COLDWATER, Ohio — The Coldwater Cavaliers have a chance to end their regular season with a perfect record, but have to go through undefeated Marion Local to do so. For these seniors and this team though, this season means more than wins and loses, they’re playing for a teammate who died shortly before the season stared.
In a small town like Coldwater, the kids in each class are close.
“They’re always together, they always hang out together,” Coldwater football head coach Chip Otten said.
And that tight bond of this senior class has been more powerful than ever this season.
“People are probably getting tired of me saying how, what a special senior group it is,” Otten said. “There’s 16 when you count Cale.”
The day before the season opener, senior Cale Wenning died from injuries from an electric bike accident two weeks earlier.
“Our senior class, we’re all really tight and been together, grew up together, were all like, best friends,” senior running back and linebacker Miles Pottkotter said. “Obviously losing a teammate at the beginning of the year is tough to go through. So he’s always in our hearts. We play with him on our shoulder every game. We just try to play for him and play hard every snap.”
The team makes sure to honor Cale every game- between a number 70 sticker on their helmet, running out each game with a 70 flag and keeping his locker intact. His presence is always felt.
“Being so close together and being such good of friends, it makes it a little easier,” senior quarterback Baylen Blockberger said. “You know, obviously it’s not going to be easy, but going together and working with each other getting through it together it makes it a little easier. So being there for each other really helped.”
Cale, the starting center, was a leader of this team.
“With the loss of Cale, just threw a wrench into things,” Otten said. “He was our offensive line leader and a three-year starter.”
Blockberger had a special relationship with his center.
“We had a good bond,” he said. “We really were able to, you know, joke around with each other. But then, obviously, on a serious note, he was able to help me. I helped him. He’d get on me sometimes. He was really emotional and would express his feelings to me and the rest of the players.”
His teammates miss seeing number 70 on the field. Fellow senior Miles Pottkotter says Cale was a best friend.
“I don’t think there’s a week in my life since I went to school that I have not been around Cale,” Pottkotter said. “Just a best friend. Someone you can always rely on, just there for you. Just a good guy to be around. Make you laugh and make you smile. Whatever you’re doing, Cale is always there and having a good time with us.”
Otten says it made navigating the season particularly difficult.
“It was really heartbreaking in, you don’t really know what to do all the time,” Otten said. “Should we play this scrimmage? Should we play this game? Do I ask this? You know? Talk to the seniors, talk to the other players, talk to the parents and do the best you can to really help them and talk to the other coach, say keep an eye on these guys.”
Through the tough times, little things have helped keep Cale’s memory alive. This Cavaliers team is 9-0 with a chance to beat unbeaten Marion Local for the MAC championship, something that’s never happened for this class.
“I’d say it’d mean pretty much everything,” Blockberger said. “Everything we’ve put in, all the work we’ve put in, we’ve been looking forward to this game, hoping we’d get to this game and then having Cale on our back, it just gives us an extra push to win it.”
Coldwater faces Marion Local tonight in the regular season finale. The winner of the game will win the MAC conference championship. If Marion Local wins, they will become the first football team in OHSAA history to win 58 straight games. The action can be seen right here on Spectrum News 1 for viewers in southwest Ohio.