John's Journal: Pickle Juice, A Lucky Watermelon And Perseverance

The football team from Jackson County Central has been through a lot in the past week or so. The Huskies’ story includes a jar of pickle juice, a lucky watermelon, an inspiring text and two of their best players using crutches and a wheelchair to get around.

They are undefeated through 12 games this fall after holding off Kimball 34-26 Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium and will attempt to win a Class 2A state championship when they meet Staples-Motley or Chatfield (who played later Friday) in next week’s Prep Bowl. How they survived is a story of persistence, teamwork and using bailing wire and toothpicks to hold everything together.

The Huskies sailed through the playoffs, winning the Section 3 title with a 36-14 win over LeSueur-Henderson and defeating Pipestone 48-7. They defeated Central 34-7 in the state quarterfinals on Nov. 8, a date which will live in infamy.

The injury hammer fell, hard, twice in that game. Junior quarterback/safety Roman Voss, one of the top college recruits in the state, went out with a broken ankle and classmate Ben Gallagher, a talented receiver and cornerback, also suffered a lower-body injury. Voss entered and exited the field Friday via wheelchair, and he and Ben used crutches to navigate the sideline during the game.

This fall, Voss has made visits and/or received offers from the likes of Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, California, and Penn State. He is the real deal, and if that name sounds familiar it’s because he suffered a horrific injury a year ago in a state semifinal loss to Barnesville.

He had head and shoulder injuries, left the field on a stretcher and was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center. So the last time he was at U.S. Bank Stadium, he left on a wheeled contraption. When he returned Friday, it was in a chair with wheels. In other words, life isn’t fair.

And Jackson County Central coach Tom Schuller is well aware of that fact. He also knows that his players are committed to their mission.

“Our guys are really resilient,” he said after Friday’s win. “We haven't shied away from our goal all year, which is to win a state title. We're not afraid to say that, and we weren't willing to say, ‘Darn it, there went that.’ So hats off to these guys for just pulling through in a really tough football game that was emotionally and physically draining.”

Friday’s contest was exactly that. The Huskies, who had not trailed all season, were behind 18-14 in the third quarter after Kimball scored three consecutive touchdowns, including a 58-yard pass from Brandon Henkemeyer to Bryant Knaus and an electric 81-yard kickoff return by Knaus.

Sophomore Gage Johnson scored three TDs for Jackson County Central on runs of two, two and 18 yards, the last one sealing the win … well, almost. Kimball was on the Huskies’ 46 with 1:42 to play when a pass by Henkemeyer was intercepted by JCC’s Ben Dahlin. The Huskies got a first down via Kimball penalty and took two knees to close it out.

Dahlin fought cramps during the game, including in the fourth quarter as the pressure mounted.

“When I went down in the fourth, that's probably the worst cramp I've ever felt,” he said. “It was pretty awful. But I knew I was going to be fine. Caitlin (JCC athletic trainer Caitlin Place) was there to help. I got some pickle juice. I was out for one play and then came back and got the interception.”

The quarterback who did the kneeling for JCC was not the person one would have expected to be doing so, if one would have hazarded a guess two or three weeks ago. The new quarterback, senior Grant Freking, has played that position for all of two weeks or so, and is playing football for the first time in high school. The 6-foot-5 senior completed seven of 11 passes for 73 yards while holding the keys to an offense that Schuller said uses “a gazillion sets.”

“This man is a grizzled veteran,” Schuller said with a laugh in describing Grant. “He did a phenomenal job. Having to come in against (Central), he got a little cushion in that game. I couldn't do it, with all the footwork and the verbiage and all this stuff. He's a really heady kid, a good athlete. There's only a handful of guys I think could handle something like that. Thank God we’ve got one of them.”

The coach also gave credit to his five-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, for inspiring the Huskies with produce, what Schuller called “the lucky watermelon.”

“She grew a watermelon this year and conceived it to be good luck, and it started to deteriorate a little bit, kind of like our starting lineup, but like our team, it's still coming through and shining brightly.”

Kimball, which ended a glorious season with a record of 11-1, was also dealing with injuries to key players.

“There were shorthanded, for sure,” Cubs coach Clay Anderson said of the Huskies. “Three (Gallagher) is a great player. Two (Voss) is a great player, really a great player, obviously. So we knew they were shorthanded, but we also watched them on film, and defensively their front seven is as good as we've seen.”

JCC is playing at state for the 13^th time since 1985, owning a Class B state title in 1985 and a 3A crown in 2001. They have been state runner-up three times and lost in the state semifinals the past two years.

Asked to describe the last few days, Schuller said, “Extreme depression on Saturday. Sunday, you get back up off the deck emotionally, and then getting back to work. Lots of shuffling of players for us.”

During Friday’s game, Voss and Gallagher talked to their teammates and offered advice. The healthy Huskies know what those two mean to everybody.

“We got to talk to them on the sideline,” said senior lineman Ian Titterington. “And they kept us up and we talked to them all game. Before the game I went up to Roman and Ben and I said, ‘We’re going to go out there and give everything we’ve got for you guys. We're going to bring this thing home for you guys.’

“We told everyone, ‘We’ve just got to trust everybody. Do your job, try not to play another person's position.’ And if you go out there and trust the person next to you, it's going to be hard to get beat.”

As the teams returned to the field for the second half, the JCC cheerleaders held a paper banner for the Huskies to crash through. On it was this message: “Tell A Friend To Tell a Friend: We’re Back.”

Despite everything, the Huskies are indeed coming back to the big ballpark in downtown Minneapolis for one more game in 2024.

After Voss’ devastating injury last week, the Huskies were down in the dumps and rightfully so. But Roman lifted everyone’s spirits when he sent a text to his uncle, assistant coach Wade Wacker, a day later and the message was shared.

It read in part, “No one gives a crap that we are hurt and we are down right now. Me and Ben are going to heal up and be OK. I know you will give it your absolute best effort to win this thing. And so will I. I have 100% faith that we can still do this thing. … we had 22 dogs on this team, now we are going to have to win it with 20 dogs. No other team has the grit like us. It’s going to be a crazy story after it’s done. I love ya.”

State Football Semifinals

Thursday

4A/ Becker 28, Marshall 7

Nine-Player/ Hills-Beaver Creek 26, Mountain Iron-Buhl 20

Nine-Player/ Fertile-Beltrami 60, LeRoy-Ostrander/Lyle-Pacelli 33

6A/ Minnetonka 48, Anoka 27

Friday

2A/ Jackson County Central 34, Kimball 26

4A/ Totino-Grace 30, Orono 21

5A/ Elk River 21, Chanhassen 19

2A/ Staples-Motley vs. Chatfield

6A/ Shakopee vs. Maple Grove

Saturday

9 a.m. 1A/ Springfield vs. Mahnomen-Waubun

11:30 a.m. 1A/ Parkers Prairie vs. Minneota

2 p.m. 3A/ Dassel-Cokato vs. Pequot Lakes

4:30 p.m. 3A/ Albany vs. Stewartville

7:30 p.m. 5A/ Alexandria vs. Owatonna

--MSHSL senior content creator John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Threads at johnmilleamn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]