Brian Kamler is in only his second season as the West De Pere boys soccer coach, but he’s already helped the program accomplish some big history.
West De Pere will play in the WIAA state tournament for the first time after beating West Bend West 1-0 in a Division 2 sectional championship Saturday.
It’s a notable turnaround for a team that has endured several losing seasons the past decade, including going 1-14-2 in 2016.
West De Pere (17-3-2) will play Waukesha West (15-2-3) in a state semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee.
“The mood around the school, the program, everything has been fantastic,” Kamler said. “I think any team that makes it, even one that goes back again, it’s always hard to get there. You enjoy it while it happens, and then the next year you try to get back there again. But you never know if it’s going to happen.
“I’ve been telling the boys this week, enjoy everything that is going on right now, but we also need to be focused. It’s not just about making the Final Four, it’s about hopefully competing against a tough Waukesha West team on Thursday.”
West De Pere gets hot after slow start
It might have been difficult to project the Phantoms reaching the state tournament after an uneven start to the season.
They were 1-2-2 after the first five games, although the early schedule did include a trio of strong teams in De Pere, Pulaski and Appleton Xavier.
It was after a 1-0 loss to Xavier at the beginning of September when things clicked.
West De Pere beat Green Bay West 13-0 following the defeat and went more than a month without a loss, riding a 12-game winning streak that included a 5-3 victory over Xavier that helped the Phantoms win a share of the Bay Conference title with the Hawks.
They enter the big stage having won 16 of their last 17.
“Gradually throughout the season, it was like light bulbs that were turning on for the guys with different things we were trying to introduce,” Kamler said. “(The winning streak), that’s when you go, ‘Oh, we could actually do this.’
“I think my coaching staff and myself, we just kept hammering home what we thought was going to be big points and tried to work on those issues in practice.”
A lot goes right during any long winning streak. It’s never just one player doing it all.
But there was a moment during the loss to Xavier that did appear to help jump-start the Phantoms’ season.
Senior forward Braden Kelnhofer approached Kamler and told him he thought he might be more useful to the team by playing defense.
Kamler wasn’t accustomed to hearing something like that from a prep player. For a player in his final season and willing to sacrifice his own numbers to help the team stood out.
Kelnhofer was a good player for the Phantoms at forward or in the midfield, but he was even better as part of the defense.
“The way that he worked in with our backline, which was already solid, and the way he was able to connect with our midfield and get service into the box, it helped out,” Kamler said. “But there are other things guys just have to experience out on the field sometimes before those light bulbs go off.
“Guys started experiencing things that we said, ‘Look, if you do this, this will happen.’ After Braden did it and we were getting some service into the box in the right areas where we wanted it, it was like, ‘Hey, that’s actually working.’”
West De Pere has 11 shutouts in the last 17 games, including all four tournament contests.
Senior goaltender Ben Woller entered sectionals allowing 0.81 goals in almost 1,300 minutes while posting nine shutouts.
As good as the defense has been in front of him, Woller has come up with some big saves to help erase mistakes.
The offense has been just as good, scoring close to 100 goals and putting up four or more scores 12 times.
Senior midfielder and team captain Tyler Kowalczyk entered sectionals with a team-high 24 goals and 13 assists, while senior midfielder Jon Romatowski had 16 goals and eight assists, junior midfielder Landen Arnstad 13 goals and 11 assists and sophomore midfielder Kasey Kamler a team-high 17 assists.
West De Pere will get big test at state
The Phantoms have played several good teams this season, but Waukesha West might be the best.
The Wolverines are ranked No. 2 in D2 and reached state by beating top-ranked Wauwatosa East in a sectional championship.
They are making their second straight trip to state and sixth overall but never have advanced to a title game.
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The team is led by senior midfielder Connor Urban (18 goals, 10 assists) and sophomore forward Andrew James (10 goals, 5 assists).
“The team they beat in the sectional final was really the favorite to win it all, so I would say that they are definitely the favorite going forward,” said Kamler, who has gone 26-7-8 at West De Pere. “They have got a lot of talent, without a doubt.
“But we are going to see if we can’t be kind of a little thorn in their side and see what we can do.”
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