Rice Lake topped Grafton 28-20 to win the Division 3 state title game last year in Madison. And when the Warriors watched back the broadcast, they were a little irritated at how often they heard the announcers suggest they got “lucky” on plays.

It became a rallying point. Rice Lake coach Dan Hill has incoming seniors who graduate from his leadership course each year select a slogan to be printed on the back of the team’s workout shirts for the following campaign.

On this year’s shirts read the word “Luck” – with a dictionary-like definition written next to it, but not the one you’d find in Webster’s or Oxford’s. It’s the Warriors’ definition.

“Luck = preparation + opportunity.”

“That’s been on their smelly, dirty T-shirts all year,” Hill said Thursday via phone.

The combination of both has proved to be a fortunate calculation yet again for Rice Lake this season, as the Warriors (11-2) are back in the state title game. Only this time, it’s in a different division. They’ll play Slinger (13-0) at 1 p.m. Friday at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison for the Division 2 title.

That’s another story.

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association – the state’s governing body for high school sports – created a “competitive balance” plan in the summer of 2023 to be implemented for the 2024-25 school year. Basically, if you reached a threshold of “success points” from your performance in recent seasons, you would bump up a division.

So, in the offseason, Rice Lake found out it would not be defending its Division 3 title. It would be trying to win a new one.

Hill was asked Thursday what his initial thoughts were on the news when he first received it.

“I’d tell you,” he said with a laugh, “but you couldn’t print any of it.”

The coach remains very much against the system, as are many of his peers. He noted that with rural public schools, there can be a special class of athletes that comes through and has success. And once they’re gone, the next wave of kids may be asked to punch in a weight class in which they’re not built to fight.

Hill criticized the formula used. Rice Lake was at least fortunate enough to have won a title at its rightful division. Others who were still in the midst of that chase were moved up before ever having a chance to lift a trophy. There was an appeals process last winter for teams who objected to their move up, but Hill didn’t think that process was nearly thorough enough, and essentially everyone was rejected.

The issue remains. Hill hopes the system changes. But, by February, there was nothing that could be done for this group of Warriors. So the mindset shifted. If the state association was going to put Rice Lake in Division 2, then Rice Lake would set its sights on the Division 2 title.

“There was a period of time of ‘can we do what we want to do?’” Hill told reporters in a conference call over the weekend. “Their initial goal as soon as last year was done was, ‘Can we repeat?’ I think it was a curveball to them with the competitive balance. The community, I think right now, everyone is in awe that we are where we are, and yet our kids are like, ‘That was the plan.’”

The Warriors at least had the advantage of playing Division 2 and Division 1 programs during the regular season in the Big Rivers Conference to prepare for the playoffs, plus championship-level experience from the year prior.

There were certainly bumps along the way, including regular-season losses to New Richmond and Hudson. But beyond the results were the absences. Hill said the team has battled with sickness all fall, from preseason to now.

Every week, guys have been in and out of the lineup with illness, or at minimum playing while under the weather. The injuries have piled up, as well. The Warriors lost multiple key contributors in their second-round playoff game, a one-point win over Monona Grove.

“Somehow we survived,” said Hill, a Litchfield, Minn. native.

And came back the next week to avenge that September loss to New Richmond with a decisive, three-score victory. One of the injuries suffered against Monona Grove was a broken collarbone for running back and linebacker Aaron Hoffman.

That sidelined him for the season but didn’t remove him from the picture. He was placed on drone duty, filming each practice. You always remain an integral part of the operation. Hill noted it’s a key component of the “iceberg theory.”

Which is what, exactly?

“It talks about the different components of the team below the surface that nobody sees. You see the running back and the quarterback and the guys getting the touchdowns, but you don’t see the scout team player that’s challenging the starter every day, making him better. The manager setting the clock timer, on and on and on,” Hill said. “So we make sure if a guy can’t play that he’s got a job the team depends on.”

That was a major message the team imparted to the Rice Lake student body at its sendoff Thursday before hitting the road to Madison: “Never underestimate the power of the iceberg.”

It’s powered the Warriors to heights not previously believed to be feasible this season. A football program from a public school of 700 kids going to battle with the best teams schools of 1,000-plus kids can produce every week, and coming out ahead on the grandest stages.

The naked eye can hardly comprehend it. Perhaps because it can’t see what’s below the surface.

“There’s been something that’s seemed to be in the way since the offseason, when they did the competitive balance thing, to who’s sick, who’s hurt, whatever, next man up. Come on iceberg, keep pushing,” Hill said. “I still believe this team has not played their complete, best game yet. I’ve got a gut feeling it could happen (Friday).”

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