When Ben Startzer took over as head coach of Northfield football, he might as well have been buying prep football penny stocks.

At that time in 2020, the Nighthawks were amid an inauspicious football genesis. Northfield had only opened five years prior, and the football program was struggling to find its footing. The Nighthawks were 3-17 across their first two seasons in Class 3A, with the majority of their defeats coming via running clock.

“I really thought Northfield was a diamond in the rough, but in my first program meeting, only 23 kids showed up,” Startzer recalled. “The meeting was in a classroom, and it wasn’t even full. And I was like, ‘Oh, boy, this is going to be interesting.’ There was so little hope in the program at that time.”

In the five seasons since, Northfield footbal

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