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By GAYLE WEBER

gweber@dailynews.net

LA CROSSE -- The 35 members of the La Crosse High School football team couldn't help but notice the dozens of cars already lined up around their football field Thursday morning when they arrived for school.

And despite their coach's low-key game day routine, the excitement from the community emanated from the field long before the players put on their pads.

"They know," said Connie Musil, football mom and high school English teacher. "The tone was set."

With 2,000 fans expected for Thursday night's game against state-ranked Meade, parents like Musil and Jerilyn Stull couldn't risk giving up their favorite seats in the bleachers so they fastened blankets to the metal with bungee cords on Wednesday night.

"Some of us are just used to sitting in the same section every game," Stull said. "Maybe we're superstitious."

If that's the case, it's working.

The La Crosse Leopards finished their third straight undefeated regular season Thursday night, walloping the previously unbeaten Meade Buffaloes.

However, Coach Ryan Cornelson tries to divert all the excitement surrounding the team's success away from the players on game days.

Before each home game, the team gathers for a meal at Four Corner Restaurant on the north side of town shortly after school gets out. A few whispers and the crumple of individual potato chip bags were the only things that could be heard in the room just big enough for the team.

"I think there's a time and a place to get excited and fired up. At school and leading up to the game's not that time," Cornelson said. "We try to keep our composure throughout the day."

After the meal, Cornelson called each starting unit up to the front of the room to go over the game plan one last time.

"We've gotta show that we're as good as we know we are," Cornelson said.

With that, the team went back to the school to "bed down" for about an hour prior to warm-ups.

High goals

The team set a goal this year as it has for the past several years to first, make the state playoffs, and second, to win the state title.

"We want these boys to accomplish everything they've set out to," said Meredith Musil, older sister of senior running back Marshall Musil. "We know they're not going to be satisfied with anything less than the state title."

However, the team has been taking its season one game at a time. For that reason, the community doesn't like to talk about what might be ahead, but many still are thinking about the team's loss to four-time defending state champion Smith Center in the 2006 playoffs.

"After being there (two) years ago and being trounced on the ultimate coldest day of the winter, we want it," Connie Musil said.

La Crosse has never won a state football championship.

"We're setting high goals of winning state and with that comes pain and heartache," Superintendent Bill Keeley said. "Unfortunately, we know that."

But the fan support has never wavered especially coming from 85-year-old Ruthetta Irvin. Her grandson, Scott, is a sophomore on the team this year and she has watched four sons and one other grandson play for the team over the years.

"I've followed the team for 50 years," Irvin said. She still serves as a substitute teacher for the district and knows many of the players on the field.

"We hope we go to the state championship," she said.

The rest of LHS activities have had to revolve around the football team this year, according to Stull, who also serves as the head volleyball coach.

"A lot of times, we would adjust our Friday practices so that everybody could leave in time to go to the football game," Stull said. "It's been a challenge this year with the travel."

Since most of the schools in LHS' league play 8-man football, La Crosse was forced to travel to Maize, Solomon and even Oxford, Neb., in order to fill its schedule.

Keeley said the fans traveled well, easily doubling up the home team's crowd during some games.

The home crowd was helped out Thursday night by the advanced agriculture mechanics class completing a set of bleachers they'd been working on since April. The frame was completed by last year's class and about 12 students, including a few football players, helped to finish the seating area Thursday, according to teacher Chris Long.

The class will be working on at least two more sets of bleachers this year.

The schools

Community support extends beyond the football field, though.

Stull said she believes the town is able to maintain itself because of the schools.

"People still want to keep improving our schools," Stull said. "Our school district has done that by bringing back our alumni as teachers.

"I think it's good for the kids to see that it's OK to come back to your hometown."

Keeley said the district has been working to bring in the highest quality teachers possible over the last few years and the teachers already working there have done most of the recruiting and retention.

"(We) don't have shopping malls. (We) don't have theaters," Keeley said. "Our driving force is our own people. ... Quality draws quality."

He said the district isn't even concerned with making annual yearly progress on state assessment tests anymore. The standard of excellence awarded by the state each year is the ultimate goal for most teachers.

"The first year a couple of our teachers made the standard of excellence (and) that just lit the fire," Keeley said.

USD 395 has invested many of its resources in new technology for the students. The district is working toward a goal of having a one-to-one initiative in which all students would be able to have a laptop for personal use during the school year.

Right now, there are several laptop carts, but students are not allowed to take the computers home with them.

The district also has invested in Web-based resources to give students more opportunities to learn.

Kathy Keeley, middle and high school principal, said the schools also are focusing on character education this year. While it does take up instructional time, Kathy Keeley said it would be useful for the students and beneficial for the district.

USD 395 has had steady enrollment for the last few years with 306 students enrolled this year.

"Declining enrollment is always going to be on the forefront of any educator's mind," Kathy Keeley said. "But we have more students than we started with."

She said she measures success in enrollment when there are more seniors graduating than the class had in kindergarten.

Growing downtown

The only noticeable changes in the town, according to some of its residents, have been the opening and closing of businesses on Main Street. The most recent and notable of which was the closing of the town's only pharmacy in January.

"When we didn't have one, you could sure tell," said Michelle Yohe, insurance agent with Rush County Insurance Agency.

However, Holly Hoyt, who grew up here, returned to the town recently and opened Hoyt Health Mart Pharmacy in September.

The full-service pharmacy has three other employees and supplies a full line of over-the-counter medications and some medical care equipment.

Hoyt said she would like to expand in the future to include more gift items, but said she is keeping busy now.

Reflections Hair Salon also opened in September with owner Christina McAlister, who grew up in the town.

"I like the people here," McAlister said. "I know everybody so I feel a little bit more comfortable around them."

In May, Roosters Restaurant and Buffet opened after owner Betty Lou Disney found the available space on the Internet. Disney was living in Des Moines, Iowa, and bought the place sight unseen.

"I'd do it again," Disney said. She said enjoys the people in the community the most.

Movie Night is the most recent business to open doing so less than a month ago. It quickly has become a hot spot for middle and high school-aged children with a small 8-seat theater located in the back.

La Crosse Food Pride, the town's grocery store, will be under new ownership today, but will stay locally owned.

The next improvement to the town could come as soon as Tuesday when voters will cast their ballots on a issue that would approve much needed renovations for Rush County Memorial Hospital.

"I think that will really show how much our community wants us to succeed," Stull said.

Harvest time

Agriculture is the main industry in the town, especially this time of year.

Tom Kreutzer with Midland Marketing said he expected it to be a busy weekend with farmers finally able to get in the fields to harvest their milo crops.

"There's a lot of milo out there if they can get it cut, but I don't think that will be a problem," Kreutzer said. He said Midland Marketing has made room for the expected bumper crop by trucking out most of the other grain in its storage facilities.

He said the moisture on what had been brought in by Thursday afternoon had been fairly dry, hovering around 14 percent.

"It takes so long for it to dry out from overnight moisture that it's 3 or 4 in the afternoon before they can start cutting," Kreutzer said.

Long said there are fewer and fewer high school students interested in coming back to the farm after high school or college, but he's trying to spark that interest in his agriculture classes.

"Once they're in it, they seem to stay interested," Long said. But the number of small, family farms that used to surround La Crosse is getting smaller as well.

Starting early

Farmers Bank and Trust branch manager Kevin Moeder spent most of Thursday staring at his watch, hoping time would go by faster until his son's football game started.

"We're just looking forward to see how far we can go," he said.

The success of the high school football team probably has something to do with the little league programs now in place, according to City Clerk Kimberly Jay. Jay has a seventh grade son who is in his fifth year playing football.

"We only lost two (games) this year," Jay said. "That's the first two losses the junior high coach has had in the last three or four years."

She said the junior high boys already know the fundamentals of the game when they get to junior high, so winning early in their careers is almost a given.

"I think you can tell a big difference," Jay said.

As La Crosse prepares to play Stanton County on Tuesday night, sophomore running back Marcus Moeder said all the team needs is the same kind of support the community has been giving all season, if not more.

"We really don't have much in our town, but the football team keeps our town going," Moeder said.

The team's success is drawing fans from beyond La Crosse, including the entire Musil family.

"They travel all the way from Bushton and Goodland," Connie Musil said. "We have 30-plus every night."

But the community support is what makes the team, according to Connie Musil.

"If there is a Friday night lights anywhere in the United States, it's here," she said.