9/14/2024

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, September 14th, 2024

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the Varsity Blitz High school sports show, presented
by your local Pick and Save stores on the Big
nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app coming live from the
Donovan and Jorgenson Heating and Cooling Studios. Donovan and Jorganson
heating cooling zero percent for sixty months. You don't hear
that at all anymore, but that on select models. If

(00:20):
you're looking to replace your furnace, your air conditioner, now
would be the time to do it. Zero percent sixty months.
Their manufacturers have, they've got some inventory and they have
passed along some savings of Donovan Jorgenson. In turn, they're
going to pass it along to their customers. Go to
Donovan Jorgenson dot com. Thanks for joining us on, Mike McGivern,

(00:43):
my cost is the athletic tractor. I took out that
first line for you that the athletic director at Muskigo.
He's Ryan McMillan, so Brookville East Youth football program plays
at Muskego today. Oh, I have two grandsons. You be
nice eighth grade and fifth grade. Be nice too. I

(01:03):
know they that's why Hey, I look, we are sponsored.
This show is sponsored by the aa YFL and I
thank you. I thank them for that. And last week
I got to go out and I selected the team
of the week for the least. They haven't won many
games that that eighth grade team, but they fight and
they go hard, but they beat o'condom walk. And I

(01:26):
got to go out to their practice, better, getting better,
got to go just keep improving, just keep improving. Fifth
grade grandson. I went to his game and he's playing quarterback.
And he said, when they asked the first practice, who
wants to play quarterback?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Kept his hand down.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Seven kids went over and they go, okay, well anybody
else and he kind of like he played quarterback in
some flag football thing and upward in fact, and so
they said okay, yeah, let's see if you can throw it.
You can throw it, all right, And he was like,
I don't think I want to do this. And then
after that game he said, no, I loved it. I
loved it. Now they put a shotgun in. I'm not

(02:02):
giving any secrets away, but for a little shotgun, and
he said, I'm loving that. So, hey, Ryan, do you
understand the definition of retired retirement?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Kind of get it right?

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Well?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
I think I do. Yeah, what do you.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Think it means you kick your feet up and relax
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
The guy between us, I don't think he understands what
the word retirement means. Our special guest for the entire hour.
He's the head football coach at Tosa East. A boy
can go home, A boy can go home. I can
tell you that, Tom Swett, I'll have you been coached?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
You been? I miss you? I miss you too. Yeah,
this is bringing back memories. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Well, for years we did the WFCA show and it
was I'll never forget the day you walked in over
at the other radio station and said, look, somebody's got
to tell people that that football has never been safer
to play, and you you can, And you explained to me,
you know, I My mind was you're still doing nutcracker
to twice a practice and bulling the ring a couple

(03:03):
of times, and taking saltpills, no water, taking a salt pill.
And I agreed with you, and we started that WFCA
show we did every other week for Saturdays between baseball
and football for years.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Nine years, Mike, nine years? Was it really? Yea man?

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Oh man, Well, you have introduced me to a ton
of people and have meant a lot in my life.
In fact, before we started the home improvement show, Jeff
and I were talking jeff Orlowski, who's producing the show,
and I told him the Dave A Moroso, We're not
going to lose these Luther sorry.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
And he laughed for about fifteen minutes. Don't think don't
think bad of me.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
No, it was a great halftime speech. You guys went
on to win.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
We did. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
He was coaching the Dominican and I have a friend
who played on the team, and he said, I got
my favorite swiddle story and I got.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
A hundred of them.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Was at halftime he said, we are not losing to
a bunch of louther Berns, and I went out beat
him and my David Moroso. I don't know how old
he is, but he still cracks up laughing.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Well, that was nineteen seventy nine long. That was a
bit ago.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, you were a young coach, that was It was
a great line though.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Well, and you got to win. So we got the win.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Coach, When do you think. First of all, I'm thank
you for coming in studio, and thank you for bringing
two seniors with you, and I'm really looking forward to them.
Thank goodness, I had the running back. You've got him
in my fantasy football league because he had he had
more touchdowns or something.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Last night.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
It looks like you only played a half. Yeah, ten carries, Yeah,
one hundred and fifty three yards.

Speaker 5 (04:39):
Well, with what we're doing, we distribute the ball around.
You bet we've had Fortunately for us, we've had a
lot of running clock.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
So when do you think the last time walw with
Tosi started a football season four and oh I looked,
I couldn't find it.

Speaker 5 (04:55):
I think it was my ninety five team. We were
four and ar maybe five and oh, and then we
had a mid conference or mid season I should say,
non conference game with mcgwanago, who was number one in
the state that year, and we lost them thirty five
to thirty four in overtime. But I think that team
was either four and h or five and oh, I

(05:16):
don't think there's been a toast Ease team since.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Did you know going into this year, you guys had
a chance to maybe start through year really really well?

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh? Absolutely, we've.

Speaker 5 (05:27):
We've made so many tremendous improvements to the program, I
mean every aspect of it. And we only had four
seniors last year. And so we had a lot of
guys coming back and a lot of experience, and we
had a ton of injuries last year, and so a
lot of our young kids. We played a bunch of

(05:49):
sophomores last year, and so we had a group that
had talent, and we had a group that had experience.
And I don't know that I've ever had a group
of players and this is saying a lot. There in
all the places I've been and how long I've coached that.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Have worked hard during the offseason, Wow, that's saying a lot.
Oh yeah, And you know what, all the years that
I've known you, and all the years we did ratio together,
you wouldn't say that. You wouldn't just say it like
some guys. I love multi sport athletes. They really don't.
Our guys really spend a bunch of time in the
locker room. They really are in the weight room. They
really haven't. For you to say that, it is a

(06:24):
big deal. And I'm looking forward to talking to these
two seniors. One is is on the shelf a little bit.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah. All Conference running.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Back returning All Conference running Back first Team, and it
hasn't played the last two weeks because of an ankle
sprain where keeping our fingers crossed.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
He can go next Friday against Tosal West. Yeah, that
the Tosa West game.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
And you remember from years and how long have you
you've been back at To's. He's for how long?

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Now?

Speaker 1 (06:52):
This is is my second year, your second year back? Man,
I'm just telling you a coach, and look at the roster.
First of all, there's a lot more kids. Yeah, and
and and and Ryan, you'll agree with this. When when
a program is down, the most difficult thing is to
get kids that are walking in the hall to believe

(07:14):
you can win again, right, And and coach Swittle has
pretty much went one almost everywhere he's been. And to
be able to walk through the hallway and say, guys,
it's different now I'm back. Let's let's get it going.
It still is a challenge to get those kids to believe.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
Oh totally, one hundred percent. I mean that that is
the greatest battle sometimes of being a good coach. Can
you win your hallways and can you win your own
building right and make people believe coach brings instant credibility
with them. He I mean, he's got stories upon stories.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
And and ring rings upon rings, rings.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
Upon examples upon examples of showing kids, hey, here's how
we can maximize your talent. You don't have to be this,
that or this, but here's what you could be, and
here's what we can be, and let's do it together
and get to work.

Speaker 5 (07:57):
We probably have we have a probably a handful of
guys that did not come back, that just didn't want
to put the work in. I'll just be that honest
about it. I'm pretty demanding, Mike.

Speaker 6 (08:10):
You know that.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yes, and.

Speaker 5 (08:13):
So we had some guys that decide not to play anymore.
But we've picked up well over twenty guys. Last year,
our roster I think was around fifty two or fifty three.
We're around seventy three or seventy four now. And that's
as like I said, minus some guys that could have
come back and played.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
How much time did you think about or how much
time did you and I think I know the answer.
Try to convince those guys to come back.

Speaker 5 (08:43):
You know, I had individual conversations with those guys, and
you know, some of them were working and other guys
gravitated to other sports they were playing. But the way
we do things in the offseason, we go four days
a week I take attendance. I report out the attendance

(09:04):
every month. I in the off season, I do a
monthly family email and I put everybody's right room attendance
in there, so every parent sees what's going on. And
it's just a matter of you know, if you don't
want to come back, I I you know, I understand,
but I'm not going to go out of my way.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Against Yeah, That's where I was going with it because
I from knowing you as long as I have, I
know that to have that conversation and say, look, we'd
like to have you back. But once the decision is now,
I don't think I want to. I see your whole
focus just turned to this group of guys that want
to be part of something special. And look these kids

(09:45):
that were with you last year and again this year.
They're going to be known as that as the group
that turned this thing around, and they're you know, five year,
ten year reunion. They're going to be able to go
look see those And we started that at Greendale Martin
Luther for basketball, the seniors that went that first year

(10:06):
that coach Walersheim took it, and I was there with them,
those seniors. We didn't win but nine games that first year,
which was big for them. But they started it because
the seniors they took the freshmen under their wings, and
the freshmen were better basketball players. They were now better
basketball players. But they did They weren't old, right, they

(10:26):
weren't leaders. Those seniors were the leaders, and they started
that whole thing that turned into a state championship. And
these are the guys who have started it. And you
got a lot of pretty good football to be played
yet this year, for sure.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
Yeah, we've come a long way in a very short
period of time. And in the fifteen years I was
gone from Atolsa East, they won eighteen games. And when
the principal approached me about coming back, which he had
done two other times, and I said no. You know,
one of the things that I kind of approached it

(11:02):
like people are are you rebuilding? And I kind of
looked at it like, no, I'm I'm going to approach
this like I'm starting a program from scratch, you know,
and just tear it all down and build it up again.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
And uh so that's the tactic that I took.

Speaker 5 (11:18):
And when I had I guess a formal interview, I
mean I knew I was going to get the job.
But I had an interview and in the interview they said, well,
you know, what's the realistic goal for next year? And
I said, we're gonna make the playoffs. They looked at
me and what And we were two points from the
playoffs last year.

Speaker 6 (11:34):
I see that.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
I'm looking at it right now, and you know you
had that stretch. If I if I try to get
one of them back, I think the Eisenhower game.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, that was the one. Look at your both.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
These guys sitting there waiting are shaking their head.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
That's the one. That's the game. We win that game,
we go to the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
And you took care of that demon, right we did?
You did that one. You guys beat them already.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Correct. When people start coming out, I would think last year, coach.
You know, fans are are fickle, right, They're they're a
little bit fickle, and all of a sudden, now you
start getting some wins. I'm hoping that this entire community
starts seeing the work that these kids have put in

(12:20):
and start coming out to support these guys.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
We've had tremendous support.

Speaker 5 (12:24):
I honestly, and again, all the places that I've been,
I don't think I've ever had a situation where we've
had more support. Our athletic director is incredible. Andrew Thompson,
Can I stop.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
You from it? Can you repeat that?

Speaker 1 (12:39):
You don't think you've been a place where you've because
you at Brookville lest you get.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
A lot of support. God, Yeah, a lot.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Of support, community support, administration support. And to make that statement,
that's a huge statement.

Speaker 5 (12:52):
Yeah, I mean Andrew Thompson gets now. Of course, he's
a former football coach himself, and uh, he values football
and he knows what it can do for a school
when you have a good football program. But he's been
incredibly supportive. We have a parent booster group, the Touchdown Club.

(13:15):
I cannot believe the amount of money they have raised
and the things they have done for our program. It's nonpair.
I mean you're talking Wednesday nightteen meals for everybody after
practice and pregame meals for everybody, and they have they
have bought things for the kids, you know, and it's
it's just it's a unique situation.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
And I don't know if you.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Can answer this, but do you think that that that
they really jumped in with both feet? A lot of
the people in the community once you came back because
I got to believe when when when when when you
Coach mcmallly said, look now, now he brings all this credibility,
and they remember the success you had when you were

(14:00):
there first. They know the principal asked you three times.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
They know this.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
The people in the community know it, and the program
and I'm not ripping anybody, but the program was down
for a while many and it was a program that
people went, Okay, where there's a win, we get to sies,
we're gonna beat that team. And then you show up
and go, we're going four days and you're gonna I'm
keeping attendance, We're getting after it. We're gonna make this

(14:25):
thing really great again. And you know, coach when he
when he said that, Andrew Thompson gets it. He's a
former football guy. You started smiling because that's you.

Speaker 6 (14:35):
Right.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
The ad at Muskego is understands the importance of a good,
strong football program.

Speaker 4 (14:41):
One hundred percent. It's a community builder. It really is
a community builder. It takes a community to support it.
As he alluded to the parents and the Touchdown Club
and everybody else behind the scenes doing all the little things.
Everyone has a role to play and when you get
everyone to invest and build that community from the outside end.
The football program builds a community inside out, and it

(15:01):
especially from inside the building, and it permeates to the community.
As they keep going, they keep winning, people start following.
You get to showcase other programs and other students and
other great things happening in the building on Friday night.
And so it's just it's a cyclical deal. But it
takes a belief to do it. And you heard them
talk about his ad. He's got a level of trust.
Sometimes it's not what they're doing, it's the way they
make you feel right. And if you got to trust

(15:24):
there and you're working with them and you believe, you
work a little harder.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Sometimes, Hey, did you get you get a key to
the building and everything.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
The first thing they gave me was a key fob.
That's the inside joke.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
But I can tell you and and and the lights
you get turned on for a practice that goes dark
and everything I'm telling you. I will tell you during
the break and you will just shake your head. Man,
I I love the fact that they gave you the keypob.
Tell me about your staff guys that I know.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, Well, yes, the bat light out.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
And then one of the things that that I could
bring that you know, a few coaches could. I have
a group of coaches that are loyal to me and
they will go where I go. And these are true
football guys, and they work really hard and they're good coaches.
And so before when the principal always did this to me,

(16:19):
you know, and he's a great guy, Nick Hughes has
He has done so much for me. When I left
TOSI and I went to Brookfield East, you know, that
was a hard conversation to have with him and to
continue to work at Tosi's running the guidance department, right,
But he said to me, you know, all the things

(16:39):
you've done for our school, you have the right to
do whatever.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
You want to do. A great line. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:44):
So he would always call me when a coach would leave,
and you go, I got a list of candidates that
I want to go over with you.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Do you know any of these guys?

Speaker 5 (16:54):
And at the end of every one of those conversations, well,
what would it take for you to come back?

Speaker 2 (16:59):
You know?

Speaker 5 (16:59):
And the circumstances just weren't right the first two times,
but it was the last time you called me, And
I'm gonna be honest, I was not looking to leave, Vincent.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
I mean I had it going there, and uh, you know,
we won. They were they were in a bad shape.
And the one year I was.

Speaker 5 (17:17):
There, we went undefeated and won our conference, even hosted
a playoff game, right, you know, first time ever for
that school. So I wasn't looking to leave, but I
just couldn't say no the third time I had to
go back.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
And I'm really happy that that. You know, these kids
are really happy. Did I don't know if they were
super happy right off the jump because things have things
changed a lot, but I can tell you the smiles
on the guy's faces that we're going to talk to
in the second segment, it says it all. Look, when
when you can start a season four to oh and

(17:50):
the way you've done it with some running clocks and
getting a lot of people invested in it, a lot
of people getting playing time, and you guys both know and.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Do you two platoon? No No, so you don't.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Have it right yet, no, No, but that these guys
that are coming to practice, they they know they got
to be ready because there's a really good chance that
they're gonna get in and they're gonna play and the
crowd's going to be big, and their parents are there,
and the cheerleaders are going nuts, and the band is there,
and the things that are happening at Toasty East people
are talking about, they're talking about you behind your back,

(18:24):
coach in a good way.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
I can tell you that.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Who Hey, tell me about the staff. Who Who's It's
Layman and all the guys.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
So I've got John Layman and his son, Jonathan is
our offensive coordinator. We put in the wing tea this year,
probably Ryan the only offense I've never run, you know,
but it fits us. It fits us, you know, and
we can get into that later. And so we've got
guy Mark Johannes who's been with me at He was

(18:52):
with me at Tosi East and Brookfield East, and you know,
just other guys. My son's coaching with me. I don't
know if you knew that. No, I did not tease
he's coaching with me.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Did Jeff ask me what's TC doing? Didn't he play quarterback?
I go he did in high school, played some college
and I think he was at Milwaukee Tool last time
I know.

Speaker 5 (19:09):
He is at Milwaukee Tool still as a design engineer
man and he's coaching. Yes, I have a great staff
and I worked those guys too.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
You know how much how much work did you do
in the offseason learning the wing tea.

Speaker 5 (19:22):
We had the the wing t guru, Greg Layman came
in and our offensive staff.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, that he is the guy.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
He's the man. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
If not, it's the boy over at Muschigo.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, well right, we talked to Ken. We talked to
your guy Ryan, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Hey, before we get through a break and we'll talk
about a bunch of games. At ten o'clock, we're gonna
go over scorts from last night. But mcgwanagall got you
guys last night at Muschigo.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
Yeah, they did. I think mcguanago was the hungrier team.
They had a chip, they were angry from the week
before and letting that one get away. And at Arrowhead,
I think if you talk to our staff and our players,
there's a lot of things that they feel like they
could have done a lot better coaching and playing right,
executing wise. The one thing I would say about last night,

(20:11):
Mike is, and you'll appreciate this because you've seen it,
is that the two groups that don't need to improve
any that did a great job last night, the Muskeigo
Police Department and Thesgo School District administration because they did
a and all our events staff. They did a phenomenal
job of managing a lot of people, big crowd, a
huge crowd, really nice night, kids everywhere, and they were

(20:32):
on There were boots on the ground, let's put it
that way, and they're moving around in the stadium and
everything was safe and hunky dory and everybody got to
go home happy. And that's all you can ask.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Boy.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
That makes your job a little bit easier as an
athletics director right oh, in your corner and working it and.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yep, because the periphery gets you have trust that the
periphery gets taken care of, so that anything going on
the field or the team or the staff or the
officials or somebody needs something, you can be there to
take care of that as well and help keep things moving.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
That Wawa West game coming up, and we don't have
to talk too much about it, but I would think
if you want to get a ticket to the game,
you might get it early.

Speaker 5 (21:10):
Yeah, they were making announcements during the game last night
out of help for students to to get their tickets.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, because it's going that that that I think it's going.

Speaker 5 (21:19):
To remind me of when I was at Brookfield Leaves
the first time we played Brookfield Central.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Unbelievable. I mean there's a whole five thousand people there.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Standing five deep around the track.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
That unbelievable. And well, anyway, I know we got to
go to whole breaks, no weekend.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Hey, we got the whole hour, coach, we can you
know what, Jeff, Yeah, Jeff is fine over there. I
agree with you with that part of it. And don't
be look, don't understand that that this game a few
years ago, it was well wat West. They were the
shiny object in Wawatosa for a while, and they're a
good football team. Then they're gonna that's going to be

(21:57):
a really good game. And and my hope is that
you get everybody healthy for that game. You can tell
he's chopping at the bed. I bet he's quick when
he's fully healthy. He's quick in it. Oh man, Yeah,
I mean he's not as quick as I am. Nobody Yeah, yeah,
even at crutches, he's quicker than I am. Coach, Who
do we have coming up? Who are the two players.

Speaker 5 (22:18):
We have two returning first team All Conference players. We
have Malachi Mack running back and outside linebacker, and Davion Hayes,
first team All Conference running back last year who also
plays outside linebacker for US.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
He does, yeah, he doesn't mind hitting people. He's out
of the smaller side. I can see why the Mac
kid does. But man, I'm looking forward to talking to
these guys for sure. And like I said last night,
you know he's not lipping's a big smile on his face.
I'll just give you his stats. Ten rushes, one hundred
and fifty three with three touchdowns. He caught a ball

(22:57):
for thirty one yards and a touchdown, and so he
touched the ball eleven to eleven times and scored four.
What happened to the other seven? Coach man, we got
to work on that.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
He's dropping the ball a little bit.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
We're going to talk to these two seniors from Wahwao
Tosa East to the four and oh Wahwao Toasties football team,
and we'll get to them on the other side of
the break. This is the Varsity Blitz high school sports show,
presented as always by your local Pick and Save stores
on the Big nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app.
Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz high school sports show,

(23:30):
presented as always by our local Pick and Save stores.
I Mike mcgimmer. We're talking Tosa East football. We got
two seniors and I was just telling them when I
called and talked to coach Swiddle. I said, hey, you
want to bring a couple of players. He goes, yeah,
I got two and I said, well, do you want
to think you No, No, I got two players that
would be really good ambassadors for our program, our school,

(23:52):
our program. And these kids are really good football players,
but they're better kids. And I want to highlight these
guys because I'm demanding. And I asked them and they
bought into what we're doing at Wawatosa East. We were
joined by two seniors. We're gonna start with Malachi Mack
and I was making a joke if there was a
fantasy football league in high school, I wish you'd be

(24:14):
my first pick with the kind of numbers that you're
putting up.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Malaki.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
You you played JV football as a freshman, and then
first he's a sophomore, and then they made a change,
and you said a lot of talk in the hallways
about Wow.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Did you have any idea what you're getting into?

Speaker 6 (24:32):
No idea? At first, I have any idea.

Speaker 7 (24:34):
And then I was talking to mister Thompson about it
and he was telling me, he was like.

Speaker 6 (24:40):
You you don't even know. You don't even know.

Speaker 7 (24:42):
You gotta do your research. I did my research al
right up, and I was like.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, you got some correct. Yeah, you know what. You
got a guy who not only not only but believes
in how to put a program together. But he's already
done it at Wawtosi, So he knows a lot of
people there and they the trust they have in him.
You gotta work a little harder for him than you
have for other coaches in this pass. Not to say

(25:08):
anything about anybody else, but he expects a lot. And
the first month or so of going through that where
you're thinking, boy, what have we gotten ourselves into?

Speaker 7 (25:20):
Just a little bit, but like in like a good way.
Like I was thinking, I was like, man, this is different.
But when I felt different, it was like different in
a great way. Like I was like, I know this
is gonna's gotta go for it.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Man, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
We're also Davian Hayes Ankle spraying this has been tough
for you, right to be out because you're not used
to being on the sidelines. Hey, come closer to the
microphone if you can't. So, yeah, you look size wise,
there's a little bit different. But for you, defensively, you
don't mind coming up and hitting people. Huh no, sir,

(25:55):
how long you've been playing football?

Speaker 8 (25:58):
About ten years?

Speaker 1 (25:59):
Okay, so you started in the youth program. Always been
a kid who runs the ball a little bit and
and plays for both ways?

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Is something you've always.

Speaker 6 (26:08):
Done, Yeah, and I love it.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah. If you had to pick one side of the ball,
what would you pick?

Speaker 8 (26:15):
It'd be hard? Yeah, probably offense.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Okay, And with what you guys are running, there's enough
carries for everybody. I can tell you this. When I
looked at the stats from last night, right you kay,
you only had ten carries, But then then the white
kid had nine, and Pace had seven, and Hogan had eight,
another kid had two, Courtney had six. So man, there

(26:41):
is a lot of misdirection, so you're still getting hit
on some of these plays, and people think that that
you've got the ball.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Defensively, you play what position?

Speaker 6 (26:51):
I play outside line and you.

Speaker 8 (26:53):
Play outside line.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
So man and running back. You guys spend the same stuff.
Let me ask you this, David, when when when.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Coach Swittle took over.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
I'm sure that you guys all got together and and said, okay,
this thing is different. Some guys, as Coach Squittle said, look,
I'm gonna I'm gonna work instead, I'm gonna do this
or do that instead. I can tell you that those
are the guys that are coming out and sitting in
the stands at hard Park going.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Man, what bad decision.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
I wish I would have made the decision to stick
with with this team. You guys just said, okay, we're
looking forward. How much getting in the weight room and
getting together four times and him keeping attendance again all different.
Did you guys completely buy in and say, okay, boys,
we got to go because he said, look, these are

(27:44):
leaders on our team. A lot of convincing to get
guys in the weight room as much as you guys
are in there.

Speaker 8 (27:51):
Yeah, but we all knew that coach Little knows what
he's doing and that it was gonna pay off.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Hey, when I said last year and I looked at
the schedule and said the new Berlin Eisenhower, those two
points kepture from the playoffs, and you guys were over
in the corner in the studio shaking your head like, Okay,
that game, well, you took care of that, right, you
took care of that one already this year. Did Let
me ask you, did you think going into this year,

(28:18):
similar to coach Swittle, that you had a chance to
start the season really really well?

Speaker 8 (28:22):
Oh yeah, definitely we had high hopes for the season.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah, same same with you.

Speaker 7 (28:27):
Yeah, we definitely had high host since because getting kept
out the playoffs last year by two points, everybody.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Like, that's sticking your crowd a little bit.

Speaker 6 (28:35):
Yeah, it was bad. It was. It was bad.

Speaker 7 (28:38):
But then that first day of lifting, everybody they bought in,
they bought in, and everyone was thinking about that game
circle with that game on their calendar.

Speaker 6 (28:49):
No, that we gotta get, We gotta get that. We
gotta get business.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
What was impressive to a guy like me is when
you look at the new Berlan Eisenhower game, right, Yeah,
and again, nothing against any other coaches in the past,
Wiltocis was the team that ran out of gas from
the middle of the third quarter till through the fourth quarter,
and you would see where they were tied or even

(29:14):
up at halftime and then giving up a lot of
points in the second half to lose. You guys outscored
in New Berland Eiseno were fifteen nothing in the fourth
and that made me go, Okay, they spent a ton
of time in the weight room. Man, these guys are
fully bought in. They're they're not giving anything up. In fact,
they're putting the metal download the pedal down a little bit.

(29:35):
Come fourth quarter. Do you feel like you guys are
in good enough shape now even though you go both ways,
that you guys are starting to impose your well in
the fourth quarter of games.

Speaker 6 (29:45):
Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 7 (29:46):
Last year that was kind of like kind of it
wasn't like our issue.

Speaker 6 (29:50):
But we did. We did start slow.

Speaker 7 (29:52):
We started slow in at first half a lot last
year and always had. We were a great second half
team last year. But this year we start fast and
we're still a great second half team.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
Well that I'm telling you.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
In the past, pre coach Swiddle, if you go back
and look at some of the scores, they were getting
outscored a lot in the fourth quarter on some games,
and that what that tells you is they were running
out of gas. And that's not happening with you, guys,
what's the difference? So you understand now to start fast
and if you can. If you can start fast, you

(30:27):
know you're gonna finish strong. Uh make wakes a world
of difference, right yeah?

Speaker 6 (30:31):
Oh yeah?

Speaker 1 (30:32):
So our pick and save student athlete of the week.
And I didn't give him a whole lot of notice,
But David Hayes is he's a really good student. In fact,
they both are. And I made the decision Coach Swittle
is like you you choose they're both they're both above
three point zero is they take care of their business
in the classroom, in our school and in our community.

(30:52):
And I'm gonna choose davy On Hayes because you know,
he's three three and the fact that he's been out
a couple of games. I want him to know that
we celebrate him as a student athlete. Your motivation for
being such a good student athlete? Where does that come from?

Speaker 8 (31:09):
I think it's just like the privilege to be able
to play football and go to school that most people
might not have.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Well, do you know I use the word privilege a
lot because it's not your right to play football, right,
it's a privilege that you have to earn, and you
earn it by taking care of your business and being
a good kid in the in the in the classroom,
and in that school your favorite.

Speaker 8 (31:32):
Subject, I love Spanish class You.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
Do no Espanol. Sorry, I've got none of that. I
can tell you that our local Pick and Safe stores
love celebrating student athletes, and we're gonna invite you and
your family. Your teammates will let Coach Swittle know and
your teammates will meet at an evening next week that
works for you, but we'll meet at the Pick and
Save on State Street near near Hard Park and after

(31:57):
a practice, and you invite your family, and I've got
a beautiful plaque for you. You'll get so tired of me
taking pictures of you, but that's what I have to do.
And Pick and Save says congratulations on being such a
good student athlete. The one question that I had for you, guys,
that I asked you to get prepared for. You got
a lot of football to be played yet with wawos East,

(32:20):
But so far, your favorite memory of being part of
Wahwootoasti's football malachim.

Speaker 7 (32:25):
To start with you, I think I would have to
say first year so first year that coach g came
into the weight room, he told us, like what was
going on when he came in, I just felt a
whole different energy, like just a different energy. And from

(32:47):
that point on I knew it. We can only go
up from here because he all him and Coastal are
both very demanding and all they.

Speaker 6 (32:55):
Asked for is all we got.

Speaker 7 (32:56):
So Coastal says us for every game and that stuff
with me, and that was one of my favorite mines.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
Man, that's awesome.

Speaker 8 (33:04):
How about you mind being as coach miss Coach Tittle
mentioned before, every Wednesday after practice we have team dinners
and parents prepare males for us and it's a nice
time when we get the joke and laugh and just
over our fun and we'll football players after practice for hungry.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yes, so coach.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Twiddle, you're you're here in the studio. And the impressive
part of those answers, Coach malec I could say, look,
last night I scored, you know, touch the ball eleven times,
scored four touchdowns, never brought up himself either one of them.
And what that tells me is the culture at Tosa
East is all about us as a team and us

(33:52):
together and Both of these guys have put a big
not look all conference all, you know, all of this stuff,
and they could have said, look this game I had,
you know, sixteen tackles and five They never once brought
themselves up into their favorite memory. He's talking about the
strength and conditioning coach is his favorite memory on why
being part of this program was so important, and he's

(34:14):
talking about the gathering together after the culture and just
us having some fun and trust me, we're really hungry because.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
We're football players.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
I love those answers, guys, and it means a lot
to the coaching staff that that's what your favorite memory
if I asked you, and I don't want to put
any bulletin board material out, so please let's not do that.
But when you look at your schedule, is there one
if you can only get one win, is there a

(34:43):
team that you're like? Because I would think I know
what it is. But I'm gonna ask you who do
you circle?

Speaker 2 (34:50):
Who do you say?

Speaker 1 (34:51):
Okay, this is the one that man, we got to
bring our a game?

Speaker 6 (34:54):
Well, what's also lists?

Speaker 1 (34:56):
He's shaking your head. I knew that answer before. Look
the Demon of New Berlin Eisenhower. That was that was
an important game for you guys to get over that hurdle, right,
and you took care of that business. Why would toast
West because it's bragging rights, right yep? Oh yeah, man,
They're gonna be five deep around the track for next Friday.

Speaker 6 (35:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
And and all I can tell you is take a
deep breath, and and and you can have all the
jitters and stuff. But once that first hit, if hey,
if you guys win the toss, would you prefer to
take the ball or kick it?

Speaker 7 (35:30):
I think kick it. I think I think I want
them to try to score on us. You know, I'll
trust our defense.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
Hey, what's the chance and I'm not going to hold
you this, I promise you. Man, what's the chance you're
being back?

Speaker 6 (35:41):
Do you think I'm playing?

Speaker 1 (35:44):
We have breaking news, We got breaking back, Coach Swittle.
I think he's he's feeling like maybe that's the case too,
boys from Tosa West. It's fifty to fifty whether he's playing,
as I'm winking at you, maybe forty sixty. Pretty sure
when you practice this week, practice that he will.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Not be playing.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
In fact, he might not suit up, that he might
not even be able to be at the game. Just
so you guys. Guys know, not supposed to lie in
this show. But I'm just telling you, hey, boys, I
understand now. I get why he said I got to
I got to. Those answers are your favorite memories. For me,
as an old basketball coach, if I had players in

(36:25):
and those were the answers, it would bring tears to
my eyes. The fact that the culture at Wohotosa East
it's different under a guy like Swiddle because he knows
what it takes to build a program and to have
teams play. I often say this, I've coached teams that
have won a lot of games and the players didn't
get along at all, and it wasn't all that enjoyable.

(36:47):
And then I've had teams that these guys got along
really well and we didn't win many games and it
wasn't that painful. But every once in a while, you
get a team that they all get along, they like
going to the Wednesday dinners together, they hang out, they
have fun, and they win some games. It's the best
and you don't get it very often.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Do you know what's going on with you? Next year? Yet?

Speaker 6 (37:08):
Next year?

Speaker 3 (37:09):
No?

Speaker 6 (37:09):
No, I really don't know.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
You got some opportunities, do you want to play at
the next level. Oh yes, do you want to play
at the next level? Do you know what's going on
for you yet?

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Okay, they're coming though, aren't they.

Speaker 6 (37:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (37:22):
They if they haven't yet. The guy in the white
hat over there, he knows everybody. He knows everybody there is.
And trust me, if they're not coming quick enough, he'll
get them there.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
He'll get you. Guys.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Just keep taking care of your business. One last thing
and we're going late here, Jeff, And I'm sorry, but
I'm going to ask you a favor. Something special going
on with this team. Keep your players. We're not going
to that party. We're not doing that because what we
can't do is ruin what's happening right now. There's enough
time to go to some party in January or February.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Are you a multi sport athlete?

Speaker 6 (37:59):
Yeah? I run track?

Speaker 1 (38:00):
You run track? What about you, Teck?

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Man, you guys are like twins man running backs, linebackers,
and you run track. Do me a favor, and as
leaders of this team, let's make sure that Friday night
after the game. No, we're gonna go to Culver's. We're
not going over there. Okay, that kind of stuff. Make
sure that that you step up and what I don't
want is come playoff time. We got some guys that

(38:22):
can't suit up because of some mistakes that were just stupid.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
All right, hey, guys, thank you.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
I'm gonna have a Coach Swittle come back because I
got a few questions for him and Coach McMillan.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
On the other side of the break.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
This is the Varsity Plitz High School Sports Show. By
the way, I'll get your phone number, figure out what
your your family, what evening next week works for you,
and I'll make myself available to come over there and
be at that Pick and Safe to hand off that
trophy and congratulations to that you got it. This is
the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your
local Pick and Safe stores on the Big nine twenty

(38:55):
and your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to the Varsity Plitz
High School Sports Show presented by your local Pick and
Save Stores. I'm Mike McGivern alongside the athletic director at Muskigo,
He's Ryan McMillan. Before we get back to Coach Swiddle,
you were over there smiling these two kids that are
two good young men that are leaders for Tosa East.

(39:16):
It doesn't surprise you therefore, and oh with guys like that, No.

Speaker 4 (39:19):
They're good students and they're great athletes.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
It's awesome.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
Look when Malachi says, my favorite memory is the first
day in the weight room with the new strength and
conditioning coach, because of how excited he was and the
whole different and all he thought about was, look, if
we all buy in, we're gonna we got a chance
to be pretty good. Just from the weight room, I
saw you smiling over their coach Swiddle with great answers

(39:44):
by these guys.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (39:46):
Absolutely, and you know I will echo, you know, talking
about why do we have so.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Many new kids out for football.

Speaker 5 (39:52):
It's the work that coach Gonery and I have put
into our workouts. We've invited every I gotta tell the
first day that I went into the weight room after school,
it was like a playground at Recess. It was just
bedlam and there was no organization. There was nothing going on,
just kids screwing around.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
And I was in shock.

Speaker 5 (40:15):
And so I took the football guys. You know, they
had a strength and conditioning guy. One of my one
of the things I had to have was I had
to bring in my own strength guy. That was he's
coming with me, and if he if you can't get
him in there, then I'm not coming.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
Well, you know, we got him, got that done.

Speaker 5 (40:32):
And the first day I was just appalled by what
I saw in there was just awful. And I told
the players at the end of that day, so it's
going to be different tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
It's going to be different tomorrow. You guys probably remember that.

Speaker 5 (40:47):
And you know, and we started and I invited I
stopped everybody in there.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
I invited all the athletes to come join us.

Speaker 5 (40:55):
That this isn't a football workout, this is an athletic workout.
We want to work with everybody. Not one athlete from
any other sport chose.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
To be with us.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
And so you know, we have a routine, we warm
up together, we count out low do we do all
these things.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
People looked at me like he's nuts. Whatever worked? How
what is his problem? You know? And this is the
way it's got to be.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
Now we're in a situation we have multiple sport athletes,
boys and girls, and like I said, a lot of
the guys who have come out for football are there
because of their experience.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
With us in the weight room at workouts.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Did you have kids who had played youth football and
then said I'm not doing this and then now they're back.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (41:38):
You know, one of the things that was really disappointing
to me. I started the Junior Raider football program back
the roots of it in ninety three, so it's you know,
and when I left, it just fell apart. And I'm
not blaming anybody per se, but it just you know,
I ran the thing all those years and the numbers

(42:00):
got so bad that they had to combine with Toso West,
so they had to combine Toulsa East Tosal West team.
So last year we started my first year back, we
started the Junior Raider football program again. We only started
with the seventh grade and we only had like nineteen kids.
This year we got a team eighth, seventh and sixth grade,
and I think there's close to eighty kids playing football.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
Well, I see the coach mcmill. We talk about youth
programs a lot. Yeah, you know, again, him growing up
in Wanakee understood, I mean, he lived in that postage
stamp of what Wanakee youth football was. But then as
he got older and he realized and he took the
head job at Oconamwalk and realized that every youth program
is like the one that he grew up in. But

(42:44):
that's what to go from seventeen to eighty tells me
everything I need to know on that.

Speaker 5 (42:50):
Yeah, hey, and again great support. I mean, I've got
you know, parents' dads who are investing a lot of
time and energy into that. But the fact that we
were able to do that in one years very nice.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
I hope that some people from the Booster Club heard
Debiane's answer to his favorite memory in case they don't
know the importance of that Wednesday night meal. He never
said anything that the food was good. He said, look
for I guarantee you it's good. We're gonna eat.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
You know.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Coach McMillan and I are available Wednesday even if you
you know, if you guys want us to come over
and enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
You know, just a word about our Wednesday night.

Speaker 5 (43:29):
So a couple of the guys that are out for
football now are basketball kids, right and good basketball players.
And the one said to me, God, we never have
this in basketball, you know, And he said, this is
just like a family.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
And then I had a parent of.

Speaker 5 (43:48):
One of the basketball kids of the other basketball kids
came up to me and said, I cannot believe how
great this is. You know, well a Wednesday excuse me,
a Wednesday night meal. It has that much impact on people.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
Do you know what's going to happen? And I know
the basketball coach toast, he's he he's gonna hear. He's
be like, well, no, no, we should the building of
the culture, we should do that too. Then you know
we only got to feed well, we only got to
feed fifteen.

Speaker 5 (44:17):
Coach Ernie is a great supporter of ours.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
I loved him.

Speaker 5 (44:22):
He was one of my students back at Tolsi years ago,
and he is so happy and has just said such
nice things about our program. He handles the chains every
Friday night at home getting you know, because he doesn't
know that oh yeah, yeah, he's just he's just a
great guy and very supportive of our program as we
are of his program.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
Do you know back in the day I had George
and then and then when I couldn't get Ernie come in,
I couldn't get him. He's like, ah, so I went
to a game. I paid the five bucks to get
in and I got there twenty minutes earlier, and they
came out for warm ups and I stood there because
I couldn't get in.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
A return to call.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
He goes, I don't want to do any of that stuff.
I go, I know you don't, but you have to
came in. He was just a really good guy, sure,
just a ton about that program and those players. And
he went on after the first break, he goes, how
do I do? I go, great, he goes, what I say?

Speaker 2 (45:19):
I go what?

Speaker 1 (45:20):
He goes, I really disliked. He goes, I'm so opposite
of our last guy, who was a great coach, and
he would get up.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
On the mountaintop and talk about the program. But I
don't know if I want to do this again.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
He's done it a couple of times, but it takes
a little bit of comment. Can we just I just
want to highlight your program?

Speaker 5 (45:37):
And Arnie represents the staff. The number of people who
have emailed me. Teachers at told SI's many of them.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
Well, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (45:45):
I've been retired from there for seven years, you know,
so a lot of new.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
People have caught the fever, the football fever.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
It's great And as Ryan McMillan talked about what that
does for the whole community and for the school because
just gets more people involved. And if they haven't played
football now maybe they want to try another sport. And
and just the people that come out and support these kids,
their classmates as they do. They wear their jersey on
Friday in the classroom. Yeah, and so now all of

(46:14):
a sudden, these kids that it wasn't the thing to
do on a Friday night, it is. It is now
it's the thing to do.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
But did it?

Speaker 1 (46:22):
It's no surprise for you when I when I asked
them who they're who? They circle right, None of all,
not at all. It's the same week of practice for
you guys. You don't want it to be too high,
too low. But it's a good it's going to be
a great community event.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
It is going to be.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yeah, it's good to see you, see you, yeah so much.

Speaker 5 (46:40):
Oh yeah, we did think We didn't even talk about.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Your family and your wife or any of that. Man,
did she did she have any of the old gear
from the old TOAs East days.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
No, I got rid of all that, Believe it or not.
I don't know why you did that.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
It would still fit her, I know that is.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
She's still really involved.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
Like she was.

Speaker 5 (46:58):
Oh my god, she's a huge porter, and you know,
it's just has come to all our she's in.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Europe right now. Oh I didn't know that for two weeks.

Speaker 5 (47:05):
But she's mad that she missed last night's game and
is gonna miss the West game.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
But she'll be back at it in two weeks. Man,
that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Please see how everybody for me. It's so good, so
good to see you next Friday. If you don't have
a ticket that that Toasi's at TOSAL West game, I'm
just gonna tell you straight up, it's gonna be a
sellout and you're gonna be able to see both I
think both of our players that are in studio. He
hadn't played for a couple of weeks, but he's got
that look to me and his eye that he's gonna

(47:34):
make sure he's ready to go for TOSAL West. But
right now, the trainer said it's forty sixty whether he's.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
Gonna play or not.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
So yeah, Well, as we're all giggling, coach, thank you
very much, We're gonna get to a break. The other
side of the break, Ryan and I will will break
down some of the scores from last night. Ten to twenty.
Eric Trusky had football coach Wisconsin Luthor. They got a
game at one o'clock today. He's gonna join us at
ten twenty. He couldn't join us at ten o'clock because
their team does devotions at ten o'clock. So ten twenty

(48:02):
and then ten forty. Ryan and I are going to
talk a little bit about some matchup next next week.
That well, we'll pick the toast. I'm picking Toast East
by the way.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
That's good pick. Yeah, that's good pick.

Speaker 3 (48:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (48:13):
You're getting their speedback.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
Can either join me or not if it's up to you.
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented
by your local Pick and Saves stores on the Big
nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to the
Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your local
Pick and Save Stores on the Big nine twenty in
your iHeartRadio App again, coming live from the Diamond of

(48:35):
Jorgies and Heat and Cooling Studios. That's my fault. It's
like ninety in here. Two weeks ago it was forty.
This one was on me. I didn't have my glasses
on and I put All of a sudden it went
up to like eighty.

Speaker 4 (48:47):
It's cooling down now.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
It's cooling down now.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
I saw the sweat beats on the polish pipe bombs eyebrow,
so I figured I would do that. Thanks for joining me.
I'm Mike mcgimnn alongside my co host. He's the athletic
director musquigo. Can you call your head eighth grade coach
and your fifth grade coach telling me be nice, to
take it easy, to take it easier of my boys,
my grandsons are playing that. I want to thank the AAIFL,

(49:12):
by the way, they sponsored this show now. And I
got a chance last week to go out and give
our aa YFL youth football. They're they're they're they're the
AIFL team of the week.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
And I made the decision. And you can call me
a homer if you want.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
I don't care. The Brookville Least eighth grade team. My
grandson Logan plays for them, And I went out and
gave that trophy and and gave a little, you know,
a quick little speech and and uh, you know, eighth
grade kids don't all look at the person talking, so
I made them eyes up here, come on boys, and
handed that trophy off for him and feel really good
that they got to win last week against o'conamwalk.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
How excited were those boys and they got that thing
really excited. Yeah, there's some authentic energy there.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
One hundred and with my grandson, I had him hold
the trophy or the plaque and I and I showed
it to you the kids. He's smiling all the time
until it's time to take a picture that he looks
like he's, you know, a junior in high school man.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
And it was awesome. It was really fun to be
over there.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
And each week we're gonna pick an af AYFL Team
of the Week, and I look, all I'm asking is
that you guys go out and sport them, right, go out,
go to their website AYFL dot com and look at
games in your area. Right. I know out at Lake
Country they got games going all day until six thirty tonight.
Gigo normally has games all day, right all day.

Speaker 4 (50:36):
Yeah, we got two field to go on, so they
they'll have it all mapped out and the way they go.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
Man, go out and support these kids. And I want
to thank Ken Whisky over at Ideal Logos because he
he jumped in with me and they're sponsoring that that
that trophy that we give away to the AYFL team
of the week, and I'll take an evening in fact,
two of them now, right, pick and save student after
the week. I'll meet him in the evening and then

(51:01):
I'll go wherever the AAIFL. Whoever the team of the
week is, could be a fifth grade team from Belgium, right,
I'll take a ride out there and hand out that trophy,
address the team a little bit. You know, being a
former coach, it's kind of fun to get up in
front of these kids and talk about the importance of
being a good kid. And you know, these coaches are
teaching more, as you know, more than just trying to

(51:23):
win a football All.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
Those kids will never forget that though, too. I mean,
it's just a cool little feather they get put in
their cap. Keeps them excited about the game, keeps them going.
They got to see big time Mike McGivern. Now you
don't get that every well.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
All of them except for one. And they were like,
that's your grandfather. He's like, that's popping to be logan.
And it was really really fun. And I think I
just think the guys here in the AAIFL that for
being part of what we do here on Saturdays and
understand that we will highlight, promote and celebrate that league.
It is known, and you know more than I it's

(51:55):
known as the best youth football league, certainly in this area,
maybe in the state.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
It's very competitive, very very competitive, and I think the
southeast corner of our state is the most competitive area
in our state. And the AYFL does a good job
of providing an opportunity to kids to play the game,
and the parents and the kids love to compete, just
like the high school kids do on Friday night. They
just do it Saturday morning.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
And we had Greg Clark in a couple of weeks ago,
and we're gonna have them come back, and I'm gonna
allow as part of this them sponsoring the show. They're
going to be in three more times. We're gonna bring
them in mid season, right near the playoff time, and
then for some of their state champions or their league champions,
we're gonna have those coaches come in for an hour

(52:39):
and talk a little bit about that. Hey, let's let's
talk first of all, the game that you were at
and you said, look, it was an unbelievable atmosphere. McGonagall
came in and got to win. You got to give
them a lot of credit. I'm sure they're head football
coach is pretty happy.

Speaker 4 (52:55):
Yeah, Coachvak and his staff and his kids. They responded well.
Like I said to his hand at the end on
their way out of town, they're getting on the bus
and just said, hey, great response. I mean, and that's
what you hope to see out of our own our
own program over at Uskego this week. Coming back, you
know is have a great response and you drop one,
but it doesn't mean you have to drop the next one.

(53:16):
So they were physical, they ran the ball well. They're
running back and quarterback, were explosive, and they kept us
on our heels a little bit and and we we did.
Moskeigo did some nice things too. They came back. It
was type ball game. There's a kick return for a touchdown.
That's probably the difference in the game of separating it.
You know, you get a special team score or a

(53:37):
defensive score or one of those turnovers, those explosives, you know,
and that probably was the difference in the game that
that created that wider mark.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
Second half, first half yea, or when was that? I'll
take a look at it.

Speaker 4 (53:50):
Surely second I think, yeah, boy, that just.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Changes the I was at a game one time for
Thursday Night, or it was a Thursday night when we're
doing Thursday night games on my twenty four and it
was at Carroll. It was Catholic Momorial against mcguanago and
mcguannage had Catholic Memorial on their heels and the play
right before the end of the first half, they ran
a hooking ladder for about a sixty five yard touchdown

(54:17):
and I was on the sidelines mcgwannago and you could
feel the air coming out of the balloon. It was
now we got to go in the locker room and
we just gave up and it was one of those
plays that took a lot out of that team.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
Well, on the other side of the field, I'm guessing
it's like throwing a match on a fire.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
Boo boom.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
There it goes and everyone's believing, jumping energy everywhere.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
And here we go.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
Those explosive plays are game change, there's no doubt about it.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
The game that I was at on the sidelines for
Friday Night rivals of my twenty four draft and at
Wisconsin Lutheran. First of all, the facility now at Wisconsin
Lutheran they can host home games. Is beautiful, so cool.
It's so beautiful. And talking to Joel Redue, their coach,
he said, look for not to have to get on
a bus to go to a home game anymore, for

(55:04):
us to be able to host here. It's a really
nice facility. I give those guys a lot of credit.
The concession stand, the bathrooms, everything is really nice. The
sound system. I have one huge complaint, oho is that
it drives me nuts. Do you know there are small
things in your life that I like. It's somebody on

(55:24):
a chalkboard, right hey, your pet piece, their pa guy,
their pa guy would whatever the score was, Let's say
it was seventeen fourteen draft in he would say the
score is four fourteen to seventeen. And because he would
say Wisconsin Lutheran score first, Please don't ever do that again. Please,

(55:46):
It's got to be the higher score first. I was
texting our guys saying would you tell him? And then
the people at by twenty four, like my guys, they
knew how much it bothered me. So every time he
did it, they'd look at me and start laughing, because
it just you gotta say the higher score first.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
Yeah, you have to anytime you send this stuff, you
go seventeen fourteen, then you put the person who was
ahead correct.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Yeah, So I thought his voice was great. I thought
the excitement level is great. If you're listening, please, I'm
begging you, begging you to always go with the higher
score first.

Speaker 4 (56:20):
Pa advice from little gotta take that right, But you.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Would agree with that. At seventeen fourteen, grafting up that game,
I thought at one point it was going to be
that Wisconsin lutheran oh o kindom walking I did, But
it was forty three thirty four and boil boy.

Speaker 4 (56:41):
What point did you think that, if you don't mind
me asking.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
Yeah, it was around halftime, because at halftime it was
twenty four to twenty one, and then Wisconsin Luther came out,
put up thirteen in the third and seven Grafton scored seven.
So all of a sudden, I'm like, there were a
lot of three play drives.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
Yeah, right, all of.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
A sudden, boom, they hit a bomb on a pass
or a short pass and he goes sixty and then
one play touchdown. Then they kick off, and I thought, man,
what was the final By the way, remember yours eighty
four eighty two.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
Yeah, So that's why I asked the question, because there's
seven six at the end of the first quarter and
what was the final eighty four eighty two.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
You know, my guy is just like Mike Bush was
covering that game for that show I did on the
other station of the Friday night Scoreboard show, and I'm
telling you, we're wrapping up at ten o'clock and he
was like, look, we haven't finished the third quarter yet,
and everything was sold but one Gator ray from the
concessions happy there raising.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
Money to build a new field and build the whole thing. Yeah,
oh god, that that game was in. Who won that game?
Caught him off listen how quiet you are?

Speaker 4 (57:49):
Just don't tell coach Denoyer.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
He doesn't want to hear. No.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
And I'll tell you what I didn't know. I knew
a little bit about crafton coming in. I didn't know
a ton about Wisconsin Luthor. Wisconsin Luther's a good football team.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Yeah, yep.

Speaker 4 (58:02):
The coach will Do has done a really good job
of slowly stabilizing and evolving and growing that program. And
they got the facility now and again they can go
back and build that community we talked about earlier in
the show that school community, the greater Lutheran community, if
you will, and he's doing a good job at it.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
So if you look at the stats, the quarterback from
Grafton was thirteen for twenty four for three hundred and
twenty eight yards and three touchdowns.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
That's good night.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
And Tommy latch is their running back who's really good.
And he caught six passes for one twenty one and
he ran twenty six times for one nineteen and he said, man,
I didn't have a great game tonight, and I thought,
you got to be kidding me. The quarterback was our
US Marine player of the game, as quiet of a

(58:52):
winner as I've ever had in that and he one
word answers, Man, you guys played well, yep. Your offensive
line nice job, yup. And I was like, come on,
you gotta give me more.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
And he was kind of smile, A.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
Good looking kid. He said, man, this is just who
we are, I believe and I and I asked their
head coach to this before I interviewed him. I think
players teams start to take on the personality of their
head coach.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
Jim North's just a dog, right, he is.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
One of those guys the lunch paled, let's bring it
to work and let's finish blocks on the offensive line.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
And you watch those guys and man, they're getting to
the second level and they're taking out backers and they're
they're doing exactly what he would have done at that
age as a high school.

Speaker 4 (59:37):
Hey, your offensive output starts there. And if they're getting
their nasty and they're finishing and they're executing up front
and the five guys and nobody really recognizes in the
newspaper after the game, if they're getting a done, chances
are good things are happening.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
They got a kid going to South Dakota about six
' four, I don't know, two sixty five beard, long hair.
I'm not kidding. He could go get a twelve pack
and grab now. And I pulled him up for that
last shot and gave him the trophy and I said,
he is the poster boy of what an offensive lineman

(01:00:12):
looks like. And he started smiling. I couldn't get any
of these kids to talk. And Norri's like, hey, you
don't need me. I said, yes I do. Let's go
get over here, a big smile on his face. I
do enjoy him a lot. I don't get a chance
to talk to him a lot, but I enjoy him.
And I hadn't talked to Joe Rdou in a while.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
And the.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
Thirty minute pregame show we do in that third segment
that behind the scenes the current electric behind the scenes
superhero the game was the guy that's run their concession
stand for eight years. He doesn't have any kids in
the school anymore, and he goes, look, I did it once.
They said he did a really good job. They threw
me the keys and said, hey, get him back to
us in September or something, and I burst out laughing.

(01:00:54):
I did concessions once. I said, please, don't ever ask.
I'll umpire games. I'll do the sticks. I'll be and
you know, a coach at third base, but not the concessions.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
I can't do.

Speaker 4 (01:01:04):
Totally agree with that. That is a headache, and it
takes a lot of work. A lot of people don't
realize the amount of work and planning and prep that
goes into it. And then and then game night hits
and you got to service people and you got people
yelling at you and asking for this that, and then
it's like, oh my goodness, they say thank you to
those people when you're there.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
That's the reason we're working for you. That's the reason
we do it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
Who do does concessions for you guys at Meschigo?

Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
Is it a group of people or so we got
concessions coordinator Miss Donovaness. She does a lot of different
things within our school community and this is one of them.
She goes, can I have that?

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
I said, here you go, yes, ma'am. Yes.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
She works for our student council and works with our
musical as well, but she coordinates the whole thing, and
then she grabs other groups within our school community and
they come out, they get to work it, and then
we give them a cut back to their program as well.
So everybody's helping everyone.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Really smart. I just don't know how I would order right,
because there are games that like you had last night
and that Musquigo it's different. But you know, there are
gonna be games at Wisconsin Lutheran that the crowd isn't
gonna be what it was last night. It was a
great crowd. I was really impressed with just the whole
setup over there. I met the new principal, young guy

(01:02:18):
from the FINALAC area, and I interviewed him. I said,
can you get a new gym place? And he burst
out laugh and he goes five, can you borrow me
five to ten mil?

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
And I can?

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
And I said I want it done before basketball season, right,
And their basketball coach set me a texting of zada, boy,
you don't get me a new gym. But the whole
thing was set up, and the people out there were
just phenomenal to us because we interrupt what you guys do. Right,
The game's gonna start a little later. The halftime's a

(01:02:49):
little longer because I got nineteen interviews. I got a
text from Buddy Mine said hey, I turned down a
high school football game, and I got a Mike McGivern
interview show.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
I go, I know my life.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Even it's like too much of you at halftime when
you talk about people like who do your concessions? I
can't thank them enough. Behind the scenes, people.

Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
The support staff, all the support staff behind the scenes,
the people the ticket taking tickets, doing the concession stand,
watching people in the stands, making sure everyone behaves themselves,
helping people get to their seats, get out of their seats,
get home safely.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
I mean all of it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
It's an event, and it's it's a community event when
it goes off without a hitch and it's safe and
we don't have to talk about, you know, some of
the things that we've talked about in the past that
happened in other communities. You know, it's it's a great night.
Last night was a great night for high school football
in the state of Wisconsin.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
Man, Yes, it was. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
And I'll tell you what the game I always at.
Next week We're at Greenfille at Greendale, So Friday Night
rivals right in that word, if I had to redo it,
and I'm looking forward to being there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
That toastes toasts.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
The West game is gonna be a goody Oh, yeah,
that's good.

Speaker 4 (01:03:58):
Those games are gonna be a good community It's gonna
be a great competition, but it's gonna be an even
better community event.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
A couple of surprises real quick for me. Homestead forty
eight ten over Whitefish Bay. I thought that was gonna
be a closer game. Homestead. After that firstride, they're they're
they're fine. Cedarberg beating Nickola forty two fourteen, Brian Leaires
got it going again. Quietly, he's got it going again,
and they're really they're they're a good football team.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
You said this a few weeks ago. The narsars healthy.
I mean, they're they're getting going. They got some teams
that are going to give some people some fits down
the stretch.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
Milwaukee Marquette beating Germantown. Germantown was once some impressive games.
They beat Homestead right and Marquette beat him thirty six
to ten, and I was a little surprised by that one.
Oh Creek twenty eight to thirteen against Racine Horlick. We
did the pick and safe student after the week, and
I you know, I can tell you that Coach Fletcher's

(01:04:54):
whole family came out for Carson and it was really
fun and he said, look, we're gonna have our hands full,
but I hope we can be competitive, and they certainly
were competitive.

Speaker 4 (01:05:02):
I caught a media ol and I don't know who
it was in the radio my way home, and they're
talking about that game and how impressed they were with
Racine horle Coach Fletcher and just the toughness level that
they brought to that game. And it was a defensive slugfest.
It sounded like for a lot of the game, you know,
Crek kind of score late and separated and that there
you go.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
And talking to coach Fletcher again, teams take to take
to the personality of I talked to I talked to
Brian's mom at that Pick and Save and she said,
thank you for saying such nice things about my boy.
But he was a handful and.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
To raise and I go.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
But on the football field, she got this smirk and said, yeah,
he was tougher the most and his boys are the same.
But you know what, the daughter she is coming. He
sent me some video and I'm gonna show it to
you during the break. We're gonna get you a break
and you're gonna laugh at this video that that coach
Fletcher sent me because it's really impressive. Other side of

(01:05:57):
the break, Eric Tresky, the head football coach at Wisconsin.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
Lutheran, will join us.

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented
by your local Pick and Saves. I'm the Big nine
to twenty year I Heart Radio app Welcome back to
the Varsity Blitz. High School Sports show is always presented
by your local Pick and Save stores, coming live from
the Donovan and Jorganson Heat and and Coolian Studios. I'm
Mike McGivern alongside my co host, the athletic director at

(01:06:21):
Muskego High School. So today at one o'quat at Wisconsin
Lutheran their football team's got a game against Wayna Vista.
I believe in an Iowa team Wayna Vista at one
o'quat at Robbie Stadium, Wisconsin Lutheran College. We are now
joined by Eric Trusky, been a friend of mine for
a long time front of this show, been a guest

(01:06:43):
on Faith in the Zona.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Guy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
I've got a lot of respect for coach. How you
doing today?

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
I'm great? Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
We should have Hey, we are telling the Ajeff grab
you and Mike telln the hold on all right, coach,
hang on one second. We are not the professional radio
That's okay, coach, how you doing?

Speaker 3 (01:07:07):
I'm great, I'm great. It's good to be on the
show and you good to hear from you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
See all kinds of good things about you. And I
can't hear your response because not a real radio guy.
Neither Ryan and I have headphones, and all of a
sudden he's looking at me like you gotta get me
some headphones. Coach before I ask you about this year's team.
I'm just wondering how you're feeling. You're feeling all right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:26):
Feeling a lot better, thank god. Yeah, it was kind
of an interesting start to the season. Started a camp
in the hospital. Had pneumonia out of nowhere. But my
wife was amazing, The nurses were amazing at the Royal
South Shore, and my staff was amazing that they kept
things rolling while I was gone. So very grateful.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
Well, what a.

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
Perfect day for a football You guys are off today.
Huh do you guys play today? Yeah, quite a vista.
I've got it right now. Coach, you're at home one o'clock,
just got done with devotions when a vistas the team
from Iowa?

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
Yes, sir, yes, sir. Yeah, they're out of Storm Lake, Iowa.
They're playing the American Rivers Conference, great conference, and they
got a young coach, Austin Dickinson, who's actually out at
Euclaire for a while as an assistant, so he's doing
a great job with those guys. It should be a
good game.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
Have done a lot of tape on them, and you
guys match up pretty well against them.

Speaker 3 (01:08:20):
We do like how we match up. But they got
some good guys up front. They got dynamic running back.
It's always interesting. It's the first time we've ever played them.
You got a one game scout, so there's a lot
of things that you're probably not prepared for. But yeah,
our team is ready. We definitely feel like we grew
a lot from week one, and we made a few
mistakes last week, but we feel like, you know, we're

(01:08:41):
in a good position to have a great day to
day and it's it's about as good as you could
ask for football weather.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
Hey, Ryan, when we talked to somebody like Eric who
does a great job of giving kids from our area
chance to play at the next level. If you look
at his roster's got a lot of Wisconsin kids playing.
There's it's difficult as a private college because Division three
state football is pretty incredible, strongest in the nation, strongest

(01:09:09):
in the nation, and and WLC when they go in
and I've talked to Eric about this, you know, he's
got to talk about the face side of it. He's
got to talk about the academic side of it. He's
got to talk about their conference, which is a really
good conference, and try to get kids to understand that
coming to Wisconsin Lutheran College, it's different for these reasons,

(01:09:31):
and I give him his staff a lot of credit
for being able to keep kids local and throughout the
state to come play at Wisconsin Luther College. But it's
really hard today's world to be able to be competitive
year in and year out at that level.

Speaker 4 (01:09:45):
Yeah, especially go ahead, coach, No, go for it. I
was just going to say, especially in our own backyard
because of the competition level of the expectations level. It's
really good football around in our own backyard here around
the state and locally, and it takes time to build
and you got to keep working at a coach, go ahead.
What's your thoughts on that?

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
No, I think you guys hit it right on the head.
We're very blessed. We have a great Division III, you
know network of schools. Wisconsin's very unique. It's one of
the few that doesn't have like that in between of
a Division two or SCS level schools, and so you
get some guys that play at our level that in
other states would probably be scholarship level football players. And
so it's not a surprise that you see strong football,

(01:10:27):
you know, out of the we ACT or out of
our conference. With the CCIWL. Carroll's doing some good things
and so you guys hit it on the head and
for us, the biggest thing we want to do is
be upfront about who we are. You know, we're we're
a strong academic school. Kids want to get a great education,
you know, medical, field, business, field, education, you name it.
You know, we're a school that's not shy about our
faith and we know for some that's really important. So

(01:10:49):
Jesus is a big part of your life. Or if
you're open to that conversation like I was when I
came here, that's a big deal too. And and then
I'll just say I'm really grateful. We have an amazing
administration in my athletic director's phenomenal. They do a good
job of giving us resources to make sure our students
continue to grow and compete at a high level. So
it's not easy, like you guys said, but man, we

(01:11:11):
love our Wisconsin kids and we're looking forward to bringing
more in.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
Yeah, I I'm telling you, I'm on that campus a lot,
and there's a there's an energy level that I feel
and when i'm when I'm not there for a sporting event,
and when i am, it's it's great. The energy is
as it should be. But just on a Tuesday at
ten o'clock if I've got a meeting there. And I
walked through that campus, Coach, the energy level of the

(01:11:38):
students is they're they're laughing, they're they're running to class,
they're goofing around. It just it makes me feel like
this would really be a cool place, not only for
me to be, but for my grandkids or my kids
to to be at that on that campus, you know,
being part of the stuff that you guys preach. And
the fact that you've brought up your face and the

(01:12:00):
reason you couldn't you couldn't join us at ten o'clock,
like I asked to begin with, is you said, look,
I'm not missing devotions with my guys. So if you want,
if you want me earlier or you want me after that,
but for me to be at devotions, it is very
very important part of my day and I'm not missing that.
And I said, let's go at ten twenty and you said, perfect, Coach.
The fact that you're okay talking about that and you're

(01:12:23):
not shy.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
About it, I love that.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
I appreciate that. I mean, for me, the biggest thing
I never want to miss. I always think about this,
you know, someday, my life's going to end, and I'm
going to look back, and I'm going to say I
was blessed to have all these young people in front
of me, and they were willing to listen to what
I had to share, and they were willing to do
whatever they could for their teammates. And did I make
it only about something that was temporary. I loved football.

(01:12:47):
I love seeing our guys compete. I can't wait to see,
you know, the kickoff at one how our guys respond.
But at the same time, the game ends for everybody someday,
you know. And are we going to make sure that
we're investing these young men as players. We're going to
do it academically, professionally, and spiritually. And so we really
try to live by our team versus is John fifteen thirteen.

(01:13:08):
Your love has no one in this and lay down
one's life and one's friends. The best teams I've ever
been around are selfless teams. The best parents I've been around,
husband's wives, you name it right. And even today we
get to celebrate we have the First Responders Day, so
we've got police, fire Department in EMPs, all these people
coming to celebrate them and talk about laying your life
down for the people around you, that that group is

(01:13:30):
about as committed to doing that as anybody.

Speaker 4 (01:13:33):
So, Coach, I think that's that's I don't know, correct
me if I'm wrong, but the wins and the losses
doesn't matter when we start talking about the things like coach,
I mean, that's what it's all about.

Speaker 3 (01:13:45):
Growing, That's why we That's why and you're involved in athletics,
you know, that's why we commit so much to it
is because we know there's something deeper. There's something deeper
that we can grab from from these games that we love.
And I'm thankful that I've had coaches that have done
that from me, and my goal every day is to
try to fay that forward to this next generation.

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
Coach a little bit about this year's team. You guys
took one on the chin last weekend and I'm looking
at at the numbers from your quarterback right eighteen for
thirty five, which is good two ondred yards. We got
to clean up a couple of those iontes, but feel
pretty good about where he's at.

Speaker 3 (01:14:21):
I'm excited. Bryce is the local guys from Cudahy. He's
done a phenomenal job. Force had a really good year
last year, and you know, when Bryce sees it, well,
he's as good as anyone. Last week, there's a few
things they didn't coverage that he was a little hud
ting on, but once he started picking it up, he
saw some explosive plays. And you know what really excites
me most about our team right now, aside from our performance,

(01:14:45):
because I love how our defense is flying around it,
it's just the way that everybody stayed engaged, stayed together.
Like it's so hard to see as a fan, whether
you watch, you know, in the bleachers and the livestream,
but the way that the entire team was engaged for
four straight quarters, that gets me excited because I know
that's what it takes to perform at a high level

(01:15:05):
throughout an entire season. So a lot of good things
and we'll see how we translate today.

Speaker 2 (01:15:10):
Coach.

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
You know a friend of mine son plays for you,
Colin amac And I've known his mom and dad, and
I've known him since he was about two years old,
and I know that he is he has waited right
he's he's he's fully engaged and and I think this
is the year that he's going to do some really
good things. He's changed positions, and you know, he's kind

(01:15:32):
of the poster child of a kid who understands that
you got to be a little patient sometimes taking care
of his business in the classroom, but he loves being
part of your football program.

Speaker 3 (01:15:43):
That's awesome here, I'll be love count in fact. So
each week we kind of vote on someone who embodies
not just like a performance on the field, but just
our team's culture. A core value is being a selfless
player and someone who responds to adversity. And Colin is
that guy. He's our warrior that we this week. So
he's an honorary captain. He's playing a big role, and
I agree with you, I think his role is only

(01:16:05):
going to expand as the year goes on because he's
a really talented kid and it's put a lot of
work in well.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
And you know when when you look at his bio,
you know, and you find this on a lot of
the bios that you go to on.

Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
Wlc's website, but you know, WLC honors awards and honors,
he's a scholar athlete in twenty twenty two and twenty
twenty three, and then twenty three and twenty four and
he'll do it again. And he's a guy that takes
care of all of his business in the classroom, he's
in the weight room.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
The kid's gotten huge. By the way. I used to
be able to mess with him. I can't. I didn't
mess with with that boy anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:16:38):
But I think I think his future is really bright
with your program, coach, last question before he cuts you
loose and gets you ready for that game again. They
have a one o'clock kickoff over at home against Point
A Vista. If you're looking to get to a college
football the game today and you want to get their
live this is the one to go to. Go watch
these kids over at Wisconsin Lutheran and and and slap

(01:17:01):
Eric Trusky five and his staff because they're doing a
really good job for this this this college coach. When
when we talk about your staff, and anytime that you
and I talk and I give you any credit, you go, hey,
it's not me. You know what this is My staff
does a lot of work, man, And and you were
so impressed with with this year's staff and how hard

(01:17:21):
they're working.

Speaker 3 (01:17:23):
Absolutely, I can't speak enough about those guys and and
their commitment to this program. And honestly, the commitment to
doing football a little bit different. It's not easy to say, hey,
we're going to make this program a ministry. First, we're
all competitors, but these guys they believe in what we're
talking about that it's about building these young men up
and they do it on a daily basis. And I

(01:17:45):
couldn't do it without, you know, Steve Donovan, my decordinator,
Mike Fossom, our O line coach, Justin Parr's local guy
out out of Brookfield killing it for us, Nolan Winkler.
They could go on and on with all these guys
and you just got to see him in action. You
got to see way they coach up in a positive way.
We don't need a two kids out cuss him out
to get him better. We got to show him love.

(01:18:05):
We got to help him grow and let them know
that no matter what happens, we love those guys and
we'll breed there for him.

Speaker 2 (01:18:11):
Hey do I see.

Speaker 1 (01:18:13):
I think this is Patrick wegg you're coaching with you?

Speaker 3 (01:18:17):
Yeah. Weggs has been second year with us. He's coaching
D line and I'll be honest. Having Weggs, you know,
he's a Hall of Fame coach and having him, you know,
be able to talk about just kind of big picture
stuff as a young head coach myself has been invaluable.
So yeah, we're so thankful to have Pat and he's
been he's been all in.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
I man, I I knew that that he was kind
of helping out a little bit. I once sure where
then I'm on your website. Say hi to him for me, please,
And definitely I'd love to have him on in studio
or on the show to talk about the different street
being a head coach and being an assistant at the
college level. Yeah, he is one of my favorite and

(01:18:56):
the fact that he's on your staff I think is
great for you and that program. Hey, Eric, thank you
so much for a couple minutes. Good luck, go get
a win today.

Speaker 3 (01:19:04):
Thank you so much. You guys, we have a bus day,
and tell us everybody should be coming out. Come out
to come see our guys play because they play hard.

Speaker 2 (01:19:11):
Man. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:19:12):
That's Eric Treusky, head football coach at Wisconsin Lutheran College.
Right when you talk to him about you know, his
personal mission statement, it's not about getting wins where you
hit it right on the head, it's about you know,
teaching these kids, these these college aged kids, what it's
like for that next chapter to be a husband, to
be a father. And I'm really impressed with him. And

(01:19:36):
like all of us, he's out kicked his coverage by
a mile. His wife's way too good looking for him.

Speaker 4 (01:19:41):
Well, he's blessed as well.

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
Yes, he's blessed as well. He really is.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
And he's one of the good guys in this area.
We're gonna get to a break. Other side of the break,
we will talk a little bit about some matchups next week,
and we'll start with that Scigo game. That's a big
on the road. Yes, sir, at Arrowhead, they get much
bigger than that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:03):
No, no, they do not.

Speaker 1 (01:20:05):
We'll talk to Ryan McMillan, the appletic director at Muskego
on the other side about some of these matchups for
next week. This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show,
presented by your local Pick and Saved Stores on the
Big nine.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
Twenty in year. iHeart Radio app Welcome back.

Speaker 1 (01:20:22):
It's really fun. We're talking golf to No, we're not.
We're just during the break. Varsity Blitz High School Sports
Show presented by your local Pick and Save Stores. Ryan
McMillan my cost is in studio. Want to talk about
a couple of games next week. You know what it's like, coach,
how you play a good team after they lose one
and you know they come in a little bit angry.

(01:20:43):
I would think the Mosqigo boy's not going to be happy.
They go over to Arrowhead and Arrowhead played Homestead after
their first loss and got an angry Homestead team. And
if I'm the coaching staff of Arrowhead, I probably were
you'd win that game. I don't want you, guys. I
don't want anything from a mad and a tough Mosquigo team.

(01:21:06):
But we'll see how they bounce back. You'll find out
a lot about the leaders on that team on how
you guys play.

Speaker 4 (01:21:12):
Yeah, it's all about H E plus O eqals all right,
that whole deal, And what's our response gonna be? We know, uh,
we've kind of put ourselves in this position and now
we got to go respond and I've got to do
it on the road to the Backs against the Wall.

Speaker 1 (01:21:24):
Back is against the Wall. I'll be at the greenfield
at Greendale game. Yeah, a pretty good game. I'm excited
to see that game because again, it is truly a
rivalry game. It'd be interesting to see how that one goes.
Franklin is at Oak Creek, and you know, for that conference,
Racine Case is going to make some noise. But for

(01:21:46):
that that conference, that's the game that everybody kind of
circles and says, Okay, the winner of that game probably
is going to win the conference.

Speaker 4 (01:21:53):
Yeah, the road to the title down there runs for Franklin.
So you gotta knock them off. You gotta get it,
you gotta go get it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:59):
And it's at Oak Creak and it should be a good,
good game for sure. I talked to Billy Schmid in
the hallway before he left for Madison, and he said, man, Pewaukee,
he goes. I was just surprised, Like size wise, they
got like a couple of six two corners they got.
They got great size. You had said that last week.
When they walk on the field, they look like a

(01:22:20):
classic eight team.

Speaker 4 (01:22:21):
Yeah, they got They got good looking kids, They play
really really hard. They just the one down side is
they don't have as many to play both ways, right,
so a lot of those kids go both ways and
as a game keeps going, you know, at least the
class couple of weeks anyway, the depth of the two
programs they played, probably got the better of them. But
they are definitely a good football team. They've got great

(01:22:44):
football players, their coaches have been doing it for a
long time and so they're very, very competitive. That's what
people don't understand as they've been okay right now, So
we'll see how it keeps going.

Speaker 1 (01:22:53):
Hey, as a player, both both in the college level,
high school level and as a coach, if I asked
you the biggest rivalry that you've been a part of,
what would you say, m.

Speaker 4 (01:23:06):
That's a great question.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
Was it that one of key?

Speaker 4 (01:23:10):
And who would have there's wan a key to Forrest
when I was in school is probably want a key
Madison Edgewood Public private type of a deal because that
was still when the that was when the privates first
came into the w i A. So that that was authentic.
Uh no, no, but they were good. That's what made

(01:23:31):
it great is because when the teams are really good,
that's when you have a great rivalry. It's like Muskeego
and mcguanagall. Yeah, it would be great if you know
we're still getting together. Yeah, but if you're not that good,
I mean, I mean, what if you thump a team. Yeah,
that's great. But rivalries are the best when they're both
good and it's competitive and it comes down to the
wire and uh, you see those types of things. I

(01:23:53):
think that was those couple have been unique. It's probably
more so at the the high school level because of
the communities and the people who've just been there forever
their whole lives. They've lived it, they've seen it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
These two guys that we had in studio from Wahwatosa East,
if you were to pull them aside, they have the
game against Wawa Tosa West, and they both said, that's
for us, that's the game. Do you coach this week
any difference? Do you try to get some of their
emotion out of out of them or do you want them,

(01:24:28):
you know, ready to run through.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
The wall before that game. What's your opinion on that.

Speaker 4 (01:24:33):
I think during the week obviously you want great focus,
do you want great execution? You want to keep them learning,
And then I think keeping them confident is important because
sometimes when you go into these things and you start
hearing the stories, right, or the fables of the people
that you're about to get to, and the tall tales,

(01:24:54):
they just keep getting taller, right, they're so good all
that because you hear it from your local community and
you're close, right. But getting your kids and believing themselves
and knowing what they have to do and keeping them
grounded and focus in their path and who we are,
I think is the biggest piece going into these games,
and also telling them to embrace the moment, enjoy it,

(01:25:16):
take it all in. When you got five people deep
at Hart Park this week, you know with those two
Tostal schools, take it in, take a moment to look around,
embrace it, have fun with it, and then all let's
go compete together.

Speaker 1 (01:25:27):
You have that in fact, well, that game's at Tostal West,
and I believe it's at yep, it's at Tosal West,
and there'll be five deep there because they and they
don't handle as many peoples as Hard Park does, and
so I would get your tickets early for that. I
as a basketball coach in the beginning of my career,

(01:25:50):
did not do the rivalry games correctly because I got
our kids fired up, like three weeks before the game.

Speaker 2 (01:25:57):
We're gonna do fine here.

Speaker 1 (01:25:58):
But remember that one and and and that was not
smart because our kids were jacked up too hot.

Speaker 2 (01:26:04):
I mean Jess.

Speaker 1 (01:26:05):
In the first eight minutes of the game, we couldn't
hit a shot. Everything was long. We you know, kids
were following because they were trying to run through the
wall for you. And as I toned it down a
little bit, as I tried to convince him, it's just
another game.

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
Don't worry about it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:21):
It's just another game. That history is there, but we
need to take care of our business. It's not a
rivalry game till we start beating them. And I did
a better job as I got older, and Coach Swittel
has been around, right, he understands that. I could tell
when we were talking about it, he was like, yeah,
I think we'll be all right. You know, we'll just
get after it and see what happens. But inside, man,

(01:26:41):
he's not gonna sleep well this week, not gonna sleep
while this He's.

Speaker 2 (01:26:45):
Gonna have a great pregame speech.

Speaker 4 (01:26:46):
I got a hunch, man, we're.

Speaker 1 (01:26:48):
Gonna go beat those Lutherans. And I still he laughs
every time. But I'm telling you, And when I told
Jeff outside and he started laughing like crazy, it just
is one of my favorite stories, you know, And I
think Dave a Moroso for telling me that story. Because
it just made me laugh. Hey, lad Shieva Badger is
you know coach Hensler, We normally get him on closer

(01:27:09):
to the playoffs and it's a different team, but they're
starting to get after it again and they go they
travel to Wilmot to play them in their conference. Now,
they they're three and one overall and they're undefeated in
the Southern Lakes Conference. They beat Waterford and that's their rival.
I mean, that's the team that them Burlington, those teams

(01:27:31):
they beat him forty two fourteen. Last night they put
up twenty one. In fact, they put up thirty five
the first half through up thirty five to seven, and
I think they got a running clock on him. But
Henzler's got Badgers starting to play again, and that's not
good for anybody in that Southern Lakes Conference.

Speaker 2 (01:27:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:27:48):
The more and more that offense gets reps, and the
more and more of those kids seamlessly live reps going
against another opponent, another colored jersey, the better they get.
And he is an architect of teaching that thing right,
and those kids, they're gonna be a handfuls the season
keeps rolling, and that's a team you don't necessarily want
to see in the playoffs, just because of the uniqueness

(01:28:08):
of what they bring to the table. The only way
I want to see him is when I know I
got a great offense, so I'll say, come on, try
and keep up.

Speaker 1 (01:28:16):
And Wilmot is struggling this year, and I'm not pretty
you know, I think Badger's going to be fine the
following week. They they have Burlington at home, and Burlington
right now is not defeating the conference. That's another rivalry
game for them. And knowing coach Hensler, you know he
will have his kids ready for Wilmot with the idea
in the back of his head, Okay, you know we're

(01:28:38):
gonna run the let's run these drills today. Yeah, and
you know that kids don't know. You know, Okay, we're
just doing some different drills. Hens their staff getting ready
for the for the Demons for Burlington.

Speaker 4 (01:28:49):
They're getting different looks and they're starting to get an
early taste of what's coming down the road.

Speaker 2 (01:28:54):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (01:28:54):
I love to going back to coach Swittle. I love
the fact when when he started talking about rebuilding this
this youth program, they had seventeen kids. There was a
co op with Toast West and he said no, no, no,
we're not doing that. Uh uh, We're gonna have our own.
Seventeen kids in one grade the first year, and now
all of a sudden they got three grades and seventy kids.

(01:29:17):
And he took no credit for that.

Speaker 2 (01:29:19):
Did you see it? Yeah, he said, no, No, that's
not me.

Speaker 1 (01:29:21):
It's this guy.

Speaker 2 (01:29:22):
It's him.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
Look, he might not be doing it day to day,
but he's making the calls to say help.

Speaker 4 (01:29:28):
Me, oh man, and he's handing the blueprint. He says,
here's a blueprint, here's what we got to do. Just
check these boxes. Let me know what you need help with.
I'm here anytime you need me. And where he goes
and the guys who are are all on board with
them take it and they run.

Speaker 1 (01:29:40):
And what he doesn't if he was still here, and
I said, why did you want to go back to
start your own it's because he didn't want guys, there's
no decision making. Now you're part of the Toasta East family.
You're not going to make a decision. You're going to
play in this co op and then go, boy, I
think I'm gonna go play at Tosa West. No, no, no, Now,

(01:30:02):
you've been wearing this gear now for a couple of years.
You look pretty good in these colors. Yeah, come on
with his family and stay with us. And that's look,
he is a you know, a mad scientist when it
comes to building this stuff. And you know, during that
last break of jeff Orlaski, who is our producer today,
said man, it was good to see him again, and

(01:30:23):
I go, yeah, he goes. That guy's really good in me.
I go, yeah, he's really good. And he's tough as nails.
He'd be a tough guy to play for. But once
you get through it, once you realize that he'll he'll
give you a ton of respect if you're willing to
give him respect and give everything you have for him
in this program.

Speaker 4 (01:30:41):
Yeah, earn the respect. I mean, it's great relationships or
forged out of that. And he expects more of you
than you expect of yourself. And that's okay. Believe in it,
trust it, put the work in, and you're gonna be
a really good person coming out the backside.

Speaker 2 (01:30:53):
Hey you had a helper last night? I did well.
Who did you have?

Speaker 4 (01:30:57):
I had my daughter Adeline with me, a little eight
year old, and she hung the whole time. Oh, she
was running and gun and she was still putting a waterway,
driving the golf cart with my assistant a d at
like ten o'clock at night. She she didn't want to
go home, but as soon as she hit the trucks, she.

Speaker 1 (01:31:12):
Man, how great is that to be able to have
your daughter hanging with you and work. She knew coming.
You gave her a couple of bucks or something.

Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
Right, you pay her.

Speaker 1 (01:31:21):
She's listening line next time. You let daddy have you
free one time. But that internship is gone. You're a
part time employee for Mesquite.

Speaker 2 (01:31:30):
Gup.

Speaker 4 (01:31:30):
No, she did great, and she took it all in.
She got on the jumbo Troma and when the kids
were running out of the out of the tunnel at
the start of the game, she was asking to get
on the news.

Speaker 2 (01:31:39):
We couldn't.

Speaker 4 (01:31:40):
She saw the news cameras. How do I get on
the news data? I don't know how you get out
of there?

Speaker 1 (01:31:43):
But she's me a favor. Bring her one week, Okay,
bring her in here one week and we'll put a
microphone in front of her and we'll find out a
little bit about her working at Mesqgo.

Speaker 2 (01:31:52):
We got to get out, coach. It's good to see you.

Speaker 6 (01:31:54):
Great.

Speaker 1 (01:31:54):
See We'll have a great week of Badger Alabama.

Speaker 2 (01:31:57):
What do you think Badgers?

Speaker 1 (01:31:59):
Thank you because Alosky things. It's like seventy to three
or something, so I'm with you. I think Hunter Waller
makes a huge play today. This is the Varsity Blitz
high school sports show presented by your local Picket, Safe
Stories and the Big Nine twenty in your iHeart radio app.