Sports : Former Vikings Hallberg, Tranel ready for start of college football season

Troy Hallberg poses with his grandparents at Iowa Wesleyan; he will start at tackle for the Tigers.

Gunner Tranel, pictured with his dad, Mike, is the Wartburg starting middle linebacker.

Two former Vinton-Shellburg stand-outs are preparing for the upcoming college football season which starts tomorrow.

Troy Hallberg, a senior lineman at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, will suit up in the purple jersey with the number 61, starting at tackle, when the Tigers host Simpson College at 1 p.m. tomorrow.

"The team is looking good, but there is still room for improvement," says Hallberg, the son of Greg and Kriss Hallberg of rural Vinton. "We are starting the season off against two really good football teams and will be a really difficult test for us."

Gunner Tranel, a junior at Wartburg, will be the starting middle linebacker when the Knights. Tranel, the son of Mike Tranel of Wisconsin and Kathy Tranel of Vinton, has earned a starting spot at middle linebacker. He wears the number 42 for Warburg, which travels to Augsburg College in Minneapolis for a 7 p.m. kick-off tomorrow.

Last season, Tranel played back-up linebacker behind All-American Ryan Billings. He also played on Wartburg special teams; during the traditional Wartburg-Coe match-up last year, Tranel blocked a punt that Union alum Jared Wauters returned for a touchdown. Tranel earned the Special Teams Player of the Year award last season and hopes to make more memorable moments in his last two years as a Knight.

Wartburg coach Rick Willis calls Tranel "smart, tough and physical."

Both Tranel and Hallberg earned All-District honors as V-S Vikings; Tranel also earned All-State honors and played in the Shrine Bowl featuring high school all-starts in the summer of 2012.

See Hallberg's Iowa Wesleyan page HERE.

See Tranel's Wartburg roster page HERE.