Full Show - 11/8/2025

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, November 8th, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Varsity Blitz high school sports show, presented
by your local pickets save in Metro Market stores only
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app coming
live from the Donovan and Jorgansen Heating and COOLID Studios.
Trust me, they're at my house this week with my
maintenance program, made sure my furnace is cleaned up ready
to go. Man kicked on nice sweet.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I need it this week and yes, yeah we are.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I needed it last night at that game I was at.
But I'll tell you what it was fun. It was fun.
Congratulations Mesquigo. And we're gonna talk to coach Crousey about
nine good Win last night. One of the better games
you said you saw a year.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
As a great high school football game.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
It was a little bit of roll back the clock,
you know, with the systems and the schemes going. But
it might be the best football game that we've watched
this entire season, just with the coaching that was going on,
some of the adjustments and the little things, and good
football players on both sides and two football communities. It
was awesome to see our visitor stands finally packed and
filled up with no.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Left well, I can tell the game I was at
last night, Man, I had so much fun. It was
really fun. Lake Country Lutheran against Nuclar's Nuclar's standing room.
They traveled.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
They traveled and Lake Country showed out. Man, it was
really fun. Were we are now joined. After the game
last night, they let people come down in the field
and I got a picture with my grandson and the
cell coach Bras and I shook his hand and he goes,
I know I got to come out of your show tomorrow, right.
I go yeah. He goes, can you start with me?
I go absolutely. We are now joined by the head

(01:34):
football coach at Lake Country Lutheran, Greg brass Galla coach.
Great win last.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Night, thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:40):
I stayed out on the field a little bit longer
than I normally do. That was a fun one to celebrate.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Coach. A couple of the things I got to talk
to you about.

Speaker 7 (01:47):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
First, I have look as a basketball coach. I've been
through the journey as a coach, right, I've gotten to state.
I've I've won some state championships. I've gone through the
journey as a coach. I've never gone through the journey
as a fan, and this is different for me, mad

(02:07):
Now I'm not a normal fan. I watched three games
in New Glarius during the week and I'm mind huddle
watching to see what I'm going to see and how
good they are, and and I just I'm telling you,
it's a whole different feeling to be up in the
stands than what you guys do on your staff.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Right.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
You enjoy the win against Nuclaris for about twenty minutes
and then you're you're going, Okay, Mayville's coming up. I
am like, I didn't sleep last night because I was
so excited for this team, this community and my grandson
to have another week of football and maybe two. And
it was an epiphany about twelve thirty this morning that

(02:52):
I said, what is going on? Why can't I go
to sleep? Man? And it's because it's a different place
to be looking at what's going on. And it was fun.
The other thing I have to tell you is when
it was late in the game, and it was it
was a fairly close game. They had a chance to
stay in it fourth and about five from about the

(03:12):
fifteen and their quarterback threw a touchdown, but he went
over the line of scrimmage and they called it. I
didn't know you had those kind of hops. Coach. You
jumped out ten feet up in the air, and you
threw your fist up because you kind of knew, okay
that this could be it. And I was so happy, man.
But I watched it, and I don't know why I

(03:34):
watched you a lot of the sidelines. I should be
watched the game, but I do get a kick out
of this and to watch the excitement that you had
and you pointed to the student section and gave him
a fist up, and it was just awesome. I just
didn't know you could jump like that.

Speaker 6 (03:50):
Well, you know, you know, when the games are going on,
you can do things that you never can do when
you got all that adrenaline going. But yeah, I mean,
it's it's a family here. We say it all the time.
But I love those kids in the stands as much
as I love the kids on the sideline. And yeah,
sometimes the players make fun of me when we watch
film because I'm just a little bit too animated on
the sideline. But I'm not going to change.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
No, do not change. Do not change. And you know what,
the people in the crowd, some of them notice it
as well, and I think they absolutely love the fact
that the leader of their program, who's been doing this
a long time, is still totally engaged high fiving kids,
you know, coaching kids up when when they need to

(04:33):
be coached up. And coach, I got to tell you
New Glarus is a really good football team. That's a
really good team, and you guys wore them down. I
have to tell you this. When I'm watching tape New Glares,
they they would run, they would run offensively ryan they
they were. There was a set that they would pull

(04:53):
both guards and run a sweep and every time I
watched them, and they ran it a lot in the
games that that they were getting chunks five yards, ten yards,
fifteen yards, and and I thought, my goodness, they get
a lot of yards off that play. And they ran
it last night a bunch and I'm watching the defensive
end from Lake Country Lutheran just blow it up and

(05:16):
pushed the tackle into the play and then guys swarm
into the ball. And I think they probably ran it
four or five times and lost yards each time. And
I thought, well, Bras was watching the same to the
same tape I was.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
I think coach Brass needs to bring you on staff
because you're getting into this.

Speaker 8 (05:33):
No no, no, no, no, no no.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
You know how good of a coach I am up
in the stands you do, I I haven't. I haven't
messed up one play yet, hey, brass. That play that
they ran and the tapes I was watching, they ran
it really well where they pulled both guards and they'd
run a sweep. Man, you guys had that thing coached up,
and your defensive lines did a great job of blowing

(05:58):
that thing up and then linebackers and even safeties and
corners coming to swarm to the ball. They only ran
that four or five times and then they got out
of it. You obviously, you know, watched the safe tapes
I did, and you had your defensive ends ready to
go when they ran that.

Speaker 6 (06:17):
Yeah, I mean coaching one on one, you figure out
what they want to do, you know, and try and
stop that and then hopefully they don't get you with
like play number six, seven or eight that they want
to go to. So yeah, that was definitely a key
was to try and shut down their sweep. But you know,
they were tough. They were they were more versatile than
a lot of teams that we face. Sometimes we face

(06:38):
teams that just want to run and others just want
to pass. Their ability to do both had us had
us scrambling a little bit there. But you know, the
final score doesn't really tell how how tough that game was. No,
it was a tough one.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Really tough one. And I can tell you defensively again,
and I talked to you last week about this, coach,
if you that team up a ton of points all
year in every game, and defensively you gave up one
right at the end there, and it made it look
a little bit better. They got the ball, you guys

(07:11):
stopped them, and then there was a penalty, and then
they went down the field and scored the first time
they touched it to go up seven to nothing. And
then only one other time did they have a drive
and a score that I thought mattered. And I just
I am so impressed with this defense and how you
guys swarm to the ball, and look, you guys do

(07:33):
a lot in the film room and get these guys
ready to go. But boy, defensively again, for the three
weeks that I've watched you guys play, your offense is
really good and they put up good numbers. But I
keep walking away really impressed with defensively, how you guys
make stops at big points in the game.

Speaker 6 (07:52):
Yeah, No, I appreciate that. A lot of that comes
with their effort and their work ethic. They just want
to be tough and fast out there, and we are.
But like offensively, you know, we were a little bit
of a chameleon last night because we had I mean,
fifty two rushes is not the LCL way, No, and
our quarterback went for five touchdowns rushing. So it was

(08:13):
a little bit different than than we normally look. But
that's how the playoffs are. You got to you gotta
do what works, and you got to stick with it
and hopefully you get to play the next week.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
What's interested in me? Coaching? And I thought defensively, Again
this is from a basketball coach's eyes. I thought, defensively,
they were much better against the run in some of
the games that I watched. And you guys, you guys
again rush the ball fifty two times. You you saw
something that I didn't and and we're able to take

(08:43):
advantage of it. Did the wind have anything to do
with why you guys ran the ball so much?

Speaker 6 (08:50):
No, most of it was clock management. Once we were
able to get up, you know, thirteen to seven. We
always feel like if we have a seven point lead,
we got tons to win this thing. It's win by
one mentality. So we were we were really grinding the
clock out a lot, and so I did not want
to throw an incompletion because I just didn't want to
stop the clock. So we were getting three yards, three yards,

(09:12):
three yards as best we could, and then eventually we
would rip one off. But yeah, it was more clock
management than that inability to pass.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Man, it was it was a fun game to be
up in the crowd and and man, they were getting
after it and everybody. I had a buddy that kept
sending me messages about Mayville. You know who's winning, Mayviell
or Amherst, Mayviel or Amherst. And he was sending me
updates all the time. And I had to let that
little section that I sit in and people are like,

(09:41):
do you get anything? Do you get anything yet? No? No, No,
it looks like maybe Amherst, no, Mayville, no, Amherst. You
guys saw and I saw Mayville in that scrimmage, and
and teams are so different. I don't think you get
much from from that scrimmage. Other than I being able
to hit somebody from a different team, different color on

(10:01):
their uniform. But Mayville has, you know, has played really
well this year and they're a one seat. How much
do you know about them? And have you gotten a
chance to watch much film on them?

Speaker 6 (10:13):
Yeah? I mean obviously not a lot of hours of
sleep last night, but no, we have a great respect
for Mayville and a great relationship with Maybelle. Obviously we
scrimmage with them. They love that we come down there,
and we love that we're there. We both respect each
other a lot. It was actually kind of funny when
we left the scrimmage. Coach was like, we'll see you
in the playoffs, and I was like, all right, coach,

(10:34):
no problem. And then here we are, so people after
I wanted Mayville or Amherst if we were able to win,
and I'm like, you know what, both of those programs
are incredible, so we'll just be happy to win. So
now we'll game plan it and see what we got.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, at Slinger High School on Friday night, and I'm
looking at the weather because you might have to give
the head football coach at Slinger see if you's got
a little space a little warm space for an old.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Guy like me in the press box, library boxes.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Okay, Brascow will not want me anywhere near the press box.
I've got to put like a fake nose and glasses
and try to so he doesn't know who's up there. Hey, coach,
it has been incredibly be a small part, just as
as a fan on this team. And you know, my
daughter in the warm ups, I'm up there and I'm
kind of danced a little bit in the crowd. She said,

(11:23):
what are you doing? I go what? She goes, sit down.

Speaker 9 (11:26):
I know, like I embarrass her, like you like she
if I could just yell yeah, let's go blue, She's like, hey,
not so about. And I'm like, hey, I'm a fan, Matt,
I am a fan, and I'm having fun with this coach.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
The two kids, last question, I'll cut you loose. The
two kids that we had in studio, Your quarterback and
your linement. Those two kids the captains of this team.
I thought showed obviously. Your quarterback ran for five touchdowns,
but showed in a couple of different categories of being
really good football players, but really good teammates. I watched

(12:01):
as the receiver had a white look. Your receiver got
open and he threw a dime and the receiver dropped it.
And you can tell that the receiver went to the sidelines,
had his head down a little bit, and the quarterback
walked right over to him and he kind of grabbed
him by the face mask. He patted him on the head,
and I don't know what he said, but I would
assume he said, hey, I'm coming to you again. Knock

(12:23):
it off. You're fine. So what, you dropped the ball,
We're gonna get going. Next time I throw it to here,
let's make sure you catch it. And he caught everything
after that. But I love the leadership that those two
kids play with.

Speaker 6 (12:35):
Yeah, I mean, it's amazing how much they're able to rebound.
I mean I was I was a defensive back, so
they get that next play mentality. You can't think about
what just happened. So, I mean, at that kid that
dropped the ball ended up next play kicking a sixty
two yard punt, So like you, guys, you got to
you gotta go there and do the next play. It's
next play mentality gets talked a lot by coaches, but

(12:56):
like for us, it's, yeah, that's the reality, because the
next play could that important.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
So well, that run defense has got to get going
for this week. They've rushed for almost four thousand yards,
they've thrown for three hundred. They've thrown the ball thirty
five times on the year, and I know they're gonna
have to You guys are gonna have to be stout
up front. That The last thing that I noticed last night, coach,
and I think you noticed it, is your team wore

(13:22):
them down at New Claris. You know, first quarter, I thought, defensively,
they look pretty good. By the middle of the third
quarter of their hands, you know, they were they were
grabbing their jersey to have somebody come in and sub form.
And I thought, up front, you guys really wore them
down last night.

Speaker 6 (13:40):
Yeah, I mean, obviously, when you got two teams that
rush the ball fifty times, it's going to be a
battle of the trenches. So you know, we'll put our
thumbs in our mouth, blow up a little bit. We're
always smaller than everybody we play, but hopefully we can
have the technique and the heart that's bigger than them,
and we'll see what happened.

Speaker 7 (13:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
I talked to one of the linemen when I was leaving,
and he was walking out with the dad and was
talking about was standing next to him. I thought, man,
I looked at that. I looked at the roster. That
kid's not six two like two sixty. I can tell
you that that's put your thumb in your mouth and
blowing it up a little bit. Hey, coach, thank you
so much for coming on today. I really appreciate the

(14:19):
friendship that we have and I appreciate the time that
you give us on this show. Good luck next week
seven o'clock kick at Slinger High School against Mayville.

Speaker 6 (14:28):
Yeah, thanks a lot, coach. We love being on here,
so appreciate your support of us. And go Lightning.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
You got it, Go Lightning. Lake Country Lutheran man. You
know what, He's a good dude. And he is so
engaged on the sidelines. I'm not kidding, man, he is.
If he is walking down in the field when he
Candy coach Kid up, he is on the sidelines. If
kid gets injured, he's right there next to him. And
when that play happened, I'm watching him when they threw

(14:56):
the flag and made the call and he jumped ten
feet off the ground. These fist pumping the student section
and Ryan, it's weird. To me, it's weird and to
be a fan, to be in the stands and not
you know, when you're on the sidelines, it's a different mentality.
You're not enjoying the touchdown. You're thinking about the kick.

(15:17):
You're thinking about defense, right, the defense of what we're
gonna do with this, how we're gonna now stop it
and get the ball back. But as a fan, you're
just up there enjoying it. And when there's a turnover
that doesn't go well for you, it you know, it hurts.
You're like, you gotta be kidding me. It's just a
whole different mindset that I wasn't prepared for. And at

(15:39):
twelve thirty this morning, it was an epiphany. I went,
I've never gone through this journey as a fan before.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Well, now you can empathize when you see the moms
crying at the end of the game and people getting
super emotional during certain moments of the journey.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
As you just described it, because you felt it.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
And then when the you know, the finality of sports
is hard to take sometimes, and then you see the
door close on a chapter, you see the tears of
joy from parents and family and people coming onto the
field after a team that just want a really hard
fought battle, and it kind of gives you a little
bit of appreciation for it.

Speaker 5 (16:13):
You know.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
I don't want to call this young man out, and
I hope he doesn't get mad at me, but their quarterback,
who scored five touchdowns, who was in studio with us,
was what their family. He's got an older brother who'd
gone through this program and mom and dad and they
were hugging and tears flowing down their faces. That almost
brought tears to my eyes. How much they wanted this

(16:36):
and how much is a family they and this is
one of the toughest kids I've ever met. So it's
not like, you know, the toughness that he showed on
the football field was defensive and offensively. The kids everywhere right,
and for his family and the four of them to
be hugging as I walked down the field with tears

(16:57):
and I just patted him, I said, you got the
heart of a lion, young man. And he looks and
he couldn't talk because he had tears coming out of
his cheek, and it made me go, holy, Kyle, this
you know what this really means a lot to this group?

Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah, those are the people that you love to have
in your program, that you think about today. You can
go back and start flipping the chapters of those kids
and those families that you've coached, and it just means
the world to them, and they pour so much of
themselves into other people and their teammates. And you gave
the example earlier in the show of picking up the
running back or whatnot and just keeping things going. And

(17:30):
those are the kids and the families. As a coach
you really appreciate being around, and you hope that you
you capture that time in that moment and you stay
in the moment and enjoyed as a last.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
I I what I walked away. I right away thought,
I hope the junior software was in freshmen who this
kid has led all year see what I'm seeing here,
because they'll understand that this not only means a lot
to the kid, but to this entire family. And they
have been part of the Lake Country Lutheran family for

(18:05):
a long time, and it's a really good family, and
that his brother was a really good athlete, and this
kid gets it and the family gets it, and I
love that. Hey, later in the show, at the second hour,
we're gonna have the quarterback from Whitnell and the punter
from Waterford, two kids whose high school football careers have ended.
And the quarterback from Whitnell he threw for like three

(18:26):
thousand yards in rush for a thousand, and he's got
he's got a baseball scholarship from UWM. And I said,
so you're gonna play baseball? He said, I'm gonna send
out some football videos and for him and see what
comes from that. But I have this in my back pocket.
And the kicker from Waterford, his dad was a kicker
at Wisconsin and he's going to Carol to kick. And

(18:49):
the problem that I'm having in my mind right now
is Waterford and Whitnell. The last time they met on
the basketball floor, there was a brawl, and I didn't
think this through having these two kids studio. Hey, and
then we're going to end the show the ten forty segment.
I asked people to tune into that because I got
a chance to go interview Bill Young in his office

(19:10):
and we didn't know if they were going to win
on Friday, and they did win on Friday, but we
talked to him and Nico Rogers, who's that defensive stud
defensive tackle but I got to be in Bill Young's office.
And I've talked about that office a lot on this
show because I could never get him to come in
because Saturday mornings he's in that office, and I wondered
what it looked like, and it was everything I thought

(19:30):
it would be. I could still be there and not
see every picture and every mind, I mean, every plaque
in every trophy, and he's got all.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Of it, so much history.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Oh and he goes, hey, man, you when the season's over,
you got to come over to my house. Let me
show you what I have there. And I go, Coach,
I'm in. I'm gonna put four hours aside. You can
leave and I'll still be looking out at all that stuff.
But that interview's coming in. We're going to air that
at ten forty. On the other side of the break,
Jake Walter from Whitefish Bay High School, they're still playing.

(19:59):
We're going to talk to Jake on the other side
of the break, and then Ken Crousey Muskigo head coach.
You're smiling, they're still playing. He's gonna join us at
nine forty. This is the Varsity Blitz high school sports show,
presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market
stores only at Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz high school sports show

(20:20):
presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores,
Coming live from the Donovan Jorgans and Heat and Cooling Studio.
Before we get to Jake Walter from Whitefish Bay. As
an athletic directory, going this deep in the playoffs here
after year and having a lot of home games, you

(20:42):
guys have a great template now, right, and you're you're
good with that? Do you like now that this level
it's a neutral site and you can can you just
go and enjoy the game?

Speaker 4 (20:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (20:55):
More yes, Yes, The answer to that question is yes.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
And I will tell you our event staff, the people
in our community that sign up to work, they love
working Muskego Warriors football. But after nine games at home
this year and nine football type events, they're okay with
being able to go on the road to and experience
that fan piece that you were just talking about, right,
And so yeah, it is fun to go to somebody

(21:18):
else's place and let somebody else just focus on hosting
you versus worrying about their team as well. So usually
it's really well done, and it's fun when you're level four.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Well, I gotta tell you, I
I think he thought, I think this is our next
guest thought. Man, there's a chance, because he told me
at Seedarbury, if we get healthy, we got a chance.
Don't count us out. Mcgiffern. He looked me right in
the eye. And I've always trusted Jake Walter, and he's right.
Because Whitefish bathe the number eight seat, beat my Spartans

(21:52):
at Martin Luther twenty eight to seven. They get a
chance to play Reedsburg at Madison will follow at Friday
night at seven o'clock. We were now joined by the
head football coach at Whitefish, Babe Jake Walter. Jake, it's
pretty good to be talking to you again this week.

Speaker 10 (22:09):
Absolutely, I could do this every week with you if
if we keep winning. I love it.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Hey, Jake, I saw your son on the news last night.
You don't give him enough credit because that kid can play.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
That kid can play bad.

Speaker 10 (22:23):
Yeah, yeah, he's pretty special, he really is.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
He's good.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
Hey, tell me about last night's game twenty eight seven
Martin Luther.

Speaker 7 (22:32):
Man.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
They had a really good year, got a lot of
athletes and twenty eight seven was it? Was it closer
than that or did you guys take control for early early?

Speaker 4 (22:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (22:44):
You know what, we did take control right away. We're
up fourteen oh on our first two drives and then
a third drive going in twenty one to zero. You know,
coach got a little cute and they got a turnover
and then gave them a little momentum and it was
fourteen seven for a while. I'll tell you what you
just mentioned. Martin Luther had some good athletes, they do,

(23:07):
but what I was really impressed with was they had
I mean, we were physically we you know, manhandled them
pretty well, but they had so many guys that just
gave up their bodies for their scheme. And those middle
two quarters they were just flying around defensively and just
giving up their bodies to let someone else make a play.

(23:29):
It was it was pretty impressive to see and they
did a really good job with that. But then we
kind of collected ourselves in that fourth quarter and then
had two more touchdown drives. They punted and it was
fourteen to seven. They punted down to the one yard
line inch yard line, and we went ninety nine yards
to seal it in about eight or nine plays, So

(23:52):
it was it was a good ballgame for sure.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
Hey, coach, outside of your locker room, outside of your
locker room, do you think that there's many people even
you know, I guess people close to the program, but
not in the locker room. Do you think that anybody
except for the people in that locker room thought that
this run was was had a chance to happen after

(24:15):
the way the year ended, the regular season ended.

Speaker 10 (24:19):
No, probably not. And uh and understandably, I mean, how
many three and six teams, first off, get into the playoffs,
let alone are able to get back to five hundred
and get to level four. So I've had many coaches
and even guys that played for me and or coach
for me reach out and be like, yeah, at the beginning,
they were they had their own little text messages by

(24:41):
class and like how did bake it in? And then
now they're like, oh crap, they're really good. They're gonna
make it, have a chance to make it all the
way to the level four or even further. So it's
been fun for sure.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Man, no doubt to you know, you're beat New berl
And West at level one and and then you beat
a good, poor wash New team and then a good
Martin Luther team, and it's kind of like, you know,
kind of the surprise. There's always a surprise, Ryan, there's
always kind of that dark horse that pops up in
these tournaments. And you know, there's all of a sudden,

(25:13):
there's a lot of people going, oh, I saw this coming.
No you didn't. I didn't see it coming. I trust
Jake and he said, we got a chance, don't count
us out. But I thought, oh, I kind of roll
my eyes maybe a little behind his back, being honest.
But there's always that team.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, it's so much fun being that team too. I mean,
coach Walter just gets to go in and smile because
he knows what he's got and all these other people
are the favorites and you're always the underdog, and people
are constantly just kind of you know, yeah, you're okay,
nice win.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Last week.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
That was just you know, the seventh seed, got lucky
type of a thing. And then you do it again,
and then you do it again, and you do it again,
and everyone's going, yeah, let's roll.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah, all of a sudden, everybody's wearing blue dukes. Yeah,
you know, t shirts, and you know, Jake's getting free
haircuts and popcorn and man, Jake, you're the great three
weeks ago. Maybe we need to make a chain. No,
he's the greatest coaching. He's got all the fame guy
and all that. Jake, I love it. Tell me about Reidsburg.
Have you watched much tape on them? And what kind

(26:13):
of what kind of things are they going to bring
to the to the field on Friday?

Speaker 10 (26:19):
Yeah, we uh, we got a little bit of a
YouTube last night and then we're waiting for some film
exchange with them now. But uh yeah, Pelwaukee was up
fourteen to nothing on him last night and then thirty
eight straight unanswered points from Reidsburg. So oh they are Yeah,
they're they're kind of they're actually kind of young. They

(26:40):
have a lot of sophomores and some juniors play. But
the Belkow is a senior running back, linebacker. He is
he is a real deal. He's an All State kid
either way you look at it, running back or linebacker.
So he's the guy that we got to really focus on.
But they still have three or four other guys that
have four or five hundred yards. That kid's got almost
two thous and I think so. They've they've thrown the

(27:03):
ball twenty two times this whole year, so they know
what they want to do and they've done it well
all year. So it's going to be it's gonna be
a real real test for us, for sure. Probably one
of the best teams we've seen all year. Obviously for sure.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
Coach, Are they still running that wishbone broken bone type
scheme that Coach Pottinger brought up there?

Speaker 10 (27:24):
Yeah, so it's a lot of double tight, double wing,
fox bone some t stuff. So yeah, yeah, yeah, they
run it well. Man, they definitely do.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, good job with looking at their stats, You're right,
they've they've rushed for almost forty five hundred yards. Not
to make you lose sleep tonight, Jacibe. You know all
these stats, I mean they're they're they're uh team receptions.
One kid has three and then one two, three, four
guys have four seven total receptions for the year. Two touchdowns.

(28:00):
But they're rushing to attack. You're right, that's that that's
gonna be. Uh, that's gonna be the key for for sure.
Health Wise. How did you come out of last night's game?

Speaker 4 (28:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (28:10):
Really, well, we are our stud running backs. Last safety
lettee love. He got dinged up and I think in
the third quarter on his last big run, and we
we set him out the rest of the game.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
But he'll be he'll.

Speaker 10 (28:26):
Be fine, he'll be healthy. And then everyone else nothing uh,
nothing that should hold anyone out for next week. So
we're still hoping to get in Linement back from he
set up the last three games from the concussion protocol,
So hopefully he's back next week as well, So that'd
be nice, that.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Would be nice. Well, look, I'm never gonna doubt you again, Jake, never. Yeah,
you know, you stood on the sidelines and told me
that against cedar BURGI said, we might not look great tonight,
we'll be all right. We got a chance to win tonight,
but we got a chance to be really good down
the stretch if we get our guys act. And when
you said, look, we're playing guys tonight that probably shouldn't

(29:04):
be playing at the parsity level because of all these injuries,
and we're going to coach them up and do that.
They're gonna do the best they can. They're gonna be
better next year and then following year. But man, well
we'll see what what the end of the year comes
with and I got I got a feeling we're gonna
we're gonna make some noise. And you were right, Jake Walter,
good luck against Reedsburg. Where's that game being played?

Speaker 10 (29:26):
Uh? As of right now, it sounds like it's coulda
be a Madison afault?

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yep, that's what it says on on what I'm looking.
Do you have to agree to that or how?

Speaker 7 (29:35):
What is how?

Speaker 4 (29:36):
I think?

Speaker 10 (29:37):
Yeah, they just they sent out a list of all
the potential level four sights this week, and I think
those places had to agree to it during the week
and then obviously sounds like they are still good to host.
So yeah, we're we're all good wherever wherever we need
to go. We're we've been traveling for a while now.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
So traveling man, You're you're travel tested for sure.

Speaker 5 (30:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Yeah, Well win and survive Jimmy v baby win answer vive. Hey,
thank you you got it, Jake, Thank you so much, brother,
I I appreciate it. Congratulations. Good luck this week against Reedsburg.

Speaker 10 (30:17):
Awesome. Thanks having me on, Mike, you.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Got good luck.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Coach man. He's one of the he's one of the
good ones, great ones. Yeah, he really is he he
you know what. He's such a.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
Great perspective, great seeing the bigger picture and knowing where
we're fitting and we're teaching kids at the end of
the day.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
And and then when you get some tools, you have
a lot of fun with it, as they're doing right now.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, no doubt. Hey, let's let's talk before we get
to a break. And on the other side of break,
Ken Crousey. Uh, and he'll talk more about about last
night's game. You got a chance to talk to coach
Hensler a little bit before the game or.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
Yeah, I saw yeah, I said, uh, I said good
luck to him. He he asked me, He asked me
if he could go, and he goes, hey, you got
you got anywhere outside that has a covering on it.
I'm like, coach, you want to shed? Is that what
you're asking me?

Speaker 2 (31:07):
He's like, yeah, that'd be perfect, Coach.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
There's a shed out there, but there's no seating and
there's a whole bunch of dangerous stuff that my district
won't allow me to slam a football team into. I
think this the schools right here, that's pretty nice in here.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
He's like, yeah, we need the shed.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
I'd like to start laughing, but he was locked in
and he did a great job of coaching and running
their system, and Badger showed up.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
They really it was a really really good football game.
It really was. It could have went either way.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
There's some good momentum swings and his quarterback's stud and.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
How many overall throws last night, Yeah, overrun Badger had.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Badger had about three.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
I think Muschigo might have had, you know, six to
eight something like that.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Ten total was the overrunner.

Speaker 8 (31:56):
Yeah, yeah, it might have gone over They both got
did a good job keeping on the ground and control
in the tempo with their offenses, and the defenses showed
up as well and kept the thing in check.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
And so yeah, it was nice to see the clock.

Speaker 3 (32:10):
Move a little bit last night where we had two
teams that wanted to play physical football and get after it.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Yeah, and I want to thank Price Galp for doing
what he did at Lake Country. They ran the game.
They ran the ball, like he said, fifty two times
and the clock ticked pretty pretty quickly.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
I was smiling when he said that because the exact
same thing was happening down in Muskigo last night. When
you know, especially when we got in the lead and
as you start looking at the clock, like, let's waste
this four minutes get to the half, you know, let's
waste another nine here, Badger's going. If we can run
a nine minute drive at the end of the half
and then score, we're gonna be in a good shait.
While they did about seven, they left too much time

(32:47):
on so Muschigo kind of came back and so it
was it was good to see.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, it sounds like the games that we're at very similar.
Lake Country or Luther got a turnover with about four
minutes to go in the half and I think their
forty yard line and they went down the field and
they scored, but they left two minutes on the clock,
and Nuclarious they they got to stop and and we're
able to go into halftime and then get the ball

(33:13):
coming out and and kind of that double score kind
of opportunity, and it was it was awesome. Hey, we're
gonna get to a break other side of the break.
Ken Crousey, head football coach at Muskego will join us
before we get to him. Were you surprised at at
the Franklin Bayport score?

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Surprised?

Speaker 3 (33:32):
No, I mean the potential was there and kind of
our sources up in the Green Bay area said, it's
very similar to last year, where you know, Bayport lost
one early and then they kind of adjust their personnel.
They really don't get challenged a lot, and so they
start to get some mojo and and and get playing.
And I think if you ask Franklin staff, their their

(33:55):
toughest games were Week four and one, you know, and
they haven't really played someone that's challenged them. So it's
and you get a couple of turnovers. They had a
couple of second half turnovers that I think let it
get out of hand.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
But it was a very competitive ball game.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
Through the half for sure, So it uh, if you
turn the ball over, it can get that way again.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Happen on us.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
It happened on a few of our opponents this year
where it's snowballs on you and you just kind of
got to live through it.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Hey, last thing before we get to a break and
again the other side of the break will get Ken
Crousey to join us. You're gonna be able to just
go and and and and watch the game on on
on Friday up at Titan Stadium and oshkosh. You guys,
the past few years, you guys have hosted or been
been kind enough to go. Look what we'll be a

(34:45):
neutral site. Feeling pretty good about this week to be
able to go, Okay, all I got to do is
get up to Titan Stadium and and and uh and
cheer on our team. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
Once we uh get the logistical stuff set like the
buses and whatnot, and then coordinate you know with the grid,
Aaron Club and whatnot, and the meals and those types
of things that are coming, then yeah, it's it's really uh,
it's really just.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Going and being a fan.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
And and obviously if if if you've got to manage something,
or you get called to manage something, then you gotta
do it. So there's a little bit still in the background.
It's not like you can go and act like you're
going to a backer game. You know, still you're gonna
you're still gonna go and do a little bit of work,
but you get to enjoy it much more and actually
just lock into the process.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
Any any thought on on I I don't think there
is but a by playing on a college field, right,
the kids, it's not gonna be too big for these kids.
They've they've played in different stadiums. You you bring back
a few memories Titan Stadium for you.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Yeah, Titans Staium is a great place to play. And
the only thing I think you talked about, like is
there an adjustment to the college field is if they
don't have the high school hashes, the hash mark will
will be a little bit tighter, I believe if I
might be off there, But other than that, it's gonna
be a great stadum. I've I personally enjoyed coaching and

(36:11):
or playing in those types of facilities because Titan's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
But the nice part is they got the great press box.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
So as a coach that used to be in the box,
Like when I ended my career at W Stevens Point,
i was on the staff and then I was in
the box and talking to the play caller on the
headsets things like that. You get a great view, you
got space to spread out, you can make all your notes,
and it's really really comfortable, where sometimes you get into
high school facilities and you're squeezed and it's it's tighter

(36:38):
than this radio studio, you know, and you got to
try and do all the work that you're asked to
do from that standpoint logistically and operationally, you know, the
team rooms and everything's right underneath the stadium, so it
makes life a lot easier on those competing.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
Man, that's awesome. We're gonna get you a break. Outher
side of the break, Coach Ken Crousey, head football coach
at Muskego, will join us. This says 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 iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to the
Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented by your local

(37:14):
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores only on Fox
Sports nine twenty your iHeartRadio app. Ten o'clock hour. We've
got the quarterback from Whitney, Tanner efforts. His sister is
in Saint Louis playing hockey.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
There you go, ye, So she's on the same seat,
the same team as my daughter Lena.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
That's awesome. And then Bovit, who's a kicker from water
For two seniors had great high school football careers, just
going to come in and talk about their careers at
Whitnell and at Waterford, and then at ten forty we're
going to replay an interview I did with coach Bill
Young on Wednesday of this week, and it was a
pure pleasure to go into that office. It was a shrine, man,

(37:54):
I'm telling you, it was awesome. And looking forward to
airing that interview we did with coach Bill Young. They
got to win last night and Muskigo got a good
win last night beating Badger twenty to thirteen. Now Bayport
Friday night at Titan Stadium at Uwashka seven o'clock kick
as Mustigo takes on Bayport. We are now joined by

(38:17):
the head football coach at Muskego, Ken Crousey. Hey, coach, congratulations,
what a good win for you guys.

Speaker 4 (38:24):
Yeah, it was an awesome win. You know, Badger is
a great football team, great program, and it was exciting.
That's for sure.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
It never gets old, does it, Coach.

Speaker 4 (38:35):
It never does. It's crazy. It was a war. I mean,
they were eleven and all. They have a state championship team,
their quarterbacks outstanding, and we're just we're just happy to
survive in advance. It's a whole lot about it.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Hey, coach. And you know, we don't enjoy wins as coaches.
We don't. I'm a fan now I'm still enjoying the
Lake Country Lutheran win last night. But as coaches you
don't really get to enjoy it very much because you've
got to start looking at either Franklin or Bayport. And
it's Bayport. And have you had a chance to kind

(39:08):
of take a look at at what kind of things
that they do and the kind of issues they're going
to bring to the table on Friday night.

Speaker 4 (39:16):
Yeah, Well we played them last year, so obviously we
know them really really well. They you know, all stay
running backs, their quarterbacks and phenomenal football player. And I've
got their defensive end, Rock is an All State type
player on defense form. So they're a great program too.
You know, I think the seeding this year went really
really well. I think the best teams kind of got

(39:37):
to the final league in the final four, and it's
just another great football team we're playing. So we're looking
forward to it. So that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
Well, and Ryan, I'll say this to you. If anybody
wants to argue, I go on this airwaves and say
this conference is the best football conference in the state,
and I'll have that conversation with anybody. Well, two of
the teams from the conference, Arrowheads playing against Want and
Masquigoes playing against Bayport I again year after year. I

(40:05):
think it's the best football conference in the state, and
I have the receipts for it.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
Well.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
I think the coolest part about this new playoff format,
and I think coach Crawsey will agree, is it actually
split us up.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
For once in the past they slam us all in
the same.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
Bracket and they us beat ourselves up again and then
whoever is the last man standing gets to kind of
you know, limp in the Level four or Camp Randler,
whatever it might be. And now we got a little
bit of space and two programs are still running. And
without a doubt it's it's a great football conference. Has
got great families, it's got great players, and it's got
really good coaching.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
That's what makes it great.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
Ryan said, definitely.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
And I'm gonna put you on the spot. Who are
you rooting for Arrowheader Wannaki next week? Man, you want
to think about your answer. I barely got that questioned
out and you spit out your hand.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
I will root for the Warriors next there for you,
let's go there.

Speaker 4 (41:03):
You go that you would love that match up your
old your old home and your new homeboy and Warriors.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
Oh my goodness that. Well, let's get through next week
and then I'm sure next week we will have a
conversation about the same championship game. But that's awesome, hey, coach.
When I talked to Ryan earlier in the year and
then I talked to you, both of you guys said
the same thing when I asked, look, you know, how
good can this team be down the stretch and come

(41:31):
playoff time? And you both said, you know what, we
got a chance to be pretty good. We we got
some some good leaders on this team. We got some
guys that have put in all this sweat equity it
takes to be part of the Muschigo football program. And
and look, that's different in every school, right What does
it take to be a part of the Lake Geneva
Badger program might be different than what it takes to

(41:53):
be part of the Muskigo program. But with the template
that you guys have built there and you've built there,
to be part of your program, you got to be tough,
You have to be able to, you know, spend a
lot of time in the weight room, studying film, being
a good teammate, all of the things that it's taken
to be a really good program. So you knew early

(42:14):
on that if this team stayed relatively healthy and stayed
together as a group, that they had a chance to
go pretty deep in the playoffs. Correct.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
Yeah, you know it starts with our coaching staff too.
We've had the same staff for a long time. I
think that's really our secret sauce we've I think we've
gone to the final eight nine straight years. There's no
other program and the one football it's done that too,
and we've gone to the final four and I think,
you know, five times in the last nine years. And
like you said, your around program. You know, our kids
lift year round. You know, kudos to you know, mister

(42:47):
Millan and Danny Masnik with our weight rooms, getting human
performance offered year round in our school, and we have
a lot of kids lift during the school day if
they're a multi sport athletes and culture tradition, you know,
the community sports off the charts. I mean we had
to East there and the firefighters trucks right before the game.
And you know, we're a special, unique one high school

(43:07):
acount and we've got the best youth program in the States,
and we just kind of check every box right now.
The facilities that you know McMillan has has brought to
us all the hard work he's done. I mean to
have the indoor in the weight room, and I'm very
very blessed and very very honored to be at Muskigo.
And we have great culture. Our cultures are other kind
of secret weapon.

Speaker 11 (43:26):
You know.

Speaker 4 (43:26):
Our kids do believe. You know, it's been complete. You know,
obviously every year you have different kids and it's not
like the same group, and they do expect to win,
and they do believe, and they do work their butt
off and just very blessed to have the staff I
have and they get the most of these kids, that's
for sure.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Hey, Ryan, one of the questions I asked Bill Young,
when you're a program like Mesquigo and a program like
Catholic Memorial, the fringe fans, right, not the diehards, the
fringe fans go, it's level one. I'll wait till they
get a little deeper in the playoffs they start to
take it for granted. And I'm wondering, do you do
you see that you feel that in the in the

(44:04):
Meschigo community.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Uh, not as much as some other places that I've
been in the past of my career.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
There's a little bit of it though.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
I mean, I will tell you our attendance last night
was very different than our attendance last week, but Trick
or treats on defeated.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Yes that I would get you. I would go out
to get free candy before I come watch you guys
play too, So you know that's how that works.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
But I think it really goes on the match up.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
The city and the town and the community of Muskigo
will show up and they will travel as well. So
I expect us to pack Titan Stadium this coming week
as well. But for the most part, I feel like
our community is better with that than some other places.
And there's always a few friends guys that say, oh,
you know the level one, level two, just like you said,

(44:49):
all right, I'm not paying for a ticket until level three,
when it means I'm okay, well that's your choice.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
I have a lot of fun without you.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
Then, yeah, no, no problem with that. Hey, Ken, when
when I before we we got to you, I'd asked
Ryan the difference between playing a high school stadium and
playing at Titan Stadium? Is there any you know the
old hoo's your thing where he put the tape up
to the hoop and said, look, it's ten feet just
like back in Hickory, right, Do you have to do

(45:17):
any of that or these kids kind of look, you
guys have played in bigger facilities and college facilities in
the past. Is there anything that you have to do
as a staff to get these kids not to look
around and go, oh man, this is a college facility.

Speaker 4 (45:32):
Well, fortunately for us, you know, we played at Camp
Randle last year, so our kids, we have a lot
of returnings. There's a lot of kids that were part
of that. So and I had to coaching staff. You know,
we've had you know, even this year we played up
at Nina, So we're used to road trips. We see,
we've gone we've had every other year. Every year we've
had a long road trip, so we have a blueprints

(45:53):
when we have to travel. We've been fortunate to play
at Camp Randle and having the opportunity to played last year.
This this will not be like it's new new like
you're saying, So we've been fortunately, we've had these opportunities,
so our kids and coaches are used to it. What's
another advantage of us having the success we've had, so
this isn't like our first time doing it, so that
will help us that we're used to it. I guess

(46:16):
you could say, as.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
A program, did you guys come out of that game
relatively healthy last night?

Speaker 4 (46:22):
We'll see, We'll see. It definitely was a war last night.
It's bad. You're definitely you know, they were fighting for
their playoff lives as well, and they got a lot
of senior starters and so we got some guys that
we'll find out more this morning. But credit to our program,
our kids, and they're going to fight through it and
it might give other kids an opportunity to play. We
had a couple had a couple of new starters last
night and you wouldn't have noticed, and so next man

(46:45):
up if that happens. But hopefully we'll know more in
the next couple of days. Where we're at.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
Hey, I think after I get done with the show,
I'm running over to Pops. You get some popcorn? You
want me to drop an off for you?

Speaker 4 (46:56):
I love their popcorn to the people, man.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
Great people. Yeah. If you you sent me a text
before eleven o'clock that you need me to drop some
off for the team, you just let me know, coach.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
I love their popcorns.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
On my pot up, sid I I will swing by
the school and drop it off. He's Ken Crousey, head
football coach of Meskeigo again Friday night, seven o'clock at
Titans Stadium against a really good Bayport Pirate team. Good
luck this week, coach. I'm hoping to have you on
next week.

Speaker 4 (47:28):
Yeah, it's always Manoredanna. Thanks for what you and mister
do for high school sports. And it's always a pleasure
represent with Skeigo. So I definitely hope that we're talking
next week about about the state championship game.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yeah, I am too. And you know what, if you
can get there, it doesn't matter who you're going to
play against. Well, I don't know. I don't know, man,
you it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, doesn't warriors red
and black with a spear and baby. If I if
I'm the people, if Wantikee were to get there against Mosqigo,
if I'm people from Wanakee, I'm making picture you as

(48:00):
like eighth seventh grade football players, blowing them up and
bringing them into the stands is what I would be doing.
Ken Crousey, thank you so much for a couple of minutes.
Good luck again next week. Let's get to a break.
The other side of the break, Tanner Efforts, quarterback from Whitnell,
and Bullvite, the kicker from Waterford going to be in studio.
We'll talk to them a little bit about their careers.

(48:22):
And I already had that conversation. Hey, look, I don't
want any brawls in the studio. Boys, don't be doing that.
And they both started laughing and said, no problem at all.
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores
only at Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
And welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show,

(48:43):
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 Jorgansen Heating and Cooling Studios.
I'm Mike McGivern alongside my co host. He is Ryan McMillan,
the athletic director at Muskego. When that first hour went quick, man,
really quick, really quick. Yeah. Good luck to these guys

(49:05):
that are that are still playing. I like bringing seniors
in the studio after they've had great careers and and
guys that have have given a lot to their team
and their community, and our two guests in studio have
certainly done that. Tanner efforts. He is the quarterback at
Witnell High School. Tanner, how you doing today?

Speaker 11 (49:24):
I'm good, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
I've heard nothing but good things about you, young man.
I gotta be honest with you on the on the
on the baseball field, on the football field. I had
people this year asking me, like the g in a
pick and safe store, you're gonna get that Witnel quarterback in?
And I go, are you going to cover him? On
Channel twenty four? You're gonna do one of their games?
And I go, look, I don't have any juice in that, Like,
I'm not making that decision. Why do you ask? They go,

(49:48):
this kid can spin it, Matt, this kid can throw it.
He's really a fun high school football quarterback to watch.
And so when people are coming up to me and
saying that I figured I better get you in here,
people can quit asking. A tough way to end the
year for you. Guys have watched it to Martin Luther
fifty one forty nine and in a big time high

(50:10):
school football game, they they put up more points than
I think you guys thought they they could tell me
about that game and how you were feeling throughout the game.

Speaker 11 (50:18):
One hundred percent.

Speaker 12 (50:21):
At the start of the game, it was back and forth,
but it was it was we felt like we had
the edge. We were we were, we had the lead.
They would score, we would score, they would score, we
would score. And right before half they stripped us on
a kick return and scored with like ten seconds left,
which was tough. But we went into the locker room.
We still felt good and we came out and defensively

(50:43):
we picked it back.

Speaker 11 (50:44):
We picked it up.

Speaker 12 (50:44):
We had a couple stops in a row, but then
every time they would punt they pinned us within probably
our own ten. So it was it was really tough
to get the offensive going and it was just a
little too little, too late. We couldn't we couldn't really
get it done.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
So your year, you rushed for a thousand yards through
for about twenty five hundred yards twenty six touchdowns. Did
you going in did you think, man, I might I've
got a chance to put in some pretty good numbers
this year. Yeah.

Speaker 12 (51:19):
Well, throwing the ball, I thought I had a really
good chance. I did not expect this on the ground
this year, it was kind of unexpected.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Sixteen rushing touchdowns, thousand yards, five point six yards per carry. Man,
did you didn't think you had that kind of wheels
or what?

Speaker 12 (51:35):
No, Well, so our running back I thought I was
gonna have a really good year, and he got injured
early in the season, so I kind of had to
step up on the ground a little more than I thought.
And you know, I'm a little bigger than a couple
of kids, and it helped a little bit run the ball.

Speaker 11 (51:52):
So it was, it was, It was fun though.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
I enjoyed, enjoyed it. Yeah, in your back pocket, you
have an offer to play baseball at UWM, but you
had said to me on the phone, here, I'm going
to send out some some highlight videos of football and
see what what happens. And and I love baseball, and
I would you know u WMB the Great School Division
one to go play baseball at. If you had a

(52:16):
choice between playing football at the next level playing baseball,
what would your choice be?

Speaker 11 (52:21):
You think football one hundred percent.

Speaker 12 (52:23):
It's just so fun and like the thrill you get,
the enjoyment, the bond you have your teammates.

Speaker 11 (52:27):
It's all.

Speaker 12 (52:28):
It's just there's nothing like it. I've never found anything
that's that compares the football.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
Have there been some some offers, but not to the
the at schools that you want to go to.

Speaker 12 (52:38):
Do you think, yeah, there's there's some lower level offers
for football, but I just feel like they're not to awhere.

Speaker 11 (52:45):
I think I can compare to UWM.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
What's your goal? Where are you looking to go? Like,
if you could choose right now today, what school would
you go play football at?

Speaker 11 (52:54):
Definitely a Big ten school. I love to go play football.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
You know, big batters need to quarterback.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
Yeah they haven't. They had They had a window kid
there a few number of years ago. Have they any
contact with them?

Speaker 11 (53:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (53:07):
I went to a camp this summer, but nothing really
after that.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
You know how I feel about that.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
Yeah, we won't get to going on a microphone.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
I got to be a little careful. I can't can't
be ripping Wisconsin Badger football through and through. You made
it to hold that bullvite. It's good to meet you
in person. How you've been I've been good.

Speaker 7 (53:27):
I've been good.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Yeah, you had a good year. Huh yep. To tell
me a little bit about the the the decision to
play at Carol. First of all, do you know what
you're going to go into.

Speaker 13 (53:37):
Yeah, I'm gonna major in education, and I decided to
choose Carroll because it gives me the best opportunity to
play right away, and it felt like home and it's
close to my house, so that's always great.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Yeah, that's really good. Hey, talk to me a little
bit of You've been a punter and a kicker for
a long time.

Speaker 4 (53:53):
Right.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
You come from a family, right, Your dad was a kicker.

Speaker 13 (53:57):
My dad went to the Badgers, and then I played
soccer my whole life until freshman year when my dad
got me into it and I ended up being the
starter for four years.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Man, did you did the Colds Kicking Camp?

Speaker 11 (54:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Correct, yep.

Speaker 13 (54:10):
I did one or two a year after freshman year.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
What does that do from a kicker standpoint? I mean
the lessons you learned. Your father taught you a lot.
But then you go to the and hear somebody else
tell you some things. You do you just as a
as a punter and a kicker, figure out what works
best for you and then gather how to get better
from places like that.

Speaker 13 (54:34):
Yeah, it kind of there's kind of no right way
to punt. So one someone might tell you one thing
and it might work, but it's really just how however
you feel comfortable doing to make you the best.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Yeah, there's a lot of different ways to punt now,
right that that Australian kind of rugby style thing. What
is your style?

Speaker 7 (54:52):
I'm a traditional punter.

Speaker 13 (54:53):
I go a little to the left just because it
gives you the most power on to your down in side.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
What did you average this year?

Speaker 7 (55:00):
It was over forty five yards?

Speaker 1 (55:02):
Man, that's a big number at high school level.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
I couldn't do that.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
I couldn't give me three kicks and I'm not going
to average average that. How much practice do you do
and how much you do you spend? Look, I've been
to football practices where the kickers are off either on
one side, just doing their deal and getting better. How
much outside of that would you during the season put
work in?

Speaker 7 (55:27):
I would do a little bit.

Speaker 13 (55:28):
But as as only being a putter kicker, you get
a lot of time to yourself. You get two or
three hours. So did he drops? You do just a
bunch of reps? And if I have my dad there,
I don't know what I'd be doing for the whole time.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Well, and you've got a guy who punt and he
kicked at a really high level with the Badgers and
to be able to to be able to follow in
his footsteps. How much conversation do you guys have after games?
And would you break down film together?

Speaker 7 (55:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 13 (55:58):
On the right home we talk about the game, and
then the next day we'll just talk about what what
was good, what was bad, and what I could do you
to be better.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
How good is the basketball team gonna be?

Speaker 7 (56:07):
Oh, we should be good. We should be good.

Speaker 13 (56:09):
Uh, similar to last year, but we're hoping to make
it to Madison this year instead of get bounced in
the final sectional finals.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Yeah. And and the kid with with a Witnell sure
sitting next to you, We're okay with all that because
I know at the end of last year their basketball season.
I watched that video a couple of times. There were
a little bit of issues, but no issues because he
didn't play basketball. You guys are are just fine. If
we could move to mic over to him, you're you're

(56:36):
did did you come from a family of athletes? Your
dad a player?

Speaker 11 (56:40):
Mom My mom is not much of an athlete.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
She's she a great fan though.

Speaker 11 (56:46):
Yeah, yeah, great person. I love my mom.

Speaker 12 (56:48):
But my dad he played high school sports and he
played like a little football after high school, but like
nothing too serious.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
Who do you hear in the crowd more your mom
were dad? Probably you're what is her first name, Becky? Becky?
Well done? You know, I bet that after the Martin
luther loss had to be very difficult for her. You
know that that then we had this conversation, guys. I
I coached basketball a long time and I was lucky

(57:17):
enough to win some state championships, so I was on
the journey that you guys were on. I've never been
a fan of a team like real personal, and my
grandson's at Lake Country Lutheran, and now I'm sitting in
those stands. It's a whole different animal. So so please,
you know, make sure you show your mom and dad
some grace because this is an end for them as well.

(57:39):
It's such a small world that his younger sisters in
Saint louis playing hockey with your daughter.

Speaker 4 (57:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
I think I heard Becky on a live stream this
morning cheering.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
That's awesome. I love that. And so when you said
it was coming in and I told you, he said,
I think his sisters. I'm my daughter's hockey team. And
at what grade is that?

Speaker 3 (58:00):
So it would be eighth graders for the most part,
there's a couple of freshmen. There's like one or two
seventh graders because I go off birth year, so I
kind of get kind of goofy what grade you're in?

Speaker 2 (58:10):
But yeah, it's it's predominantly eighth grade hockey.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Your sister a pretty good hockey player.

Speaker 11 (58:14):
Yeah, she's pretty good. She's she's aggressive out there.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
Yeah you you didn't a hockey bug, didn't didn't get you.

Speaker 12 (58:20):
No, So my younger brother played, So he started to
play when he was younger and my sister. If you
know anything about hockey, it takes a lot of times.
My sister was always around it, and I think she
just kind of fell in love with it.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Your brother a football player as well.

Speaker 11 (58:34):
Yeah, he plays football, So at least my parents have
two more years ago.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
What positions he played?

Speaker 11 (58:38):
Wide receiver?

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Did you throw to him much?

Speaker 11 (58:40):
No, he not much. In practice, I threw him a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Did Becky say, throw the ball to your brother a
little more.

Speaker 12 (58:47):
Yeah, she was trying to convince my coach to let
me get one completion to him.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
But yeah, he pretty good athlete.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
Yeah he is.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Man. That's awesome. We can go over to back to
hey Bo, you've always been a multi sport athlete. He
has been football and basketball and soccer.

Speaker 13 (59:02):
No, it used to it was always soccer, basketball, baseball,
but now it's football, basketball, baseball.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
Oh you sho. You play baseball at Waterford as well
as a baseball team game.

Speaker 7 (59:11):
We should we should be good. Underrated.

Speaker 13 (59:13):
We got a lot of guys who left, but got
a young guys who are gonna step up.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
Have you guys played against each other in baseball last year?
Was he on the bump?

Speaker 11 (59:22):
Uh?

Speaker 13 (59:22):
No, I was though I pitched in Yeah, how'd that go?
I think I gave it a run?

Speaker 1 (59:29):
But who won the game? Yeah? And you'll get you
play them again this year?

Speaker 7 (59:34):
I have no idea.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Well that's uh yeah. When you when when I said that,
if Tanner can come on back to him please, when
I said, did you get on the bump? Do you
pitch for witnow? Yeah? I do.

Speaker 11 (59:44):
But last year I didn't pitch much.

Speaker 12 (59:45):
We had two seniors that were really good, and I
kind of came out the bullpen a lot, so like
in inning here and there.

Speaker 11 (59:51):
So I didn't really pitch much.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
But uh, in travel ball though, you pitch.

Speaker 5 (59:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
The the offer to play u w M as a pitcher.
H yeah, what are you throwing nowadays?

Speaker 12 (01:00:02):
I was up to ninety two this last summer, but
I think I think I got one more than my
arm wasn't very healthy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Ninety two and he wasn't healthy. Don't get me in
the batter spot. You bring a bunch of balls, I'll
take you deep ball.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
You just stick to golf.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Yeah, sticking to golf. The ball just sits there and
I don't have to I don't have to move it
at all. Baseball and football and no basketball for you
because how tall are you?

Speaker 11 (01:00:28):
I'm about six or four.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
If I'm a basketball coach, I'm like, hey, man, can
you set picks, rebound and play some defense? You never
played basketball?

Speaker 12 (01:00:37):
I played it in middle school or in youth. I
played all the way up until seventh grade, but then
I didn't really get much playing time because it wasn't
that good.

Speaker 11 (01:00:45):
Okay, I just stopped playing.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Yeah, I would look.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
I always like to go back out for a senior year.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
I was like six four kids that can accept the
rebound and if they know they can't shoot the ball,
then they don't shoot it much good. That's hard. I
get five files with you. I get five files for.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
The sorst part of basketball's following.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
I guess for you as a basketball coacher, guys, I
didn't want to doing that. Who do you play baseball
travel with?

Speaker 11 (01:01:11):
I play for hitters.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
How has that been for you?

Speaker 12 (01:01:14):
It was really fun? So I came over my freshman
year as my first year hitters. But those guys made
us such a good boond with them, Like you spend
the whole summer with them.

Speaker 11 (01:01:24):
It's so fun.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
Boy, there there have there have been some some guys
from that program that are playing at a high level. A. J.
Bukovich is a kid that you know, you're not even
You're not a kid so much anymore. But I coached
against him in basketball. He was at East Troy and
we we went against each other three times. I beat
him twice, but he beat me in a sectional semi.

(01:01:45):
So when I say to him, hey man, I beat
you twice, he goes, would you give those two up?
And I go absolutely absolutely, Guys, we're gonna get to
a break. On other side of the break, we're gonna talk
a little bit about being part of the Waterford program,
the wo program, and I'll for your favorite memory being
part of that football program on the other side of
the break, and don't forget at ten forty we're in

(01:02:07):
an era. Interview I did with coach Bill Young and
Nico Rodgers and all state defensive linemen for Catholic Memorial
on Wednesday. Really good interview. I don't miss that. It
went really well. And for me to be able to
go into his office and sit down with Coach Young
for a good twenty minutes and talk a little bit
about his program and this team, I thought it went

(01:02:29):
really well and I thank him for allowing us to
come in and do that. 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
Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your local Pick
and Save and Metro Market stores. Speaking of Pick and
Save and Metro Market, our Pick and Save student athlete

(01:02:53):
of the Week. He is Bullvite, he is in studio,
He's going to Carol. He's a kicker from Waterford Multi
Sport athlete football, basketball, baseball, and a four point two student.
Congratulations on that, But your motivation for being such a
good student athlete, where did that come from?

Speaker 13 (01:03:11):
I just think it's just expectation to be a good student,
be a good athlete, do what you can to make
yourself the best you can.

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
Be, coming from teachers, parents, family members, because that that
was that, that was somebody, somebody early on in your
life made that a point of Look, this is really important.
Where do you think that came from?

Speaker 13 (01:03:33):
I mean, probably both my parents, because they're both teachers.
My mom's a middle school teacher right here. Her complained
about the kids being annoying, So I don't want to be.

Speaker 7 (01:03:40):
One of those kids. What is your mom's first name, Amy?

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
Amy? I love that. I love that. My son in
law is an assistant principal at Menomine Falls. My daughter's
a teacher at Milwaukee Lutheran, and my daughter in law
was a teacher in mcgwannago Grade school system. And I
hear them talking about kids that trying to be there
un disciplined in the classroom and then trying to be
disciplined on the field or the court, and it's you

(01:04:06):
can't do it. You can't do it your favorite subject,
I like math and p There you go, great combination
for sure. Let's move it over. Hey, no, no, keep
it real quick. What's going to happen? And as our
Pick and Save Student Athlete of the Week, the Pick
and Save in the Metro market stores love for us
to highlight pro and celebrate really good student athletes. And look,

(01:04:29):
Tanner's a three eight and he's like, hey man, you
got he's got a four to two. So our Pick
and Save student Athlete of the week. But we'll come down.
I'll meet you down in Waterford sometime this week and
the evening that works for you and your family and
any teammates coaches that want to come out. But we'll
meet in the floral department because there's no beer in
the background, and we get pictures. You'll get sick and

(01:04:50):
tired of be taking pictures of you with this plaque,
and we certainly celebrate you as this week's student athlete
of the week. He's both vite from Waterford. Since you
have the microphone, let me ask you this your favorite
memory of being part of the Waterford football program.

Speaker 13 (01:05:07):
Well, in game it was this year I kicked a
forty five yard game winner. But sophomore year, I'll always
remember playing Madden before the games.

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
Excellent. You guys would compete with that. Oh yeah, are
you good at it?

Speaker 7 (01:05:19):
I'm terrible at it. I would always lose.

Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
Perfect, but you still enjoyed it at Carol, Will you
punt or kick? Or possibly do both?

Speaker 13 (01:05:29):
I should punt and I want to kick, but I
gotta still get better at that first.

Speaker 7 (01:05:35):
But ideally it would be both.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
What do you like more?

Speaker 13 (01:05:38):
I like kicking because you can score points and there's
a bigger goal. Either make it or you miss. And
playing is kind of hard to judge whether it was
good or not. Do you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
Kickoff, do you put it in the are you able
to put it into the end zone? Or are you
coming close?

Speaker 7 (01:05:55):
I'm pretty close.

Speaker 13 (01:05:56):
I was about a third of them this year, and
then we do a bunch of on site. I had
three we recovered this year.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
So do you recover any of them?

Speaker 11 (01:06:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:06:03):
I recovered one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
You did have fun? Was that?

Speaker 13 (01:06:05):
That was pretty cool? I just decided I was gonna
do it to myself, and I've got.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
It and it worked. Who was that against Burlington? That's awesome?
Who didn't you like is it Badger?

Speaker 7 (01:06:15):
Oh yeah, Badger.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
But McMillan's laughing because he knows exactly where it was. Badger, right,
who else?

Speaker 13 (01:06:24):
Burlington? They're the rival, but we usually beat him and everything.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
So well, basketball is coming up. Be careful, you don't
want anybody putting stuff up on the bulletin board. Hey,
let's move the microphone over. I tan your your favorite
memory being part of the Witnel football program? What would
that be?

Speaker 12 (01:06:42):
There's so many small moments that you're guys gonna remember.
But for me, starting off freshman year as two and seven,
we were kind of young, rough team. And then just
every year you build that bond with your teammates, you
get better. Next year we were four and five, and
then we're seven and two, and then we're nine and two.
This year we won our third playoff game in school history.
Like that that just growth as a teammate is just

(01:07:04):
as as as a team.

Speaker 11 (01:07:06):
It's just unmatchable, Like there's nothing like that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Did you play varsity as a freshman?

Speaker 11 (01:07:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:07:10):
I did.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
Quarterback, Yes, sir, so you've always played quarterback youth football
you played? Did you play in the in the Witnell youth.

Speaker 12 (01:07:18):
Yeah, I've been playing football since third grade. But I
was a little bigger kid, so I didn't play quarterback
until fifth grade because I was over the weight limit. Okay,
so but ever since sixth grade, I've been playing quarterback.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
What about that position? Look at it is when when
you talk about any NFL football team, you always start
with the quarterback, right. I just traded Jalen Hurst on
my fantasy football team, by the way, because my team
is terrible. Then I'm getting draft picks. Just so you know,
did you play fantasy football?

Speaker 11 (01:07:46):
Yeah, I'm in three leagues.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
Do you know the worst part this team? I have
Twice this year I've had the second most points. But
the guy then I'm playing against his head. So it's
like the yeah, look, it's just not happening this year.
So I'm trading all my guys. But there there's something
different about that position. What about playing quarterback for you?
Do you do you like the most?

Speaker 12 (01:08:06):
I think one the leadership and like the influence you
have on your team is it's it just feels great
and it brings it raises you up to a higher
standard because you know everyone is going to follow after
you and AND's gonna like listen to what you do.
And then also you always have a chance to make
a play, like you always have the ball, you always can,
you know, go make a play.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
Who on who in your league? Didn't you like much Greenfield?
The greenfield is always the rival the hustling Hawks.

Speaker 11 (01:08:35):
That game was a little rowdy, but it was it
was fun.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
Well, let me let me look, how'd you guys do
against them? I think forty nine twenty one, you put
a forty nine on them, and you guys scored a
lot of points this year. Yeah, scored a lot of points.
Fifty six against Waukee Academy of Science, thirty one against
the Berlin Eisenower. Then you look down forty eight against
Wiscotts and Lutheran, forty nine, four, thirty seven, forty two

(01:09:00):
and forty nine. That's a I should have started taking
the over. McMillan could have won some coin, man, I
could have betting on high school sports.

Speaker 3 (01:09:09):
Can't do.

Speaker 1 (01:09:10):
The host of faith in the zone gets caught for gambling.
That's not gonna happen. It is not gonna happen. The
difference between you playing and playing quarterback and and owning
the huddle is a freshman to them as a senior.
The difference. Did things just everything slow down after that

(01:09:31):
freshman year for you?

Speaker 11 (01:09:32):
Yeah? Well for me, my first play freshman year, I
got put it. I threw a pick six, So it
was it was moving fast. Who was that against Wisconsin
Lutheran Man?

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
You still remember that feeling?

Speaker 11 (01:09:44):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 12 (01:09:45):
It was not great, but it just after that play,
it kind of slows down, like you're kind of you
relax like there's not much thinking you can do in
a football game because it's so fast, which helps, right.
So yeah, after after that first play, I relaxed more.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
Were you able to, uh, the play comes in? Can
you audible out of it? You're probably not as a freshman,
but as a senior, could you if you saw something
they didn't?

Speaker 11 (01:10:10):
Yeah, sort of.

Speaker 12 (01:10:11):
So my coach was a lot of trust in me,
and I really appreciate that. And I can get checks
to my receiver like I want to I want you
to run this route. We had like hand signals that
I would give to him if I want him to
change this route.

Speaker 11 (01:10:24):
But so I can sort of audible.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
Good, good for you. Let's go over to did you
did you kick on Varses as a freshman?

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
Yep?

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
Things change as you get a little bit older and
been through the program, not so many nerves, I would think, right.

Speaker 13 (01:10:39):
Yeah, the first game I missed my first extra point.
I was super cursed, and then after that it was
it was nothing too bad.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
He throws a pick six and you missed your first
extra point? How important is the snap and and the
guy who's holding and can if there if you have
a guy who a couple of guys that are good holds,
does it matter to you who's holding?

Speaker 13 (01:11:03):
No, But I mean they've got as long as they're good,
they can do it. We went through a three this
year just people got hurt or didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
Do you have saying in who's who you want to hold?

Speaker 4 (01:11:14):
Yep?

Speaker 7 (01:11:15):
We had.

Speaker 13 (01:11:16):
The snapper was my best friend. The holder was another
one of my best friends, and then he got hurt
so we had to get a new one. But I
chose who it wasn't He did a great job doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
And when when it comes to punting, I mean it's
it's the snap in the protection. Correct. Did you have
any punts blocked this year?

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:11:32):
We had two blocked?

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
Is that on? I got it? Is that on yours?
It on?

Speaker 13 (01:11:39):
I mean it can be on me, but most I'm
quick with it every time. So one of them was
on a rugby, so we just kind of a miscommunication
of where to go and it just got blocked.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
A rugby kick, yeah, so do they do they make
that decision and if you're going to do a rugby
or a traditional usually.

Speaker 13 (01:11:56):
I'll call it like, if we're on the right hash,
then we'll do a rugby.

Speaker 7 (01:12:00):
But once that got blocked, we just kind of got
rid of that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
Any fake punt.

Speaker 7 (01:12:04):
We did one versus Bloy.

Speaker 13 (01:12:06):
We did a pass and it worked, but got called
back because we had a guide on field.

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
Can you throw it a little bit?

Speaker 7 (01:12:11):
Yeah, I can throw it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
Not as good as the kid you're right, Probably not
as good as the kid to your right, that's for sure. Hey, both,
thank you so much for coming in. I really appreciate it.
Good luck at Carol. I think that's that's an awesome
spot for you. I've been on that campus a lot
and there's a really good vibe on that campus. And

(01:12:32):
good luck with that, Tanner, good luck with decisions and
and anything that we can do as far as getting
people to know who we are. I don't get it.
I get frustrated with the things that are going up
on at Wisconsin that they have not reached out to Bullvite.
They haven't reached out to you. And there's a track
record over at Whitne they had a really good quarterback

(01:12:55):
blonde hair, six four, same size, somebody who's records all
these wrecks or you broke and he played really well
up there. Rian, Can you help me with this because
it's so frustrating to me.

Speaker 3 (01:13:07):
You know, I'd love to help you, but the guys
on the other end of the table got to come
to the table to have those conversations.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
But that's a lot right now. It is the last
two weeks. You know, Tom Swood, you say, look, when
you know when when Chris was the head coach, we
could just go up there and walk in his office
and sit down and talk some football. And I don't
think that happens now.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
Yeah, it's definitely a different relationship with the Football Coaches
Association and whatnot in Madison. But you know, if they
get back to their roots, they'll be able to solve
the problem.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
If you will, I hope so.

Speaker 2 (01:13:42):
And you just got to go back to who we are.

Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
You know what a great way to get back to
their roots, call bull vite and say any interest kicking here?
Call Tanner, say any interest in in playing quarterback here
at Wisconsin, because guess what, then you start getting those
Wisconsin kids back. And look when you when you asked, Tanner,
close your rise at night? Where do you want? I
want to play Big ten football? Both fight would love

(01:14:06):
to go where his his dad played. His dad kicktick camp.
Random guys don't get it. It's nice to meet you, Tanner.

Speaker 7 (01:14:13):
Bo.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
I'll see you next week, and you let me know
you've got my cell. Never let me know what evening
works for you. I'll get that plaque made up and
as our pick and Save Student Athlete of the week,
we say congratulations to you. You got it, Ryan. You're
not driving to Saint Louis now right.

Speaker 2 (01:14:29):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:14:29):
I watched the first game on online this morning, and
then I watched the younger one play at eight, and
then I came here and.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
Go back and watch online. Had they won.

Speaker 7 (01:14:40):
They both won.

Speaker 3 (01:14:40):
They both scored goals, so it's they're doing okay. So
I just stay out of their way.

Speaker 1 (01:14:46):
They don't meet you, Tanner. It's good to meet you, Bo.
It's good to meet you. To Ryan, it's great to
see you other side of the break interview with Bill
Young from Catholic Memorial. We will play that I was
out there on Wednesday. It's a great interview. This is
the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your
local Picking Save and Metro Market stores only on Fox
Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back

(01:15:10):
to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented as
I was by your local Picking Save and Metro Market
stores on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
Coming from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios.
So I had the opportunity in the middle of the
week to go to a place that I've always thought
about but I've never been invited, and that's Bill Young's office.

(01:15:34):
And this thing is exactly what I had hoped that
I thought it would be. You know, for years I've
talked about coach Bill Young, not being able to get
him to come in studio because Saturday mornings he is
in his office breaking down film. And I get it. Man,
this is a shrine, I'll tell you that. And there's
some I could spend two hours in this thing. I'm

(01:15:54):
now joined by the head football coach at Catholic Memorial,
Bill Young, coach, how you been.

Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
We're good, We're getting better.

Speaker 14 (01:16:02):
We're a work in progress, you know, going into the
big game against Mount Horb. They have an outstanding team,
great quarterback, terrific running back. They've got multiple receivers. Their
best kid is number eight, Hayden Just he's six six,

(01:16:25):
two twenty. They've got one lineman at three to twenty,
the other kid about two seventy. And they're going to
be really energized and fired up to compete against us tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
You know, we talked about this before we started to record,
and I don't know if you know this. And we're
also joined by Nico Rodgers, who is a he's a
stut here at Kathic Memorial. I got a chance to
watch him play, and I want him to understand this coach.
When I talk to writers or coaches all over the
state of Wisconsin and they know him from the Milwaukee area,
they ask me about Catholic Memorial. What's going on house

(01:17:00):
Catholic Memorial? How does he keep doing this year after year?
How does this? That kind of stuff? And I hope
that the team understands that you get everybody's best shot.
You have for years. You know this, right, Your coaching
staff knows it, Guys like me know it. But I
hope that the players in this locker room understand that

(01:17:22):
when when West allis Central and New Berland West, when
Toast East gets their schedule, they circle Catholic Memorial, because
if you get a chance to beat a Catholic Memorial,
it doesn't matter what happens the rest of year. You've
had a year that you can talk about. Do you
think the players on this team and in this program
understand that.

Speaker 14 (01:17:40):
I truthfully, I wish it would understand more like you
hit it right on a spot, Mike, the fact that
they see the schedule, we get circled, and we're going
to get everybody's best shot, irregardless.

Speaker 5 (01:17:53):
Of their record.

Speaker 14 (01:17:54):
They're going to come and perform at a, you know,
a critically high effort level each week against us and
kids that are normally you know, the receivers not catching
the ball. He'll come up with some phenomenal catches, the
running back.

Speaker 5 (01:18:12):
Everybody's gonna work harder to beat us.

Speaker 1 (01:18:15):
And coach and not to catch off. But they and
I hope that your team understands and this time of year.
They obviously they must. But these guys are coming off
the bus wanting to hit somebody. They're coming off the bus.
Before they get into calisthetics, they're looking at Memorro going,
this is the team, this is the team we've talked about,

(01:18:35):
We've talked about in the offseason, we've worked, and so
your guys have to be ready from the first snap
to be ready to play, because now at level three,
you get behind fourteen or seventeen or twenty one at
halftime and you can't just turn that. You can't turn
the switch against really good teams.

Speaker 5 (01:18:54):
No, And we.

Speaker 14 (01:18:56):
Got really punched in a mouth last week against Lacrosse Logan,
and the first half we have bad body language. Our
effort was poor, and the only thing we did well
is our kicking game. In the first half, we came out,
we put twenty one consecutive points on the board, and

(01:19:17):
then just kind of typify the mental focus that we lacked.
You know, it's thirty one to fourteen. They wind up,
we're in a certain coverage. One guy's playing the call,
one guy's playing man, another guy misaligns, so three things

(01:19:39):
went wrong on one play.

Speaker 5 (01:19:40):
The result is a touchdown.

Speaker 14 (01:19:42):
And I talked to our kids constantly, you know, don't
talk about I don't want to know how many plays
a drive consists of a touchdown? How many plays that
does it take to score a touchdown? And it's one
so one misalignment. I'm not connected in coverage with the
back end. I missed a key block, the ball comes

(01:20:04):
out and scoop and score one play.

Speaker 5 (01:20:06):
Sol. I know it's extremely difficult to play.

Speaker 14 (01:20:10):
At a high level and maintaining that for forty eight
minutes in an overtime, if that's what it takes. But
that's the attention to detail that you have to have.

Speaker 1 (01:20:19):
Hey, Joe Cook one time, and here's my co host
years ago. He used to say, look, I need, especially
on the defensive side, I need guys to trust each other.
And he was coaching and they were up by by
four with two minutes to go. The other team had
the ball at like the ten yard line and they
had to go ninety yards and he brought his laptop

(01:20:41):
in and he goes, you know how many times I've
told you about this. I now have the receipts. Watch
my safety. Here's where he's playing in the first quarter.
Here's where he's playing the second quarter perfect, third quarter perfect,
begin the fourth quarter perfect. He doesn't trust the cornerback
and he takes three steps over and they beat us
on a wheel route to lose the game. Because he
didn't trust the corner he thought he got to help him.

(01:21:03):
And I think that says a lot about look as
a group. On the basketball floor and the sport I coached,
if somebody doesn't trust somebody, you can look them off
a little bit, you're gonna be okay. But on the
football field, you got to have trust for the guys
who's nice to you.

Speaker 14 (01:21:16):
Yeah, and I refer this to like, you know, all
the years. You know, I've been blessed to be the
head coach out for forty eight years, in coach high
school football for fifty two. You know, we always start
with you have to trust your teammates, yes, and then
count on your teammates so that they can count on you.

Speaker 5 (01:21:37):
I'll do my job, but you've got to do your job.

Speaker 14 (01:21:40):
And you got eleven guys at you know, whether it's
the coverage call, we're tapping the helmet, we're all on
the same page, you know, all that day. You know,
we talk about know the down in distance play the
call do your job well.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
Speaking of that coach, I was on the sidelines for
the toast hees gamp and I know one player on
your team, few players, but one that I would trust
the most, who's sitting across from me. I watched Nico
Rodgers play, and I kept hearing about him, and then
I watched him, and I'm telling you, this young man
his motor man. And at least the game I was at,

(01:22:15):
he didn't quit on one play, not one play. And
when I when he's on the sidelines, he's high five
of his teammates. He's got his arm around this kid.
He's grabbing one kid saying, Hey, you got to get outside.
If I'm going to stay inside, you got you know
that kind of stuff. And I thought, Oh, this kid's
been coached up. Nico Rogers senior here at Catholic Memorial,
first Team, All stayed, first team, All Conference, whatever it is,

(01:22:38):
all of it. Hey, how much before you came to
Catholic Memorial did you know about coach Bill Young?

Speaker 11 (01:22:43):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:22:44):
Nothing at all. Let me give you a little something inductive.
There was guys, some football coaches Hall of Fame Concording University, Chicago,
I played the Hall of Fame Catholic Memorial Hall of Fame,
National High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame also awarded
the NHSCA National Coach of the Year honor in twenty twenty.
So he is when guys like me have a mount

(01:23:06):
rushmore of high school coaches, right, it doesn't matter what
sport coach young is at the top of that for
guys like me. And I'm wondering once you got here
as a freshman, where your eyes opened a little bit
to this coaching staff and what they expect. Absolutely right away.

Speaker 15 (01:23:24):
I've seen it day one, how determined he was and
how much he had passion for the game.

Speaker 1 (01:23:30):
Hey, how quick has this senior? Has this high school
career gone for you fast?

Speaker 4 (01:23:35):
Nico?

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
You remember as a freshman you're there for senior day, right,
and you're like, man, that's a long way for me
being parents day. I don't have to worry about that forever.
It goes quick, right, Absolutely.

Speaker 15 (01:23:46):
My mom told me before I started high school I
was going to go by fast, and I don't believe it,
but is going by fast?

Speaker 1 (01:23:53):
Hey, I got to give you some credit. So again,
a guy that like me who does what I do,
which is go on the air and talk about kids
like you. I have heard that the last years you
have really buckled down in the classroom, taking care of
your business. And you're eligible your Division I football player.
And to be eligible, I think is a huge deal,

(01:24:14):
and I congratulate you for that. I don't think you
can be undisciplined in the classroom all day long and
then be disciplined on the football field that practice her
in a game. And the fact that, look, I hear
a lot of things about kids, and I hear nothing
but good things about you. With the fact that you've
done that here a Catholic, but more in the last
two years, is really commendable, and I say well done

(01:24:35):
on that.

Speaker 15 (01:24:36):
Thank you. Oh. I believe it starts in a classroom.
So if you have bad grades and you got to
come in after schools, taking away Tom from practice or
warm ups, whatever it is, and it's hurting the team ultimately.
So I've been trying my hardest to make sure I
have good grades so I can be a practice when
it starts.

Speaker 1 (01:24:54):
Do me a favor as an older, tired coach, please
pass along those lessons to the freshman, because at that
age when you come out of a grade school, depending
on how tough the grade school is, and you come
to a place like Catholic Memorial, they hold you accountable.
And when you walk across that stage with that diploma,
you know, man, that's a huge deal. There's so many

(01:25:16):
doors that open up when you graduate from a place
like Catholic Memorial and I go, man, well done, coach.
You've got to feel pretty good about what he just said.
You know the fact that he said, Look, I can't
waste time missing practice because I got to get some
work done in the classroom. I got to take care
of this stuff. And once that light bulb goes on
for a kid like Nico Rogers, imagine if he talks

(01:25:40):
to the freshman about, don't do what I did the
first two years.

Speaker 5 (01:25:43):
You got to catch up.

Speaker 1 (01:25:44):
Then just take care of your business and let's get
after that.

Speaker 14 (01:25:46):
That's really the most difficult thing that I believe. You
know why I'm so proud of Niko in so many
different areas. The person that he's become. He's really taking
a challenge from the classroom. His core is over at
two five. Good for him, and Memorial is academically a

(01:26:08):
tough school, but you know, it just speaks volumes of.

Speaker 5 (01:26:11):
The dedication in a weight room. You know, he's he's.

Speaker 14 (01:26:15):
Off the chart and he benches three eighty five dead's
over six squats high, you know, close to six hundred.

Speaker 5 (01:26:22):
The guy's a freak.

Speaker 14 (01:26:23):
And what I what Memorial has done for him through education,
you know, I talk spiritually, academic and then athletically. He
has really matured into an outstanding young man. And I've
been blessed coach a bunch of really good ones and
and he's one of the best ones we've ever had here.

Speaker 1 (01:26:45):
And you know he does you have any idea what
he'd do again, Not going back to me, but a
guy like me that has watched Catholic Mamora played against
them when I was at Messmer understand there have been
some unbelievable football players to walk through this building. And
for Coach Young, because he doesn't throw this stuff out easily,
for him to say this is one of the best

(01:27:07):
players we've had, one of the better players we've had
walked through here is a huge compliment. And I can
tell you that if you didn't take care of your
business classroom you he couldn't put you in that category.
So I say congratulations. Hey, when you lay your head
on the pillow, undecided, where you're going to play next year,
if you could play anywhere in the country, if they

(01:27:28):
just came, every school came and said you pick any
school you want to play? What school would you pick?
How about them dogs?

Speaker 10 (01:27:37):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
How about them dogs? They're good for you. That'd be
a great, great school. They would be lucky to have you.
I can tell you that who's offered so far.

Speaker 15 (01:27:48):
I've been talking to ndsu Okay from Upper Iowa yep
Iowa Western, and so good.

Speaker 1 (01:27:55):
For you, all great choices. How is it going to
be for your mom when you head off to college
because you didn't mention any place close? Man, hard, I've been.

Speaker 15 (01:28:04):
On a call with my mom and my sister all
the time. Man, She's always telling me how it is
going to.

Speaker 1 (01:28:09):
Be yeah, for college, you know what, Show her some grace, right,
because it's gonna be really difficult. We've been through this.
We've got to drop our kids off to college and
it's a difficult thing. Hey, Bill, we don't know what's
gonna happen on Friday, and I'm hoping that you guys
continue to get up to camp. Randall but this team.
The first game you guys lost to Franklin who's still playing,

(01:28:30):
it might be the best team of the state, right
And it was a good game. And you since then, man,
everything's gone pretty well as far as wins and watches.
How do you feel about this team as a group
and is it completely senior led or do you have
some young kids playing?

Speaker 14 (01:28:45):
We have a ton of juniors, a couple of our
better players or sophomores. Our quarterback Dalton Stanky's had a
tremendous here. You know, I was talking Matt Berg and
r A d And Dalton has got twenty two touchdown.

Speaker 5 (01:29:01):
Passes this year, I believe, and the record.

Speaker 14 (01:29:04):
Is twenty nine sold as a sophomore.

Speaker 1 (01:29:08):
Who I figured it was a Fox?

Speaker 14 (01:29:12):
Yeah, it was our boy, Luke Fox, the Dodger you
can spin it, yeah yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:29:18):
And then.

Speaker 14 (01:29:20):
Will Schmitzer, you know he's an old time throwback memorial
guy from the seventies. You know Hunter Wagner another guy
he's starts at right tackle for us.

Speaker 5 (01:29:32):
You know, he's six to eighty five, just a complete hammer.
I just like the makeup of our team.

Speaker 14 (01:29:40):
Gabe Tala, one of our seniors, has done a great
job at inside backer. And then Dusty Roach, you know
who is he is.

Speaker 5 (01:29:50):
You know, he's.

Speaker 14 (01:29:51):
Got six picks this year, two for touchdowns, two touchdown returns,
our leading receiver.

Speaker 5 (01:29:58):
And then we have just got a bunch of juniors.

Speaker 1 (01:30:02):
You know, watching Dusty Roach play, I was watching him,
it seems like he's always in the right position and
he's tougher a lot of kids. So if he's in
the right position, he's tougher, he's going to make a player.

Speaker 14 (01:30:14):
Yeah, And you know, like as a sophomore, dust he
was an unwilling tackler. His run fits have been extremely
well versus and then you know, like I look at
our coaching staff. Ryan Stefaniac played for me and played
for Pat Serni.

Speaker 5 (01:30:29):
Mitch Schultz, Ryan's our DC coach.

Speaker 14 (01:30:34):
B Jacks played for Pat Serni. He's our D line coach.
Hubb has done an incredible job with our offensive line.
Scott Rice has really done a great this is the
best job he's done in three years. As as as
our OC Mike Pashanage, Josh Rees and Smith. You know,
I'm just really proud of the effort and the time.

(01:30:54):
And Matt's done a great job with our special teams
and uh, you know, we just got to play our
best game.

Speaker 5 (01:31:01):
And the problem is they hear me every day. And
this is where.

Speaker 14 (01:31:09):
The leadership, like the seniors, whether you're a captain or not,
they have to understand. And we know that because looking
at this game on Friday night, this team has been
in their stomach for a year. We were very fortunate
they needed two yards. It was a mishap, the ball fumbled,

(01:31:30):
Will Schizer picked it up.

Speaker 5 (01:31:32):
We scored and hung on to win.

Speaker 14 (01:31:35):
Statistically it was you know, like score seventeen fourteen. They
had a lot more talent we did last year. We
have a lot of those kids coming back. But this
game is going to come down, you know, just do
your job, play with great physicality, be disciplined, and your
energy level has to be you have to sustain it

(01:31:57):
for four quarters and even on ot if it because
this game is going to be a fifteen round dog player.

Speaker 1 (01:32:03):
Man, you're still having fun. Huh, well yeah you are? Yeah,
see smiling coach and I'm look, we we have a
lot of conversations. You know, I pray for you and
your family every single night. And the only thing I
said to you when I walked in is we you
got to man get to McDonald's gain a little weight, helt.
You can have some of mine if you want it,
you said. Now I'm feeling okay. You know, I'll get

(01:32:26):
after it again after the football season. It's so good
to see you, Nico man. This is a great opportunity
for you and your seniors and and this staff and
this team to to get to level four, to get
a win on Saturday, and understand or Friday, understand that
this team has thought about you guys for a year.

(01:32:47):
The coaching staff, the community, the cheerleaders, the dance team,
that the grandfathers, the uncles, and the guys in the barbershop.
I have thought about this game. And it's going to
be packed, and it's gonna be like an atmosphere like
you can't believe. And they're gonna come down in droves
to to try to get you guys out of the playoffs.
And I wish you luck. It's really good to see

(01:33:09):
you again. You're a US Marine player of the game
on the sidelines. What I loved is you said, Hey,
I played okay, but let me tell you about my teammates.
You know what, they're the guys that made that made
us get a win tonight. So it's good to see
you again. Coach, thank you so much. You got you
can go to practice. I'm right in this office. Start
taking perces so I have proof that I have been

(01:33:30):
in this office. Guys, thanks for listening. This is the
Varsity Place high school sports show, presented by your local
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores, only on Fox Sports,
NIGN twenty and your iHeart Radio app