By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
GREEN BAY – It’s not often football kickers are in the news.
If they are, many times it’s because they missed a game-winning field goal in the final seconds to cost their team a game.
Notre Dame Academy’s Aiden Wolfram is in the news for the opposite reason.
The senior kicker/tight end has helped the Tritons get off to a perfect 5-0 start during the alternate fall season this spring by kicking two game-winning fields in the final moments of each game.
“When I’m in the situation, I try not to think too much about it,” said Aiden, the son of Chris and Lynn Wolfram. “I relax and go through my preparation.”
Wolfram nailed a 38-yarder in Notre Dame’s 22-20 victory April 9 vs. Kewaunee in the closing seconds and most recently, hit a 37-yarder April 24 in a 24-21, overtime win vs. Eau Claire Memorial.
“The Kewaunee kick was the first game-winner of my career,” Wolfram said. “Because I also play tight end, I was playing most of the offensive snaps during that final drive, so it didn’t give me much of a chance to think about what was happening. We had to move quickly to get the field-goal unit on the field (because it was fourth down), and that helped. I knew when I kicked it, it was good.”
He said it was surreal after the kick for about 10 seconds, but there were still 11 seconds showing on the clock, so he couldn’t celebrate too long.
“I was thinking of all the ways we could lose,” said Wolfram, who also plays middle linebacker on defense. “On Kewaunee’s first play after the kickoff, I pressured the quarterback. The only thing better would have been if I’d gotten the sack to end the game.”
After Notre Dame beat Racine Park 48-0 April 17, it traveled to Eau Claire.
“I attempted four field goals during regulation of that game,” Wolfram said. “I made kicks from 32, 37 and 40 yards, but with three seconds left (during regulation), the game was tied. I attempted a 54-yarder, but it sailed left. I think it had the distance.”
On Memorial’s first possession of overtime, the Tritons’ defense forced a fumble to give the ball back to the offense, needing only a field goal to escape with the win.
On Notre Dame’s lone drive in overtime, Wolfram said he knew it would probably come down to him getting another chance to win the game.
“I was also playing on offense during our possession,” he said. “That kick had lots less pressure than the Kewaunee one because we were tied. If I made it, we win, if I missed it, we go to another overtime. It was loud in the stadium.”
Wolfram said he knows what it’s like to go from being the goat to the hero in a game.
“During my junior year, I had a chance to tie a game with less than three minutes remaining, and I missed that one,” he said. “That was a shorter one, like 25 yards – I sailed it wide right.”
After the Tritons finished 1-8 during the 2019 season, Wolfram said this year’s success has been a little surprising.
“I hoped we could win all our games (this spring), but I can’t say I expected us to have this big of a turnaround,” he said. “It’s been great, and all the guys are devoted and putting in the work.”
Notre Dame was one of the few teams last fall to attempt a season, but a positive COVID-19 case on the squad forced the Tritons to move to the spring.
“Honestly, with everything going on, I didn’t expect to have a season, especially after we got shut down last fall,” said Wolfram. “Once the winter (sports) season was completed, I got more confident we’d have one, too.”
He said the longest kick he’s made in practice with no wind was 57 yards, but once, he hit a 65-yarder.
“That was with a tsunami wind at my back,” Wolfram laughed. “I’m comfortable up to about 45 yards.”
He plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study biology, but he said he’s not sure about kicking in college.
“It’s a whole different ballgame in college,” Wolfram said. “I’ve been hurt most of my career, so this is the first year I’ve played lots. I haven’t put myself out there in terms of recruiting, but I might try to do that.”
Wolfram said he played soccer when he was younger, but he was always the kicker for his teams, starting in the fourth grade.
“At the end of my sophomore year, I got lots better at kicking,” he said. “I went to a couple of camps, and Todd Gregoire, the former kicker for the Badgers, has worked with me. I didn’t expect it to be quite this successful.”