Full Show - 11/29/2025

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, November 29th, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the Varsity Flitz High School Sportshow, presented by
your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores, only
on Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeartRadio app coming
live from the Donovan and Jorgenson Heated and Cooling Studios.
Any issues you're having with your furnace go to Donovan
Jorgenson dot com, the largest employee owned HVAC company in

(00:22):
the state of Wisconsin. So we transition to basketball, and
I love talking to guys that have been in the
game for a while, but they have now made that
transition into their first headed coaching job. And when you're
taking over for a guy like Andy SERNI, Man, I'm
telling you that. First of all, the cover's not bear

(00:44):
and he works I don't know, twenty three hours a
day maybe something like that. He's put a lot of
time into the Sussex Hamilton program. And Jason Schneider is
a first year head coach taking over and he was
brave enough to drive it and he said, man, I'm
Wisconsin tough, I can get us there. So for the
first hour, we're gonna talk to Jason Schneider and Cole Erdman,

(01:07):
who is a junior on this basketball team, and I
wrote down senior. When I asked him when he came in,
he goes, Man, I'm just a junior. I don't know
what's going on with me in college. Jason's good to
see you.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
How you been really good? Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Man, So you were supposed to first game was supposed
to be today and in your what's going to be
a long career, and it's been canceled or and you're
going to try to reschedule later in the year. Got
to be a little bit difficult for you. Did you
sleep all right last night? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Actually I did sleep pretty well last night. Yeah. Yeah,
because we've been going so hard the last week or
so with getting prepped for this game. So it gave
me a chance to recover a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Coach, and I have made that transition. It's six inches
on the bench, that's all it is, unless you get
you know, boy my size, maybe it's more than six inches,
but you're sliding over and from an assistant coach to
a head coach. First of all, congratulations too. Did you
have any idea what you were getting into here?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
A little bit? Coach SERRONI did a really good job
the last six years of letting me be involved with
the overall program stuff. So I had a pretty good
feel for what was there. And then once I got
the job, like we talked earlier, you have no clue
of all the extra stuff you have to do. So
it's been a lot of prep with warm up ordering

(02:28):
and tryouts. I didn't have any of the freshman names
numbers getting them all set up. So yeah, there's been
a lot of clerical stuff. And then finally maybe the
couple days before the first day of practice, actually being
able to sit down and start thinking x's and o's.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
And you were supposed to, you know, get ready for
today against Middleton and now that's gone. Your first game
as a head coach now is going to be on
the road against at Wakshas South. How much time did
you put into looking at Middleton and now you've got
to transition head? Did you do much of that?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, everything we've been doing and focusing for was towards Middleton.
We didn't have any look ahead at Waukeshaw South prior
to yesterday at.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Eight thirty.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Man, Well, here we go, and we have a very
young team. We lose our top three scorers from last year.
We only have three seniors that can even play that
aren't injured.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well, and in that conference, it's it's it's hard to
get a lot of wins without a lot of seniors,
I think, and I it's just when you when you
look at Wawao Toasts West and Brook Central and Brook
East and Germantown and Marquette, but now many falls Toast
East is gonna be good. West Allis Hills got a
new head coach. Man, you might if you're gonna be

(03:47):
a head coach, might as well jump into maybe one
of the best basketball conferences in the state. Right Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, And that was when I first met coach. Why
I wanted to get involved with him because I thought
this league was so good that you can compete with
great coaches and great teams and the best players in
the state.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Give us your background. Where'd you grow up and where'd
you coach before you got to Hammel.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah? So I grew grew up in the Final Like area,
went to the Holstein High School. My basketball career did
and go the way I wanted to, But I was
always a.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Bad none of us. I was dead. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
So I was a basketball junkie and it was one
of those deals. The varsity coach at the time said, hey,
you'd be a great coach, and so, being young, I
didn't really stick it out at the high schoolhen I
was in high school. But after I got out of
high school, I came back. Tim Schultz, who now is
at Plymouth Sure was in Holstein coach, and I went
and worked his camps and coached the summer league team.
When I was in college and at the time, Bruce Pearl,

(04:39):
I was going to wm for my mechanical engineering degree.
Bruce Pearl just gotten a job at Milwaukee. So Tim
Schultz tells me, hey, you should go and meet Pearl.
He's a really good guy. Kind of makes it sound
like they know each other. Yeah, And so I go
into Pearl's office and I said, hey, I know Tim Schultz.
He said I should stop by and see. I love
to watch practice. And his first response was never heard
of him, but he said, we'll take you on as

(05:03):
a manager if you want to help out. I was
a manager and at that time they were pre season
number one in the conference. So my only return was
can I travel with the team if you make the
NCAA tournament And he said yes, and we ended up
making the NCAA tournament that year and played Notre Dame.
And I just worked my way up and he kind
of took me underneath his wing a little bit because

(05:23):
I think he saw a lot of himself and me
as being a manager. And so when he got the
Tennessee job, I went with him to Tennessee as a
film coordinator GA for three years at Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Are you married with kids?

Speaker 4 (05:35):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
So my wife Annie played volleyball at the University of Tennessee,
and when she got done with her playing career, she
joined their staff as a GA, and so we met
in the athletic department. She's from Chicago, so there aren't
many people from the Midwest in Tennessee, and so we
met and that was kind of more of where we
College wasn't the life we wanted for a family. We

(05:56):
wanted to start a family, and we both were more
about the sport more than right. And so then we
moved back to the area. And now we have three kids.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
I beg you and what are their names?

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Josephine, AJ, and Eloise, And they all play sports. The
girls play volleyball and basketball and softball, and AJ plays
lacrosse and basketball.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
And man, you're busy.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, we're not. We're two ships passing
in the win because my wife also coaches volleyball at
the high school.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
My goodness. Yeah man, well they you guys are in
gyms all over all over the place. We're also joined
by Cole Ervin. He's a junior played quarterback for the
football team. We should probably just talk football for a bit. Man. Congratulations,
call you guys had a great year.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Thank you. It was a really fun year.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeap. Hey, how long does it take you mentally and
physically to transition from football? And you guys went went
deep into the playoffs transition physically and mentally to move
into the basketball space.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yeah, so, I mean after that loss Arrowhead in round three,
it takes, you know a little bit. And coach and
I was really good about like giving the football guy's
time off. Same thing with Serronnie. He was really good
with it as well. But he gives us like a
week off, you know. He says that you know, take
the time you need, you know with your like your health.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Did he take the whole week?

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Did he not? Shot about?

Speaker 4 (07:14):
Look?

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Look he's laughing. There's no way that the starting quarterback
from that team. Who's going to be a starter. I
would think right on, this team was good. Wait a week,
you know, you know, about two days after he woke up,
he said, I'm still a little bit sore, but man,
maybe I can get some shots here. Right.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
So the first three days we're supposed to be, uh,
you guys can participate, but don't you don't have to
do any of the live stuff. And the second day
I walked in there and he was already at the
five on five live. I said, you know, you don't
have to go. He's like, I'm good, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Are you a football player that plays basketball or you
a basketball player that plays a little football? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (07:51):
I mean I would say, I like, I really love football,
but I also really love basketball. I would say football
is probably I like a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
But I love both of them because you it's your huggle,
right and and being the quarterback, that's that's different. It
what part? And and talk to me a little bit
about coach about his game and how big of a
part will he be in in this year's team? Do
you think, Oh, yeah, huge part.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
He's one of our only two returning players from last
year that scored on varsity, but his leadership. I don't
know if you saw the Thanksgiving games yesterday when Jason
Garrett talked about Madden and he said, with Derek Jeter,
you pick him first and then you pick the sport.
Cole is one of those kids if you pick him
first and then you decide what sport you're gonna play.
Just a phenomenal leader, Cole.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
So football, basketball, Is there anything that you play? Baseball? Well, okay, good,
So you give your your body a little bit of
I think you should run track or something, go throw
the shot. But you're a strong kid, go some of
that growing up? Were you? Was it always football and
basketball growing up?

Speaker 3 (08:59):
Actually? I was a big basketball kid. He's watching. I
never missed the Hamilton basketball game ever, never miss always there.
I was always there, even before Patrick Baldwin was there.
I never missed a game with Brady Allenson there. I
was always there. And so I was always a big
basketball I played football too, and I played baseball, but
baseball kind of just like didn't really like it as
I grew up.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
You got bored with it.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah kind of action.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, right, that's good. Were you always a quarterback? And
I was? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Ever since? Like fourth grade, and then when tackle started,
always was a quarterback for the team.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
And then basketball, you're because you're what six three?

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, experience?

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Are you going to be a guard? Is your back
to the basket.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
When I'm I'm more of a post player. I would
like to say, you know, I like in my like you.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Don't mind the contact?

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, I like it.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
And as a quarterback, are you more than a throwing
quarterback or running quarterback?

Speaker 3 (09:49):
I like both. I mean I would say, like I
can run the ball pretty well.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, That's what I kept hearing about it. You never
shied away from contact. That's the other part. And I'm like, man,
if I'm if I'm the new basketball coach over there,
I say, just throw the ball, stay in the pocket
and throw the ball. As coaches. Look, you know, Jase,
we talk a lot about well, I love multi sport athletes.
I love you know. There are guys that sit where

(10:13):
you sit and tell me that. But I know for
a fact that you know they're like, man, I don't
want my kid playing football. I don't want my point guard.
I don't want my post player playing football. And they
go to the games to support these kids, and they
hold their breath for a couple hours, hoping that they
don't get injured. Where do you lie in all that?

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, you're definitely hoping they don't get injured. I talked
to the Malinier twins a couple times. Well, hey, let's
take care of that blindside a little bit there. We
don't even take those hits. I'm definitely a multi sport guy.
I've talked to Cole already. I said, most coaches would say,
you can't touch a football during basketball season. Yeah, he
wants to play college football and be a quarterback. I'd

(10:52):
be silly to not let them touch a football for
six months.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
You know.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
I just said, do what you need to do, just
don't do it on game days. You can't miss practice,
can't miss games. But if you want to do seven
on seven's that starts up in the winter, here, go
ahead and do it on the weekends. Go through in
the morning. Because you're gonna be a college football quarterback
and I don't want to hold you from that.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Do you know I was at the scrimmage when Camp
Scaroni got hurt. I was there, and I've never seen
anybody turn so white in my entire life. Didn't watching
Andy by the way Andy Serni's coming in studio next week.
Came and coach waller Shime, and we're going to talk
an hour with two Hall of Fame retired coaches to

(11:31):
see how they're doing. I didn't know until we talked
on the phone that. And he's not completely retired, and
coach Wallersheim is not completely retired. It's not like they
put their basketball out of their whistle in the closet
not to see it again. Andy's coaching in a powerhouse
third grade team, right.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yes, yes, if you if you want to go see
third graders get coached, go check on our Sussex Red team.
I get multiple people say, boy, he doesn't the intensity,
he doesn't drop out out of the grade, And I said, nope, no,
there's only one level.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
You know.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
I've known Andy for a really long time. My son
Matthew is a year older than Camp. And when I
started doing AAU stuff, i was coaching a Dominican at
the time, so we would use the Dominican gym and
I'd put together little tournaments and stuff and Andy would
always call and I'd go, Andy, like, we have some
of the best fourth or fifth grade AAU teams in

(12:25):
the state and I've got one spot. But he goes, Coach,
I don't care what happens. We just have to play
against the best competition. And they would come in and
get drilled and Andy would go he would just come
over and say thank you, and I'd go, Andy, you
just got beat by foot. He goes, don't care. I
don't care what is on the scoreboard. I got to

(12:46):
get these kids prepared. And I'm telling you, I was
so impressed with him the first time I met him,
and I watched him coach these young kids and he'd
put his arms around him, but he was demanding even
at that point, and Cam was it's ridiculous. Yeah, he
could really shoot. And miny Key was the other kid
that was really good. And they would come into these

(13:07):
tournaments that I would run and get drilled and he
would keep calling, you got anything coming? Can we get in?
Can we get in? And I learned a lot about
coach SARONI the seven years you were on the bench
with him. You saw how much sweat equity he put
into this program. He did not leave this covered bear.

Speaker 5 (13:24):
Man.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
I'll tell you that.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
No, no, we had And that's one thing that coaches
don't see coming in New is We had two hundred
and ten kids trial for Junior Charger programs that's third
grade through eighth What two hundred and ten kids tried out?
We had one hundred and ten kids trial or come
to our Mighty Mites, which is kindergarten to second grade,
and then after we do our Junior Charger trials. He
has a youth league that he started. We have two

(13:47):
hundred and forty kids playing in that.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Did Annie have any idea what you were getting into
with this? A little bit? A little bit if she's
listening to and there's a special place in heaven for you.
I'm just telling you because she look what she's in
with the volleyball that's youth driven as well, and so
she understands it. But when you said, hey, we're two
ships kind of going past each other in the night, man,

(14:10):
I get that. I get my wife. For thirty six years,
I would, I would, I would drag her into gyms
all over the place, right And for three years when
they coached my son at Sussex at Falls a Calvary
Baptist Mnomie Falls Cole, we had sixty seven kids in
the whole school and I called this the Caucasian Invasion.

(14:30):
And when I came in. Before I got there, they
were playing just in the Indian Trails Conference and other
Christian schools, and I said, well, how many games can
I They said, well, we're not part of the WIA,
can play as many games as you want. So I'm
like calling Milwaukee Hamilton, calling Milwaukee Academy of Science and
they're like, who are you? Those were the Mighty Eagles

(14:51):
from Calvary Baptists. You want some And they're like, oh, sure,
we'll play you. And we went. We only had seven
boys on the team, but all these guys would get
in the gap, kick, make the extra pass, box out,
do all that stuff and the cool parkle. They had
no idea. I mean, they lived on this little postage
stamp of Calvary Baptist and their coach and I'd say,

(15:13):
don't worry about who we're playing, just go run the
stuff I'm asking you run. And so when we're playing Milwaukee,
Hambleton and Academy of Science, they didn't know any better.
They just went and did what their coach told them
to do. And guys were like, you're beating And I said, yeah,
we're not bad. We're pretty good. And I loved it
because these kids just didn't know. When you come out

(15:34):
in Sussex, you've gone to all these games. When you
were a kid, you would go to bed wearing your
youth program, right, your junior Charger uniform, dreaming about playing
on a Friday night with the cheerleaders in the band
and your mom's crying and all that stuff. When did
you play varsity as a sophomore? Oh?

Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah, I started last last year. What about as a freshman?
I know, I played both. I was kind of like
a JB a varsity guy.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
Did you my son hated that? Did you like that?

Speaker 3 (16:02):
I liked it because it was cool, Like like I
even liked warming up in front of everybody, you know
for varsity because we always have. We always have like
a really good crowd.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
It's a huge crowd. Yeah, huge the community. Look when
people ask me, is SUSEX Hamilton a football school or
a basketball school? I go yes? And guess who's getting
to be like that? Slinger is starting to get like that? Right?
Their coach is coming in next week as well with
with some of their players and and and Slingers. I
was a football program and now with this success. I

(16:33):
think Sessex Hamilton was a basketball program and now coach
Gum and guys like you Cole have made people go
I I don't know. It might be a little bit
of both. How many football players do you have on
the basketball team?

Speaker 2 (16:47):
Upperclassmen this year will have three? And then I guess
if you count, we have a freshman on varsity, a
couple freshmen on JV. They played JV football, So varsity
football players we have three, okay, but some of those
younger levels, I think we might have six total between
our varsity and JV.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
The twin boys don't play basketball.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
They no, they fortunately not.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
That's ten I met them. I actually didn't meet him,
but I was talking to the running backs coach from
Marquette at a Brewer game, and all of a sudden,
he goes, hold on, hey, hey, guys, what's going on?
He went and shook their hand and and I was like,
who's that? He goes, those are the twins from Sussex Hamilton.
I said, I've heard of them. Those those are bookends
right there?

Speaker 6 (17:31):
Boy?

Speaker 1 (17:31):
They protected you?

Speaker 3 (17:32):
Well, yeah, they're My whole line last year was really
good and those two are great.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
So yeah, you can't talk them into coming out for
basketball and just setting picks for you.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
Yeah, have them out there. I think one just got
offered yesterday from Kansas. Yeah, just got offered from Kansas yesterday.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah. Many good for him. These those two, do they
want to go to the same school.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, I've talked to him. I would think so. Yeah,
they want to stay together.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Man, if I'm if I'm a college, I would put
a tent in their yard and say, come play for me,
both of you, both of you. If you want a
room together, that's great. We can certainly do that. Cole,
how do you feel about and we'll get you a
break here in a minute. How do you feel about
this year's team so far? You guys had a scrimmage, right,
you scrimmage Brown Deer and who else?

Speaker 3 (18:19):
Brown Deer, Meschigo and Meschigo.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Feel good about how you guys came out of that.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
Yeah, I feel really good about it. Our defense looks
really good and that you know, that's like when you're
a young team and you got young guys, you know
you're gonna have to dig in on defense. And I
really like where we are. You know, some guys are
gonna have to step up. That's just how it is
having a young team. But I really like where we
are in now.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
You know, last question, we'll get to break through. Sometimes
when you when you're a kid who starts and and
and does what you did last year's a sophomore, when
a new coach comes in, it's kind of traumatic a
little bit, right. You're used to hearing coach Seroni and
what he wants. The fact that that that they they
went with a guy who was on the staff for

(18:59):
six years, did that make that transition easier for you?

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (19:02):
I think it made it much easier because Schneider's always
been to all the youth stuff all the ever since
I've been watching, he's pretty much been here. So he's
been to all the youth stuff.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
Would he would he be considered a gym rat? You think, yeah, yeah,
you know, you know, and he's going, yes, he's a
Jim rat. And I love the fact you're still a
Wolves fan or are you more of an Auburn fan now?

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Or yeah, so football balls and then Auburn. And I
coached Steven and knows Steven really well, and so you you.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Might be able to give me a little insight on this.
I think Pearl stepped down when he stepped down because
he wasn't going to let them open it up because
it's a it would be a big national program and
he and I think he wanted Steven to be able
to step in. Would you agree with that?

Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (19:46):
And I think would put a little more pressure on
his Steven and Golden at Florida so close, and Golden
was underneath Stephen at Auburn and then he goes and
wins a national championship, and I think the pressure was
there of like how much longer am I gonna hold
Steven back?

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Right? You know?

Speaker 2 (20:01):
I want to open that up for him. But yes,
I think the timing was to make sure Steven and
the fact that he's staying on uh.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah, putting the fingers up because then he gets to
go do the TV stuff and all this stuff he
wants to. Yeah, there's for people people have been around
the game understood his timing on it, and he he
did it exactly the way he could do it where
Steven could get it. Is Stephen ready for that? Do
you think?

Speaker 3 (20:28):
You know?

Speaker 2 (20:29):
I haven't been around Steven as a coach as much.
So the first game they struggle, I think they played
Savannah State went to overtime. But now I think he
beat Houston, or he just beat Saint John's and and
they're doing pretty well. So I think he looks like
he's ready.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see because you
know those two have conversations, you know, maybe during the game, right, Probably,
I don't when I watched him, I don't think I
saw Bruce, but he's there.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
He was doing the radio or he was on the
halftime show for the second day of the Urnaman.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure he was there. He was there
for sure. Jason Schneier, first year head coach at Sussex
Hamilton and Cole Erdmann. He is the junior. He's a
junior on the basketball team. He was the starting quarterback
this football team. You got a lot of guys coming
back for football.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
Yeah. We have eight returning starters on offense and seven
on defense.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Oh man, you know, you know the boys and your
CoP's not happy to hear that. Yeah, you're excited about it, Archie,
that's awesome. We'll get to a break other side of
the break in second half of the show. Mark Miller's
going to join us at ten o'clock. Kyle Johnson head
coach at Catholic Memorial. They had a big, full day
of basketball going on that they have now rescheduled, and

(21:41):
we'll talk to Kyle about that and the last segment,
we're going to transition for just one segment and talk
to Steve, who is a Level one baseball instructor. He's
going to come in studio. They got a bunch of
stuff coming up for the Wisconsin Umpire Association, and we'll
talk to him at ten forty. But for the rest
the first hour again, Jason Schneier, first year head coach

(22:03):
at Sussex Hamilton and Cole Erdman. He said, I'm bringing
colding because he talks a lot. Yeah, And I said,
who told you that? He said all his teachers, No,
you that call? He did not. Hey, your mom and
dad come to every game, every game. Yeah, who do
you hear more than the crowders? My dad? You're not
even a question. What's your father's first name?

Speaker 3 (22:25):
John?

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Johnny?

Speaker 3 (22:25):
And your mom Jenny Man?

Speaker 1 (22:27):
They did you guys, John and Jenny, you did good.
This young man walked in our studio, shook me in
the hand, shook my hand like a man and said,
mister mc giver, thank you. So much for talking Sussex
Hamilton basketball. You guys did really good. This is a
really nice young man. This is the Varsity Blitz High
School Sports Show presented by your local Pick and Save
and Metro Market stores, only on Fox Sports nine twenty

(22:50):
and your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to the Varsity
Blitz High School Sports Show, presented by your local Pick
and Save and Metro Market stores. Coming live from the
Donovan Jordanson Heating and Coolian Studios. Any issues. You have
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(23:11):
the owners three locations mcgwanagall, West Stallis and New Berlin.
Go to Donovan Jorgensen dot com. We're talking Sussex Hamilton
basketball and I wanted to have Jason Schneider in first
year head coach to talk about that transition a little bit.
As coaches, we don't invent anything. We steal everything and
then we make it our own. Right, we go to

(23:33):
all the clinics and go oh, I like that at
a bounds play, I like how they do their twelve
that one, three one, all of that. How much are
you going to continue And maybe you don't want to
give away these secrets for people in the Greater metro,
but how much you're going to keep what you guys
did under coach Sarni And how much are you tweaking

(23:53):
or how much are you saying, Hey, look, I like
playing zone more. I like playing man and making it
your own.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
So Coach Thrown and I were always on the same page.
That's where why I wanted to come in there. We
just had a lot of the same visions x's and
os and off the court stuff. We were together on that.
So probably like an eighty twenty eighty percent of the
same and then kind of new aging twenty percent of
it or tweaking some stuff here and and like you said,
stealing from coaches. And you know, I have a very

(24:22):
young staff who watched a lot of college basketball, so
they're always coming to me with new plays and I
saw this, and so yeah, I'd probably say like an eighty.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Twenty man if I had asked you back, I guess,
you know, at the UWM or Tennessee days and said, hey,
look a number of years from now, I'm going to
have you on a radio show and it's gonna be
your first year as a head coach. Was That's the
direction and the idea that you had back then.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
So it kind of morphed over time as the Milwaukee
thing was going well. Initially was just to be a
high school coach, and so as it started to go well,
and when coach went to Tennessee and I went, then
it was all Division one, like, I'm going to be
a Division one coach. So I was changing everything to
that level, right, And then as that kind of ran,
it's course, well.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
When Annie came around.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yeah, once I met my wife, Yes.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Changed everything.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
I've seen a picture out that your coverage. You know that, Yes,
I just wanted to make sure that you knew that.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yes, yes. So then it changed more of the family. Hey,
I want to coach high school. I definitely would have
told you. I would not have thought I would have
taken me this long to be a first the head coach.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
But you had you had some some some thoughts and
opportunities in the years. But but something about the program
of Sussex Hamilton that made you go, Okay, I'm gonna
hang in there, and and I don't know you probably
had conversation with Andy and how many more years do
you think you have? Stuff like that? But you never
know if a guy is gonna be gonna keep going.

(25:52):
And and you know, Chase Jerry Pettig, you right, and
and so you were comfortable with being that. Look, I
loved I was a better assistant coach than I was
a head coach. I was. I liked being the good cop,
you know. I liked you know, when when cold doesn't
have a good practice and you and you've got your
foot half you know, of his backside. I'm the one
that puts my bro sat Sorry, man, come on, let's

(26:14):
go have dinner. You know, I liked that part of it.
Coach Wallership, he wanted to be the good company. He
was the DINAS students during the day. You can't be
the DINAS students during the day, be the bad cop
and then be a good cop at night. Now I'll
be the good cop. The idea of taking of doing that,
did you guys have the conversations throughout the years.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yeah, I had told him maybe three four years in. Hey,
I love where I'm at here, I love what we're doing.
I love coaching for you. I don't need to go anywhere.
This is the only job I would want if you
want to coach in our twenty years. My son at
the time was probably in third and fourth grade and
his grandson was in second grade. And I said, hey,
I'll stay out if you want to coach them. I
can take more on my plate if you don't want

(26:54):
to do the little stuff. Wow, And I would stay
on here with you. And then but we did not talk.
I was I was clof guard that when he did retire,
you were, yeah, I thought he would have done it
when we had bald when everybody thought he was gonna
retire when Ball left, I knew that wasn't happening.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
You know, Baldwin, if they had bought a house on
the south Side, I was at Greendelle, Martin Luther. We
had them in a few times. Man, I'm telling you,
what a great family, what a great kid, all of it. Man.
I was a big Patrick, I was a big senior fan.
And I can tell you that Missus Baldwin was every

(27:31):
bit of part of all that decision process. And if
they had bought a house in Franklin, I was sending them,
you know, Hey, you can't recruit, you know, but I
can highly recommend and suggested all that stuff. But when
they did in Sussex, they were not driving to Greendale
Martin Luther.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
I wouldn't say this the coach Baldwin. We know that
Sean runs the hooshold Yeah in a good way.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yes, yeah, man, she is smart and tough and great athletes. Anyway,
when when when he didn't retire at that point you
were comfortable in staying staying as an assistant.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Yeah, absolutely, And we had some really good teams and
I would have thought maybe after the Eid and Knop
year we were ranked fourth in state all year we
won twenty games again, and that whole year, you know
he was doing Hey, buddy boy on how much longer
I could do this? You know, the technology and reporting scores.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
And nils now, and then that to it, the fact
that Cole Erdman has like a quick trip. No, he
doesn't have any I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. He's got
a hat on from the mobile stage.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
We have pick and shaved pants on the whole bit.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
So you do work at Metro Market though, I do? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Do you really?

Speaker 3 (28:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (28:44):
That's awesome. They have been a sponsor of mine. For
as long as I've been doing this, and it's fifteen
sixteen years, and we do our pick and save student
ath of the week, and I go out to different
stores and that's cool. You work there, that's awesome. When
so you were caught out guard, I'm surprised.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
So you know, he just sensed a little bit that
he was getting frustrated with just how the game has changed, right,
and all the extra stuff you have to do. But
then that summer never set a peep and we went
into last year and never he was into it and
more involved in the summer, super involved, he said, I
mean that was the one easy thing with getting the job.

(29:23):
He had our schedule set up, our uniforms were ordered,
our travel gear was ordered. I mean, he was ramping
up to do it again this year, and then then
he made the announcement. So I was a little surprised.
I knew it was probably year to year.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
Did they got a lot of people applying for that one,
because that look it is it is one of those
programs that look, Andy was there I think twenty five,
twenty six years, that you can stay if you do
a good job, treat the kids right, treat the families, right,
get involved in the youth program. Look, they expect a
lot there. But now that you've been, you've seen him

(29:57):
and the sweat equity he's put into the program, how
much love he had for it. Look, that program was
one that I know a lot of people sent their
stuff in for The interview process obviously went pretty well
for you.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, it was. It was long, especially being late. I
think I got hired on September fifth, So early on
it was excitement, and then it was nervousness, and then
it was kind of dragging on, and then it kind
of came maybe frustration a little bit. So when I
got it was more of a relief than excitement.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
It took them a week to make that decision, right.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Yeah, about five days, and then when they asked me,
it took me about thirty seconds to say, yes.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
That's what I heard. It was Yeah. There was no
breath there, it was yeah, I'm in you. Obviously, you
and Annie had that conversation about Okay, I'm going to
go for this. Are you okay with it? You guys
live in the Sussex YEP community. Did you work in
the school.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
You did not know, So, I own a mechanical and
plumbing process company. We found like S and S mechanical
with my brother. Okay, so we do food process steaming,
sanitary piping. So that's where I got my mechanical engineering.
Greed to go do that.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
So your your brother's okay that you got practice after school. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
So he was on the professional Walleye Tour for a while,
so he had his time in the spring. It usually
kind of worked perfect. I took winters where I was in,
left early, and then he had the spring in the
summer where he left early, so that worked out pretty well.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah, did he have a good year with that.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
He did it for probably seven to ten years, and yeah,
I did well. And it just now his son's in
travel baseball and.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
It's that's hard.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
He stepped away.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
I had. I had a professional bass fish fisherman on
Faith in the Zone and another show I do and
Mark Rose this is his name, and I you know,
I flipped through channels all the time and I see
him and and he he started a Bible study on
Sunday mornings because that's when the finals, if you make
the finals, it's Sunday, and he would do that, which
was it was really awesome when you found out Cole

(31:56):
that that that coach Schnyder got the job. Feel pretty
you felt pretty good about that.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Yeah, I really wanted him to get a.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Did they come Did they talk to you guys at all? Uh?

Speaker 3 (32:07):
They were so they were supposed to talk to me
about it. I never really got talked to about.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
It because they made the decision. Yeah, yeah, they they
they knew too, they got it. And you know what,
there was some I don't know if you know all
the other people that sent their stuff in, but there
were some Look, you beat out some really really big
time coaches. Yeah, and I again correct, and I think
it's a great decision. I think it's the best decision

(32:31):
for these these kids that are in the program and
kids that are coming up to be able to go.
I mean even these little guys are like well, I
saw him on the bench for two years, so he,
you know, obviously knows what he's doing with the interview process.
Was it was it with the board? Was it with
did they put together guys people that that that walked
you through and sat in a room and pepper jew

(32:54):
with questions?

Speaker 2 (32:55):
So where it was tricky is I've been at Hamilton
with coach helping him off the court for twelve years.
Then I was on a staff for nine But we
have a whole new administration at Hamilton. So we have
a new athletic director, new principal, new associate principal, and
then new girls basketball coach. Coach who's Lockie? So that
was the interview committee was four people who the girls?

(33:19):
Who's Lockie. He's been at the school for years, but
he's only been the girls. So I had zero relationship
with any of them because my stance as an assistant
was always that's coach's job to interact with them. You know,
the assistant should be the quiet one. And so that
was the committee. Was four people that I barely had
any relationship with had been a while.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Jeff Newcomer, who was the athletic director. We did a
game last year here on nine to twenty, and I'd
have to reach out to the athletic directors make sure
that they were you know, we could get good sound.
And he was really good to work with. I not
only me, but Hunter, who is my guy that came
out to did the game. He was color I was
played by play walked out and Newcomer was one of

(34:02):
the most buttoned up athletic directors that we had to
meet with. He had the it people, they're ready to go,
he had. He was just ahead of any problems that
we're going to have, and I became a fan of his.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, everything that I've asked for has been Yes. He's
been really good to work with and I've had zero complaints.
It's it's been really smooth transition.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Hey, hey, Cole coming into this year as a leader,
but being a junior and some seniors are being in
the program. In the program, how as a quarterback, it's
hard not to be a vocal leader. Can you carry
that over onto the basketball floor?

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, it is kind of weird being like a junior
and being like the oldest guy almost, you know, because
I was just like I felt like I was just
like a freshman barely talking at practice, you know, a
couple of years ago. But no, I think, you know,
Coach Schnyder and coach Ellenston really pride talk on defense.
And we're a young team, like he said, so you
really got to talk to all the young guys on

(35:03):
the courton.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
How much how much do you have to make sure
that these young guys if they're not playing a winter sport.
They're getting there the fall sport, they're getting shots up,
they're in they're in the weight room, they're doing the
things they had to do. And when you're playing football,
you can't get to all. You know, some of these
off season, the tournaments and some of the leagues that

(35:27):
the fall leagues that you guys basketball players playing. And
I know SERRONI was big in that, and I'm sure
coach Snyder is how much did you have to make
sure some of these young guys understood the importance of that.

Speaker 3 (35:37):
Yeah, because it's a it's a step up from junior
chargers to high school basketball. As you know as a
former head coach, and you know some guys you know
don't never really lifted before. So you know, I get
in the weight room with those guys, teach them how
to lift, you know, teach them, get them the sass
Our strength program that we have through Hamilton, and you
know we lift three times a week. And then some

(35:58):
of the younger guys, you know, like driving them to
and from practice, driving to and from the summer league
or the fall league.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Have you have you had a chance to see any
other high school's weight rooms, you understand how blessed.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
Yeah, I've seen ours on our turf facility. Yeah, that's
really nice.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah. When coach Tomato was there and they were building
the indoor facilium, the satelline reported for the high school
football game of the week and their assistant coaches came
over and said, hey, do you know what the name
of that is? And I said no. They said it's
gonna be named the Tomato. Do you should go talk
to him about that? He got so angry. He like, like,
you know, the veins in his forehead would pop in

(36:34):
and his neck and he was like, who told you that?
And I pointed to assistant coaches. He said, why would
you believe them? I don't even believe that. So that's
very funny to me. He's now the athletic director at
Nominie Falls. My son was the assistant principal there, and
trust me, they're waiting for Sussex Hamble to come out
over coach like a game. That's a huge game. When

(36:55):
you before we get to a break, colle When you
look on basketball, I think football is gonna be totally different. Answer.
You look at the basketball schedule, is there one team
that you circle and go not losing to those guys
this year. Who's the rivalry for you?

Speaker 3 (37:10):
Falls and Marquette. Okay, we split with Marquette last year.
I think we're the better team for both.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
We're gonna have a hold lot. We don't want them
putting this up in the way. Casey listened to this show.
So that was Cole Erbman. That was not coach. That
was Cole Erman, the starting quarterback. By the way, he's
tougher the most, So don't worry about it. You're not
gonna be allowed tough And were you to get through
a break. Jason Schneider, he's the first year head coach.

(37:38):
He is the husband to Annie, he's got three beautiful kids.
And Cole Erdman a junior on this year Sussex Hampileton team.
And we'll get to a schedule a break. I've got
a number of questions for these guys. And then at
ten o'clock Mark Miller, we're gonna start talking w by
shootout and and it is time and I love that.
Those three days Wall the Wall basketball, and by day

(38:00):
three I am so burned out. I gotta go home.
My wife's like, you're home a little early. I'm like,
I'm done. I can't sit there from nine o'clock in
the morning till nine o'clock at night for three days
in a row. But the Great Tournament, Great Wby Shootout,
a lot of really good teams, not only from the
state of Wisconsin, but a couple from Minnesota coming up.
And we will talk to Mark Miller about that. And

(38:20):
then Kyle Johnson, head basketball coach at Catholic Memorial. Their
big day today. They had basketball all day going on
and they because of the weather, have moved it and
we'll talk to Kyle about that in the ten o'clock hour.
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores,
only on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.

(38:43):
Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show.
I hope you like the bumper music. It's my bumper. Well,
Spencer throws a couple of who's in there, mostly mine,
and we're gonna play that through through New Year's and
I thank Spencer for getting that all teed up. Coming
live from the Donovan and Jorgans and Heating and Cooling Studio.
Jason Schneier, first year head coach, over at Sussex Hamilton

(39:04):
and cole Erdman. He's a junior, and you know what,
don't let that fool you. He's one of the leaders,
not only on this basketball team, but on the football team,
and he carries some of that over. Hey, can we
talk about this conference a little bit? Like I said,
if you're going to jump in, man, you know you
didn't jump into some of the conferences I coached in
back in the day. You jumped in what might be

(39:26):
the best basketball conference in the state. Look, I'll have
that conversation with people. But when you look at Tosa West,
they got a lot of their boys coming back, Brooks, Central, Brook, East, Marquette,
you know, Menominee, Falls, all of them, right West, Allis
Hale got a new coach coming in. Don't know about
them yet, but know about everybody else. You're talking about

(39:47):
some of the best basketball coaches in the state.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah. Absolutely, And I think I tell people all the time.
I thine it's the best conference in the state. If
you look at the last ten years, eight of the
nine teams in our conference have made it state and
five of them have won it. I don't think there's
a conference that can.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
Say that I think West could be a problem again.
Oh yeah, and then you look at our preseason all conference.
Everybody's back and played a major role last year. Not
a bad time for Andy to get you know what,
he is a smart boy.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
So people say about our team this year, about us
being young, and I'm not afraid of being young. But
then the problem is the conference is so good and old.
It's not like it's just a talented you know.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
What, Kyle, if you're listening, did not mean to miss you.
They're going to be good this year.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, a lot of seniors. I would argue we probably
have four of the top ten in the state, regardless
of the division, you know, because I mean Tosa West
is Division two, but they won it last year. And
then Brooks Central has a Division one player. I think
we have four Division one players currently with offers in
our conference. And then you know the young kids don't

(40:59):
have all yet, but there's gonna be more coming. I
think we almost every year have twenty scholarship players in
our conference.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
And and look when you talk about you talk about
tenure of coaches in that conference. You know Tosa East,
you know timsa does a great job man, and he's
got he's got athletes and and look at it Mark
Miller's book, They've got him, you know, picked seventh. You
can't that the old the old line. You can't sleep

(41:26):
on anybody in this conference. That creator Metro. And when
you you look at look Kate the coach at at
at Marquette, I remember when he was like year three
and now he's been there a long time. And and
when you look at Joe Ruks and all of these
guys the staff over at Tosa west Man, You're you're
going against some of the best for sure.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yeah. A lot of long tenured coaches, good coaches, different
styles across the board. I mean, when you get a
game and you play Brook East on Tuesday and then
Menominee falls on Friday, that's quite a different, uh, change
of schemes and what they like to do.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
And who who's set up this year's schedule? Is that
set for you?

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yeah? So that was one nice thing that where coach
SERRONI had our schedule set. I think he was planning
on coming back because the uniforms were ordered and travel
gear and so our schedule was set already. That that
was one nice thing off of my plate. The only
thing I had to schedule was VR games and our scrimmages.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
Do you you'll be more involved in next years and what
will your philosophy be look there, depending on on what
you think you have coming back to you wanted you
do you want to have a couple of non conference
games that you feel like, Okay, we can get some
wins here, or do you want to you want to
play the best teams you can. Yeah, I feel like
next year.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
We have we're talking prior maybe six or seven of
our top returning players coming back, so we'd probably want
to ramp it up a little bit. Yeah, I know,
talking football here. We are not playing until December, I
can tell you that.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
Yeah. Yeah, that's a really smart move. By the way, Yeah,
you can't hope for weather like this.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Yeah, I'm forecasting that I'm not gonna have these football
players for a while next year, so we'll definitely look
at going later. My wife has already told me, you know,
let's try and keep the holidays a little.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
Open Annie, smart girl, yep, smart girl. So hey, how
many volleyball matches do you get to?

Speaker 2 (43:18):
So probably ten, And it's probably more of a conflict
with the younger kids playing, so two of my daughters
play at Staying and then my son plays volleyball and
basketball and lacrosse. So when she's in season, I'm running
the kids, and then when I'm in season, she's running
the kids. So it's probably more of a conflict that way.
But I was at the state tournament at all three games.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Has the calendar? Is you're a master calendar. We need
to do a better job of that, that's for sure. Annie,
get the calendar, or you get the calendar. You get it, man,
I can't. That is. My daughter has four sons right
three year old who just goes everywhere but a seventh grade,
a freshman, and a sophomore cross cut tree football, lacrosse, basketball,

(44:02):
and they go to Lake Country Lutheran. And I live
in Milwaukee, so it's okay, what days do I got
to get the boys and they need help? You know,
is your family and he didn't grow up here.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah. She's from Wheaton, Illinois originally hold On.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
She Bears fan.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
She is a Bears fan. Yep, yep, Big Game on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Any divorce papers are on the Big Game on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Big So we actually got married in twenty ten and
so the Packer Bears. It's the championship game was for
the Christmas card, so the Packers won. Sh to wear
Brett fav jersey, and.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Man, if you got a picture of that, you gotta
send that. I would make that a poster for sure.
You a Packer fan, Yeah, A big Packer fan. Good
Bucks fan, yep, mark hetta Wisconsin, probably Wisconsin. If you
could pick right now any football program in the country college,

(44:57):
what would be your choice?

Speaker 3 (44:59):
I would say I was a big Miami Hurricane fan.
Don't know why. I used to watch like these documentaries
of like when they're in the nineties, Oh Crooks and that, Yeah,
And I would watch that and I was like, it's
so cool, which is funny because he's a Notre Dame
style kid.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Oh yeah yeah, but a sure trust me, yeah yeah.
You would not have fit in with that team back then, mister.
I gotta be honest, you this whole Oprah Taylor kind
of really nice, kind mister giver, thank you so much.
Would not have fit in with Michael Irvin and the
boys back back then. But a Hurricane is.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
Where hurricanes are like Wisconsin. I mean, I know they
don't throw the ball much, but I just like, I
just want to bring him back. That's why I would
want to go there, man.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
I you know what I would. I have talked at
nauseum about how the recruiting of of of really good
high school football, the fact that one of the twins
got an offer from Kansas is has Wisconsin talked to
him yet?

Speaker 3 (45:50):
You know one of them has a Wisconsin over one
of them does not. Okay, But if I was Wisconsin,
I mean, get them both piece. It's a package deal. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
They would have done that for the Watt Boys right back.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
And back and I l age it over here.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, well, he's working through the mcgiberg. I could tell im.
You know what, coach, I'm so happy that I'm retired.
I I really am because part of that. And look,
and I haven't heard any nightmare stories. I haven't heard
that it's really taken off yet. But if it does,
I'm just glad not to be part of it. I
I what You're getting into it at a time where

(46:28):
I think, uh uh, I can't it used to be
that we could. We could. We could coach for a
few months right during the season, then take a bunch
of time off and then do dur five contact days.
It's twelve months a year now, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
And I was actually fortunate to go down to Tennessee
last year and watch their practice and they had five
of the top nine players in the country on campus
and they told me just to get them there. The
starting number was two million. So if you if you're
not going to match two million, and I ol, we're
not even coming. Hey that was at the college level.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Hey, Cole, before you go in this, forgive an agency
on track, because two million, fifteen percent for the agency
would not be bad. Hey, Cole, I've heard nothing but
good things about you throughout the years, rights as a leader,
and I always hear how tough you are as a
quarterback and I and I love that. It's good to
meet you in person and I get it now. Good

(47:20):
luck this year.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
Thank you, thank you, Thank you for having me on coach.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Thank you. I appreciate you. And look, I gave you
three opportunities. You want to do this for yourself. You said,
I'm Wisconsin tough. I'm fine New Holes team tough. I
keep out there. So hey, it's good to see you.
Good luck against Walkshaw South and and look, I always
watch to see how teams are playing at the end
of the year compared to the beginning, because I think
those are the best coach teams. Got a really good

(47:44):
feeling this team will be playing really well at the
end of the year.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Thank you, Thank you for having us. We're really excited
and hopefully we can get the students down to Walkershaw
self and come support our team because we're gonna hustle
and play hard.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
And everybody so well, you know they'll be here for
the the home games. That place is packed all the time. Hey,
good luck, it's good. Good to see you guys. We're
gonna get to a break. Other side of the break,
Mark Miller will join us. If you've not gotten and
I was. I didn't know that Cole had never seen
the yearbook, forty first annual Wisconsin Basketball Yearbook. It's the
Bible for geeks like us, man for sure, and we're

(48:17):
gonna talk wby shootout with Mark Miller on the other
side of the break. This is the Varsity Blitz high
school sports show presented by your local Pick and Save
and where Cole works the Metro market for Sure on
Fox Sports ninne twenty and the iHeart Radio app. Welcome
back to the Varsity Blitz high school sports show on
Fox Sports nine. Twenty year. iHeartRadio app again coming live

(48:39):
from the Donovan and Jorgans and Heating and Cooling studios.
So this time of year, and I think Mark Miller
because he has allowed me to partner up with him
and the Majeri's Family Foundation. Wby Shootout coming up December
twenty seventh, twenty ninth, and thirtieth. And look, I've been
a fan of of Mars for a really long time.

(49:02):
He's one of the good guys in this and forty
first annual Wisconsin Basketball. Your book, I get excited, you know.
I know when it's coming out, and I got a
couple of them in the mail and I can't wait
to open it up and just start going through it.
And it's just a really good book.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Guy.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Every year I say, I think this is your best work, Mark,
and He's like, all right, Mike, thanks, I thought you
told me that last year. We are now joined by
Mark Miller. We're going to talk a little WBY shootout
and some high school basketball boys basketball here in the area. Mark,
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. How you doing today?

Speaker 6 (49:40):
I'm good, Mike.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
Thanks, Hey, let's talk this year's Wby Shootout if we can,
thank you so much again for allowing me to be
a part of it. Saturday, December twenty seventh, the twenty ninth,
and the thirtieth at Concordia University. Feel pretty good about
some of the matchups that you have this year?

Speaker 6 (50:01):
Yeah, I think so. You know, it's always interesting to
try to flying ahead and see, you know, what teams
are going to be really strong and on paper at least,
and I think we got some pretty good matchups coming.
We got a couple of schools from Minnesota coming over
to play some of our best teams. So looking forward
to it would be a little different this year because

(50:21):
we're we started on a Saturday, and we take Sunday
off and then come back on Monday and Tuesday. So
that's the first for us. But we wanted to not
play on Sunday, so that's that's what we decided to do,
and I think everyone's was good with it. So excited
for that to happen in a few weeks here and
see some of the better teams and better players from

(50:43):
Wisconsin compete.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
Hey, I'm sure you'll stay in town then for that Sunday, right,
you're not Are you going to go home and then
come back on Monday? What's your what's your schedule that?

Speaker 6 (50:55):
Yeah, that's a great question. I'm not sure exactly what
I'm going to do yet, probably stay, yeah, because it's
it's going to be a late night on Saturday and
then of course in early morning on Monday. So yeah, yeah,
looking forward to, you know, to seeing these teams compete
and seeing what they got for this year. And you know,

(51:16):
I know the kids always afford to it, and of
course the backing from the Majeria's Family Foundation with the
scholarships they give out and the T shirts that they provide,
and you know, all that that doesn't go unnoticed, and
you know, it's it's something that we're especially excited about.
And you know, we've been doing it for a few
years now, but every year is different. And as you know, Mike,

(51:38):
because you've been along with us every step of the way,
it's something that you don't take for granted, especially the
backing that we get from the Majeri's Family Foundation.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Yeah. I look, I've been involved from this side and
then as a coach, and I have to tell you
the Major's Family Foundation. When they got involved in that,
it took what I thought was the best thing to
be a part of to a whole different level. And
the fact that I was able to write you some
recommendations for kids to win scholarships, and I still see

(52:09):
the t shirts all over the place. I just think
the addition and for us to be able to talk
about Rick macjeris, it gives us a reason. And you
know this Mark, I was such a fan of his.
I wanted to be him, right, I wanted to be him.
He coached in grade school, he coached in high school,
he coached in college, coached in the pros a little bit,
and he he would leave Milwaukee, but Milwaukee never left him.

(52:34):
And when he would be talking on a national level,
he would say, yeah, but the way I did it
when I was back in Milwaukee, and he would always
find a reason to bring our community and our coaches
and our high schools and our athletes in the conversation.
And the fact that the Majeri's Family Foundation teamed up
with you and said, look, we want to continue his

(52:55):
legacy and let guys like me continue to talk about
Rick Majeri's and what he he mentored the game of
basketball and meant to our community. Just means a lot
and I thank them for that.

Speaker 6 (53:07):
Absolutely. And you know, he's been gone for a few
years now, but you know, his impact not only when
he was coaching in our state, but even like you said,
Milwaukee never left him. And I think that's very true.
You know, as as he transitioned outa coaching and became
an announcer for a few years there. You know, he

(53:27):
would bring that up all the time. So yeah, he was,
you know, a very charismatic coach and did a great
job you know, at the various stops that he had
on a collegiate level. And you know he's missed and
we're trying to keep you know, his impact and his

(53:49):
you know, just what he meant to the basketball community
in our state alive through through the you know, his
family foundation.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Here, Hey a Mark a few years ago. You guys,
people are able to go online now and buy their
tickets up. I had a time. Yeah, you recommend that
people do that, correct.

Speaker 6 (54:07):
Yeah, I think that's kind of the way everything has gone.
As you know, Mike, you know, it's you can still
buy them at the door if you like, but doing
it ahead of time and doing it online takes away
the hassle of you know, doing with cash and waiting
in line and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 7 (54:23):
So you can actually order them already if you'd like.

Speaker 6 (54:27):
Just go to wbby dot com and there's a little
story with a link to how you can order the
tickets for this year, and uh, you know, then you
just show up and you show the the ticket takers
here your you know, your scan cold, I guess what
it is, yea, and they click it and you're You're
good to go.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Mark, I can tell you that probably, you know, just
near the end of football season, even before the playoffs,
I start getting asked about the w W shoot out.
You know, guys that that are just basketball junkies that
look forward like I do, to these three days of
wall to wall basketball, and they'll ask me, hey, you know,

(55:09):
do you know, look this team's playing and and you
know anything about Freedom because the brook Central team looks
really good to me this year. You know, are you
gonna be at the Slinger Arrowhead game? That's gonna be
a great game. You know, yeah, how is Xavier gonna be?
All of the questions I get and I'm like, hey man,
I'm still in football mode. You know what good just either,

(55:31):
you know, go on on Mark Miller's stuff with prephoops
dot com, slash Wisconsin and take a look at that.
You're you're asking me stuff. Mark Miller does this twelve
months a year and he knows all this. I'm not
sure how Freedom is gonna be. I know they're gonna
be really good, and I know brook Central is gonna
be really good. But right now, if you want to know,

(55:52):
you know, just to start reading some of the stuff
that Mark is doing and and you can get that.
But the excitement every year for this Mark, it just
continues to be a really event that guys like us
that love high school basketball want to go see. Can
I ask you that the idea of bringing in a
couple of teams from Minnesota? Where did that come from?

(56:13):
And I know that we used to bring in teams
from used to bring in teams from all over the
country and they got away from that. But the idea
of bringing in two teams from Minnesota? Can you talk
to me about that decision process?

Speaker 6 (56:26):
Sure? Well, you know, was that a high school which
won the large school championship last year in Minnesota and
has a couple g one players keep going to Iowa
State and they're going to Minnesota. Their head coach reached
out and said, hey, we'd love to be a part
of this if possible, We'd like to come over to
Wisconsin State over night and play a couple of good teams.
And I'm like, well, that sounds like a good idea.
If you want to come over and play, we'll match

(56:48):
you up against two of our better teams. So and
then the same thing happened with Patino Grace, which has
also has some D one players on its roster and
has one state championships, and they head coach, Nick Carroll,
is one of the owners of the Prep Network, which
is what I work for, the Prep Hoops Slash Wisconsin,
and so that seemed like a good fit as well. So,

(57:11):
you know, bringing over a couple of teams, a couple
of the best teams from the Twin Cities area to
play some of our best teams, I think will be
different because we haven't done it for a while, Mike,
as you know, we used to do it. But I think,
you know, as fans get to know these teams a
little bit in their personnel and they're coaching and the
success that they've had they they'll be excited to see how,

(57:33):
you know, how our teams stack up against them.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
Yeah, I've got to believe that I'll either see J. R.
Blownt or TJ. Be at that West Allis Central game
because they've again the team for Minnesota has an Iowa
State kid. West Alis Central use of Great Junior has
committed to Iowa State. They play seven pm on Monday,
December twenty night, which means I'll be there early and

(58:00):
I may have to miss someone in the middle there
because I'm going to try to get home and say
hi to my wife and then head back there for
probably the Peer game at six point fifteen, then West
Alli Central and stick around for the Dominican Oshkosh North game. Hey, Mark,
there are a number of games that have actually been
canceled for today, and there was a couple that I

(58:23):
wanted to go see tonight, and I'm gonna have to wait.
We had Jason Schneider, the head basketball coach at Sussex
Hampleton Studio, and you know, he said, look, I was
supposed to play against Middleton today and I was kind
of excited. My first game as a head coach will
be at home. And now I'll be over at Walk
South next week for our first game. But with the
weather and people trying to adjust their schedules, will you

(58:46):
be able to get to a game? Is there anything
going up on in your area you're going to get to?

Speaker 6 (58:52):
No, No, it's it's pretty much all called off. I
did get to two games last night, but everything today
police has been postponed because of the weather.

Speaker 7 (59:03):
So but I did see Milwaukee Gold.

Speaker 6 (59:04):
In My Years last night, and I saw East Troy
against Milwaukee School Languages, So you know, I saw a
couple of teams that have some intriguing players. You know,
Gold of my Year obviously a City Conference team. The
coach's son, Caleb Colbert, I think he had thirty three
last night, had five threes, had five dunks, five threes

(59:28):
and five dunks.

Speaker 7 (59:28):
He's very explosive.

Speaker 6 (59:30):
And then School of Languages was was got beat by
East Troy, the whole school, but they were they were
missing a couple of guys for various reasons. But I
think John Allen is going to have a pretty good
team once everyone's everyone's on the floor playing and uh
and so you know, we'll see how they how they
do the rest of the way.

Speaker 7 (59:49):
But it was good to get out of the East
last night and watch a couple of games.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Guys, if if you're thinking, man, what would be a
good good Christmas gift? Right? I got a son that
loves high school basketball, my husband loves high school basketball.
Number of things that you can do well. I would
go to prepsoops dot com and I would buy the
annual program and then give that to yourself or your husband,

(01:00:17):
or your son or daughter, whoever wants to go on
and read. I have been on preps hoops for a
long time since Mark Miller went over there, and I
love the fact that I can look. I could just
go and go Southeast Preview and see what he thinks
gonna win the Southeast. I would also make sure that
you find a way to go out and buy the

(01:00:39):
forty first Annual Wisconsin Basketball Your book. It really is
a good one. I can tell you, Mark. I tell
you every year I think it's better this year than
it was last year, and you just kind of go, thanks, Mike.
I you know I have the template and I do
a lot of work to put it together. Working people
buy the book. I know they can go online and
order is there any other place they can get it.

Speaker 6 (01:01:01):
Yeah, that's that's the way that the world has gone.
The bookstores and so forth are you know, just not
around anymore. The magazine distributors have closed up shop in Wisconsin.
We used to have way back we used to have
five of them located throughout the state.

Speaker 7 (01:01:17):
And then they would you know, order a whole bunch of.

Speaker 6 (01:01:19):
Books and then put them all in their neck of
the woods, you know. But now those places are all gone.
So the only way I could get them on like
Woodman's or some of the places that still have magazines,
is to go through a distributor out east, and I
just that sounds like a headache. So uh, the way
you can get it. The best way you can get

(01:01:40):
it is to go to wbby dot com and order
it online. And we try to stay as current as
possible with those orders and get them out right away.
So that's that's the best way to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Man. What I'm telling you just a phenomenal Christmas gift.
And if you're getting by the program, buy the book
and then go online prep prephoops dot com, slash Wisconsin
and take a look at some of the work that
Mark does. Well. I use it for everything I look
I just again, Jason Schneider came in and I'm on

(01:02:15):
Prep hoops dot com. I've got the book next to me,
I've got the preview next to me, and I just
think Mark Miller does a better job than anybody else.
And not only that, he's a really good guy and
he cares a lot about you know that, the the kids,
the coaches, the community, and he tells you what he believes.
And that's that's why I'm on That's why I pay

(01:02:36):
somebody to get on Prep hooops dot com. That's why
I have the forty first Annual Wisconsin Basketball Your Book
because I like to hear, I like to read what
he thinks. And I am proud to say he's a
friend of mine and I love the fact that we
get a chance to talk each week about this year's
w By shootout, like every week. If I don't have market,

(01:02:57):
I'll have a coach and that's going to compete it
because I just believe so much in it. As a coach.
It was really great for these kids to compete against
great players and normally against guys that they don't get
a chance to compete against. And that's what makes this
thing so special. Hey, Mark, I hope you had a
great Thanksgiving and I hope your family everybody's doing really well.

(01:03:18):
And I look forward to seeing you coming up December
twenty seventh, the twenty ninth, and thirtieth at Concordia University.

Speaker 6 (01:03:26):
Well thanks for having me on Ike. Appreciate the kind
words for a nice of you. You know I have
some faults too, so oh.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
Yeah, I have heard all about him when no, I'm
only kidding. If you have them, I haven't seen them.
And I always think, when you know, I get a
chance to talk to your girls, to talk to your wife,
talk to your parents at w By shootout, I get
why you are the kind of guy you are. And look,
we come from kind of the same cloth, right, we're
Jim rats and we love high school basketball and watching

(01:03:56):
these student athletes compete. Mark, thank you very much. If
I don't talk to you next week, if there's a
Saturday that you're gonna be anywhere near Milwaukee, you please
let me know. Last year, that show for me was
the fastest two hours. And that tells me a lot,
because when I get you in studio, man, there's no curveballs.
We never go to a break and have you said,

(01:04:18):
why did you bring that up? That has nothing to
do with me. I could just say, Hey, tell me
a little bit about that team in Oregon. How are
they gonna be? And you just go, Man, I love it.
He is Mark Miller. Again. You could read his stuff.
Go to preps hooops dot com, slash Wisconsin wby Shootout
again coming up to twenty seventh, twenty ninth, and thirtieth. Hey, Mark,

(01:04:40):
have a great weekend and I'll be in touch Monday
or Tuesday.

Speaker 6 (01:04:44):
I'm good, Mike. Thanks again.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
You bet you got it. Kyle Johnson, the head boys
basketball coach at Catholic Memorial, will join us on the
other side of the break. This is the Varsity Blitz
High School Sports Show presented by your local Pick and
Save and Metro Market stores only on Fox Sports nine
tw twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to
the Varsity Blitz High school Sports Show presented by your
local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores only on

(01:05:10):
Fox Sports ninety twenty and your iHeartRadio app. Want to
thank Mark Miller. Man, I'll tell you he if you
watch high school basketball, you know about Mark Miller, the
great job that he does and I'm always excited for
the Wby Shootout. It's wall the wall basketball with some
of the best high school players and coaches from around

(01:05:31):
the state playing in it. And man, I think it's
ten bucks. I should ask him ten bucks to get in.
And games start at nine to fifteen. The last tip
is nine to fifteen at night, and you could sit
at Concorda University throughout the whole day and watch teams
and players from around the state. And I love that
we are now joined by Kyle Johnson, that head boys

(01:05:52):
basketball coach at Catholic Memorial. Hey, coach, how you doing good?

Speaker 4 (01:05:57):
How are you doing? Thanks for having me?

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
Yeah, well I wanted to have you. I had to
talk about what's going on to Catholic more of the day,
talk about wald Wall basketball. But this weather has put
a put a little issue into that, correct.

Speaker 4 (01:06:09):
Yeah, I did. It's I look forward to this event
every year and it just it just thinks that the
weather had had to hold us up and cancel the
showcase and move it to a different day.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
What day is it going to be?

Speaker 4 (01:06:24):
December thirteenth as of right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
Now, And I'm sure you're not going to have the
same line up because there's going to be teams that
might have a game that day. That's got to be
almost going to be a nightmare for you guys.

Speaker 4 (01:06:37):
Right right now. It's kind of crazy trying to figure
out everybody's schedule and make it work for everybody, because
you know, I know, we had some really great matchups
and teams were looking forward to playing each other and
just looking forward to this event. And like you said,
it's Wald Thewall basketball for US basketball junkies. It's the
best day. I can't lie to you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Yeah, I'm telling you, guys are playing out of the
WBUI shootout to this year, aren't you.

Speaker 4 (01:07:01):
Yes, we had We got two games. We played Pious
and and Thomas Moore out there.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
Man, the old Metro, the old the old Catholic Conference. Man,
I love that. That. That's awesome. How's the team going
to be this year? Coach? So far, so good?

Speaker 4 (01:07:16):
Right, Yeah, so far, so good. We had our first
game Tuesday, which was awesome. We played Witnell. We won
ninety six to sixty five. We're playing We're playing really
great ball. We moved the ball while we share it.
But that helps, you know, with the experience when I
had with these juniors, I had five of them, and
all five of them played as sophomores, and two of

(01:07:38):
them play as freshmen. Out when they're freshmen, so their
experience it's almost like their seniors and then next year
they could be super seniors, which is exciting for us
in that way.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
Yeah, I agree. I've I've heard that that you guys
might be a problem in that conference. And I can
tell you this that that talking to you in the offseason,
you kind of had that look in your eye and
you said, you know, we got a chance to be
all right with a smile, and you normally lou holds
me a little bit. Now, we got nothing. We we

(01:08:09):
don't even have a player that can go to his
left and you smile. But this year he said, look,
we got a chance. We got you know, it might
be all right. We might be a really good team
near down the stretch. And I kind of like that.
It's a young team, like you said, but kids that
that have some varsity experience.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
Yeah, and then that helps. And I think the best
thing that helps for us at Cathlee Memorial is everybody
on our team plays another sport and they know how
to compete and know how to win. We have two
players like Will Kintentater that for us who won a
goal ball in soccer this year, we have about four
football or five football players who have played in Madison,

(01:08:49):
who have been there, who win and know how to compete. Jackson,
I'll be another one of ours is a wonderful golfer
and he's gone out in one matches individual PGA dun
your because of things like that, and I think that
helps us tremendously.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
Hey, beating Witnell the way you beat them, were you surprised,
I mean you scored fifty six in the second half.
Were you surprised this early in the year offensively that
you guys had that much success in your first camp, To.

Speaker 4 (01:09:19):
Be honest, No, we have a lot of guys who
can fill it up. And what I was very impressed
with us and more surprised at how well we shared
the ball. And I think that's just a testament to
our kids and how unselfish they are and how much
they only care about winning. We definitely have to work
on the defensive end. I mean it's early, but we

(01:09:42):
really can fill it up for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
Well, yeah, you gave up sixty five thirty two to
the first half thirty three the second. Defensively, maybe a
couple more sheldroles, but I thought that was pretty good
number Witnell Offensively, it's a pretty good team, and you know,
I thought you did pretty well made. Look you might
be more of a perfectionist than I am.

Speaker 4 (01:10:05):
You know that's that's that that bet and ball that's
ingrained in me by coach b Regreshman. I played from
that Saint Norbert. It's all about defense, right, so you know,
if we're not holding teams under forty percent shooting and
getting rebound, getting second chances, that things got to work
on things that we can control.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
Hey, talk to me about the conference. Yeah, watch it.
Looking at Mark Miller stuff. He's got Arrowhead won you
guys too. Wakshall West three, Kettle Moraine four oh Creek
new to the conference. Five mcgwanago got a new head coach,
oconom Walking. The Muskigo's got a first year head coach.

(01:10:43):
Look this this conference is known to be a football conference,
but I can tell you there's some basketball players in
that conference.

Speaker 4 (01:10:50):
Oh yeah, this conference is wonderful. I mean look at
just look at last year. Yeah yeah, Arrowhead obviously it
was good. You had Kettle Moraine, who was outstanding at
twenty six and one. So and all these teams go
out and just beat up on each other and it
just gets us ready for the playoffs. And I think
this conference is wonderful. You know, two years ago we
had two teams up at State and Division one. So

(01:11:12):
we will compete and battle with anyone in our conference
and go toe to toe, and it's wonderful. Every night
there's a tough game. It doesn't matter who your opponent is.
And I just love playing in this conference just from
that aspect of competing and dialing and getting better every day.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
Hey, talk to me about who's leading this team for
you just could be a few of the players that
if people come out, especially as a w byshoot, come
out watch Catholic Memorial play a couple of games. Tell
me about some of the kids that we're going to
watch play.

Speaker 4 (01:11:44):
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, one is Dustin Roach. I mean he
was first team All Conference for US as a sophomore
in the Classic eight, which you know is a hard
feast to be getting. And then he was the first
team All Defense, which is wonderful. He does a lot
for us from rebounding assists, you know, getting guys shots
that they need to get shots. I think he's tremendous.

(01:12:05):
Jackson Alby is another wonderful player for US. He can
really fill it up. He had twenty seven against Whitnell.
He was second team All Conference as a sophomore. We
have a senior and Jake Fister, who plays in a
three point contest up at State last year. He can
really fill it out. And then we have guys that's
fill in, like Will kit Into their wonderful ball handler,
great defensive player with that soccer speed and cot work.

(01:12:28):
Matthew Goodyear is another wonderful shooter. He was at State
for volleyball this year and he can really shoot it
and jump out of the gym. And then we have
Rig Waterman who's really long, athletic and can help defend
for us. And then what I'm really excited for is
our freshman too, that Cardi Calvert who's getting healthy now

(01:12:49):
and he can play six six, he can shoot, he's strong,
all those sort of things. So it's going to be
kind of an exciting season and watching other people fill in.
And we have a line a guy who played the
varsity football named Will Schmizer as a linebacker. He's like
Dennis Rotten out there grabbing every bound and filling.

Speaker 6 (01:13:05):
Up for us.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
And he's got five files too if you need him.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
Yeah, absolutely right.

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
Hey, hey, coach, your your JV team went when twenty
one and three last year, So you've got some kids
that will come from there looks as a smaller as
far as the amount of kids in the school. You've
got to have kids that play multiple sports. But you
and I have had this conversation in the past that
that you like multi sport athletes, say, bring it a

(01:13:33):
different toughness and and when you're competing in different sports,
I always feel like those those kids that you know,
especially in football. You know, a kid like Roach who
has made big time plays all over the field on
both sides of the ball. He surely can hit a
free throw for you down the stretch because he's played
and competed in high level in different sports. You think

(01:13:55):
that that's really important for some of these kids at
Catholic Memorial to play multiple sports.

Speaker 4 (01:14:00):
Absolutely. I don't just think that's important for Catholic Moral.
I think that's important around the state, just learning how
to compete, learning how to win, bringing different physicality to
the game. You know football that helps tremendously for basketball,
right and then you know, I'll use soccer. The foot
speed is wonderful for basketball. And you can even look

(01:14:22):
at individual sports like tennis or golf, like your mind
and what you can overcome and do all those things.
You're not getting rattled, you know, down two with a
minute left and you need to get a good possession
here and score, or you know, up one, I need
to take care of the ball, get to the free
throw line, and make it multiple sports being that it
just helps and you know, going away from that and

(01:14:43):
people just focusing on one sport, I don't I don't
see the benefit of it at all, to be honest
with you.

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
Hey, coach, the Catholic Moral Autism Autism Classic has been
moved often today to the thirteenth, But can you talk
to me about why why you guys are raising money
for autism and and how long that's been going on.

Speaker 4 (01:15:05):
Well, so I started this at Old Creek when I
was there, and I just think it's a wonderful cause
and those kids with autism, you know, deserve the same
right to play the sports and love that we all
have and enjoyment and watching them get excited when you know,
they hit a baseball, they make a jump shot, hit
a layup, do those sort of things brings really great

(01:15:27):
joy to me. And it's just fun for those individual
kids who who sometimes don't get the opportunity that others do.

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
Yeah, I give you a lot of credit for that.
And I know you've you started at a creek and
you carried it with you over to Catholic More. And
I love the fact that the people at Catholic More. Look,
that's a lot of work for the people at the school,
right They've got to be there all day, They've got
to get ticket takers and people to serve a popcorn
and all that. And the fact that that they said, yeah,

(01:15:55):
you bet, let's let's do that over here. I'm a
big fan of the athletic tractor over at Catholic Memorial.
And it doesn't surprise me that that group that administration
said yep, we can, We'll find volunteers, will find enough
people to work the entire day. And now it's been
moved to the thirteenth because of the weather. But I
sure give them a lot of credit for when you

(01:16:17):
brought it up saying, hey, this is important to me.
I want to continue this when I when I take
the job at Catholic Memorial and for them to.

Speaker 4 (01:16:24):
Agree to that, Yeah, their administration there is wonderful. Matt
Bergen is the best ad. He is fantastic with it
and being able to help run this and get things
moving smoothly from the custodian team within you know, obviously
weather like this, getting ticket holders, all of those sort
of things, concessions, making sure lockers are clean, all that stuff.

(01:16:47):
It goes a long way. And at Catholic Memorial, everyone
there is just outstanding.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
Yeah, I agree with that. I Matt's been so kind,
especially during football season, because to get a hold of
Bill Young is not the easiest thing I've ever tried.
I gotta be honest with you, you know, yep. And
then to get invited into his office to do an
interview a couple of weeks ago, I'm telling you I

(01:17:14):
could have stayed in that office for three days to
just look at everything he's got in that office. And
I just I'm a huge fan of match and he's
been very helpful and it doesn't surprise me that you
guys can continue this. I wanted to have Kyle on
to let people know that the day of you know
that the Autism Classic, which is supposed to be today,

(01:17:34):
in fact, they were supposed to be playing games right now,
has been moved to the thirteenth, And there's gonna be
some some mixing and match in a little bit to
make sure that you have teams that can make it
on the thirteenth. And I don't envy the guy trying
to put that that schedule together for the thirteenth. Kyle,
It'll be fun.

Speaker 4 (01:17:53):
It's always fun. Sometimes you gotta get a little curveballs
in life, right.

Speaker 1 (01:17:56):
Yep, one hundred percent. I loved it when I was
coaching at Calvary because stuff like this. I'd always get
a call from somebody going, hey man, we got one opening.
Can you play absolutely? Who do you want is to
play it? You know, and people would be like you're
playing where I'd go, hey, they needed a team and
we could we can do this. So I kind of

(01:18:17):
like that that. You guys got to be a little
bit nimble. But on the thirteenth, make sure if you're
looking to see some really good high school basketball, head
out to Catholic Memorial and support a really good cost.
It means a lot to Kyle Johnson, their head basketball coach,
But it means a lot to the people out of
Catholic Memorial. Hey, coach at Alconomwalk and then at home

(01:18:38):
against Arrowhead, might as well jump right into the fire
next week.

Speaker 4 (01:18:42):
Right, We got to get after it, to put the
gloves on and get dirty now, right, have to. It's
gonna be It's going to be wonderful. It's gonna be tough.
The conference is tough. Every opponent we're gonna play it
is gonna be tough. So we're excited to get after it.
And I'm looking forward to some some great basketball this year.

Speaker 1 (01:19:00):
Hey, I don't know if you remember, but Kenn Moraine
went undefeated last year in your conference. I don't know
if you remember that or not. Yes, I don't know
if Brian Rickord. Look, I know he lost a lot
of really good players, and I think there's a few
teams in that conference that are not going to forget
he went undefeated last year and they think maybe this

(01:19:20):
year could be payback.

Speaker 4 (01:19:23):
I hate that could be true, right, but it's one
game at a time. I'm only focused on o'conhom I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:19:29):
Want Okay Lou Holts, I'm not listening to that. Look,
We've already talked about the matchups since you have at
the w By shootout Thomas Warren Pies and I know
that you know we don't we don't, we don't look ahead,
but we sure work ahead. Man. You well, you can't
look past O'connamwalker Arrowhead, but Kenna Murrain's sitting up there.
So that's the three. The three next Gaves Ocondomwalker, Arrowhead

(01:19:53):
and Kenni Moraine. You're not getting much sleep the next
couple of weeks, coach, know.

Speaker 4 (01:19:58):
A lot of films dot, a lot of practice is
getting things going here. So we're excited and let's get
our feature the fire right away.

Speaker 1 (01:20:05):
Yeah, I'm gonna try to get out to one of those,
either the one at o'condam Walker, the one at home
against against Darrow Ahead. I look forward to seeing your coach,
Thank you so much for a couple of minutes of
your time again. All day today, they were gonna have
games at Catholic Memorial. They have rescheduled them for December thirteenth,
so put it on your calendar, go out raise some

(01:20:25):
money for a really good cause, watch really good high
school basketball, and if you don't get a chance to
go out there on the thirteenth to see Kettle, to
see Catholic Memorial play. Make sure that you put it
on your calendar to go watch them play out of
the wby shootout on the twenty seventh and the thirtieth
of December. He's Kyle Johnson, the head basketball coach for

(01:20:46):
the boys side at Catholic Memorial. Kyle, thanks a lot,
have a good weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:20:51):
Yeah, thanks so much. Have a wonderful weekend with you
as well.

Speaker 1 (01:20:54):
You got it. We're gonna get to a break. We're
gonna get a little transition. We're gonna talk a little
baseball Wiscon. That's an Umpires Association Steve Kurkowski's in studio
and we're going to talk about an event they have
coming up in January. But we need to kind of
start to prime the wheel on this thing for him,
and he's been a guy that is always so kind

(01:21:14):
to come in and talk a little umpire stuff and
we'll talk to him on the other side of the
break against Steve Kurkowski, Wisconsin Umpires Association will join us.
This is the Varsity Blitz high school sports show, presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores.
Only on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
Welcome back to the Varsity Blis High School Sports Show,

(01:21:36):
as always presented by our friends at your local Pick
and Save and Metro Market stores. Coming live from the
Donovan and Jorgensen he didn't in Cooling Studios. Want to
thank the people at Donovan and Jorgensen for continuing their
partnership with the stuff I do and I think Scott
and everybody over three locations Mcgwanago, West Allison, New Berlin.

(01:21:57):
Go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com for any issue you're
having with your HVAC system. We're gonna transition for this
last segment. And Steve Kurkowski, who I've known for a
long time, Level one baseball instructor Wisconsin Baseball, Wisconsin Umpires Association.
I got that right, didn't I. Wisconsin Umpires Association. They've

(01:22:17):
got the twenty twenty six umpire training program coming up,
and we wanted to just get ahead of this thing.
I know yours past, it's always been either that week
or the week before, and we're trying to get people
to come to this kind of thing. But now we've
given people a lot of time. January seventh. It starts,
I'm sorry, Steve happy Thanksgiving? Sure, how are you? I'm great,

(01:22:39):
Thanks for having me. It's a nice right then I
gave you the option and do this for your sell.
You go. No, oh no, I have sconsin tough. I'm
all right. That's right. I had that sleigh on standby.
I was going to get here.

Speaker 3 (01:22:49):
You go.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
You went to the side streets, though I did stayed
on surface streets.

Speaker 2 (01:22:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:22:53):
I'm gonna do that as well. And my producer has
to get back to colder and I don't think you
can take side streets now. Yeah, so I'm gonna tell him.
Just drive safe, young man. It texts me when you
get home. There you go, Spencer will Well, he's a
very good guy and he'll drive drive safety. Talk to
me a little bit about the umpire training program and
what you're hoping to accomplish. Well.

Speaker 5 (01:23:14):
Our training starts January seventh, and it's a twelve week program.
We have two different levels of training. We have a
Level one training, which is for beginners or inexperienced, to
those who are umpires that haven't gone through formal training,
and then we have a Level two training, which is
shorter it's seven weeks and that is a that's a
programmer we have. Ben May is an MLB Empire. He's

(01:23:37):
from the Racine area. He comes in volunteers this time
along with the other instructors, and they they focus on
case plays, rules and then they get into the gym
where they try and fix things that you're doing bad
with either base mechanics or plate mechanics. So that's a
little bit more advanced than.

Speaker 1 (01:23:57):
Are the guys that are veterans open to to be
able to look the guy running it is at the
top of your game and for him to say, hey, listen,
your footwork might be wrong, or you know the way
you're doing this, why don't you try it this way?
They opened to taking that surprisingly.

Speaker 5 (01:24:15):
Yes, I mean the number of people we had last year,
they either went through the Level one training and then
they wait a couple of years and they come back
and they and they get they fix the bad things
that they've picked up over the years. Yes, the serious
umpires that want to do high level games varsity or
baseball or the weekend tournaments and stuff like that, they're

(01:24:37):
dedicated and then they come back and they want to
get better.

Speaker 1 (01:24:40):
You can go online and it's w UA umpires dot org,
so it's Wisconsin Umpires Association or Google that and you'll
be able to see the information on this. I had
asked you during the break. I've got a grandson, Keegan Bonder,
who's a sophomore at Lake Country Lutheran on the basketball team,
and he said, Pop, I think I want to become

(01:25:02):
a basketball official because I get a chance to kind
of pick my own schedule, stay in the game if
I don't make the varsity next year. And the idea
of having a part time job that I can kind
of pick my schedule and if I want to work
a full weekend of youth basketball, I can make some money.
Is that the same with being an umpire?

Speaker 3 (01:25:22):
It is.

Speaker 5 (01:25:24):
Our age limit is fourteen years old or older, so
we have a good mix of adult and kids teenagers.
You can make as much money being a part time
baseball or softball umpire during the season as much. You
can umpire as much as you want because we have
assigning programs where if you're open on a Wednesday night

(01:25:44):
and you want to go umpire, you just log in,
you take the game, and you're off and running. So
you want to work five nights a week. You can
do five nights. You want to work one night a week,
that's great. You want to work a tournament, It's there
for the taking because there's such a need. So's there.

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
My age wants to umpire softball in some tavern league.
Do I have to go through a program like this
or I would recommend it. I write because because you
want to know what you have to do and to
go through a program like this. But do you have
to be Do you have to get a license to
be an umpire?

Speaker 5 (01:26:19):
No, Well, if you want to do high school baseball,
you have to get licensed through to w i AA UH.
But all they require is a general working knowledge of
the rules and mechanics on how to be an umpire.
So what we do is we take we take you
day one if you're brand new, we take your day one,
and we teach you how to call a strike properly,

(01:26:39):
calling out call safe, how to run down the line
and make that call if you're the right, fair or
fail right and uh and then we transition into UH,
plate mechanics and base mechanics. You know, we're where you
are on the field at a particular time, either behind
first base, which we have the A position or the
B or the C and rotate accordingly based on the play,

(01:27:03):
because we like to say that we're the third team
on the field and you work with your partner out there,
and you know he's got to rotate up the third
at times and you got to rotate here and stuff.
So that is the stuff that we teach because you know,
you can just go out and buy the clothes, you
can buy the equipment, and you can just go out
there and say, hey, I'm an umpire and but and

(01:27:25):
I've seen those type of umpires and I just want
to walk up to him and say, come to our
training because we will get you to.

Speaker 1 (01:27:31):
That level where not only you have.

Speaker 5 (01:27:35):
The proper strike zone and the proper stance, but getting
down the first base when you have to rotating out there.
If you go to a baseball game and you watch
the umpires, it's kind of like an orchestrated dance. I mean,
you know, to four umpire system is different than two.
But when the second base umpire runs out to the
outfield on a fly ball, you got the plate umpire

(01:27:57):
running up the third, the third.

Speaker 1 (01:27:59):
Yeah, I mean it's something you learn. So Steve, do
you have guys that go, look, I want to do this,
but I only want to be on the bases, all right,
I only want to be behind the plate. Do you
have guys that go, look, I would prefer if I
have an option, I want to be behind the plate
or I want to be on the basis.

Speaker 5 (01:28:16):
There are guys like that, and and you know, personally,
I think, you know, sometimes it's a health issue of
physical impairments or something they have to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:28:26):
It's nice to know that ahead of time. Sure, when
the game starts.

Speaker 5 (01:28:29):
Uh, but there are guys who can only do a
certain spot on the field and you're okay with that. Well,
I am okay because then I know how to adjust accordingly.

Speaker 1 (01:28:41):
Do you still umpire a lot of games?

Speaker 4 (01:28:43):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:28:43):
Yeah, yeah, I'm a I volunteer literally gumpire. I do
the weekend tournaments at the Rock. I do high school both.
Last this was my first full year back after that
heart attack last year.

Speaker 1 (01:28:52):
It's going to ask you how you look great? Oh,
you know, down seventy pounds. I mean it's just it's wonderful. Yeah,
and you and me both yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks you
down down right between seventy and seventy five and I
got ways to go, but I'll get there. But feeling great, Nie, right, Nie,
feel great well? And I've won all these disco dance contracts.
Now I've not won any of them, Steve. But I
have your eyes, hey, and I know we only have

(01:29:14):
a short amount of time. The the the level one
baseball softball, it's one hundred and ninety five dollars for
the entire twelve weeks, right, correct, yep, And it's three hours.
It's at is at Witnew Middle School, correct over on
South one hundred and sixteenth Street from six to nine
on Wednesdays. And if you're going to do this, make

(01:29:37):
sure you're available and get there for all twelve weeks
because you don't want to miss one. No, because we build,
We build on each kid.

Speaker 5 (01:29:43):
You know. We spend an hour in rules and hour mechanics,
an hour in the gym, and we go from you.
We build and by the time we're done, you know
you have purchased or you have your equipment and you
are calling balls.

Speaker 1 (01:29:53):
And strikes in the gym. Can you go to a
game as a fan and not watch the umpires?

Speaker 5 (01:29:58):
You can't, I can't, I can't. Or I'll watch a
game on on you know, like a lot of Little
League on TV. And my wife will say, would you
stop talking about the umpires?

Speaker 1 (01:30:06):
What is the game? What is your wife's first hand? Rebecca?
Rebecca is a saint. Oh she is, She is a saint.
Does she come to watch you, watch you umpire at all?
She has come to watch me. Does she hackle you
or no? No, beca start hackling this boy, start from
the crowd and see if you'll throw you out. No
dinner for him that night. Hey, what level do you
do you personally enjoy? I'm putting the most.

Speaker 5 (01:30:28):
I enjoy anything on the big fields thirteen you and
above the ninety foot bases. Yeah, that's my preference. I
also enjoy high school varsity JV. I'll do all three
levels because I just like being out on the field.

Speaker 1 (01:30:41):
Did you as as if you're doing a JV game
and the varsity game has followed?

Speaker 5 (01:30:46):
You? Do you go out and do all of Well,
you do two or three games in the day. The
tournament tournaments, I'll do two or you know, sometimes three
if they need me. But I have some high school
double headers set up, but those are usually freshman JV.

Speaker 1 (01:30:59):
Do you do you go out to the rock and
do the old boys at all. No, no, I have
I have seventy two and he still catch it.

Speaker 4 (01:31:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:31:07):
I do not do the older leagues. No, no, because
if you were out there, I'd come out watch my
brother play when he comes in from Florida, and I'd
be Rebecca and I to be heckling, heckling you for sure.
On January the people at January fourteenth, it starts should
people sign up and register? They should? They should register
now and you can go online and go online w

(01:31:29):
u A umpires dot org w UA. So it is
Wisconsin Umpires Association umpires dot org. And on that website
there is about about this organization, the events, calendar, membership plans,
camps and clinics, all the information that you need. Do
you get guys from all over the Midwest to come

(01:31:50):
to this.

Speaker 5 (01:31:50):
Or well Wisconsin, but we've had guys from Janesville, West, Madison, Southeast. Yeah,
we have them on Janesville, Madison, Appleton was last. So
they come from all over the place for the training
and you work this of the I'm one of the instructors.

Speaker 1 (01:32:05):
Yes, man, that's awesome. Hey, I appreciate. I'm glad you're
feeling better. I'm still having to go and get checked
in and right healthwise.

Speaker 5 (01:32:13):
Nope, I'm exercising every day of the week at home
and just eating correctly and doing all that trying to
eat well.

Speaker 1 (01:32:19):
Yep, man, good for you. That's awesome. Again. You can
go online any questions you have. Look, Steve has been
very open to me to coming in and talking about this,
and they would love to see some some fourteen fifteen,
sixteen year olds. But then if you if you're a
guy that just wants to get back into this, you
know what, take this class and they will tell you

(01:32:43):
which one you need to get involved in depending on
your experience, and then take a look at the membership plans.
If you want to get involved in this, I would
ask that you get involved, right. Don't don't just say
look a lumpire three games a week and then I
don't need to deal with with any of the other
stuff you want. Guys that want to get fully invested,
we do it.

Speaker 2 (01:33:03):
We want to and women.

Speaker 1 (01:33:04):
I don't mean to just say guys, I mean people, right,
and we want them to keep learning.

Speaker 5 (01:33:08):
I mean, you know every year the rules change, so
you know, stay get that face in that rule book.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
Every year and do you know I umpired one game.
Did you know this now?

Speaker 2 (01:33:17):
I didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:33:17):
Never told you that my son was playing when he
was little, playing in north central Italy, And as a volunteer,
I had to do something that I didn't want to
serve popcorn. So I went on part of a girls
saw a fast pitch game young kids. But it was
Germantown who was really good, and the picture was incredible,
and there was a girl on the other team that
only had one hand and she was so afraid to

(01:33:40):
get in the batter's box because this young girl could
throw it pretty good. And the Germantown was winning like
twenty five to nothing, and the other team didn't have
a base runner. And I walked the girl three pitches right,
four pitches right down the middle and I went ball one,
ball two, ball three, and the girl dropped her bat,
big smile, and the other coach was like, what was

(01:34:01):
Maretho's pitches? I said, absolutely nothing. I go, she's never
been on base before, and the coach is like, well,
better not come back to haunt us. I said, it won't.
And it was the last time I umpired it, and
I know why. Hey, Steve, thank you so much. I
will continue to talk about this on this show on
January fourteenth, that people can get involved in this, and

(01:34:21):
I highly recommend it. It's a great part time job
and you get to be out and you can pick
your schedule and make some money and be part of
the game. That's right, and it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 5 (01:34:32):
You know, I had that heart attack, I said, get
rid of stress.

Speaker 1 (01:34:35):
Well you know what umpiring gets rid of my stress.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
That's how much I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:39):
You cause stress for some other people. Just so you know,
not Rebecca, but some other people. He is Steve Kurkowski again,
January fourteenth, seventh. January seventh, that's Harry seventh right here
and I'm looking at it. January seventh. I apologize over
go on their website again. Wisconsin Umpire's association Drive Safe
You to be safe this weekend. Spencer a great job today,

(01:35:01):
especially on that bumper music. That was awesome. Drive Drive
stave up to Kohler. This is the Varsity Blitz high
school sports show presented by your local Pick and Save
and