That Championship Year: The 1980 Washington High School Raiders of Two Rivers, Wisconsin

Along with family and faith, football was a constant of northeast Wisconsin life. Two Rivers was a blip on the radar missed by the interstate connecting Milwaukee with Green Bay. Kids in Two Rivers pretended to be Green Bay Packers, playing football on any vacant patch of grass they could find. Moms waved good-bye to school age kids in the morning with a simple instruction to be home in time for supper. Riding bikes without helmets, kids made lifelong friends on playgrounds, at Neshotah Beach, and fishing on the East and West Twin Rivers. Boys grew tall and strong enough to join Junior Ramblers youth football. Sticking together on the field of growing up, friends gelled into the 1980 Washington High School Raiders. At the small school, guys knew they might have to play both ways, sometimes on offense, on defense, and on special teams. Wilting during two-a-day summer practices, the guys learned that winning had a twin called effort. The Raiders were conditioned and coached by scrappy Jerry Bonino. Once a small town high school player himself, Coach Bonino knew how to grind out a win and mold the character of young men. Honoring the coach, this book devotes a chapter to his football legacy. That Championship Year is the story of Washington High School’s first Wisconsin sports championship since the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It details the big plays, close calls, and bad breaks of each football game of the 1980 season. It is a story of community with the Raiders supported by the cheerleaders, marching band, teachers, and fans, all wanting to be winners. Forty years after it happened, That Championship Year celebrates not just winning, but growing up in a special time in a special place.