How Does Dominick Walters Defy Limits to Stay on the Field Nonstop?
Walters, along with Racine Case star Michael Farr, will add to that total for the 2026 season.
- Franklin senior Dominick Walters scored a punt return touchdown against Catholic Memorial.
- Walters contributed significantly on offense, defense, and special teams throughout the game.
- Walters is committed to play college football at South Dakota State.
“Prior to this season, I kind of had a little hint that I was going to play both sides of the ball,” Walters said. “At the end of the day, I’m talking to the coaches and I got all the trust in the world with this coaching staff. I basically told them, ‘Put me in spots to win a ballgame.’ If you need me to do this, I’ll do that. If you don’t need me to do this, I won’t do it. If we got other guys that can do this, they can do it. It just shows how deep our team is.””Dominick just has a want-to,” Franklin coach Louis Brown said. “He’s a great kid. He just wants to be on the field, and when the ball is in his hands … even when it’s not in his hands, he makes plays. He plays with his pads on defense. On offense, you can see he can be an explosive runner. He runs a 4.5 40. You can tell the stuff is there. There’s a handful of kids across the state that you see that kind of stuff from, and most of those kids never come off the field either.””I think it’s my type of level of football that I can have a good shot at playing freshman year and that’s kind of what I was looking for,” Walters said. “I didn’t want to go somewhere where it was going to be two, three years where I was a backup guy. I was honest with myself about the whole recruiting process.”WAUKESHA – Ninety-two seconds can be an eternity in a football game, but for Franklin star senior defensive back Dominick Walters in the Sabers’ 23-20 victory over Catholic Memorial, that’s all the future South Dakota State Jackrabbit needed to make an impact.
“If you remember a kid from a few years ago from Muskego, Hunter Wohler, they kept him in the middle of the field and he just seemed to erase everything. You need a guy like that when you have a special defense. We’re just trying to get him around the ball as much as possible and be our safety net. He’s a tremendous young man. I don’t know what else to say.”
Brown slyly admitted that he may have played Walters “a little too much” after a Naverion Flowers dumpoff pass from sophomore quarterback Dalton Steinke in the flat turned into a 55-yard touchdown to make it a 23-20 contest with 81 seconds to play in regulation. Walters was cramping around the time of the second touchdown the Sabers defense allowed, but “anyone that was playing both ways tonight wasn’t making it,” according to Brown, citing the early-season endurance issues and the warmth in an intense, hard-hitting season opener for both state title contenders.”There’s some dogs going up (to SDSU). I’m happy to be a part of it. The 414 Jacks, baby.”
Walters is “super excited” to put on a Jackrabbit uniform, but there’s some business to handle with the Sabers this season. Franklin lost the Division 1 state title game in Walters’ breakout sophomore season and fell to eventual D1 state runner-up Muskego to end a perfect 10-0 campaign in the second round last postseason.Walters gathered Landon Smart’s punt around midfield, made two Catholic Memorial tacklers whiff and then ran through an attempted tackle from Smart in front of the CMH sideline to put the Sabers up a score before the offense even touched the football.
Not bad for a kid who didn’t catch a single punt in warmups.
‘414 Jacks’: Walters has unfinished business, but he’s eager to add to SDSU’s Wisconsin pipeline of talent
“We’re trying to keep him in the middle of the field as much as possible so he can go sideline to sideline,” Brown said of Walters, even comparing him to a rookie currently in the NFL from the area.”We were working on it throughout camp and this past week,” Walters said on his return duties. “I told (Franklin special teams coordinator Evan Walton), ‘I got a feeling I’m taking one to the house.’ I didn’t even get any receiving reps because I was punting (laughs), so I was like, ‘Well, I better not drop this.’ I caught it and there was nothing but green in front of me. Props to the 10 other guys blocking for me. You can’t start off a season any better way.”
Walters has gone from sophomore sensation at the back end of Franklin’s defense to a team captain, a returner on both the kickoff and punt teams, full-time punter, defensive back and even took some snaps as the H-back for the Sabers offense that struggled early in the contest before finding a late rhythm on the back of Robert Beglinger’s tough running between the tackles.After the punt return fireworks, Walters spent the rest of the evening making a quiet impact with his leg, even getting an assist from special teams gunner Dillon Herling to down a punt at the 1-yard line early in the third quarter that set up a safety for the Franklin defense a couple plays later when Gabe Martens mauled Steinke in the end zone with some delayed pressure. Walters followed that up with a pick-six in front of the Franklin sideline to put the Sabers up 16-7 and almost had a second interception with 9:01 to play, but a defensive pass interference call scratched the pick from the box score.South Dakota State has become one of the more dominant programs at the FCS subdivision level in Division I college football. The Jackrabbits advanced to the national title game in 2020 and won back-to-back national titles in 2022 and 2023. Currently on the SDSU roster are 13 players from Wisconsin, including seven from the Milwaukee area with former Saber Reese Osgood, a vital member of Franklin’s 2021 state title team.In an electrifying kickoff to the season, Franklin’s senior standout Dominick Walters took just 92 seconds to remind everyone why he’s a force to be reckoned with. Before the offensive squad even had a chance to touch the ball, Walters seized a midfield punt, dodged defenders with uncanny agility, and powered through a tackle attempt, all culminating in a pivotal touchdown that set the tone for Franklin’s hard-fought 23-20 triumph over Catholic Memorial. It’s not every day you witness a player dominate across offense, defense, and special teams so seamlessly, but Walters makes it look effortless. This rising star, already committed to South Dakota State, is carving out a legacy that’s as much about heart and grit as it is about raw talent. If you thought that was impressive—that’s just the opening chapter of his senior year story. LEARN MORE
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