There are few better feelings in life than representing your hometown in whatever you do. For a handful of University of Wisconsin-River Falls football players, they get to do that while staying close to home.

UWRF has seven Pierce County natives on the team: Ashten Quade of Ellsworth, Trevor Asher of Elmwood, Jack Olson and Brady Block of Prescott, Payton Kopp of Plum City, Diego Schmitt of Spring Valley and Cal Usgaard of River Falls. The group played a key role in getting the Falcons to 7-1 on the year with two games to play.

“Like you just said, culture,” Asher, a running back from Elmwood, said. “Pushing the needle. Pushing each other to be better. Just trying to build every year on what we did last year.”

Asher, a sophomore, has been the second leading rusher for the Falcons with about 500 rushing yards and five total touchdowns through eight games. Quade, a junior fellow running back, has scored a pair of touchdowns of his own on the year.

“It’s awesome, actually. Playing in high school, playing at Ellsworth, and then having that crowd follow you to the college level… you get to see a lot of familiar faces, and you still get to represent your high school,” Quade said.

With the Falcons averaging a whopping 49 points per game, the offense is moving like a well-oiled machine.

“This whole season’s been a blast just from the spring, last offseason into this season, the progress the team’s made,” Asher said.

Defensively, Olson, a senior defensive lineman, has been among the leaders making his side of the ball click.

“Our coach always says we’ve got to stay in the mud,” Olson said. “Just do the hard stuff, the stuff that people don’t like talking about doing.”

Olson has been a part of some huge games since arriving on campus, but the Nov. 1 game against UW-Whitewater was the best memory of all. River Falls had a 22-game losing streak against Whitewater coming in, dating all the way back to 2001. Whitewater has been a national powerhouse for a long time, and they are no slouches this year, ranked No. 8 nationally in Division III when No. 9 UWRF took them down.

“It was insane. I haven’t smiled that hard in a long time,” Olson said.

River Falls’ final two regular season games were Nov. 8 against No. 8 La Crosse, another team that features plenty of county student-athletes and the final game Nov. 15 against UW-Stout.

Getting to the collegiate level is difficult in any sport, not just football. The players shared their advice for the best path to get there.

“Buy in as soon as possible. It goes by fast. I’m in my fourth year already, and it feels just like yesterday that I was a freshman at fall camp,” Quade said.

“Work hard, be passionate in what you’re doing, ask for help. Build relationships with older guys because older guys can help you, they’ve been there,” Asher said.

Playing close to home has a lot of benefits for the Falcons. Olson said he feels at home because he can visit his family whenever he wants. When he does go home, everyone around Prescott shows love for UWRF.

“They always tell me, love what the Falcons are doing or love seeing that things are going well,” Olson said.

It is the heart and determination that has made this UWRF team one of its best.

“I was lucky enough to have a great coach in high school, and now, going to the college level and seeing the culture that coach [Matt Walker] has built there, along with the other coaches, along with the other coaches too,” Quade said.

The sentiment up and down the roster is that every player and coach is looking to get better every single day, and it has helped build chemistry.

“The biggest thing is everyone’s here for each other, and here to get each other a better football player and just a better overall person,” Olson said. “Just always being there for the guys… Some of my best friends and some of the best people I’ve ever met have been through football.”