‘High Expectations’ for Griswold FB for Coach Lembke

‘High Expectations’ for Griswold FB for Coach Lembke –

(8-20-26) – Last year, there was a learning curve for Tigers football. This year, they’re expected to execute.

Griswold football Coach Seth Lembke feels his team should be better prepared for the grind of the season with all but two players returning from last season’s squad.

“Last year we were pretty inexperienced and we're a lot a bit young. This year we don't really have that excuse,” Lembke told KNOD Sports. “We returned all but two players. And we've got a good core back and everybody's got another year of experience. We've also instilled the fact that we've got some pretty high expectations of this group.”

One of those returning starters is Dane Laverty, who was a jack-of-all-trades last year for the Tigers, leading them in passing AND receiving yards, while also 2nd in rushing yards. Lembke says his role under center will be expanded but still plans to use Laverty in several different ways.

“He'll play a lot more quarterback for us this year than last year. But he's been working hard, throwing the ball, working hard, making the reads, and we can run the ball a little bit better too. Just top to bottom, he's just a hard-working kid.”

Colton Frieze returns to lead the Griswold defense after a season where led them in tackles with 52.5. Lembke loves the leadership Frieze has shown since earning a starting role midway through last season.

“He took over that starting role about halfway through and really, really started to build his skills there. He was asking a lot of good questions, a lot of the right kinds of questions for the position. You know, just kind of we're looking for him to kind of be the example for that for the other guys, for some of the younger guys who might not necessarily have the experience on defense in those positions, but just kind of help leading and direct that defense.”

Griswold had 53 tackles for loss as a team last year. Lembke believes the experience on defense should help them hold teams out of the end zone, after allowing nearly 60 pts a game last season.

“Everybody's a year older and hopefully a year wiser. We've got a new defensive coordinator who's got several years of experience with it in Cole Cooper, he's done a great job installing kind of a new scheme for us that I think is really going to do wonders in putting our kids in a position to be successful.”

Griswold will begin their season with a home contest against East Mills on Friday, Aug. 21st.

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