Photo illustration by Travis Rosenau Springfield’s Gavin VanderWerff was named the 2024 All-Journal Offensive Football Player of the Year on Wednesday.
SPRINGFIELD — The passing attack has been the focus of the Springfield Tigers offense for the past few years. The Tigers have long had a pass-heavy offense thanks to quarterbacks like Decker Scheffler, Brendon Burkle, and Jakob Nachreiner.
While Springfield hasn’t completely moved away from its passing attack this year, gaining an average of 193 yards through the air, there has been a noticeable change in the Tigers’ success with running balls this year, averaging 175.6 yards per game on the ground. Gained yards.
This was largely due to the play of Gavin Vanderwerf, who took over the lead back role this season for the state runner-up. VanderWerf came in with 1,562 yards on 222 attempts, 7 yards per carry, 120.2 yards per game, and added 11 touchdowns. For his play and leadership this season, VanderWerff was named the All-Journal Offensive Football Player of the Year, as voted on by the magazine’s sports staff.
“It is an honor to be nominated in all of these areas.” Vanderwerf said. “At the beginning of the season, to be honest, I never thought I would come close to winning these awards, because we have very good athletes all around us. It’s an honor to be nominated for all of these awards.”
VanderWerff said the run game’s increased role in Springfield’s offense has made this year’s offense more successful overall.
“If we can run the ball effectively, we have a much better rhythm on offense.” he said. “Once you establish the run game and your linebackers feed into the run game, you get more breadth in the passing game, especially with fake runs. They’re gaining yards per carry thanks to their linemen and lead blockers, so they You have to bite, you have to commit to the run. It just opens up the passing game, and if you can pass effectively, it’s very hard to stop.”
Vanderwerf has been a big part of Springfield’s success over the past few seasons. The Tigers advanced to the Class A state championship game for the third straight year this year, having faced Minneota all three years and making history as the first time two teams have faced each other three consecutive times in the Prep Bowl. VanderWerff said the class he took before him helped set an example for the group of what it takes to compete in the deep state tournament.
“We’ve had great leaders and phenomenal athletes on our team the last few years.” Vanderwerf said. “Learning from great examples like the captains we have had over the past few years to understand how they demonstrate leadership and what situations it takes to be a leader. Knowing what to do and what not to do as a leader will make the season easier. Going back to Prep Bowl, this is something all of us captains and leaders can do to motivate our team. It helped me become a better leader throughout the year.”
On the way to the state title game, the Tigers encountered tough opponents in Goodhue and Mahnomen/Wauven in the state tournament. Springfield trailed at halftime in both games, but VanderWerf’s leadership and Springfield’s other seniors led them to victory in both games.
“As a senior, I don’t want our last game to be one where we know we could have played better and we didn’t play the way we played and that’s the reason we didn’t make the Prep Bowl again. It should be.” Vanderwerf said. “I remember asking my teammates in the locker room what they were seeing, what was going well, what wasn’t working, where was the pressure coming from? All of that. It’s along those lines. Once you actually start communicating, it makes the game a lot easier. It’s basically about communication.”
Not only has VanderWerf been an integral part of Springfield’s offense this year, but he’s also arguably the top defensive player, which is why the Journal’s sports staff has no choice but to choose him for Offensive or Defense of the Year this year. I had a hard time deciding. VanderWerff led the Tigers with 122 total tackles and 16 tackles for loss, and also added three sacks and three interceptions from the linebacker position. VanderWerf was named the KNUJ Defensive Player of the Year and won the South Region, West Sub-District and South Region Linebacker of the Year awards. As a result, VanderWerf almost never transferred to Springfield and continued to play at a high level.
“The first few games were definitely tough.” Vanderwerf said. “Last year I was just playing defense behind great players, so I wasn’t used to it yet. This year I knew I was going to play both ways, so I was going to play both ways and be a mainstay on both sides of the ball. When you become one of the players, conditioning is It’s very, very important. It’s a lot of patience. And you have to want to enjoy the game and not play on one side of the ball. It becomes difficult to play at your best.”
Of the two, VanderWerff is a bit more defensive, but also enjoys going for big runs.
“Just being able to fill that hole and tackle someone when it really matters makes me feel good.” he said. “But obviously it feels good when you get a 50-70 yard touchdown run on offense. But I think we need to put a little more emphasis on defense.”
A three-time Prep Bowl player, VanderWerff and the rest of Springfield’s seniors raised the standard of football for the Tigers and left a legacy to look forward to for future classes.
“The seniors from the past few years always looked at us as another group of boys who wanted to go to the Prep Bowl.” Vanderwerf said. “They always tell us to continue the tradition, so it really makes you want to go back there during the offseason. Every senior wants to get to that point, but the seniors we’ve had, All the children we looked up to, we don’t want to leave behind their legacy.”
Vanderwerf is still considering college options and is unsure if he wants to continue playing at the next level. If he wants, he has several offers from programs like Gustavus Adolphus College, University of Minnesota Morris and St. Scholastica College. If he decides to continue playing, his chosen program will certainly have players with plenty of talent and leadership.
Gavin Vanderwerf, Sr., RB, Springfield Vanderwerff has been the driving force behind this year’s Springfield offense and…
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