Muskego Football Coaches to Speak at Wing-T This Weekend

For most people, the idea of spending their time Friday after work and all day Saturday at an out-of-town seminar probably doesn’t sound like much fun.

But for Muskego football head coach Ken Krause and defensive coordinator Jim Michlig, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The duo that helped coach the Warriors to a 7-4 record this past fall, earning their first playoff berth since 2006, will be speaking at the 10^th annual Wing-T Football Clinic in Mauston this weekend, one of the premiere football-coaching clinics in the area as hundreds of coaches from the Midwest attend annually.

“It’s a big honor,” coach Krause said about being chosen to be one of the 10 speakers at the event. “I’m flattered…to be asked to speak there. (It’s) good for our program to get some recognition.”

That program finished with some impressive numbers this past season. MHS averaged 36 points per game on the season, the highest total in school history. The team also posted the second-most total yards on offense of 101 teams in the Milwaukee area, and amassed over 500 yards per game in their final five regular-season contests.

Part of that success came because of a relationship Krause built while attending the Wing-T clinic for nearly a decade.

Mike Taake, somewhat of a legendary football coach from his days at Mauston high school, took time off from his retirement this fall to come to Muskego to implement a new play in their offense. According to Krause, that play averaged “9 or 10 yards” every time this past season.

Now giving up that weekend doesn’t sound so bad.

So, just what is this clinic all about?

“It’s a pretty cool format,” Krause said. “There are 10 speakers at the clinic on Saturday and each coach talks for an hour. Friday night they’ll have a mini clinic where each coach talks on things that are non-related to X’s and O’s, so I’ll be talking about year-round goal setting.

“I sit with the juniors usually three times a year individually to set academic goals, football goals, weightlifting goals and so on. I’m going to present on that, kind of a relationship-building piece.

“Then on Saturday I’ll have an hour to talk about the way we run our offense, our philosophy of how we run the wing-t. Basically I’m going to talk about last year (and) why we were successful last year.”

While Krause breaks down those topics, coach Michlig will be tackling the defensive side of the ball where the Warriors weren’t too bad either. Seven times this season Muskego allowed 21 points or less and if you take out giving up 69 points to offensive juggernaut Kenosha Bradford, the Warriors defense averaged just 18.5 points per game.

The other coaches scheduled to speak are Clayt Birmingham (University of Wisconsin-Stout), Cory McLaughlin and Dan Sharp (Catholic Academy, Joliet, Il.), Kevin Grundy and Nick Sturm (Wausau West), and Scott Cramer and Dave Richardson (Verona).

The clinic takes place this Friday and Saturday, March 3 and 4 in Mauston.