Greenhill named Wauwatosa East football MVP

Wauwatosa East senior DJ Greenhill walked off with the top team award this season.

Greenhill, a 6-foot, 190-pound running back/linebacker, was named Tosa East's Most Valuable Player, one of two major team awards. He was also an honorable mention All-Greater Metro Conference selection at running back and all-purpose.

The Big Team-Little Me Award went to John Serrano, a 5-10, 175-pound offensive linemen/linebacker. This award goes to the player who puts the team before themselves the most.

The Red Raiders also named four team captains: Nick Lange, Kieran O'Day, Kyle Vnuk and Kevin Karraker.

Looking at the other all-conference selections, the Red Raiders came up with the following players.

Senior Shaquille Redding had the highest honor, making second-team honors at defensive back. He was also honorable mention at wide receiver.

Other honorable mention honors went to junior Nick Pridgeon at outside linebacker on defense and Vnuk at wide receiver and Karraker at offensive line.

Four players - Lange, Karraker, Mitch Thomas and Dan Erickson - earned GMC Scholar-Athlete honors, given only to seniors who have maintained a 3.5 GPA or higher over four years.

Tosa East will lose 15 seniors: Greenhill, Karraker, Lange, O'Day, Redding, Vnuk, Andre Dallas, Dan Erickson, James Kenagy, Drew King, Sam Marszalkowski, Eric Smith, Mitchell Thomas, Alex Walker and Jalen Walker.

The Red Raiders finished with a 1-6 record in the GMC and a 2-6 record overall under first-year coach Mike Richards.

Their biggest and most important highlight was beating West Allis Central, 17-6, on Sept. 7 and snapping a 24-game conference losing streak.

Their other win was a 27-21 thriller over Delavan-Darien on Aug. 24 in non-conference game in the season opener.

"This was a great bunch of kids to work with," Richards said. "We would have liked more wins, but they gave it everything they had. I'm very proud of this group, especially the seniors. They showed a lot of leadership especially to our young guys that were on the team this year."

Then Richards looked to next season.

"I'm hoping next year's group of juniors, sophomores and freshmen will buy into our off-season program and continue to make positive strides for Tosa East football."