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Scheffler’s senior campaign brings Tigers back to state

2019 All-Journal Football • Decker Scheffler, Springfield • Offensive Player of the Year

Staff photo/illustration by Travis Rosenau Springfield quarterback Decker Scheffler was announced as the unanimous 2019 All-Journal Offensive Football Player of the Year on Wednesday. Scheffler led the Tigers to a 10-1 season with 2,000 yards passing and 25 touchdown passes.

SPRINGFIELD — While he helped Springfield finish this season with its second consecutive state football tournament appearance, Tigers senior quarterback Decker Scheffler didn’t have things any easier for him this year.

After losing his top targets from 2018 in Isaac Fink and Jordan Kieper to graduation this past spring, Scheffler and the Tigers needed to make adjustments this season in hopes of a repeat trip to state. Fink was also last year’s All-Journal Offensive Player of the Year after making 63 catches for 1,118 yards and 16 touchdowns, while Kieper finished his senior campaign with 49 receptions for 726 yards and six touchdowns.

This year, Scheffler made those adjustments and threw for 2,000 yards and 25 touchdowns on 170 completions. He also ran for 537 yards and five touchdowns.

“I knew after graduating Isaac and Jordan that it was going to be more balanced this year, which it was,” Scheffler said. “I don’t know how many guys had over 15 catches this year, but it was a lot of them, and that just makes it fun for all of those other guys. A lot of other people were available to catch the ball and it showed.”

While spreading the ball around more this season and finding other receivers like Nolan Hovland, 40 catches, and Tori Helget, 39 catches, Scheffler continued his strong play from a year ago and was unanimously selected as the 2019 All-Journal Offensive Football Player of the Year as a result.

“It’s good to see it pay off,” Scheffler said of the selection. “It wouldn’t be possible without my offensive lineman and my wide receivers, they do it all for me. Without my O-linemen, I wouldn’t have time to throw the ball, and without my wide receivers catching it, I wouldn’t have any of the numbers that I do. So all props go to them.”

This year’s Southwest District, East Subdistrict Offensive Back of the Year ends his high school football career with 5,488 yards passing, 410 completions and 57 touchdown passes.

After being eliminated from the 2018 state tournament after a second-round loss to Mahnomen/Waubun, Springfield finished the season at 8-5. This year, the Tigers ran through their competition and made it back to state after their 10th win of the year.

That 10th win came in the Section 3A finals over Martin County West. The 23-21 victory was anything but easy, though.

The Tigers held a 17-0 lead over MCW before the Mavericks scored 21 unanswered points to lead 21-17 with less than two minutes to play. Scheffler kept his composure, though, and helped lead the Tigers 80 yards down the field, getting a big catch from Hovland early in the drive and then finishing it with a 5-yard TD pass to Hovland with 15 seconds left to play.

That comeback win was Scheffler’s favorite moment of the year.

“It’s crazy to think it was fourth-and-10 and we were one play away from our season being over, but we stuck with it,” he said. “Nolan Hovland made a great catch to get the drive going and we made a comeback and ended up making state.”

While the Tigers followed that game up with a tough 42-20 loss to Blooming Prairie in first-round state tournament action, Scheffler was still proud of the success Springfield was able to have over the past two seasons.

“From freshman and sophomore year, I think we won three games total,” Scheffler said. “And we didn’t start my junior year off very well, either, I think we were 0-2 to start it off and then to go to state that year was really special for us. And we knew after the junior year, we had a pretty good shot to make it this past year, which we made it there, too, so it was really special.”

While Scheffler will be playing Division I baseball with Ball State University in 2021, he’ll still be taking the basketball court this winter and the baseball field in 2020 for the Tigers. While DI college ball awaits him, Scheffler is focusing on finishing the remainder of his high school athletic career with as much fun and success as possible.

“What I did was I tried to get it [committing to Ball State] out of the way before football even started, which I ended up doing, so that was really nice,” Scheffler said. “So now I can just finish playing and go through school and I can just play basketball and baseball and have fun with my teammates.

“For both sports [basketball and baseball], I think we have a really good chance to make it really far in the section playoffs, and I think both of them we have a really good chance of making it to state again.”

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