Athlete of the Week: Trenton Monson

Trenton Monson had a historical performance in UWRF’s first conference victory of the year over UW-Eau Claire on Saturday. The sophomore from Big Lake, Minnesota, had 11 catches for a school record of 235 receiving yards and added two touchdowns in the afternoon.

The performance was especially impressive with the Falcons missing a majority of their receiving core against the Blugolds. Monson leads all Falcon receivers with 26 catches for 427 yards on the year, while also adding one touchdown on the ground.  Monson also grabbed attention by earning the WIAC offensive player of the week award.  The Student Voice sat down with Monson to discuss the football season and his career day against UW-Eau Claire.

 Q: What was the biggest transition from playing receiver at the high school level to college?

A: The playbook, probably. You only have a certain amount of plays in high school, and then in college you have hundreds of different combinations of plays you can have.

Q: What was the biggest lesson you learned from playing freshman year?

A: Just the experience part of it. Also playing behind a senior (Matt Woller) that’s been around helped because he taught me how to do things right.

Q: What led to you having a much more active role in the offense this year?

A: You always workout in the offseason to get better and stronger. One of the bigger points was moving up the depth chart which personally helped me.

Q: What’s your greatest asset as a receiver?  Route-running, hands?

A: I run good routes but I would say I’m just a playmaker. I’m not perfect at any of those [getting open, receiving] but I just have a knack to make plays.

Q: What has led to you being a lot more involved in the rushing game with many jet sweeps this year?

A: The coaches kind of just threw it in there this year because we didn’t run much of it last year. This year we’ve been running it a little more, not as much in the last couple of games, but more in the first games.

Q: What were you and the offense exploiting against the Eau Claire defense to get open so many times on Saturday?

A: Early in the week our game plan was to take shots against them because we knew they were weak in that area and we succeeded in that part of the plan.

Q: Did you have any idea after the game you had enough yards to break the school record?

A: After the game, one of our receivers came up to me and said the record was 202 yards and I thought I didn’t get that much, but he texted me later that I got 235 yards and it didn’t really sink in but I guess it is kind of a big deal. It always makes it a little more exciting [winning at home] and I had a lot of family there too, so that was cool.

Q: What can this result do to build momentum for the team for the rest of the season?

A: Any win that you get as a team in this conference gives you motivation and drive to keep succeeding. It gives you confidence going into every week to be better and better.

Q: What can this team still accomplish?

A: We can stick with any team. We’re talented enough but we just need to believe in ourselves. The ultimate goal is to always win the whole thing (WIAC title).

Q: What is the offense planning as you travel to #7 ranked Platteville for a tough road test this Saturday?

They’re a very talented team and they run two totally different defenses. We’re just gonna run our stuff and see if we can’t run it perfect.