BJ's Printables Male Athlete Of Month: Abe Oberhauser Is Ready For Big Season For Knights Football Team

EDWARDSVILLE - Abe Oberhauser Is a key player for the football team a Metro-East Lutheran High School, and in 2024, helped lead the Knights to a 5-5 record, and a playoff berth for the third time in school history, going to the Illinois Eight-Man Association postseason, losing to top seeded Pawnee 62-26 in the opening round on Nov. 1.

It was a very successful season for Oberhausen individually, as he was 42-of-71 passing for 556 yards and eight touchdowns, and also ran for 304 yards and four touchdowns, in helping MEL to the postseason.

Abe is a BJ's Printables Male Athlete of Month for MELHS.

He's ready to repeat the success of last season - and go much further as well, as indicated in an interview conducted with him during a break in preseason practice on Aug. 14 at Martin Luther Field.

"This week has been great,' Oberhauser said. "We're having good numbers at practice, getting people to show up. It's about to be full pads pretty soon, get some real football going. We're going to improve on last year, not a repeat. We're going to go undefeated this year."

Although the Knights lost to Pawnee in the playoff opener, the team got a taste of the postseason, and they're anxious to have another bite of the cherry.

"It's always tough to go against the one seed in the playoffs," Oberhauser said. "We had some injuries. but we got a good taste of what the playoffs are like. We started off the game pretty well, and then, everything kind of collapsed. But this year, we're going to keep everything strong throughout the whole year, and we're going to the playoffs hot."

Besides getting back to the playoffs, Oberhauser has some higher goals in mind for his teammates, and they include invoking a higher power.

"Yes, winning is important, but what's most important is that we honor God," Oberhauser said, "and I want everyone on the team to grow in a relationship with God. At a Christian school, it's important to keep God number one. So we want to keep God first, we want to win, and we want to be good competitors."

Of course, Oberhauser is looking ahead to the season opener at Knights Field against Decatur Unity Christian on Aug. 29.

"Oh, yeah, it's going to be a great game," Oberhauser said. "The Lutheran Cup."

And the remainder of the 2025 schedule isn't too bad either, with a three-game stretch late in the season, where MEL goes up against the three traditional southern Illinois eight-man powers in Catlin South Fork, Martinsville, and Pawnee, all at home.

"We've got a gauntlet later in the year." Oberhauser said. "But it's better to have it later in the year, rather than earlier. We're going to be well-prepared, we're going to be able to watch film on these other teams, and we're going to be ready to go."

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