Full Show - 5/3/2025 - Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nope, No, I am not big time Mike McGivern.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
My name is Andrew Ludwig.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
I am Mike's former producer, and you are listening to
the Varsity Blitz high school sports show, presented by your
local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores right here
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app. We
are coming live from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and
Cooling studios. I want to give a shout out too
ideal logos and awards Current Electric, Gene, Wagner Plumbing, Citizens Bank,

(00:30):
and Kellman Restoration. As I just mentioned, my name is
Andrew Ludwig. I am in for Mike McGivern. He has
gone all weekend having a little rest and relaxation. Actually,
I'm not exactly sure what you'd be up to right
now at nine o'clock in the morning. Regardless, thank you
for tuning in on your Saturday commute to wherever you
are headed Save travels. We're going to talk a little

(00:51):
high school sports here today. As I mentioned earlier, my
name is Andrew Ludwig. I am Mike mcgivern's former producer.
I'm new to newer media. I say new still, and
I'm really not. I started with Mike in February of
twenty twenty three here at iHeart was a contractor for
iHeart at the time, my first ever real job in radio,

(01:12):
first ever paid job, by the way. Loved it, and
I wanted to thank Mike for giving me the opportunity
yet again to fill in for him. It's been an
emotional experience for me to kind of think back to
two years ago to plus years ago now and where
I have personally grown, and a lot of that is
thanks to Mike McGivern and the opportunities that he has

(01:34):
given me not only to fill in, but just also
produce and do other things with him around the high
school scene and in general in media. So thank you,
Thank you very much Mike mcgiven for this opportunity. I
also want to thank him for letting me have an
open floor. Mike kind of said to me today or
last week, excuse me that I can interview whoever I'd
like as long as it stays along the lines of

(01:55):
high school sports. And that is exactly what we're going
to do here today. Second Segmann, after we go to
a break here in a couple ten to fifteen minutes,
Hunter Bombgart, you might have heard him from ninety seven
to three the game. He is the producer for Drew
and KB. You also hear him. He does select games,
Bruis pregame show, excuse me, baseball pregame show on ninety

(02:16):
seven to three the game. He's on the postgame show
with Tim Allen for any home game, he's there covering
the team. He's the Brus insider for ninety seven to three.
But we have him to talk some high school sports.
I want to get into it with Hunter and how
did he get to this point? How is he sitting
here today calling high school games, working with Drew and KB.
Where did that all come about for him? Right after

(02:39):
Hunter end of the nine o'clock hour here, we're going
to talk to Steve Joe about the head coach at
Franklin High School, my alma mater. The baseball team having
another great year, just knocked off All Creek earlier this week,
and we're going to follow that up with a conversation.
Our second conversation with Joe Brannon. He is the head
coach at Janesville Craig High School for the football team,
but also works with their basketball team as well. Kind

(03:01):
of want to get into some conversation with him on
his background as well. But then also where is this
whole nil thing going for Wisconsin. I need to do
some research by talking to some coaches that just got
the information just this week on what's going on here
in the state of Wisconsin with the future of athletics

(03:22):
for our children. Before we get into all that, though,
I kind of want to do give a little background
for myself. I am a class of two thousand and
eight graduate from Franklin High School, something I am very
proud of and take with me every day still in
some aspect form or fashion. All that being said, I
graduated from Franklin High School in two thousand and eight,

(03:42):
went to You Do Be Milwaukee. I had chance, though
to play football at the Division to or Division three level,
but passed up on those opportunities to go to.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
A bigger school.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
And when I did that as a young freshman, I
had such a good time. As a young freshman, there
was really no issue thought of of concern of missing
out on things the fomo as young kids would say
these days. But as I got into my sophomore year
of colleges, when I realized man, those opportunities that I
had to play high school or excuse me, to play

(04:13):
college football no matter the level, I should have taken it.
And it was during that time, my sophomore year in
two thousand and nine, that I started to regret not
playing as long as I could. So let me tell
you this right now. If you are listening as a
young kid and you have the opportunity to play at
the college level and beyond for that.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Matter, do it.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
You are never going to get the repetitions of camaraderie
with your teammates, fan base, and those people around whatever
program you want to be a part of. I don't
care if it's a club team at UW whatever. Go
play sports as long as you can, as long as
you are physically able to, because the memories will truly

(04:53):
last forever. Back to me real quick. That sophomore year
is when I decided, oh man, I do regret it,
and I started training to actually possibly transfer schools Ultimately
that didn't happen. I stayed at UW Milwaukee, didn't play
any sports there, but I fell into something the summer
before my junior year that changed my life forever. It

(05:14):
was a beautiful June day, and like we did a lot.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
When I was a young kid.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
We would play volleyball, just pick up volleyball, Me and
a group of my friends and a friend Justin Justin Hendrix.
I had not seen Justin In basically since we had graduated.
He had gone done some stuff in the Army reserves
and then come back to Wisconsin, and he had told
me he had gotten into coaching, and he hadn't coached
a game yet, had not coached a practice yet, but
he was coaching for our one of our old coaches.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Scott Lar.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Scott was our youth football coach back in the day,
Long story short. I spent the twenty ten season in
Scott Lar's assistant along with Justin and a couple other
guys that we played high school football with. That led
to the next year, in twenty eleven, my junior year,
or excuse me, my senior year of college, becoming a
high school becoming a youth football head coach for a

(06:04):
sixth grade team. Let me tell you that those were
the coolest moments even to this day of my coaching career.
Why were they the biggest stakes? No, it was a Saturday,
sixth or seventh grade youth game against New berl and Eisenhower.
The stakes in my head were bigger than they probably were.
All that being said, the kids were absolutely invested. The

(06:27):
parents were invested in the right way, and we made
sure of that that it wasn't There was no favoritism,
and the best player played.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
That was my thing.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
I was not a parent, and Salem not to this day.
I made sure that the best player played with all
fairness to making sure that there was development within the group.
But we still wanted to win. We always wanted to win.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
That was the thing that.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Set me and my teammates aside. That's probably why we
want a state championship in two thousand and six. We
were just kind of built differently in a great way. Now,
let's skip past the twenty eleven twenty twelve seasons that
I was a youth football head coach. I graduated from
WM soon after that, and that's when I had the opportunity,
as I mentioned earlier, to go work at the high

(07:10):
school level at New Berlin Eisenhower, not far from where
I'm sitting right here at the Donovan and Jorgensen heating
and cooling studios here at the iHeart megaplexing Greenfield. For
the twenty fourteen and twenty fifteen seasons. That's where I
got to work for Matt Current, a great man in
the industry, the head coach there at New Berlin Eisenhower,
and he kind of opened my eyes to a lot

(07:31):
of things that I didn't know if I wanted to
accomplish in the high school coaching, but knew that if
I wanted to get there, I wanted to do it
like Matt. Matt was incredibly organized and I'm assuming still
is as the head coach at Eisenhower. He kind of
gave me the confidence that one day, now I know

(07:54):
the rest of it. Now I know the behind the
scenes and everything. Skip ahead to after the twenty fifth
teen season. June of twenty sixteen, I approached Matt and
I said, Coach Kerrn, I am I need to resign.
I have the opportunity to go work as the director
of football operations at Arizona Christian University, a small Bible
college in Phoenix, Arizona. Matt Kerrn could not have been

(08:17):
more happy for me. He knew that I had the
aspirations one day to possibly go work at the college level,
and he was more than supportive. Was supportive even after
I left Eisenhower, and to this day I could call
him right now and he'd be ready to go by
the end of the ten o'clock hour for an interview.
I want to say thanks to Matt. I've never done

(08:39):
that on air because many of the things that Matt
taught me, whether he realized it or not, translated to
me working at the college football level. So Coach Kern,
one last time, for the first time, thank you very
much for everything there. Back to me and my little
journey here. It's now twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen school year

(09:00):
Arizona Christian University, my first year at the college level.
We almost making the playoffs, ranked number twenty two. I
want to say by the end of the twenty sixteen season.
After that year, Kyle Jacoba, a guy on the team,
had an opportunity to set up a meeting in April
of twenty seventeen when I was back here in Wisconsin

(09:22):
for Easter. Long story short, that meeting at UW Whitewater
Football led to me having an interview less than a
month later and accepting a job.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
What will be wow.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Eight years ago in a couple of weeks here man
getting old, I spent two years at UW Whitewater. I
love that place, great memories. Jace Rindle has that program
moving in the right direction. I am so excited for
the way the Warhawk football is going right now. Many
say they had a down year, trust me, they're just relow.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
They'll be fine.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
After that year at UW Whitewater, though, I had the
great opportunity to go work in college basketball, and that's
something that Mike and I like to talk about. I
worked at the Division one college basketball level after never
playing a single second of competitive high school or college
basketball in my life. I got to dress up and

(10:22):
sit there with the coaches and chart what was going
on during the game, fouls, timeouts, points, assist everything, and
I got to communicate with the coaches and I looked
like I knew what was going on, but trust me,
I didn't know exactly what play we were running. All
that then culminated in twenty twenty with COVID happening, and
that's when I decided, you know, I have reached my goal.

(10:46):
I wanted to work at the Division IE level. Trust Me,
I never thought it would be in college basketball, but hey,
here here I was. In June of twenty twenty, and
I decided I'm going home, and I came back home,
and my long journey of sports and everything found me
in a meeting in late January of twenty twenty three

(11:09):
with Mike McGivern becoming his future producer for our first
show on February second, twenty twenty three. It's been a
great ride for me professionally, but it's only getting started.
And as I mentioned earlier, Mike's a big, big influence
on my career, and thank you yet again to him.

(11:30):
Looking forward to our lineup here today, it's gonna be
a jam pack show, Hunter Bombguart, Steve Drobot of Franklin
High School Baseball, plus Joe Brannon checking in with him
on Janesville Craig and seeing what's going on down in
Rock County and in the Big A Conference. Kind of
on the fringe of our listening area, but definitely people
listening out there. I'm gonna be curious about all that

(11:53):
you're listening to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show,
presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market
store right here on Fox Sports nine twenty We'll be
back live from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Right after these messages, Andrew Ludwick back came for Mike McGivern.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
This is the Varsity Blitz high School Sports Show, presented
by your local Pickin Save and Metro Market stores on
Fox Sports nine point.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
And your iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
We are coming live from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating
and Cooling Studios, and we're coming live with our next
friend here. Our next guest, my friend Hunter bombgar At,
the producer for Drew NKB. You also know him as
the play by play man for half the Games with
Mike McGivern on the Pickens Save High School Game of
the Week.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Hunter, how are you doing this weekend?

Speaker 3 (12:36):
I am doing great. Thanks for having me my friend
Andrew and looking forward to a little conversation you know,
about high school sports and whatnot.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Of course, you've been able to have a great view
here of high school sports since you've gotten to Milwaukee.
Won't you just give a little path to how you
got here for our listeners that don't exactly know who
you are?

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (12:56):
So.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
High school sports has really always been a part of
what I've done, even going back to my days, which
really weren't that long ago in the grand scheme of things,
but Lacrosse is where I started went to college there,
and during that time worked for a station Lacrosse and
did high school sports for w kt Y. They're in Lacrosse,
and I would do I would run the camera for

(13:19):
a while for games. We did the video stream thing,
and eventually worked my way up to do play by play.
And then my last ever lacrosse play by play game
was twenty twenty, the last game before they canceled the tournament,
and it was Johnny Davis and Lacrosse Central Againstan Alaska,
and they played it at my alma mater, Logan and

(13:41):
it was one of the best atmospheres, but it was limited.
There was not many you know, they only had one
half of the gym that you.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Could go in. So this is March.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
March of twenty twenty is the last game, and you know,
I was I was looking in March. There was a
couple of people pointing out on on social media like
if that whoever won that game was probably gonna win State.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
It was a great game.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
Central ended up on top, and then they never got
to know if they were going to win the gold
Ball because they never got to play at State. So
that was a great way to you know, well not
the circumstances weren't great, but the game was fantastic. And
covering Johnny Davis in his time over there at Central
was fantastic. So then I went up to Tomahawk, Wisconsin

(14:21):
and loved my time there.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
I love, Oh, it's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
And lived there for just about a year and a
half or so and worked for WJJQ, which is fantastic.
Shout out Greg and Tim there at WJJQ and Tomahawk
and covered Tomahawk sports and so did I mean every football, basketball, hockey,
and then also did wrestling as well. So we were
covering baseball, softball in the spring like it was everything,

(14:47):
and it was awesome. You just immersed in the community
and you got to know the coaches because it's one team.
Right when we're now we're doing and to fast forward
now I'm in Milwaukee and doing these high school games
with Mike. We're covering different teams each and every week
in Tomahawk and lacrosse was the same way to eat
different teams. There's five, you know, teams, you'd rotate whatever.
In Tomahawk, it's just one and so that was. You know,

(15:08):
you got to the athletic director you were friends with,
and all the coaches and everything. You really you know,
they could they'd be available at any time for an interview
like that was.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
And a lot of.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
Coaches are like that. A lot of eighties are like that,
and that's awesome. It was great to just kind of
focus on one school.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
It was cool to kind of be a part of
that community, kind of like how Jeremy Mayo handles hold
Egg Sports. Ryan Lander, all right, let's jump back to
when you were in Lacrosse. You go to see some
some great basketball. I did, I mean between Bronson King,
Johnny Davis, I mean King?

Speaker 3 (15:37):
Yeah, yeah, I mean Johnny was I think I was
in high school when Kobe King was in high school.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, and so he was, uh yeah, that was what
it was like.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
The first guy from Lacrosse though, besides Bronson.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
And so what what what astonishes me about those guys
is you can and I still you know when we
games here in Milwaukee of the area schools, there is
just something different with those players that are going D one,
that are going to a major school, that are there
is just it is just a different level that they
are at and you can so clearly see it, and
it's just cool to watch, and it's it's kind of,

(16:17):
you know, you're kind of in awe a little bit
because of you know, high school sports, there's so many
varying levels, and that's what's great about it is everybody
plays and you just kind of see how everything goes
and and there's you know, there's different variants of levels
on the team. However, you just see that there's just
that different level of I don't want to say stardom
because they're in high school, but uh, there is part

(16:39):
of that to it, and the swagger that goes.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Along with it.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
But it's it's it's awesome to just at least be
able to watch and then of course call their games
as well.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
And there is something to be said about high schools
not only here but throughout the state of Wisconsin. For
a big game on a Tuesday night or for a
night selling out a gym ahead of time, Yeah, I
mean that's something that I graduated high school too, and eight,
to be totally honest, I was nothing that was even
fathomable because the hoops just wasn't that basketball just wasn't
that good.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Huh at that level. It just wasn't to that level yet.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Back to you real quick and how you kind of
got into calling games and everything. What was that, I
don't know, light bulb moment that made you go, Okay,
I want to do this one day.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
I want to be on air.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
I want to maybe be a producer for a show
called Drew and KB in the future. How did What
was your first moment that went, oh man, this is
so cool.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah, I mean, you know, ever since I was young,
you know, I and it was up just a part
of me of being in radio. I just I was
calling games into my tape recorder at you know, six
seven years old, and that's not an exaggeration. I would
read the newspaper in my tape recorder, like as an
announcer at six seven eight years old, read box scores

(17:49):
and yeah, I'm across write one hundred percent, shout out
lacross commune.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
So yeah, absolutely, So that was that.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
And then you know, as I went along, I you know,
that was you know, play by play was something that
I was super interested in and super passionate about and
something that I felt like came naturally too. Not everything
you know that you want to do comes naturally to you,
but that just does, especially when it comes to football
and basketball. So in lacrosse, you know, is this kind
of working my way up and eventually got some opportunities

(18:18):
to do it. Drew Kelly is fantastic. He still does
great calls there in lacrosse and kind of was their
secondary guy for a little while, and it just it, Yeah,
kind of opened my eyes to Okay, really enjoyed this.
And then Tomahawk was where I could just do it
almost every night. And then then you get obviously a
lot better than more reps.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
You have, well that and you're calling hockey games, you're
calling wrestling matches, things that, let's be honest, they are
they're not the easiest things that describe.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
You're right, I mean, yeah, hockey was the most challenging.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
Sport that I have done. Imagine where to start.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
It's it's wild, you know, full disclosure. I called the
rink the field at least once or twice in that
first broadcast.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Called the animals the mokey Badgers once did there you go.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
I mean, it just happens. You're in the middle of everything.
But like with wrestling, what was great is we had
a my color guy, Tony would basically do play by
play for wrestling. He knew wrestling inside out, he knew
all the language and everything, so I would just say
time and score and look pretty next to him and
then and then Tony would do the bulk of the
play by play, which is great, Yeah, shout out Tony dirltt.

(19:18):
But yeah, so a lot of challenges there. I feel like,
definitely basketball and football, are you know, are my main ones,
which a lot of people are right, it's it's but
baseball was fat was real. I hadn't done high school
baseball since until I went to Tamahawk and that. Yeah,
and baseball is my number one sport over all because
I love it and so not necessarily play by play

(19:40):
sport to call, but just my if I were to
pick a sport.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
That I love the most, baseball.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
So that was really fun and getting to kind of experience, okay,
the art of not just calling the game. Then you
got to come up with a bunch of other things
to say, because football and basketball you're going non stop.
Of course, you add some and your color commentator add
some it obviously that's their job, but in baseball there's
a lot more to it, and you know, listening to

(20:05):
Brewers games or what have you, there's a lot more
to that broadcast.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
And what happens when it's a twelve to one game
in the bottom of the fourth and there really ain't
much going on.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Right Yep, you try to keep it interested. Yeah, keep
him interested. That's where you lean on your prep and
everything like that. But yeah, I mean, it just it
it and then you get you get a lot better.
I mean it was just and there was so there
was no specific light bulb moments per se, but it
was just something that's always been in me.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
Okay, do you have any early influences you and I
have kind of talked non sports influences Brett. Ryan Seacrest
is a huge radio guy for you. Yes, someone that
you've kind of looked up to and tried to emulate
to a certain degree. And I mean there are other
people that were there for you know, that you watched
or listened to that are still part of your repertoire today.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
Yeah, I think, uh, yeah, definitely. I mean, I you know,
and people are like Ryan Seacrest, he doesn't do sports
till he doesn't, but he does everything else. He literally
everything and he's just so good at it. It's just
the personality. I think, the charisma, the personality, the the
I just I like just the way he way he
approaches situations. I just whenever I'm watching him, whether it's

(21:11):
American Idol or what I have. You and our family
watched American Idol growing up, like for some reason that
became our show. So like that I think was an
early influence. Okay, how he did things, And now I
actually watch him and I was just funny enough.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
I was last weekend.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
I was watching an episode of American Idol and he
came in and he asked a question.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Of some of like one of the judges.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
I'm like, man, that's a perfect question to ask coming
off of what they said. And it was a question
he had come up with within a minute because the
judge just said it and I was like, oh man.
And so it's just yeah, it's just watching those guys
that have been doing it for so long. So but
it's specifically in the sports world, there's you know, Wayne
Lairvie from the from the jump. I mean, it's just
getting to meet him and now work with him like
we do.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
It's awesome. That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
I mean it's just yeah, he's yeah, absolutely, I mean
just having him to listen to growing up, you take
a lot of you know, cues from him. He take
a lot of different things. Also one of my favorites.
And I think he's underrated in the industry. I think
he's really well known and people really respect him. But
Kevin Coogler is amazing. Yes, he is so good. If

(22:14):
you ever get a chance on West Wind one, whether
it's March Madness that he does, he does NFL football,
he is and he does I think, well then he
does NFL football on TV too, but radio specifically he is.
He is top notch. I mean it's just if you
want a class and how to do basketball or football
on the radio, listen to Kevin Coogler. He's awesome. So

(22:35):
I loved listening to him. And then locally, the late
Mike Kerns, who was a legend in lacrosse is dad
Charlie as well, and they did sports in lacrosse for
I don't know the numbers, so I'm not you know,
I think.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
It was fifty sixty years between the.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Two of them, and that was just number one Mike
doing play by play for you know, of all the
local teams. When I was growing up, I'd go to
like high school games if I was in elementary school
or middle school or what have you, and just seeing
him there, that's my Kurns, you know, just growing up
and he was local legend absolutely, and then eventually I

(23:13):
was able to run the camera for his broadcasts and
then be able to work with him a little bit.
I did a job shadow with him when I was
like twelve or thirteen years old.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, shadowing pays off, doesn't it?

Speaker 2 (23:22):
It does it? Does you know that? Well?

Speaker 3 (23:24):
So, you know, he did a morning show and he
did so he would do his games at night and
then excuse me, yeah, and he does he did the
games at night and he comes comes in and did
the morning show and he called it the lead balloon Show.
It's just just legendary stuff. So it's just you know,
watching him and being able to then work with him
just and he was a great guy too, just really

(23:45):
so it was that was really neat. So those are
a few I'd say that that definitely have had an
impact on my play by playing and high school sports
and how that all has come together.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
A couple more minutes here with Hunter Bombguard producer for
Drew and KB, also the play by play and for
the Pick and Save high.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
School game of the week.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
All right, you've been doing play by play with Mike
McGivern now for two full seasons.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
What are some of the highlights?

Speaker 1 (24:08):
And then also, are there is there a program around
the city? I mean, because you guys don't you don't
venture too too far from the walk area? Is there
a program around the city that has kind of blown
you away, not only with just the play on the court,
but also the culture that they have been able to instill.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
Oh, that's a good question.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Well, first of all, doing games with Mike is a blast.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Oh, I got to produce the first year listening to you,
and then when Billy would fill into there was also
some comical time.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yeah, the passion that Mike has for high school sports
is just awesome and and uh and honestly, the passion
that Mike has for a lot of things, like he
just he's just passionate about what he cares about, what
he does, the shows he does on the station. So
that's been really neat to get to know him. I
had heard his voice throughout the years, you know, he's

(24:54):
been synonymous with high school sports in the state for
a long time, but getting to meet him and do
and do so games with him has been awesome. I
love the fact that wherever we go he knows basically
every single person in the gym, even it's even if
it's sold out. I mean, it's just unbelievable. I mean,
he'll just we'll be in the middle of the broadcast
and all of a sudden, yeah, hey, how's it going,

(25:14):
And I'm like, well, I guess I'm just gonna call
the game over here while he has the conversation. Sometimes
you can even hear the conversation on the air. But
I love it because he's just yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah.
Families do it great.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
And it's awesome. I love it.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
I love I love those games with him, and it's
just it's so it's just yeah, when you have someone
next to you who's as passionate and as knowledgeable the
guy you know, obviously.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Has had coach thirty six years here exactly.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
Has had so much experience in high school sports, and
he can draw on that for any situation, Like he
can come up with a story for almost any situation
that we do at a game, and as far as
as high school. I mean, it's just we've popped around
to so many what I've been, you know, amazed, And
you know, we obviously we do the game of the week,
so we try to do the best game the week.
But the crowds, the passion no matter what school we

(26:05):
go to, it is some really good basketball too. Like
it's and like I said, I get it, we do
the game of the week, but like it's it's just
really high level basketball and it's so fun to be
a part of that atmosphere and be witnesses to these
kids just you know, just having the times of their lives.
And you know, especially in the in the playoffs. I know,

(26:26):
we did a couple of games and I remember a
fan coming up, one of the students of one of
the schools coming up to me. He's like, you want
to come with high fight me. You know, they had
just made it to the next round of the playoffs.
I think they're going to the semi fi like the
sectional final to one way from State. And he came
up to me and he's like, he's like, wanted to
high fight me. I'm like, I'm the announcer. I didn't
do anything, but he comes up to me and he's like,
I've been waiting my whole life for this moment. Like

(26:48):
that's and that's the joy that high school sports brings
and you cannot you cannot equal it. It is just
it's different than anything else.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
I want to stay championship my junior year of high school,
part of the two thousand and six Franklin football team.
To this day, I get chills thinking about it right now.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, I mean their memories and the relationships built and
how we pushed.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Each other as teammates. We were savages at practice in
a good way.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Yeah, And you know, we were competitive and pushed each other.
And to this day, whenever I see someone, whether it
be at a Bucks game, like I ran into Jeff Stewart,
wide receiver for Franklin, we had something to talk about.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Guess what we ended up.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
Talking about the six fake Franklin Savers. These moments are
for the kids, and I'm glad you're the one that's
able to paint the picture.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean that's that's the cool part
about it is we're just announcers on the side, and
it's all about the kids that are playing on the
floor and the coaches that put in so much time
and the athletic directors all the ads. I mean, that
is one thing. And I mean it's just outstanding the
people that are athletic directors in this state. Like it
just is is when we are like we in Lacross

(27:54):
and then you know the north Woods and I would
work with not only the Tomahawk AD but also the
athletic directors at the other Northwood schools when Tamahawks travel
and and and it's it's always about what can we
do for you? And and how are we able to
get you guys on the air. And with Mike, we
we do sound checks the week before to make sure
everything's going to go well. So like the amount of
time that they put into not only their athletics but

(28:14):
also what surrounds their athletics and the attention they want
to bring to their athletics through our games and whatnot,
it's a it's a cool it's a cool partnership, and
it's a cool it's just a it's a neat atmosphere.
And and like you said, when when something like that happens,
when you go on a deep run, you win a
stay title, you'll remember that forever.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
He is Hunter Bombguard producer for duran KB, also the
baseball pregame show on ninety seven through the game as well,
and then you've heard him as the play by play
man for the Pick and Save High School Game of
the Week with Mike McGivern.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
Enjoy the rest of the Burws Cup series this weekend.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah, it's great. It's some great days at the ballpark
going to be coming up. Get out and enjoy it.
And thanks for having me, Andrew. It's fun to talk
about the high school days.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Nominis a little bit. It's cool to be within the
walls and be able to step back and fox in
high school ball. Yes, for sure, Thank you. We'll be
back in a little bit.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
This is the Varsity Botz High School Sports Show, presented
by your local Picking Save and Metro Market stores right
here on Fox Sports nine to twenty.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
They say rolling along.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
I'm not exactly sure what that means, but we're rolling
along here on the Varsity Boodz High School Sports Show
presented by your local Picking Save and Metro Market stores
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app. I'm
Andrew Ludwig, producer for ZABE and Butch in the Morning
heard six to nine AM on ninety seven to three

(29:33):
The game We're coming here live from Donovan and Jorgensen
Heating and Cooling Studios.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
Hunter Bombguard is the best man.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
He truly is a consummate pro. I am six seven
years older than Hunter, and I look up to the man.
He's been nothing but a great mentor to me since
I stepped foot into this industry. He had no reason
to be as kind and as helpful as he was,
and he was that and more. Hunter is a great

(30:04):
model for what this industry should be and hopefully still is.
He is a great, great human being, and I'm glad
that we were able to get him on here to
talk some high school sports and also his path. One
thing I didn't get into him with is he went
tow Lacrosse. I coached football aw Whitewater, and let me
tell you there's some rivalry that him and I still

(30:26):
have to sort out going forward, though. I think he
and I'll figure out a nice simple bet, probably for
the we Act game between Lacrosse and Whitewater.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Speaking of rivalries, this is a.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
School I have no rivalry with because I went to
school there. Our next guest head coach of the Franklin
Boys baseball team, Steve Drobot joins us coach. Congrats on
winning number one hundred in your career.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
How does that feel for me?

Speaker 5 (31:00):
It feels great, Andrew, thanks for having me on. And
it's just fun to celebrate those milestones. And it's really
cool to just do it against some of the teams
that you've been like playing and competing against for years.
We had some really good competition this week and some
of our neighboring towns and it's just a great celebration
thing to look at and celebrate and very excited for it.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Did you get the win against O Creek?

Speaker 5 (31:23):
Yeah, it was against O Creek. I didn't realize it
was coming up. Somebody kind of brought it to my
attention and just happened to play out that way. But
either way, it's you know, it's a cool thing to celebrate.
But really how I feel about it is, I'm just
really appreciative to be the coach of this program. You know,
wins and losses are one thing, but to lead kids

(31:44):
from Franklin, Wisconsin, it's a blessing and I'm very honored
and appreciative and grateful for the opportunity to be the
coach of the program, and I have great assistant coaches.
I'm Brandon Watstna has been with me the whole time,
and and I've Mark Bomb being with me right now.
And so it's just really great to have them with
me because it's a group effort. It's it's the players,

(32:04):
it's the families, the coaches. So it's just a great
milestone and we look to continue to have success moving forward.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
All Right, let's get back to Franklin in a little
bit and your time there, But I want to bring
up O Creek and this is a rivalry that has
gone back before you and I were even born. I think,
what is it like at the I mean, because it
seems like every other year one of you two teams
is making it to the state tournament or darn near.
What what does this rivalry mean at the baseball level

(32:31):
between Franklin and O Creek.

Speaker 5 (32:33):
Both programs just have such a rich history and a
legacy that it just keeps building up every year and
it just keeps just being a fun rivalry.

Speaker 6 (32:44):
You know.

Speaker 5 (32:45):
I think in previous years you may have seen like players,
but maybe bigger names that were going to colleges or
potentially being drafted from different programs. And this year you
just got two really down baseball teams and every game
has been very close, and I wouldn't have it any
other way. I love playing those guys. I respect them
a lot. They've got really good, fierce competitors on their side.

(33:07):
We have them on our side, and it's always a
good one when we play them.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Okay, what happens next year? IM not gonna lie. I've
I blinked in the next thing. You know, the WI
A changed. What's going to happen to the conferences again?
So I believe you guys are moving to the Classic
eight and Oak Creek is not.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Is that true?

Speaker 6 (33:24):
Swap that? So we will still be in the SEC four.

Speaker 5 (33:28):
This is that would be for football, baseball, and all
other sports. Franklin will be in the Southeast Conference. Continue
to be in the Southeast Conference. Well, Oak Creek will
be moving to the Classic eight. So yeah, we'll still
be in the same conference for baseball. Battling you know
the Kenoshan Racine schools. You know, they're always good, good
battles as well.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
No doubt, looks like Trumper has another great season, starting
off seven and one.

Speaker 5 (33:54):
Yeah, yeah, I mean John Matera down there has a
great team. They've got a really solid pitcher in Ethan
Bauer Schmidt, but they're always super competitive, always give us
a tough, tough time, and being a three game series,
you just never know who can win out that series.
It'll be a funnel when we play them as well.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
Okay, real quick on that three game series, How do
you like that? That's as close to an MLB format
I think that there is in high school baseball.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Now there's a there's an off.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Day between the three games that you play against the
conference opponent, but it's set up home away home or
away home away, correct.

Speaker 5 (34:25):
Correct, Yeah, So it kind of just swaps every other
year where you're two home, one away or two away
one home. But I love it, you know. I think
you can find out who's win winning the series and
who does not win the series, and you kind of
have some finality to it, and it helps with finding
out who's the better team. It's not just who's got
maybe one or two good pitchers, it's who's got the

(34:46):
good pitching, the overall defense, who can put together three
good games on the offense. Event you find out who's
the better team.

Speaker 6 (34:53):
I love it. It's it's college style, it's pro style.

Speaker 5 (34:56):
It's fun to have that competition at the high school level.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Okay, let's let's get Let's get to the team that
means the most to you and I my alma mater,
the Franklin Savers. Who are the guys this year that
are standing out? Give me, give me a guy that's
not a senior, and then a guy that is a
senior as well.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
When you when you listen some guys here.

Speaker 5 (35:12):
Yeah, sure, So if we're looking at not a senior,
we've got an outfielder. Dominic Walters is the first one
that comes to mind. Pretty well known in the football world,
pretty strong defensive back, but he's playing a great left
field for us, hitting at the top of our lineup,
running the base as fast as anybody.

Speaker 6 (35:29):
There is out there.

Speaker 5 (35:30):
And then another guy that we have is a ninth
grade catcher that's starting forth named Cabanos. He's doing a
great job controlling the game behind the play, but also
one of our leading offensive players right now. As well
as far as seniors go, we got a lot of
guys that are contributing. We've got on you, Lee who
is a senior pitcher and shortstop, doing a great job
being our opening pitcher for our series. That veteran leadership

(35:54):
that you would want.

Speaker 6 (35:55):
Out of a senior.

Speaker 5 (35:56):
He's doing a great job making the plays at short
end hitting. We also have Ben have Throughho just our
leader on and off the field, a guy that you'd
go to battle with any day of the week. I
just think really highly of him. And a pitcher Cameron
Lund who's really been pitching solid for us this year.
Win six innings against Oak Creek the other day on
did not give up a run against a really good team.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
All Right, you brought up Gavin being a freshman. What
does it take at the baseball level, at the high
school level, excuse me, the high school level of baseball
to to crack the opening lineup as a truth, you know,
as a freshman.

Speaker 5 (36:28):
It's pretty rare, pretty rare, especially at that position. You
just really you have to be fundamentally sound, but be
in control of a varsity baseball games. There's really no
no pass balls allowed, right, that's varsity baseball. You got
to have a strong arm, You got to physically and
be mature enough to handle that position. And he's been

(36:50):
checking all those boxes. So he's been a really nice
surprise for us this year and hopefully, you know, he
continues to progress in an am you'll here for years
to come.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Okay, you guys have fourteen games in the next twenty
three days. That is an absolute grind. This is this
is the part of your This is the heart of
your season right here.

Speaker 6 (37:07):
Correct, Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 5 (37:10):
I mean we actually start I'd say we probably started.

Speaker 6 (37:12):
The grinds last week.

Speaker 5 (37:13):
We had four games non conference games because the rest
of our conferences on spring break, so we played really
strong area teams of really just high quality coaching and
players in Greendale, Burlington and Muskeego. We're able to squeak
out one run wins against all three of those teams,
which was just there were tough games and just so
proud of the way our guys handled that pressure. And

(37:37):
so I think, like right now with O Creek and
then we have four games now next week, and just
listed how many games we have against quality opponents. And
three with Kenosha Trumper, three with Indian Trails, two very
strong programs as well.

Speaker 6 (37:49):
We got our work cutout for us. But that's baseball.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
You could play a lot in a short period of time.

Speaker 6 (37:54):
Guys, love it. We're ready.

Speaker 5 (37:55):
We've been kind of slowly but surely ramping up for
this and we're ready to go. We can't wait to
get out on the field and play. And we are
saying this year is embrace the challenge and we're ready
for the challenges that this season has to offer.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Love that.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
During your off days between the games the three game series,
what does it look like for you guys, at what
point during the season do you kind of gauge the
team and go, man, they're getting a little worn out
for you know, two thirds of the way through the season,
whatever it is.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
Yeah, that's super important, right, not only like physical health wise,
but just mentally, Like not only are these guys playing
baseball right now, but they're students first, right, They've got
a whole day of class, We've got guys at ap
tests coming up, they just got done with prom like
they got to be kids too, So really getting a
temperature check and making sure you're valuing all of that

(38:45):
and thinking about the whole kid and the whole person
in general and making sure you're taking care of them.
Like that's part of our job as coaches is to
really take care of our players on and off the field,
So we got to really make sure we're getting that.
We have a leadership group that I can check in
with and kids they'll give us an honest answer. But
like today, we had an off day and it was
we were we were getting to work on the field.

(39:06):
We're pretty lucky to have a full turf field or
maybe one of the full team to get on there,
and you know, we had we were out there where
we're doing everything ready to prepare for another game. And
then there'll be days where you know, maybe it's time
to take the foot off the gas. That'll if we
were a little more in the classroom that day we're
talking more culture and team building, or we're working on
what can we learn from our experiences and reflect on

(39:28):
the season so far, So you kind of balance that
aspect as well. That's something that I've learned that our
players really value and embrace is having that time to
really talk about the game but also build up good
camaraderie and kind of provide them opportunities to be architects
of the team culture. And that's really been paying off
for us. We have a really awesome group of kids

(39:49):
this year that take care of each other, that hold
each other accountable, treat each other like family. They're very
hard working and these are things that they've came up
with that they want to see in the program. And
I love that they're taking that ownership and we can
use some of that off time to complete that work.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
All right.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
You mentioned culture, and I know you took over for
coach Hughes and a legend in his own right in
every way.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
How did you maintain that culture build on it?

Speaker 1 (40:16):
And then also the other sports at Franklin are for
the most part really successful, and how did you kind
of embrace the culture of the school in athletics and
just put it all together for what you have going
on right now.

Speaker 5 (40:27):
Yeah, the first part of your question with coach Hughes,
I mean, what a legend, what a great person, somebody
who mentored me and I look up to and will
always cherish my time coaching with him. He still had
a sideline on our games, our home ones and some
away ones as well.

Speaker 6 (40:42):
He just loves it. So I was you know able
to kind of.

Speaker 5 (40:44):
Leverage that leverage his experience and legacy that he left here,
and then you know, obviously bring my own personal touch
to it. You know, I really emphasized the mental side
of the game, you know, really trying to make sure
that we're ready for any situation who may occur. You know,
almost between the years, really valuing our time together and

(41:05):
kids cherishing their time together. And I think that's been
kind of something that we've carried from year to year
and have been building on it. You know, our focus
is just really on the culture of kids leading and
kids really buying in and.

Speaker 6 (41:21):
Wanting to be a part of this program.

Speaker 5 (41:22):
And we look at you know, our players are good people,
not only during baseball, but in the school. They need
to be good examples for other students in the school
and be leaders, and those are the players we want
in our program and that we think we're going to
be really successful with. And these guys have been a
good example this year of that. So it's really valuing
how they are in and outside of the classroom on

(41:46):
the field and portraying that all across the community. We
want a strong image and if we do that, if
we can be you know, fall in love with that process,
we'll be successful on the field. That'll translate to success
on the field.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
Coaching.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Ve Drobot, head coach of the Franklin boys baseball team
joining us here this morning. Coach, thank you so very
much for the time. Please tell Coach Brown that I
said hello.

Speaker 5 (42:09):
Oh, I definitely will. He'll love to hear from you,
and I appreciate you guys having me. It's always a pleasure.
Tell Mike I said hi, and thank you so much.
Grateful for the opportunity we'll do.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
I will see you out of the game soon and
we'll be back on the other side of this break.
With Joe Brannon, head coach at Janesville Greg Janesville Craig Football.
That's easy for me to say, We'll be right back
on the other side of this break. You're listening to
the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show on Fox Sports
nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Hour two of.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
The Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented by your
local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores right here
on Fox Sports nine twenty Andrew iHeartRadio App. No no, no, no,
I am not Mike mcgiffren. I'm Andrew Ludwig, Mike's former producer.
I produce Zab and Butch in the morning. You also
can hear me on Drew and KB four to four

(42:57):
thirty every Friday during Figure it Out. But yeah, six
to nine am is my normal time slot down the
dial across on FM ninety seven through the game. But
I am so excited yet again for hour two here
live from Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios. Quick
little shout out to Ideal Logos and awards Current Electric,

(43:17):
Geen Wagner, Pump Wow, Geen Wagner Plumbing, Citizens Bank, and
Kellman Restoration. Sorry to stir up a little controversy there
with Coach Drobot from Franklin. When I mentioned Franklin and
Oa Creek. Is that the best rivalry in all the
state of Wisconsin? I think city to city, not two
schools within the same city. I think it's the best

(43:39):
personally in my opinion, but I'm obviously obviously very very biased,
having gone to Franklin and having lost to A Creek
a handful of times in my career there. But I
also did have the opportunity, as I mentioned earlier, to
coach at New Berlin Eisenhower, and that's a different kind
of rivalry when you have kids that grew up in
the same city a lot of times in the same

(44:01):
neighborhood than some of those kids may leave the neighborhood
to go to the West District or to the Eisenhower District.
That was a rivalry that was different, but also absolutely
intense in moments, but also so cool because I could
tell those kids knew each other from I would assume
soon after birth. I know there were cousins when I

(44:23):
coached on Eisenhower, the other I was on West. There's
some cool, cool Wi excuse me, cool rivalries here in
the state of Wisconsin. I have been blessed to be
a part of the one between Franklin and Oak Creek
and Eisenhower and West. I can't think of too many
of that are better personally. When I was growing up,

(44:43):
Franklin and Oak Creek was crazy. I think it peaked
around two thousand and three, two thousand and four, somewhere
in there. Ben Hemple was the quarterback for Franklin High School.
Franklin was on the rise, and Oak Creek was just
amazing with Joe Cook running the program, and it's gotten
back their foot. I always thought the rivalry of Arrowhead
and Homestead was crazy. Neither of the schools were in

(45:05):
the same conference. They're both geographically relatively close to each other,
similar socioeconomics, and for three straight years in divisions that
they're neither both in or excuse me, Erowhead still in
Division one but Homestead's now in Division two. But for
three straight years when both were in the same division,
Division one, they played in the state championship together against

(45:27):
each other, and they flip popped each year who won.
Homestead blew them out in two thousand and six a
mirror two hours after I won a state championship Franklin
beating Brickfield Central thirty six twenty nine and overtime. The
next year was Arrowhead that kind of controlled the day.
And then that final matchup my freshman year of college

(45:50):
and all way, that was a great game. They kind
of settled it, and I guess Arrowhead was the better
of the two teams for those three years. But those
are two on you mental programs that, for whatever reason
in the late two thousands found themselves playing against each
other in the biggest of stakes. And that is a
great transition. Because the next guy that we're about to

(46:12):
talk to, our next guest, the head coach at Janesville
Craig Football, he wants to get there. If he could
get there one year, that would be great, but let
alone three years, he would love it. His name is
Joe Brannon, the head coach at Janesville Craig High School
for the football team and also an assistant on the
basketball team. Good morning, coach Brannon. How is it going
down there this Saturday morning in Rock County?

Speaker 4 (46:35):
Good morning? Yeah, Oh, this a nice beautiful day. And
you know we're one day closer to our summer contact
days we're now excited to have, and you know, our
eyes are around the corner the next fall.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
All right, you brought up the contact days. I was
going to get to it at some point. Let's just
start there.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Was it last week that the WIA came out saying
that there is unlimited contact days for football teams starting
on or June, well and first of this upcoming year, correct, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:02):
Last last Friday morning. So, and you know, there was
lots of you know, lots of belief that that this
is where we were going to end up, you know.
But what it does is it just leaves a really
short turnaround time for for coaches throughout the states to
get our you know stuff summer schedules intact and and
and get rolling, but but very exciting news. News I

(47:25):
think is really good for the state of football in Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
So it was something that you actually, if you would
have had a vote, you would have said, yes.

Speaker 4 (47:35):
Yeah, right, yeah, No, it's you know, my my experience
and background of playing high schoo fooball in the state
of Illinois, right and having more contact days than what
we're allotted here in Wisconsin. It's something that I was
used to as a player. I was not a not
a fan of only getting the five. I think it'll
be really good for for the for just the quality
of football you'll see on Friday nights in the fall.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
How do you think you can develop the kids over
the X amount of days that you're going to have
in summer? And I guess my follow up to that
is how many days do you plan on having? You're
not going to practice these kids every day, are you?

Speaker 7 (48:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (48:08):
And that's so you know when it comes to how often,
So that's you know, that's our status is. We've met
numerous times and you know, we've talked, right, there's a
fine line between we've got to be together enough days
to where we are developing depths to where we are
making sure that Craig is going to be as competitive
as possible with the other teams in the Big Eight,

(48:29):
and then teams throughout the state wants, you know, the
playoffs hit. But then, like you said, there's the fine
line of we got to make sure it stays fun
for the kids. We got to make sure it's safe
for the kids. We got to be able to promote
multi sports athletes. So we have to find that gray
area of days. And the one that we kept coming
back to is twenty right, No, not one to do
anything more than twenty days of football stuff in the summer.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Okay, So how many does that shake out to per week?

Speaker 4 (48:54):
So we're gonna be like when we no more than
three three is the most will ever have in a week.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
So that's the way our schedule, I think, is going
to look moving forward, and we're really excited to get
around the kids all summer.

Speaker 8 (49:07):
All right.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
You joined the show in January of twenty twenty four,
so it's been about I think sixteen months since we chatted.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Last chatted with.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
You, you were not that not that the culture was bad,
but you were a new coach. You were trying to
put your stamp on the program and the culture at
that time. Sixteen months later, how do you feel you've
done so far in your first year as a head coach?

Speaker 2 (49:28):
Our first time as a head coach? Excuse me?

Speaker 4 (49:30):
Yeah, I mean looking back, there's lots of positives that
we can pull on and progress that is visible to
be seen from the outside of where our football program
is going. You know, in year one we went five
and four, got back to the playoffs, competed pretty well
against the very good Mcgonaga team in that first round.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Yeah, very good.

Speaker 4 (49:54):
So yeah, do we have a lot of work left
to do? Yes? Did we do everything right in year one? Unfortunately? No,
But we are definitely going in the right direction. We
got a bunch of good kids who about in and
committed and care a lot about the state of our
football program. And I'm really excited for for where this
place is at.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Speaking of excitement for the football program, you guys have
had a long standing rivalry with your the other team
within your city, Janesville Parker, and then also you added
Milton to the schedule last year. What does it mean
for you to have obviously Parker is always going to
be on the schedule, but what does it mean for
you to have a game against Milton, have such close
rivalry games, you're you're smacked between both those schools there.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
Yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun.

Speaker 6 (50:35):
You know.

Speaker 4 (50:35):
It's games where you know, the community comes out and supports.
You know, lots of kids from from all the high
schools are there to watch, and you know, I think
it's one that you know, our kids really enjoy playing, right,
it means it means a little bit more, right, all
being so close together, all being you know, in Rock County,
and all being three pretty good football teams year in

(50:57):
and year out too. So you know, we're really excited
always to get a play Parker every year and have
Milton Week two this year, and actually we've got a
contract signed with him to continue playing in Week two
of the next two years after this, right right on that, Yeah,
at least three more years at Craig Milton, And that's
a fun one. Every year we got We got to
get them back this year for that close loss last year.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
I think it's pretty cool that maybe you don't agree
with this, but Parker and Craig share a stadium and
when they play, everyone goes to Monterey Stadium in Janesville
that night. That is such a cool venue and atmosphere
for the kids. I mean it's only one Friday out
of the year, but it's a memorable friday, you know, battle.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
For the rock Trophy. Right, you'll be the one holding
at the end of the night. It's always a game
that that has attended and treated like I believe all
high school games should be attended and treated. So great
night for our kids. It's it's it's one they definitely
circle and it's one that means a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
All right, Let's let's move on to the Big Eight
that historically has been a very top heavy conference. You
guys where and have been for a couple of years now,
kind of towards the middle of the conference.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
What is it going to take?

Speaker 1 (52:05):
What in your eyes, even before you see the wins happening,
what do what do you need to see to know
that your team is getting there or is there to
that level of the top two teams the veronas the
middletons of the Big Eight.

Speaker 4 (52:18):
Yeah, it's just it's just the belief, you know, in
which we start. We saw a little bit with the
kids last year. We lost the you know, one possession
game to Middleton this year where we just didn't take
too good care of the ball and squandered away some opportunities.
Same thing in the in the Madison Memorial game. Who
I would say is in that top of the conference.
But for us, it's just belief. You know, our kids

(52:40):
have to continue by into the process and continue believing
that if we do all the things right, that we're
right there and not only can compete with those teams,
but but can overtake and beat them. So for us
this year, it's, man, We're going to throw the kitchen
table at all three of those opponents, and then you know,
if if they get us, we're going to go.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Down swing awesome, love it all right. You grew up
in Illinois.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
You obviously just mentioned that you played high school football
in Illinois. Do you have any mentors from your high
school playing days or post high school playing des at
Northwest Missouri State coaching mentors that you think about, maybe
not daily or weekly, but on a regular enough basis
where they are still a great influence in your coaching career.

Speaker 4 (53:20):
Yeah, I mean, the perfect one that comes to mind
is my high school basketball coach was was Sean Taylor.
Funny quick story about it. Last year before Week one,
my first game I coached as a head coach, and
his wife's came. He spoke to the team before the game,
and him and his wife were at the game, so
that that was really cool for circle moment for me.

(53:42):
But he is a Hall of fame coach in the
state of Illinois. He's won two state titles. He's the
toughest son of a gun I've ever been around. So
I owe a lot of kind of my makeup and
what I believe and try to stress and emphasize the
kids to him. So Sean Taylor, without a doubt, kind
of made me into the person I ended at.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
And now it is your job to mentor the upcoming youth.
And the reason I say that is because one other
thing we talked about sixteen months ago was just that
the youth program. What have you done to build up
Janesville Craig's youth program so that in five years you
have another crop of players that are.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Ready to go.

Speaker 4 (54:19):
Yeah. The first thing is is our numbers have been
very good. Right, the last two or three incoming freshman
classes we have have all been forty forty five plus.
So it's always nice having a big pool of kids.
And then it's just outreach. You know, our Jamesville youthful
ball program does a really good job of getting kids
to play and try to you know, have days in

(54:40):
the spring where they get a you know, do some
football stuff with our high school staff. So we just
wrap that up. We do stuffs in the fall where
we have camps with them. We try to get our
high school kids around them as much as possible, just
you know, I want the kids growing up and going
to the elementary schools at Janesville to want to grow
up to be Craig Couverer. So as much as we
can do to get our older kids and around them,

(55:02):
get those kids at Monterey Stadium for games and getting
them want to be Craig Kruger football players.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
That's awesome, all right.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
Any changes you're willing to admit to the offensive up
or defense this upcoming twenty twenty five.

Speaker 4 (55:15):
Season, Yeah, we defensively, We'll start there. We bring us
on back, you know, we lose a little bit on
the defensive line, but but bring back almost everybody in
the secondary and which was a very good group for us.
So you know, we're gonna We're going to be very
athletic in the back end. And what we need now
is for those guys who now have another year of

(55:35):
experience under their belt two uh, to go from being
really good players to game changers. So we'll put a
lot of you know, emphasis and pressure and you know
belief into those guys and what we asked them to do.
Then offensively, we're we're in a flux year. As you know,
we bring back all of our receivers, everybody that kind

(55:57):
of passes back. You know, Malachi over ended that being
a second team All Conference kid last year as a freshman.
So fourteen years old in the Big eight, second the
conference receiving yards is a pretty good place to start
your high school career. So yeah, he's back. Caandre Thornton
caught four or five touchdowns of the sophomore last year
for US is back. Nathan to asked them top touchdowns

(56:20):
as the junior last year's back. And then we lose
quarterback running back, right, So anytime you got to replace
those two positions, you know, it leaves you with work
to do. But we're really excited about the kids we
have slot into those roles and I think our ability
to throw the football around the field. This year will
be a little bit better than it was last year
with the experience we have at the receiver position.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
All right, one last question, completely unrelated to anything high
school sports related.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
What is going on with your Saint Louis Cardinals? Dude?

Speaker 1 (56:46):
Last year they were under five hundred. Yet again they
start the twenty twenty five season under five hundred.

Speaker 4 (56:53):
Yeah, what's what's the word that transition year?

Speaker 2 (56:56):
Transition years? Is that a plural thing you just.

Speaker 4 (56:58):
Said, transitions? It feels like it has been for sure. No,
it feels like it has been. But no, there I mean,
lots of good young talent. It's just all got to
click on the field at some point and then you know,
it might have to spend a little money.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
You guys have a little bit more than the franchise here,
the Milwaukee Brewers. And by the way, I don't know
if you've heard this from a coach on your coaching staff,
John Beck, but Friday, June thirteenth, Cardinals and Brewers brew
Palooza an event with ninety seven to three of the game.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
Joe, thank you so much for the time today.

Speaker 4 (57:29):
Yeah, I appreciate you having us on Gokrubers.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
Well, that really couldn't have been some better timing there
with coach Brandon as he was finishing up the last question.
Got a text from Trevor Thomas of The Inside Wisconsin Show,
also a fill in host on ninety seven to three
the Game. He talked to Stephanie Hausler of the WIAA yesterday.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
When he filled in for Mike Keller.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
We're gonna chat with him about that conversation and also
his path to where he's at in radio and where
did his high school influences come from.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
Also want to touch on some stuff with his brother
Planet W Whitewater.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
You're listening to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show
right here on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Oh yeah, he can never go wrong with ACDC.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented
by your local pickin Save and Metro Market stores right
here on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
My name is Andrew Ludwig in for Mike McGivern. Wanted
to bring up Joe Brannon before we move on. Here
to Trevor Thomas of The Inside Wisconsin Show, Joe Brannon

(58:36):
I have gotten over the last couple of years. Joe
has a great future in this industry, the coaching of
high school football players in the state of Wisconsin.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
His growth potential is enormous.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
He knows that he has a great system and everything
set up there at a school that is ready to
blow up and succeed in Janesville, Craig, they have a
great rivalry with Janesville Parker Milton. Like he said, down
the Road is a great one that they've dialed in
for another two years. Looking forward to seeing the growth
of that school, but not only them, but the rest

(59:12):
of the Big eight and Madison. There is some problems
with some of the schools there. Will see how it
all shakes out with the new contact days, how schools
are able to take advantage of all that. The wia
the w IAA has been making some changes and one
guy that I really wanted to bring on to talk

(59:32):
about that is coming up right now. And now we
welcome on Trevor Thomas, host of the Inside Wisconsin Show
and also a fill in host here on ninety seven
through the Game. Trevor, how are you doing this morning,
this beautiful Saturday morning.

Speaker 6 (59:48):
I'm great, Andrew it is finally a nice weekend and Wisconsin.
I had to mold the lawn today. That sucks, but
I guess tis the season.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
It is tis the season. I'm a city guy, so
I kind of get out of that whole heaven of
mow the law and thing for now. For now, at
least you filled in for Mike Keller this weekend. You
got to hang out with Nick Bruzowitz. But on Friday
yesterday you had a conversation with Stephanie Hauser, the head
of the WIAA, kind of about the new nil. Can
you kind of expand on what that conversation was like

(01:00:19):
this week?

Speaker 6 (01:00:21):
Yeah, So I was really fascinated by the WIAA member
schools voting in favor this year at their annual meeting
a week ago Friday to allow high school student athletes
to essentially benefit from things like endorsement deals or making
money from promoting products, which is the way the name,

(01:00:43):
image and likeness things should go. It's not pay for play,
it's name, image and likeness, right. So we had talked
about it on the show on Thursday pretty in depth,
and I wanted to be sure that we went to
the source, meaning to the wia to really learn and
understand what all goes into this, and I thought Stephanie

(01:01:04):
did a great job of explaining that. Unfortunately, I think
the WIAA gets thrown under the bus a lot when
it comes to some of the decisions made for high
school athletics here in Wisconsin. And she did a great
job of reminding us and explaining that the WIAA does
not make decisions of this nature, especially this big of one.

(01:01:25):
It is the schools, the over five hundred schools that
are members of the WIAA, getting together on an annual
basis and voting on things like this, And at the
end of the day, that's what happened. This passed at
the annual meeting because almost seventy percent of the member's
schools here in Wisconsin voted for this to become a thing.

(01:01:45):
And I'm impressed because they thought it through and it
appears that they did it right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Okay, was there change in the literature or the law?
I guess that was presented to these schools. I'm missing
the correct word there.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 6 (01:02:01):
No, I don't know that there was a ton of change.
We talked to Stephanie about that. This was actually voted
on and turned down last year, and it came back
this year. A few small pieces were changed, But the
moral of the story here, I think is that if
we were to take three seconds to look at what's
going on at the NCAA level, we would have all,

(01:02:23):
as sports fans, appreciated guardrails instead, that is what it is. Well,
that's not the way the WIAA went about this, and
you can actually find it on the wia website WIAAWI
dot org. Within the website you can find the program

(01:02:43):
if you will, and all of the things that the
WIAA Annual Meeting talked about in their twenty twenty five notes,
and in there on page thirteen and fourteen, you can
see every last word of what this rule change that
allows student leads here in Wisconsin to participate in name,
Image and Lightness deals. And they did it well because

(01:03:06):
they put a lot of guardrails in place that don't
exist at the NCAA level, and there are rules and
requirements and clear language that you cannot do certain things
and maintain your eligibility as a high school athlete. And
so I think, rather than just allow this to become
whatever it may, the wia member schools, it's an opportunity

(01:03:32):
to go, wait a minute, we can control this thing
from the get go. Let's do this right. And that
appears to be what they did.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
Okay, I want to get to you in a little
bit about your high school background, then your family and
everything with that. But real quick is the everyone says
there's a slippery slope to this and this is the
beginning of the end of whatever it is. Do you
think that Wisconsin did everything right and got it figured
out this time the first time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
In the old time?

Speaker 6 (01:04:00):
It seems like to the best of their ability, in
my opinion, here's the hard part. Well, but it doesn't
have to be as fluid as I think it had
become at the NCAA. Right, there's always going to be changed,
right this This will end up at some point down
the road with somebody battling that you can't tell me
what I can and can't do with my life and

(01:04:22):
whatever the case may be in regards to their specific situation.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
But there's a saying that goes, if.

Speaker 6 (01:04:29):
You're not growing, you're dying. And I think that if
we as a state, and specifically the WIAA members schools
would have just allowed this to play out and not
been proactive. Then I think they knew what they were
going to get and it was going to be the
proverbial mess that things naturally evolve into. And so this

(01:04:52):
will be fluid and at the end of the day,
we're not going to be able to hold other people accountable,
only ourselves. We asked Stephanie specifically about that, what are
the guardrails and who implements the guardrails? And each member, school, coaches,
student athletes, and parents sign agreements that say we're gonna

(01:05:13):
follow the rules. Rules are not always followed. People break
the rules. They're gonna break the rules with this. But
maybe the point is there are specific rules in place
that refuse to allow a student athlete to here's an example.
They can't use their marks or the logos of their school,

(01:05:33):
the conference, or the WIAA. They can't allow any NIL
activities to interfere with academics. They can't miss practice, they
can't miss competition or other team obligations. They can't hire
an agent. They can't the schools and their employees can't
help facilitate the NIL deals for the students. I'm paraphrasing,

(01:05:54):
by the way, from an article with the Wisconsin Public
Radio Network on a great article on this. The author
is Korean Hesse. You can find it if you search
for it on Google. She did a great job of
weeding through all of the verbiage within the agreement and
kind of laying it out for I don't know people
like you and I that maybe don't have the legal

(01:06:14):
eese ability to read through stuff like that. All of
that to say, there's guardrails in place, there are rules
in place, and hopefully people see the benefit of And
this is the way I put in Andrew. At the
end of the day, this is a job. We're allowing
these kids to get a job where their talents will thrive.
If they're talented play in a saxophone or a drummer

(01:06:35):
or a debate team. For years, those students have been allowed,
with no ramifications, to sublet their talents out or freelance
and be in a band, and that band can charge
a price. It's just allowing student athletes to do the
same now at the high school level. And I get
the inkst we all get the inks. Every last one

(01:06:55):
of us can understand and appreciate where the inks comes from.
Looking at how college athletics has changed, hopefully perfectly. This
is not giving me the same at the high school
level because they did it right the first time.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
I think there are other states that didn't do it
correctly from the beginning. I want to say Arizona's one
of those states that just kind of jumped on right away.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
All right, let's jump to you real quick. Though you
grew up here in the state.

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
I want you to paint the picture of your growing
you growing up and how you got to where you
are now. But how did high school sports have a
factor in what you did, you know, beyond your point
of high school into adulthood.

Speaker 6 (01:07:36):
Well, ironically, when I went to high school at Johnson
Creek High School, Johnson Creek is what I call it,
but the majority of people listening probably noticed Johnson Creek.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
You've got a lot of listeners out there right now.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
Listen, and then they call it the Creek.

Speaker 8 (01:07:48):
I would assume I would say Crick then I would
do Creek High School, all right. And I got my
first job in radio when I was sixteen, and so
I think what was cool about that and how.

Speaker 6 (01:07:57):
It affected my high school athletics performance was everything was
understood that my high school athletics my extra curriculars and
my studies come first, and I'm able to work at
the radio station at night after practice or nights where
we don't have practice, or on the weekends and so on,
and that I think that was great from a coach
perspective as well as a school perspective. They understand that

(01:08:21):
kids are going to have to work if they still
chose right. I mean, I didn't have to get a job,
but I had to get a job. And at the
end of the day, what's that there was no NIL, Well,
there was no NL. I probably wasn't good enough either.
I was tall my playing career in terms of basketball.
I'm six foot eight now. My senior season at Craik,
I was six eight, two hundred pounds, silk and wet.

(01:08:43):
My freshman year in college playing basketball, I put on
thirty five pounds, mostly muscle. But I was I was
young for my class, sure, but I loved playing high
school athletics. I played football for two years and then
I grew something like three and a half inches in
a matter of six months, and I couldn't and chew
gum at the same time, and I thought, you know,
let's just protect the knees maybe not do this football thing.

(01:09:05):
I was scrawny. It wasn't for me. I didn't do
a lot of weightlifting in high school like so many
other athletes, especially today. Do I mean? My oldest son
is six one two forty. He lifts weights every single
day and he just turned fifteen. It's impressive to watch he.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
Is, but impressive human being.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
I can only imagine Roady on a football field.

Speaker 6 (01:09:25):
Yeah, he's It's fun to watch.

Speaker 8 (01:09:27):
It is.

Speaker 6 (01:09:28):
It's cool to see kids, uh turn it on for
lack of better terms. So they hit the court or
the field, they become something else in terms of competition.
I love watching that. But anyway, four year player for basketball.
We were in the smallest conference in one of the
smallest schools in the States, so I remember vividly.

Speaker 7 (01:09:47):
Though.

Speaker 6 (01:09:48):
We lost our regional final my senior year of high
school to the Burlington Catholic Central, who went on to
win the state tournament. So I lost my last game
in high school to the state champs. So I guess
I can take that for what it's worth. But I
love playing sports in high school. It was great.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
Your brother played football for Lance Leopold, but also Bobresowitz
before that, and I know this is a this is
a high school show, but we talk a lot of
college because a lot of kids end up going to
Whitewater that Mike has on the show. Do you have
any memories from when your brother played? I mean, that
was amazing. He was a part of the ascent of
Whitewater football to the point where it climaxed in two

(01:10:29):
thousand and seven with that first national championship team.

Speaker 2 (01:10:32):
What memories do you have a watching your brother play.

Speaker 6 (01:10:35):
I have all of them, and some of them are
foggy because we tailgated like crazy back then. Man Like,
it was the time of my life, truly, watching my
brother play college athletics at a very competitive level. He
was a four year starter. I believe he was a
two time All American, went to the national championship three
years in a row. Think about that. He played in

(01:10:56):
the National championship three years in a row, lost to
Mount what was it? Mount Satton?

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
What is it? Mount Union? The Raiders?

Speaker 6 (01:11:06):
Mount Union. I forgot him on purpose, but then we
got him his senior year and finally took the championship
trophy away from them. I was there for his junior
and senior year games. Unfortunately, I couldn't travel the year
that he went the first time. It broke my heart
and I will never forget watching that team finally, after
three times take home that trophy, that Division III National

(01:11:29):
Championship trophy. Whitewater was such a special place for this
to develop like that, And I understand that there's a
lot of opinion out there about whether Whitewater or some
other D three schools here in the state that are
in the weak, should they be at the Division III level.
But at the end of the day, those kids had
to work hard to get to where they were. My
brother played his senior year Andrew at six seven three twenty.

(01:11:53):
He was a beast and it was a blast to watch.
But I have so many amazing memories. We used to
get there as early as the parking lot will allow.
We would oftentimes buy a half barrel. We would start
a little bonfire in the really cold months of the year.
It was an absolute last There's very little that I

(01:12:14):
can compare Warhawk football to in terms of my sports
memories as.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
Someone that worked on that staff. What would have been
ten years after your brother won a national title, hearing
about the parties and everything in the parking lot that
I was unable to be a part of because I
was coaching, which was okay. It's awesome to hear them
from you and other people, and I've been able to
experience them since I have not been on the staff
since twenty eighteen. I love Whitewater. It is a special

(01:12:40):
place in my heart. I hope at some point here
I can continue to give back to them in a
way that they have given to me.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
And they don't even realize that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
The university and the football program for that matter.

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
Trevor, I appreciate you, man.

Speaker 6 (01:12:51):
Yeah, I appreciate you having me on. I was just
going to say, I owe my life to Whitewater.

Speaker 5 (01:12:54):
My brother played there, I met my wife there, my
brother in law went there.

Speaker 6 (01:13:02):
Ahead the time of my life. Playing in Whitewater. I
didn't play sports, I didn't go to school there, but
I did a lot of play. It was a blast.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
I love white Water me as well.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
Trevor Thomas of the Inside Wisconsin Show. You also hear
him on ninety seven through the game. He fills in
for a lot of our hosts when they need a
vacation and or a sick day.

Speaker 2 (01:13:20):
Trevor, enjoy the rest of your weekend and go Brewers, Right, yeah, man,
go Bruce.

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
That was Trevor Thomas of the Inside Wisconsin Show also
fills in ninety seven to three the game. He's got
great perspective living up in the Fox Valley. That's one
thing I look forward to continuing talking about with Trevor
amongst all Wisconsin sports. Check out that podcast Real Quick
with John Anderson and him. They do a great job
of guests not only sports but entertainment in the state

(01:13:50):
of Wisconsin. People that have not only played here, but
are born here, have roots here. It's a great great
podcast Inside Wisconsin Show. Back to Trevor and living in
the Fox Valley. Living in the Fox Valley, I never
grew up there. I never really recruited there when I
worked at e W. Whitewater Football. I'm interested to learn

(01:14:10):
from Trevor the differences between schools in the Fox Valley
as opposed to schools in the Milwaukee area. I know
he grew up in Johnson Creek, Creek, whichever you say,
but regardless, he has a great pulse not only on
the sports up there, but here in Milwaukee as well.
I look forward to to those conversations with him and
on the other side. We're going to play a couple

(01:14:31):
of clips from his conversation with Stephanie Hauser yesterday. He
kind of teased it earlier. The WIAA has made a
decision for high school kids. You're gonna hear it right
from Stephanie Howser the wi AA. Next right here on
the Varsity Butz High School Sports Show on Fox Sports
nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (01:14:53):
My name's Andrew Ludwick. I'm in from Mike McGivern. We'll
be right back. One of my favorites coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:14:57):
With waffle House by the Jonas Brothers. If you'd told
me a couple of years ago that I'd have been
jamming to a song by the Jonas Brothers on the.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
Radio out to College of Crazy, don't get stressed. Big conversations.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
There were some deep conversations with the WIAA and.

Speaker 2 (01:15:17):
Its member schools.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
Trevor Thomas, who we had on last segment from the
Inside Wisconsin Show, did a great job of chatting with
Stephanie Hauser of the wia but before I forget, this
is the Varsity Bludz High School Sports Show, presented by
your local Pick and Save in Metro market stores right
here on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.

(01:15:41):
I was thinking during the conversation with Trevor last segment,
how important I think it is for us to play
that or portion of that interview that Trevor and Nick
Bruzuwitz on the Mike Keller Show had with Stephanie Hauser
of the WIAA and where this name, image and likeness aame,

(01:16:01):
image and likeness is going in the state of Wisconsin.
Here's a little excerpt. I'll be back on the other
side to say goodbye, but let's listen to Stephanie Hauser
on The Mike Heller Show yesterday on ninety seven through
of the.

Speaker 8 (01:16:13):
Game, Stephanie, I talked to Ed Nauseum about this yesterday
in the show, and I wanted to make sure that
people understood how this came about, why this came about,
now that it was the member schools that voted for
this last Friday, and just not to get I don't know,
for lack of better terms, they're undies in a bundle
when they see the words nil connected with high school athletics.

(01:16:36):
So can you give us a cliff notes of just
how this came about? And then will bounce a bunch
of bunch of questions off of you as we go.

Speaker 9 (01:16:45):
You bet, Let's start with the first and the most obvious,
misunderstood piece of the WA and that is the decisions
for the membership are being made right here in the office.
Most people just made that automatic assumption. But if you
didn't get a chance to watch that annual meeting live
last Friday, it is available for anybody to watch in

(01:17:06):
the recorded version on our website. All five hundred and
thirteen members schools are invited to come and be part
of that democratic process.

Speaker 7 (01:17:13):
To vote on really big ticket items.

Speaker 9 (01:17:16):
And so it's a beautiful thing to watch the membership
come together and make big decisions for themselves. So that's
where I'd like to start, just to make sure people
understand how it comes to be.

Speaker 7 (01:17:28):
The second thing I'd say is probably you're right.

Speaker 9 (01:17:32):
I do think people really get uptight and feel that
anks when they hear about attaching NIL to high school
amateur athletes, especially when we see what has played out
at that next level over recent years.

Speaker 7 (01:17:46):
But I believe that our membership really worked hard to put.

Speaker 9 (01:17:53):
Stoppers out there, you know, things to kind of keep
it in check and to really preserve the integrity about
what high school athletics is all about. Well at the
same time, allowing high school athletes to do with some
of their counterparts in the fine arts and performing arts.

Speaker 7 (01:18:08):
Can already do.

Speaker 8 (01:18:09):
Yeah, that's a really good points. We talked yesterday that
at the end of the day, it's a job. I mean,
it's a job. And if you see the opportunity to
make an earning in whatever the case may be, as
long as the parameters are followed, then you should be
able to do that. The website WIAA wi dot org.
There you can watch that annual meeting that Stephanie is

(01:18:30):
talking about, and you can also go and find the
twenty twenty five annual Report, pages thirteen and fourteen. In
this annual report lays out the entire rules of eligibility
that the name, Image and Lightness platform allows Wisconsin's high
school student athletes to have. What's interesting about this, and

(01:18:50):
you mentioned it there.

Speaker 6 (01:18:51):
A moment ago.

Speaker 8 (01:18:52):
These are the rules, requirements, boundaries, guardrails that the NCAA
doesn't have, and I think everybody that watches sports at
the collegiate level, a high school level, or a pro
level would agree it could use a guardrail or two.
So props to the WIA member schools for voting it

(01:19:15):
down last year. Let's remember that this came up in
conversation at last year's annual meeting, it was voted down.
A lot of conversation happened within the last year, numerous
changes were made to the proposal, it was put to vote,
and this year it passed. Stephanie, what changed from last
year to this year that made the members' schools go,
I like it, let's do it well.

Speaker 9 (01:19:37):
Maybe to your surprise, very little changed on the language itself.

Speaker 7 (01:19:42):
We made a few small tweaks where the membership had concern,
but overall, the language did not change. What did change
was the amount of education that members were provided from
one year ago to this year. I think, much like
a lot of the public, there were still those that
were that informed that really thought it was going to
reflect exactly what we're seeing happen in college and it's

(01:20:04):
so so different.

Speaker 9 (01:20:06):
So that was the biggest piece, was just that education.
And it passed with almost a seventy percent approval ratings.
So that showed the confidence in our membership that they
feel much more comfortable than they did.

Speaker 7 (01:20:18):
One year ago with what it actually is going to
mean for high school.

Speaker 10 (01:20:22):
Kids, Stephanie, when you consider, I guess from my perspective,
I just wasn't familiar with what the prior system was
and what this change is for kids because people are
like high schoolers were always able to get jobs. What
does this change? Right, kids are always able to get
paid by jobs. So what is the core root change

(01:20:45):
that I should take away from this?

Speaker 7 (01:20:47):
I think the core root change would be yes and no.
They were limited.

Speaker 9 (01:20:52):
They were not able to get paid to do something
that specifically related to them being an athlete in the past,
and now they can, and so it has opened up
a lot of new opportunities for kids that have those
types of talents.

Speaker 7 (01:21:07):
You know, it was it's a growing change across the nation.

Speaker 9 (01:21:11):
I believe we just became the forty first or forty
second high school association to now adopt and expand those
allowances for high school kids. So again, you know, it
comes back to the notion that the law of the land,
the Supreme Court says that high school athletics is a privilege,
it is not a right, and so high school associations,

(01:21:32):
you know, have had sets of rules that stood very
strongly behind that if you sign up to be a
high school athlete, there are certain parameters that you must follow,
and this is one of those that over time, I
just believe people really no longer feel like it's necessary
to put that tide of restriction on what types of
jobs that kids can have if they are related to

(01:21:52):
their athletic abilities.

Speaker 8 (01:21:54):
Stephanie Houser, the executive director of the WIAA, joining us
here on the Mike Heller Show Statewide on the Game
Radio Network. It's Trevor Thomas from the Inside Wisconsin Show
filling in for Mike. Stephanie, I think you hit it
on the head there. High school athletics are a privilege,
not a right, and I think if we look at

(01:22:14):
how this is shaped, there are a lot of rules
where that privilege can be taken away from you if
you don't follow the rules. There's opinion out there that
this opened the floodgates and it's gonna be a mess,
and wait till the first court case and so on
and so forth. What policies, procedures and maybe plans does

(01:22:35):
the WIAA and the members schools have in place to
hold student athletes in some cases, unfortunately, parents, coaches, and
schools in check when it comes to following these rules.

Speaker 9 (01:22:49):
Well, maybe another misunderstood piece of WIA and how eligibility
works and things like that, is that our member schools
belong disassociation voluntarily. They don't have to be a part
of the WA if they don't choose to be so.
And when you do, you agree to follow the rules
that those five hundred and fift thirteen members schools have established.

(01:23:12):
Parents and student athletes also agree annually to follow those
rules and also follow the rules of the school the
athletic Code of Conduct. As you said, those are things
that show that it is indeed still a privilege to
be a part of that. And if you don't want
to follow by those extra set of the rules, you
don't have to.

Speaker 7 (01:23:31):
That is your choice. But then the opportunity to where
your school's jersey is not there. It's not afforded.

Speaker 9 (01:23:38):
So I believe that the membership would tell you that
certainly this does not guarantee that there won't be a
lawsuit or a legislative challenge. Certainly that does not, But
I think our membership feels better about the odds of
that not happening now because of the action that.

Speaker 7 (01:23:54):
They just took.

Speaker 2 (01:23:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:23:55):
I was going to say, I think you got out
ahead of that, if I'm not mistaken, And that's one
of the things that the NCUAA didn't do was attempt
to have this conversation in a meaningful manner, get on
the same page, for lack of better terms, and get
out ahead of some of that legislation. I think that
was pretty much the goal, am I right?

Speaker 4 (01:24:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:24:12):
Absolutely, Again, I've said so many times when I get
the membership all on run room, I believe wholeheartedly there's
no one better in the state of Wisconsin to decide
what's best for high school athletics than those five hundred.

Speaker 7 (01:24:26):
And thirteen school leaders in that room. It is unique.

Speaker 9 (01:24:30):
Education based atletics is different than youth sports, club sports,
college sports, professional sports.

Speaker 7 (01:24:36):
It's unique and different.

Speaker 9 (01:24:38):
So to have our member schools driving those conversations and
making those decisions, I believe is vital to preserving high
school athletics how we know it.

Speaker 10 (01:24:48):
Sophani, How well equipped are you guys to kind of
govern this moving forward, because it's a lot of balls
and a lot of courts to maintain that these teams
in these schools are being compliant with what these new
rules are like the nc DOUBLEA has on it and
just said, you know what, we're not going to do anything.
We're just gonna let everything happen, and then on the
backside try and make some changes.

Speaker 4 (01:25:06):
Like it.

Speaker 10 (01:25:07):
It's going to be a lot of different schools and
a lot of different places. How do you maintain that
these rules are being followed?

Speaker 7 (01:25:14):
That's another great question.

Speaker 9 (01:25:16):
Fortunately, when the NCUBA has done this out in front
of all of us, so we've been able to watch
and learn.

Speaker 7 (01:25:21):
So but again a key piece of difference between nc
double A and high school.

Speaker 9 (01:25:27):
Associations is we don't monitor eligibility in this office. The
NBA has an eligibility center. They handle those things at
the high school level. Each school is responsible for the
eligibility of all their student athletes, so again ultimately the
parents and the student athletes, so the guardians, they are

(01:25:48):
the ones responsible for the eligibility of their student athletes,
and then.

Speaker 7 (01:25:51):
The school assists with that. So those those athletic directors
will be the first go to for any questions.

Speaker 9 (01:25:59):
That families and parents have, and certainly our office is
always here to give our schools the support that they need.

Speaker 7 (01:26:05):
But that will be done.

Speaker 8 (01:26:06):
Locally, Stephanie, we have some questions coming in from the
Nick lay Law talkin text line eight seven seven seven
ninety four one nine seven three, and you mentioned it
earlier Tony and Oak Creek and I believe Pep's Pizza
Steve both are talking about other members of other teams
in high school being paid for there for lack of

(01:26:27):
better terms performance. In regards to opportunities, it's not pay
to play, it's not pay to perform. It's just you
are gifted in this certain category and therefore should be
able to capitalize if you so chose, and within the
rules do debate team members or band members or I
don't know any other group member have the opportunity to

(01:26:48):
do that now without losing their quote unquote eligibility. Was
athletics the only ones that were not allowed.

Speaker 7 (01:26:55):
To do that.

Speaker 9 (01:26:57):
To my knowledge, I would say probably in again, and
it's because the five hundred and thirteen schools belong to
a membership that everyone says we're gonna play by the
same set of rules. I don't know that that exists
in the music world or the performing arts world, but
in the athletics world, that's what the membership says.

Speaker 7 (01:27:17):
They say, if you're going to block this membership, we're
gonna play by the same set of rules.

Speaker 1 (01:27:21):
That was Stephanie Howser, executive director of the WIAA, on
The Mike Keller Show yesterday on ninety seven to three
of the Game.

Speaker 2 (01:27:30):
I thought it was important to play that back.

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
There's so much there to unpack, and unfortunately that is
going to happen to be for Mike and next week
on the show of the Varsity Blitz High School Sports
Show presented right here by your local Pick and Save
and Metro Market stores on Fox Sports nine twenty. I
want to give a shout out to or a thank
you and a shout out for that matter, to Mike mcgiffern.

(01:27:53):
Thank you for the opportunity to fill in. It's been
absolutely awesome. Spencer Williams, thank you for producing. Shout out
to Gregory John for his help as well. Thank you
to our guests today, Hunter Bombguard, Steve Drobot, Joe Brannon,
and Trevor Thomas.

Speaker 2 (01:28:07):
My name is Andrew Ludwig.

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
You can hear me normally on Zaban Butch ninety seven
to three the Game Monday through Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
This has been awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:28:13):
This has been the Varsity Blitz high school sports show
right here on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio
app

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