ASHWAUBENON, Wis. (WBAY) – From the bright lights and big stage of the NFL Draft to a much smaller stage here at home, the moment of hearing your name called is just as real for dozens of young athletes in Ashwaubenon.<\/p>\n
On Thursday night, incoming freshmen were \u201cdrafted\u201d into the Ashwaubenon High School football program.<\/p>\n
For the Ashwaubenon High School class of 2030, Thursday night is their moment.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a night built like a professional draft, where future Jaguars are officially welcomed into the program and hear their names called for the first time as high school players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be awesome to go on with my friends\u2026 and go Jags,\u201d says Cole Millard.<\/p>\n
For some, this is years in the making.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been playing for 11 years now. This will make 11. It\u2019s a great game. I want to go big, go to the NFL,\u201d says Dayne Manci.<\/p>\n
The evening was a chance to take that next step.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight means a lot to me. I just, like, feel so blessed so I can be drafted here,\u201d says Manci. <\/p>\n
The enthusiasm is hard to miss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited, actually. Go play football. Go out there and get some points for the team,\u201d says Talen Coppens. <\/p>\n
The young players\u2019 mindset fits right in with what they\u2019re being taught from day one.<\/p>\n
Head coach Brian Ryczkowski emphasized hard work and accountability because Draft Night is about more than just the ceremony.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about building a program where freshmen through seniors are all part of one team, upperclassmen cheering them on and welcoming the next group into the fold.<\/p>\n
For rising senior Bryce Hennessey, it\u2019s a full circle moment, having once sat in the same seats, and now calling out the names and passing along a message.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe prepared for anything, it\u2019s not going to be easy. It\u2019s going to be hard. Especially coming from middle school. it\u2019s not the same,\u201d says Hennessey.<\/p>\n
As these young players take their first step into high school football, every new player signed a letter of intent, received their team hat, and was placed on a competition team made up of all four grade levels.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WBAY. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASHWAUBENON, Wis. (WBAY) – From the bright lights and big stage of the NFL Draft to a much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7],"class_list":{"0":"post-873276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116457642625769820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}