
#26 | Thomas D’Onofrio | S | Middleton | No Decision |
#27 | Drew Wagner | WR | Kettle Moraine | Navy |
#28 | Sam McGivern | EDGE | Kimberly | Yale |
#29 | Daniel Simon | EDGE | Winneconne | South Dakota State |
#30 | Sam Ostrenga | ATH | Sun Prairie East | North Dakota |
#31 | Colton Brunell | ATH | Columbus | North Dakota |
#32 | Jamire Davis | CB | Kenosha St. Joesph | Army |
#33 | Benjamin Harman | DL | Stoughton | No Decision |
#34 | Langdon Nordgaard | TE | West De Pere | No Decision |
(Please note some players recently committed and the commitment status is updated on Wisconsin Sports Heroics, based on players Twitter)
PLEASE NOTE: These rankings are via 247Sports and each name is hyperlinked and you can read more about these players on the 247Sports Website.