Full Show - 6/21/2025

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, June 21st, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now welcome into the Varsity Blitz. High School at Sports
show is always presented by your local Pick and Save
and Metro Market stores on Fox Sports nine twenty and
your iHeartRadio app coming live from the Donovan and Jorgans
and Heating and Cooling studios. Who we need them over here.
It's like an icebox here and thank goodness, we've got
a number of people in studio with me. A year

(00:23):
ago during this time of year, right football season. I'm
talking high school football, basketball, I'm talking high school basketball, baseball.
We talk baseball and softball, and now that's done right,
So state championships are done. In fact, the second hour
of today's show, we're going to talk to three coaches
that one state championships. The head baseball coach and Muskigo

(00:44):
will be in studio with me. The head softball coach
from Kakana we're gonna call. And the head of baseball
coach from New Berlin, Eisenhauer, we will talk to. He's
out of town. One a state championship. So the second
hour we're gonna be talking baseball and softball. This time year,
I talk about things that don't people in my industry

(01:04):
don't talk enough about and a year ago a woman
I went to high school with, Tonna Rendazzo, her grandson
and Paul Koppotelowski. Their grandson was involved in underwater hockey.
I didn't know anything about underwater hockey. We spent an
hour talking about the importance of underwater hockey at the height,
at the college level. That helped her grandson from oconom

(01:27):
walk and he's a really good dude and he fell
in love with that sport and what it did for
him personally. And so I'm on Facebook and another woman
that I went to high school with, and I tell people,
Mary Greeb, and I didn't hang out a lot in
high school because she was part of the smart group
and they didn't let me in anywhere near her group.
And she was just so impressive in high school. And

(01:49):
my wife, Terry, kind of was in her group. And
I started looking at some of the things that she
was promoted and she was so proud of. And I
had not heard of Destiny Imagination. So I reached out
and Mary was like, Okay, is this really the guy
went to high school with. Are you trying to sell
me something? I said, no, Berry just called me. I

(02:09):
want to talk about this, And here's what. First of all,
it's great to see you again. How are you.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Really great, Mike? Thanks for having us.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Here's the cool part about this. As a thirty six
years I coached basketball, and as a basketball coach, we
look for things, skill sets that we can get to
our student athletes that they can carry over as they
become adults. Right, you put them in difficult situations and
watch how they react. You want them to be able

(02:38):
to work. They don't have to love everybody they work with,
but they have to find out how can I work
through this process? We set goals for them, and we
try to get them to reach goals, right, and sometimes
they're not going to like that, but that's okay. We're
going to get them uncomfortable to get them comfortable. And
then I'm reading about the things that you guys do.

(02:59):
What the process right? What the mission statement for this?
And I don't know anything about this. And my six grandkids,
every single one of them, from the fifteen year old
to the one year old. There is something that you
guys do that I think that they would learn from
and be better as adults and skill set in what

(03:21):
they're going to do. Whatever that is into the future,
and I said, please come in. You sent me a
message that put tears in my eyes. You said, look,
we work with kids that are looking sometimes for that
niche and we where they end up after spending time
through this process is incredible to me. And I begged you, Mary,

(03:44):
please come in. Let me highlight, promote and celebrate what
you guys do for not only these kids, but these families.
And I thank you so much for this. Talk to
me a little bit about how you got involved in
Imagination Destination and how this thing started got.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
My oldest daughter did it in elementary school and we
knew nothing about it at the time either, and we
kind of followed her through her year. Very impressed with
the program only because we found out that this is
completely kid driven. It is not directed by adults or
any outside people. They have to come up with solutions

(04:27):
to these challenges that they work on entirely on their own.
Otherwise it's considered interference which is not allowed. But it
gets the kids on a team to collaborate with their ideas.
I mean, they work together. They have to learn time management,
they have to learn to follow a budget, and most

(04:49):
of all, they learn how to creatively come up with
some very amazing solutions that most people would just not
even think of.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
On your website, Vision, Mission, Vision, Values, and Destination. Imagination
dot org is where you're gonna want to go. What
jumped off the page for me was the values right collaboration. Again,
looking at it through the lens of a sports coach,
right collaboration, respect, stewardship, perseverance, and integrity are all buzzwords

(05:24):
for guys like me in a locker room. And I'm
looking at this going there's so much more. I think
this is more valuable than being on a sports team
because the public speaking part, the presentation part, the mind
part of Look, it's not because I lift more weights
than somebody, or I jump higher or I can hit

(05:44):
a jump shot. This is you have to be involved
in a full team. You've got to be able to
bring something to the table. Years ago they talked in
the education world about outcome based education. You know me,
You remember me at mess I will have done great
because I want to got on your team and let
you do all the work and said, look I got
any because Mary Grief is so darn smart and she

(06:07):
did all the work and put my name on it.
That's not what this is. You have to be involved,
and you've got to be able to bring ideas, be
able to work and collaborate. And then the respect part,
the stewardship part, the respect part for me, is we
treat all people with fairness, kindness, consideration. That doesn't always
happen in the world that I used to live in
as a basketball coach. Right, Yeah, absolutely, And that's a

(06:31):
big part of what you guys believe.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
And the skills that the kids learn through doing this,
and you know, on this younger level, they learn skills
that are for people. Future employers are looking for these
same skills. They want somebody who has on the spot thinking,
can work through a problem much quicker, but work with

(06:55):
other people. You know, there's no I in team. It's
just we're a team.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
There is a me. That's what my players used to say.
But there is a me, and I'd be like, that's
not where I'm going. And the definition of team is
two or more horses pull in a similar direction for
a common goal. That's what these kids do. Who the
adults that we have is this, Heather, this is Brandi's
brandis I'm sorry, I don't have your name I'm sorry. Brandis,
It's nice to meet you. Brandis. What do you do

(07:22):
for this organization?

Speaker 4 (07:25):
I am. I take the role of being a team
manager or essentially a coach for my teams that I have.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
How long have you been involved in it?

Speaker 4 (07:36):
Well, goodness, three or four years now?

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Officially? Hey, if somebody asks you for the reader's digest, right,
the elevator speech, the elevator pitch on what you guys
do at Destination Imagination and what it does for kids?
What do you tell.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
Them promote them to be successful independent leaders as kids
within our society.

Speaker 5 (08:04):
Like it's that's.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
A mic drop. What you did that right off? And
I didn't give you any I get you asked. What
questions are you gonna ask you? I have no idea,
But that's a perfect answer for that, because again we're
looking at look in our community. There there are kids
that fall by the wayside, and and I don't want
that for any kids, especially kids. You know, my grandkids.

(08:29):
I showed you pictures of this, and there are kids
in this group of six that are very sports driven
and other kids that are not. And kids, how do
we get them involved in things where they can use
their mind?

Speaker 6 (08:43):
Right?

Speaker 1 (08:43):
They can use their hands, they can they have to
learn how to public speak, which is a big fear.
That was never a fear for me, by the way,
Mary Green and yep, hush lady, but that part I
never really got. But this is so helpful for these
kids in a lot of different areas. How does this
get How do you find out what the project is?

(09:05):
How is that standard for everybody around the country? Is
that you have the project for twenty twenty six and
this is what these kids are going to get involved?
And then is there a competition?

Speaker 7 (09:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Yeah, So Destination Imagination picks they have seven categories that
they work within, and they pick what the challenge for
each category is going to be every year, and when
the teams come together, they decide as a team what
challenge they're going to do. So, for instance, I had
two teams this year. One challenge that one of my

(09:40):
older kids did was the Fine Arts Challenge and my
younger team did Scientific.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
So there's a number of options and then as a
team they choose which one they want to go and
then let's talk about the Fine Arts one. That's what
they did this year. Talk about from start to finish
was the finished project and where did you present it?

Speaker 4 (10:04):
So the finished project was they had a minimalist basis challenge. Okay,
this essentially cut their budget in half and within they
had to come up with a skit, include aspects of
minimalism and tell a story. And they create the skit.
They create a way of technology. My team designed a

(10:27):
horse that lit up, did all the electrical work everything themselves.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
How many kids on the team?

Speaker 4 (10:35):
You can have up to seven? Because team we had
six this year?

Speaker 1 (10:38):
And and where do where are these kids? Are they at?
The older kids at the high school level?

Speaker 4 (10:43):
Yes, this is my high school.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
And how do you find Are they all from the
same high school?

Speaker 8 (10:48):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, what high school?

Speaker 9 (10:50):
Is it?

Speaker 4 (10:50):
Germantown?

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Hey? Co Warhawks?

Speaker 6 (10:52):
Right?

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Is that who they are? Still? Is that you?

Speaker 10 (10:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, I'm sorry? Is sir your name Brian Torgersen? Hey, Ran,
It's nice to meet you. Talk about what your job
is and what and how you got involved in this.
So if you could come a little.

Speaker 11 (11:07):
Closer, I'm a product manager or yeah, you're gonna have
to hold it for our team as well for a
high school team this year, which happens to have my
son on the team. Actually took I've been involved with
destination Imagination in one form or another since nineteen eighty nine.
So actually I used to be a student involved in

(11:28):
the program.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Really so a boy can't come home.

Speaker 6 (11:31):
Right, that's right? Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Good for you. Do you remember being that agent, being
involved in this and the like? You don't know that
you're learning life lessons, right, you don't think about that.
I didn't know where my socks were now seventeen. So
these kids, they they are learning these these lessons by
having fun. And then when you, when you get a
little older, you start thinking back on that. Is that

(11:56):
the reason you wanted to get back involved, to get
your kids involved?

Speaker 6 (11:59):
Absolutely?

Speaker 11 (11:59):
I mean, so I started when I was in third grade.
Me and my brother were both on the first team
in our city that you know when we first had
the pro which city was in Lake Geneva in Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Let's go Badgers, right right there you go? And yeah,
I'm sorry, I don't know my niece and nephew's names,
but I know Lake Jeeva. Yeah, Monroe Cheesemakers. I mean really,
I know. Rod Crewe hit three eleven his last year
with Minnesota Twins. This is the reason I needed you
in here because I need to expand my horizons. I'm sorry.

Speaker 11 (12:30):
On that note, I want to throw a quick shout
out to our late Geneva Badgers high school baseball team,
which came real close to winning they yesterday.

Speaker 6 (12:38):
Was it upset, but we're proud of them. None the last.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Well, I'm a huge Matt Hensler fan. That head football
coach is one of my favorite people. Okay, so you
guys were part of the first you do your parents
got you involved?

Speaker 11 (12:51):
Yes, so my parents got us involved in grade school
and my father Dave Torgerson, who's here with us as well.
Hello Davectually, we're actually sort of co running the program
for our community now together, which is also kind of cool.
But back in nineteen ninety one, I think my father

(13:12):
Dave took over running the program for the Lake Nieva
School District and we've been involved with it ever since.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
How long has it been going on?

Speaker 3 (13:23):
It started back in the late eighties. Actually it was
part of Honesty of the Mind, which some people have
heard of. Yep, as they kind of they ended up
kind of going their separate ways, and Destination Imagination was
a branch off of that.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
We are ten thousand teams worldwide.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yes, there's it's a global program.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
There's forty five hundred teams within the United States and
we spread the wealth to all the kids around.

Speaker 6 (13:55):
Well.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
One of the one of the lines on the website
that caught my attention just so you know, and I thought,
oh boy, this is exactly what I think this should be.
We believe and again this is on Destination Imagination dot
org on who we are. We believe that every child
deserves the opportunity to tell their story, share the unique creations,

(14:17):
and be celebrated for what they've accomplished. And I'm telling
you for me and what I do on this high
school show with the current Electric Superhero the Week and
the Pick and Safe student Athlete the Week in the
what I found Mary is there there are kids that
do incredible things that nobody talks about. And I think
what's happened in the world of media is they are

(14:40):
so focused on let's tell all the bad things. Right,
there's this going on in this neighborhood and in this school.
They're they're throwing this book out of the library, and
we can't have all of that stuff when there are kids,
and we're going to get to these kids coming that
need to be celebrated and they need the opportunity to
tell their story and then learn skill sets that are

(15:01):
going to help them as they get older. And I
think that's so important, Ryan, when you look back as
a third, fourth, fifth grader to what you are now
as an adult. The skills talk about the idea of creating,
working with other people, working with kids that maybe you
don't get along or agree with, but you understand that
you've got to work together's team. How much of that

(15:22):
have you carried over into your adulthood.

Speaker 11 (15:24):
I would say that everything that I learned from Destination
Imagination nearly everything I carry into my career actually as
a product designer, so I was exposed to the creative
process through this program. Right had to figure out a
way to work with kids I didn't know, come up
with a solution together to actually it was pretty challenging

(15:44):
to come up with a solution that fit the rules.
And then we had to learn how to build things.
I didn't know how to build things as a third grader.
I mean I knew how to pick things apart or
great things.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
How much of you thanked your dad over the years
for I mean, look, I think he should be in
fifteen percent of your check. But that's just me and
I'm his new agent. So that's what you and I
were to talk about in the future. But I think
that this destination imagination, I think for kids that want
to learn how not only break things but build them

(16:17):
back up and then work with people, the public speaking
part that present and then hanging out. Look, these AAU
basketball teams that I coach with my son on, they
never talk about all the tournaments that we won. They
talk about the travel part, about throwing him in a
pool and me getting mad, and them stealing pizza away
from my hotel door. That's what they talk about. And

(16:38):
they see each other and they go, hey, do you
remember when we were in Fort Wayne and we did this?
And these kids now get a chance to do that
kind of stuff with kids from not only their high school,
but all over I didn't know, all over the world. Yes,
I love that, And I'm sure that you still have
memories with your brother about that kind of stuff.

Speaker 6 (16:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (16:56):
Actually, in fact, the first year we were involved with
the program, we made it to the Global finals and
I thought, oh, this is fantastic, and I actually never
made it back. It was pretty challenging to get back there.
But my high school team this year made it to
Global Finals for the second year in a row and
one second place for the.

Speaker 6 (17:15):
Second year in a row.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Congratulations.

Speaker 6 (17:17):
That was a big That was a big achievement for them.
It took a lot of work.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
We've got to get over the top. Now let's go
get let's go get first place. That's next year, right. Yeah.
And you know what I love too, is this is competitive.
I mean, this is extremely competitive, and I love that well.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
And some people don't realize and I'm not trying to
really compare to a sports team or season, but these
team managers here.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
You were talked about competition.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
We have a regional competition that's generally in spring, and
those that qualified go to our state tournament in April,
and those qualifying teams go to the Global Finals tournament
that Ryan was speaking of, which is currently in Kansas City.
We have over six hundred teams from around the world
that come to that competition. But this is almost a

(18:05):
year long run. Then for these di I teams through
their competition, they start in the fall months in school
and if they go all through these levels of competition,
they run through the end of May.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Unbelievable. That's a long and these kids got it, got it.
They get together probably weekly, yes, weekly, Hey, Mary Grief,
thank you. You know what I'm gonna We're gonna go
to break and you're gonna stay here because I may
have more questions, but we're gonna kick you away. Thanks
for trusting me. You know, at the beginning of the
whole investment thing, you're like, is this really Mike McGivern

(18:39):
and and is this really your phone number? Because you
don't want somebody trying to sell you anything. And I
thank you so much for your help at setting this
thing up. I can tell the people here that are
and listening, but the people in studio right now, she
is so proud of the work that you guys do.
And we have talked and she goes, please highlight these
kids spend only a couple of minutes with me. I

(19:01):
don't need but these kids are doing such great work
and I'm so proud of them. And Mary, I can't
thank you enough for we could do a half hour ago.
You said, do we have an hour worth of stuff? Yes?
I got about four hours or of the questions for you.
But she is Mary Greeb Bayikowski. Look, she was a

(19:21):
Messmer grad s s Mer Messmer best by far I
didn't see at the golf outing. I'm sorry, that's okay. Yeah,
I'm a horrible golfer and I keep going, yeah, oh
I'm bad. I'm trying to get the sand.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
I'll find it.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
That's why we didn't play Sand Valley when I was
up in that area because my ball just automatically goes.
Can you get one of your guys to design me
a golf ball that won't go in the sand and water?
That's your next project, And I guess what, I got
a feeling that one of these kids could probably do that.
We're gonna get to a break. The other side of
the break as we're continuing to talk. There there is

(19:57):
if you go to destination imagine dot org, there is
a place to donate, and we're gonna I'm gonna have
a conversation I think with Mary right at the end
how this is funded. But if you're feeling led, a
lot of people that listen to the stuff that they do,
including my show Faith in the Zone that Arizon on
Sunday mornings from May to nine, people get in contact

(20:18):
with me. Let's say I really like that what they're doing.
How can I help? How can I donate? There's a
donate button right there Destination Imagination dot org. And do
not think you're going to spend two minutes on this website.
Go on the website and go to the about and
who we are and our impact and then team programs
in Global Finals. It's a really good website that tells

(20:41):
a story about Destination Imagination. Get to a break. On
the other side of the break, We're going to get
some of these kids that are involved in this to
talk about their their journey and I may ask them
their favorite memory of being part of Destination Imagination. This
is the Varsity Police High School Sports Show, presented by
Your Life Local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores,

(21:02):
only on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app.
Welcome by to talking to Mary Greeb about messmaring grandkids.
Spencer's like you better get going here the music is
gonna run out. Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High
School Sports Show, as always presented by your local Pick
and Save and Metro Market stores. We are talking today

(21:24):
and I just love this, this this whole group and
the more I spent on the website Destinationimagination dot org.
It just has all of for me, as a former
basketball coach, a lot of things that I think are
really important. This is just a different way for these
kids to get involved and do really cool things. And

(21:44):
we are joined now by a couple of students, and
I'm going to start with Cassie. Cassie, how are you today?

Speaker 5 (21:50):
I'm good?

Speaker 1 (21:50):
How are you good at Germantown?

Speaker 8 (21:52):
Girl?

Speaker 1 (21:52):
What year are you?

Speaker 5 (21:53):
I'm going into my senior year?

Speaker 8 (21:55):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Big year?

Speaker 7 (21:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (21:56):
You excited?

Speaker 5 (21:57):
I am. I'm really excited.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah. Would you know what's going on after your senior year?
Do you know yet?

Speaker 5 (22:03):
I'm going to go to college to become an elementary teacher.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
You are, You're going to so that servant leadership part.
You're going to give back and you're going to help kids.
They're good for you. Hey, the idea of being involved
in Destination Imagination, How long have you been involved?

Speaker 5 (22:17):
I've been involved since fifth grade, so around seven years,
give or take.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah. Do you love it?

Speaker 5 (22:22):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Do you think in the future you'll give back and
be a coach and be involved in this?

Speaker 5 (22:30):
Oh for sure.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah. If you could pick any college in the country.
What would be your first choice?

Speaker 5 (22:35):
Oh, I really don't know. I'm interested in Minnesota, twin Cities.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Okay, Yeah, I've got family members that went and never
came back like they loved it. They loved it so much.
This latin in the project that you've been evolved in
throughout the years, what's your favorite? Like you do when
you look back in your mind and go, oh, that
year for me was that was really fun to be
involved in.

Speaker 5 (22:58):
I would definitely say my sophomore year. We did fine
arts and we made some really cool sets with a
lot of like meaning behind it.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Hey, in the when you get what the project is,
do you lose sleep by thinking? As a coach? I
was lost sleep because I'm like, we should run this player,
do this zone or play band here? Do you as
a kid, go boy, I've got some great ideas on
this and then you've got to figure out how to
sell it to the group. Do you do? You know
what I'm saying? How important that is?

Speaker 5 (23:27):
Yeah, I've definitely spent a lot of time thinking about it,
just laid in my bed writing down notes.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah that's awesome. Hey, Liam, how you doing? Let's go
that way?

Speaker 6 (23:37):
Liam?

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yep, it's good, nice to meet you. What year are you?

Speaker 12 (23:41):
So?

Speaker 10 (23:41):
I am heading into my freshman year, so I'm just
starting out high school.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
So you're you just got done with eighth grade?

Speaker 10 (23:47):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (23:47):
And how long you've been involved?

Speaker 10 (23:49):
I've been involved since fourth grade, so I've been doing
this for about five years.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
And you're you're an athlete as well.

Speaker 10 (23:55):
Yes, I run cross country, but that's about it.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, No, that's that's good. My grandson's LCL and his
parents made him run cross country. He was not happy,
and then he fell in love with it. And I
don't understand it because I cramp up if I drive
like fifteen miles and you guys are running all this.
Where were you go to high school? Next year?

Speaker 10 (24:15):
I'm going to Badger High School.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
You are okay, and you'll run cross country and you'll
be involved in Destination Imagination. Tell me about when you
first got involved in this. Did you feel like nervous
to be involved in How hard was it for you
to start to add to the group at such an
early age.

Speaker 10 (24:33):
So when I first joined, I think my third grade
teacher recommended it to me. So the season was already starting.
So I joined in in fourth grade and THEDI community
with everyone here was actually really welcoming, so it was
easy to slide in. But since it was my first year,

(24:53):
I didn't know what was going on, right, but I did.
As I went on, I was able to provide a
lot of ideas to everyone. So my first year we
were we had to build a bridge out of playing cards, actually,
and I was going with my team and I was like, Oh,
this kind of architecture is cool. We should do like

(25:14):
a bridge in this design. We should design it with this,
we should use this amount of duct tape, we should
do all this. So my first bit was a little
rough because I didn't know what was going on, but
after that it was smooth sailing and I did. We
did really well.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Man, that's awesome. Move it over to Ethan. He is
so comfortable in this setting that he's here, y on,
and so I'm pointing at you. I love that. By
the way, Ethan, it is nice to meet you.

Speaker 12 (25:41):
Yeah, nice to meet you too.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
How are you? I'm good? Yeah? You just graduate from
high school?

Speaker 12 (25:46):
Yeah, I'm going into UW stoutless Fall.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Hey, congratulations, what a great campus that is. But we're
what high school?

Speaker 6 (25:55):
Your high school?

Speaker 1 (25:55):
Yeah? And why Stout.

Speaker 12 (25:58):
Well, I've been looking into engineering, and as far as
all of these colleges go, Stout is a really really
nice school. Your engineering program, it's.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
A great one. Yeah, when do you leave for school
end of September? Hey, how much being part of destination? Imagination?
Do you think that that had something to do with
what you want to do now as an architect?

Speaker 12 (26:20):
I don't think I would be involved in engineering at
all without DII Honestly.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Well, you know, we could end the whole show right now,
because that's the mic track, right. That's what this has
done for you, right, It's got you thinking about what
you're going to do in the future and how to
be involved in something that you absolutely love. When you
look back at all the projects you've been involved with,
what's your favorite part.

Speaker 12 (26:44):
My favorite project I've done is I think this year
we made this giant bank vault door and it opens
up kind of like a camera lens, like an aperture,
and a lot of thought went into that and it
was so fun to make and just visually, I think
it's one of the favorite my favorite things I built.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
During the break. Do you have a picture of it
on your phone? Because I'd love to see it. Yeah, yeah,
I would. I would love to do that. When you
started what grade were you when you started involved in this.

Speaker 12 (27:11):
Oh jeez, second grade?

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Second grade? And then your team? Was it all kids
around your age?

Speaker 6 (27:19):
Then?

Speaker 5 (27:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah, So so you're not working with kids that are
when you're in second third grade, you're not working with
the older kids. You're working with more kids that are
your age. Are they all from the same.

Speaker 12 (27:30):
School, usually all from the same district.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
The same district? Are there? And I should have asked Mary,
and she's right here. How many districts in the state
of Wisconsin?

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Districts?

Speaker 1 (27:41):
I here, come here, I'm sorry, districts.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Well over one hundred. This year we had one hundred
and sixty five teams within the state of Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
How did how did I not know any of this?
Am I just too focused on sports?

Speaker 5 (27:55):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (27:56):
We should we just start a new show called Destination.
Imagine absolutely that Mary Green's going to be my co host.
And look, you travel a little bit, but we can
do this via cell phone for sure. I love the
fact that these kids are all smiling, going, hey, look,
this is what I love about it. And when you

(28:16):
talk to Ethan and he says, look if it had
not been for destination imagination, I don't think I'd be
getting involved in this at UW stout And I think
that that's really important for people to understand when when
you talk a little bit, Cassie, let me come back
to you, how important is it for you guys to

(28:36):
work as a team. And did natural leaders then leave
the team or is that something that is voted on,
Like in basketball we vote on team captains and as
coaches where we're like, okay, they've over that kid, but
I'm not going to let him be the captain. I
never told anybody we did that, but we then would
select captains. Do you guys do that as a group

(28:59):
or is it just an natural order of Look, this
person seems to know the most about this project, then
we're going to start to follow that person.

Speaker 5 (29:07):
So it's really interesting because while like the natural leaders
kind of step up, every single person on that team
is gifted in some sort of way. So while I
might be a natural leader in acting, someone else can
be in building. So based off of what we're doing,
it's really cool because everyone is almost on an equal

(29:28):
basis and we all help each other and lead each
other and kind of teach things back and forth, so
you learn a lot throughout the year.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Do do you then have to present your project to
come up with a skill almost like a skit, right
and present it in front of judges? Is that how
that works?

Speaker 5 (29:44):
Yeah? So I believe every challenge has a skit along
with it. And we go to the different tournaments like regional,
state globals, and we perform for judges and a room
full of audience, and they kind of grade us based
off of the that we did and what we followed
and if we broke any rules.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Kind of due Cassie, Do you remember the first couple
that you did and the nervousness and now that you've
been through it a little bit more, we still get nervous, right,
you get butterflies. But how much more comfortable and confident
are you now compared to when you first started?

Speaker 13 (30:20):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (30:20):
I am so much more confident. I can go into
a competition and although I'm nervous, I'm nervous because it
means so much to me rather than fear of missing
out or losing something. And it's really amazing because I've
been doing it for so long. I had some new
people their first year on a DI team this year

(30:41):
and I got to give them some courage and really
help them through it. It was amazing.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Do you know when I talked with Mary and she
we went back and forth. Once she realized that I
wasn't trying to sell her anything, she made a comment
that said, there are so many activities at the high
school level, and DI attracts kids across the board as
far as different talent and personality. It's an activity where
it's okay to be a little bit different, and that's

(31:08):
what we put everybody together, and that's what our world is.

Speaker 6 (31:11):
Right.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Everybody's a little bit different, and some people have beliefs
here and some people have beliefs. But let's get this
group together and watch how they interact. And the difference
between the first meeting to when they're presenting is really
quite incredible. Hey, Liam, I'm going to come back to
you before we get to a break. Talk to me
a little bit about your student athlete as well. And

(31:35):
cross country might be an individual sports similar to what
we're doing here, but yet you're going to be judged
as a team similar to cross country. It's a team sport.
Do you see that the similarities between the two things
that you're involved in.

Speaker 10 (31:51):
Yeah, so I do so. Like you said, in cross country,
it is you are running to do your best, but
it is a team sport, just like India. Like she
said over here, that everyone has their own individual talents,
but you have to put it all together as a
team to actually succeed and win. So I personally am

(32:11):
on the engineering side, so I'm really good at that,
but my other teammates have to work on acting and art.
I'm not a great artist, but I have teammates who
are amazing artists. So it's individual but also an amazing
team sport.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
Do you know in every job I've ever had, and Liam,
thank you for saying that, because every job I've ever had,
there's always people that have are better at this part. Right,
there are people that are doers. I don't want to
go out and present. I don't want to be the
person behind the mic, but I want to be the
person behind the scenes. And when you get a team
that has different talents and everybody can bring that part

(32:50):
of it, boy, it makes things a lot easier. Yes, yeah, yeah,
I agree with that. Hey, Ethan, is there a way
to still continue to be involved with this when you're
in college.

Speaker 12 (33:02):
Well, there are college DI teams are a little harder
to start because you have to have you have to
try to convince a bunch of people to start up
a team out of basically nothing.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Right did does Stout have one?

Speaker 6 (33:15):
Not currently?

Speaker 1 (33:15):
But I guess what? Oh yeah, I gotta feel and
Ethan that they may have one. Excuse me soon. I
have to tell you this story. When we talked last
year about our friend Tona's grandson. He went to Michigan
State and he was born with club feet, and so
he loves sports, but he can only compete till about
sixth grade. And according to Tana said, look, he kind

(33:39):
of went into a dark space, went in the basement,
played video games, and he goes to Michigan State and
his new roommates said, hey, we got to meet people.
Let's go to club day and join a club. And
in all of this space, the one guy said can
you swim? He goes yeah. He said, look at how
pretty the girl's over at are at underwater hockey. Let's
go go join that. So that's what drew them. Now

(34:02):
the kid lost all this plays in the weight room.
I told him to get a haircut when he came
in and he goes, I can't be because the girls
like the hair coming out of the swim camp. Well
that's oh look at him, you're pointing that. Yeah, what
do you guys? Oh, we're coming to you next. I'm
telling you. Well, the girl who said I'm not going
to the microphone, you're coming up next. But that's what

(34:24):
got him involved. And the kid is like in love
with this and the people that he's working with and
the girls that he's meeting and the other guys that
are and they're traveling all over the country playing underwater hockey.
I want you to please take the time and put
the sweat equity into starting this on campus because your
legacy will then be be forever.

Speaker 6 (34:47):
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
You're gonna be the guy that starts sitting on campus
and you understand the importance of this and do that,
and you'll get some like minded kids and some kids
that don't have like minded with you, but you'll all
come together as a group to work this through. Guys,
we're going to get to a break. When you go
to this website, it's destination imagination dot org And there

(35:08):
are a lot of different ways to get involved. And
as a grandfather, there are ways that that can get involved,
for my grandkids to get involved in this. There's a
donate button if you're feeling led to help them. There's
a plan your team tab, there's global finals, team programs.
I would for me, I go to the about page.

(35:28):
Who we are, what the impact is, what our mission
statement is? What are values? When you have a company
that's willing to put right on their website, here's our
mission to inspire and equip and equip youth to imagine
and innovate through the creative process. And then the vision
to ignite the power of all youth in big Bull letters,

(35:50):
all youth to be creative and collaborate innovators of tomorrow.
I think it's so important. That's what they put on
their website. They can't run from that, and I really
like that. And when they talk about the values of
respect and stewardship and collaboration and perseverance and integrity, that's
what their core mission is. And when you have a

(36:13):
kid that's in third, second, third grade, that you see
the amount of things that they can get involved in
and learn and then the group of people that they're
going to be friends with. If you watch these kids
in this studio, right now, kids from different high schools
laughing point at each other when I talked about young
man's hair and they all look kind of smiled about it.

(36:34):
There he is right, Hey, he's got a great head
of hair and he's not getting a hair cut anytime soon.
And Ethan he's shaken and said, no, you're right, mister
mc gibvern. We'll get to a break and we'll continue
our conversation. I cannot thank Mary Greeb Boikowski enough for
agreeing to bring this group of people to me, for
me to be able to highlight and promote this organization

(36:56):
Destination Imagination. Go to Destination Imagination to get more information
and all of the people here and people that you
can reach out to the website can answer any questions
you have. And if you have grandkids, kids, nieces, nephews,
that you think that this would be a great organization
for them to be involved in, to use their mind,

(37:17):
to use their speaking voice, to be involved with kids
from different neighborhoods all over the place, that you can
come together and collaborate and get the job done. I
think that that's you're going to want to go to
Destination Imagination dot org. Let's get to a break. On other
side of the break, my friend, she's got her sunglasses on,
shaking her head. I do not want to go, but

(37:39):
we're going to have a conversation with some more kids
and maybe one or two of the adults that are
in studio. This is a Varsity Blitz high school sports
show presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro
Market stores, only on Fox Sports ninety twenty and your
iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to the Varsity Plitz High
School Sports Show presented by your local Pick and Save

(38:00):
and Metro Market stores. Coming live from the Donovan and
Jorganson Hitting and Cooling Studios. Any issues you have with
your air conditioning, We're not having any issues in the
studio here with it other than it's really cold. Go
to Donovan Jorgenson dot com again, the largest employee owned
HVAC company in the state of Wisconsin. Second hour of

(38:21):
today's show, we're going to talk to state champion baseball
and softball coaches. The head baseball coach from Uskigo, the
head softball coach from Kakana, and the head boys baseball
coach from New Berlin Eisenhower all going to join us
in that second hour, but the first hour. And I
can't think Mary greed Bikowski enough for bringing this group

(38:42):
of people in so that we can highlight, promote and
celebrate Destination Imagination. Go to Destination Imagination dot org for
more information. So the first thing that my new friend
Ellie said, I'm not coming on, don't put microphone in
front of me. But then she starts to get started
to talk a little smack about the hair that you

(39:03):
know that Ethan has.

Speaker 5 (39:05):
And he's my boyfriend.

Speaker 14 (39:06):
I'm allowed to talk smack about his air.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
There we go, look at that. And did you guys
know each other before Destination Imagination?

Speaker 8 (39:14):
No.

Speaker 14 (39:14):
My second year in the program, I got put on
his team and according to a story, he told me he.

Speaker 5 (39:19):
Was not a fan of that idea.

Speaker 14 (39:21):
He did not want any new team mates.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
Wow, and that whole charm thing that you do you
want him over?

Speaker 14 (39:29):
Apparently, I don't know how I did that?

Speaker 6 (39:31):
How long?

Speaker 1 (39:32):
How long have you been involved with this?

Speaker 5 (39:35):
This is my fourth year in DA.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
And where do you go to school? I go to
Badger High School and you're in the band.

Speaker 14 (39:41):
Yes, I'm a percussionists.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
You are good for you music? Do you see a
similarity to be in a band and and being part
of a team for destination Imagination.

Speaker 14 (39:51):
Well, my entire percussion section at school is a bunch
of knucklehead guys, which is pretty much how I would describe
my team. So there's that similarity.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
I love that. I hope they're all listening.

Speaker 6 (40:02):
I do.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
What year are you? Is there such a thing in band?

Speaker 5 (40:07):
There's really not.

Speaker 14 (40:08):
But in terms of like sor not like seniority, I'm
not the oldest, but I tend to get all the
mallet parts because I'm the one who can read music.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
Well, look at that smart too well done. And how
old were you when you started with destination imagine it?

Speaker 14 (40:24):
I was in seventh grade, So.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Wow, like so different now than you were probably nervous
the whole first.

Speaker 14 (40:35):
Year, right, yeah, my whole first year. I was on
a team with no one that I'm on a team
with now, and it was an interesting experience. But I
was definitely less nervous my first year than I was
in my second year. When I was finally on a
high school team. That's when I was like, oh crap,
this is this is I'm in so over my head.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Well, get what part of it? Are you most comfortable
with the thought process that was the designing, the coming
up with it? What part? Because look what I found
out during the break is you guys, you guys work
a long time for an eight minute presentation.

Speaker 10 (41:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (41:13):
Our season is typically six months, but sometimes people work
for eight.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
Wow. So hey, LEXI, how are you?

Speaker 5 (41:21):
I'm good.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
It's nice to meet you. What year are you in
high school?

Speaker 13 (41:24):
I'm a fresh or I'm going into my sophomore year.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Okay. And how long you've been involved with this?

Speaker 13 (41:31):
Uh, give or take ten years? I think.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
Ten years. You're not old enough to be involved in
anything for for ten years. What what's your favorite project
that you guys worked on?

Speaker 13 (41:47):
Personally, I feel like this year was one of my
best years in the program. We worked on we made
a Mazzarella umbrella for our skit.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
You made a what so?

Speaker 10 (41:59):
It's you know what?

Speaker 1 (42:00):
I just I just got a text from a coach saying,
are we still lying in ten twenty?

Speaker 6 (42:04):
So?

Speaker 1 (42:04):
I think I missed twit?

Speaker 6 (42:06):
You made it? What so?

Speaker 13 (42:08):
It's in our skit. It's called the Mazzarella Umbrella. Basically,
we own a cheese shop and.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
I love this stuff. I'm telling you who came up
with that?

Speaker 13 (42:23):
It was kind of like me and two other kids
on my team and we made two of them.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
That's awesome. Do you have a picture of that? And
I asked, now your brother is going Is that your
brother over here?

Speaker 13 (42:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (42:40):
So he was involved and then you got involved, and
now he's going to You're gonna miss him when he
goes to college. Right, sure, you can't lie on my show.
The eye roll was awesome. Don't you think he should
get a haircut? No, I'm just kidding. I look at
you guys talk when when you when you started in

(43:01):
this the presenting part? Are you out front as the
presenter normally? And how do you decide as the group
who's going to do most of the presentation stuff.

Speaker 13 (43:12):
I feel like we kind of we split up and
we realize, like what everyone's good at. And on my
team this year, it was kind of one of our
teammates is really like scientific thinking, and we had to
do a scientific demonstration. He did that, like he said

(43:34):
that whole thing, right, Yeah, what.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Do you do then when he's doing that part of it?

Speaker 6 (43:40):
So?

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Are you using you on stage? Are you in front?
Are you are you in the back? I So what
I'm trying to figure out is if he's doing most
of the presentation, where do you fit in? And are
you still in front?

Speaker 13 (43:55):
That part is like a thirty second segment of our skin.
So I would say I'm kind of in the back
helping with the demonstration, Like we made pictures for it,
so I'm holding them up.

Speaker 12 (44:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Good, And you guys did well with it.

Speaker 13 (44:13):
Yeah, we got tenth place at Globals so Ida.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
How many do you think? A lot? Like very how
many come up challenge? It probably come up here. I sorry,
needs your brother Mic.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
There's usually between thirty and forty teams per challenge. And
at the high school level, where was this held that
they're talking about? Would be a Kansas city in our
Global Finals tournament.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Where do you guys hold the for here in the state.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
We recently just moved from UW Green Bay to Sun
Prairie West High School for a state tournament.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
It's a fabulous facility.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
Oh it's incredible. Yeah right, They did not spare any.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
They did not. I thought it was like a little
college campus.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
It is like a little college Campus's beautiful. I agree
with that. And then is that a weekend that you
did or is it a night?

Speaker 2 (45:02):
It's all day on a Saturday.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
We start very early in the morning, competitions run all day,
and then we have our awards ceremony right around three
or four in the afternoon.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Hey, when we talked about Ethan starting this at UW stout,
now he would be considered an alumni, correct, Yes, And
how does that work?

Speaker 2 (45:19):
Well?

Speaker 3 (45:20):
We engage our alumni and encourage them to give back
to the program by volunteering. They'll come in as a
regular tournament volunteers. They might tuned into a team manager,
which there are several in this room that have done
the same thing, and we have actually gotten a few
of them on our board and as challenge masters as

(45:40):
we call them, who are kind of the beyond the
end all for every challenge that we do.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
As a coach, you know, I tell kids they gotta
they gotta get they got to get their shots in
in the offseason. You got to play a little summer ball.
You've got to do this, this and this. Do these
kids get are there are things they could do in
what would be considered did the off season?

Speaker 2 (46:01):
Yeah, they think about the next season's challenges.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
When did they get when did they get them?

Speaker 3 (46:05):
The previews are out on the website already, and the
full challenges are available August first, after teams are purchased
a team number, then they have full access to all
the team challenges.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
So the challenge so on website, if I go to
Challenge Experience right, and then we can look to see
what's coming up next year?

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Is that how they have a challenge preview coming up?
That's it gives like a couple of sentences about the
next year's challenges.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
So these that's what they're that's what they do in
the off season, get ready for them.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
They start brainstorming about Oh, that's that challenge. Sounds really good.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
I can't wait to start, and they start, you know,
keep brainstorming already.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
How good would you have been? Again? I know you
from high school and I know what a phenomenal student
you work, right, How good would this?

Speaker 2 (46:54):
I would have absolutely loved it have been perfect.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
I mean I are younger started in second grade and
went all the way through high school. So she did
it for that many years. And then my husband and
I were team managers for seventeen years.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
And then when you got how did you learn about this?

Speaker 3 (47:12):
I said, two of our daughters were in the program.
And then my youngest came home one day from school
and said, Mom, they need they need adults to be
a manager for And she was in second grade at
the time, which is our early learner's program, and she said,
would you be would you do it? I'm like, sure,
did not know what I was doing. I did it
with a neighbor, which is really helpful and love that.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Yeah, and it gets in your blood's hard to get
it out.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
We drank the kool aid.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Yeah, as a basketball coach thirty six years I did it.
And it's like it's hard, and I stepped back and
then you get pulled right back in. You know, even
when you don't have kids involved anymore, you get you
get pulled out absolutely back in. Absolutely you can go
back with la G.

Speaker 6 (47:55):
Do you.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
The things that you learn in imagination? In destination? Imagination?
DII excuse me? Do you see you carrying this when
you get into college and as an adult the lessons
you're learning. You don't know this because you're a young person,
but as adults we're always trying to get lessons to
learn that skill sets that as you get older, are

(48:20):
you starting to realize the importance of being involved in
all this and what that's going to do for you
in the future very much.

Speaker 14 (48:27):
So, even just like with my life now, I am
very active outside of d I with just building stuff
in my spare time and just learning how to think
through problems and kind of have a different approach to
solving problems has already helped me a lot, and where
I'm planning on going with like my college and my career,

(48:48):
I see myself using these skills on a pretty much
daily basis.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Hey, Lexa, do you guys compete against each other or
are you in the same group?

Speaker 14 (48:57):
No, because we were in different challenges, So me and
my team competed in technical and hers was scientific.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
So you guys would not compete. No, you would want
to compete though, or do you want to be part
of this? Would you? Were you on the same team
with your brother ever?

Speaker 13 (49:15):
Uh? Yeah for one year actually last year.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Did you show him up a little bit? Yes?

Speaker 5 (49:22):
He's like, yeah, I was on that team.

Speaker 14 (49:24):
Yeah she did.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
She did. Good for you. That's awesome. Mary, come back
if you can't, because we've I've got to cut you
guys loose. I can tell you that you would you
please keep in contact with me if there's anything I
can do, How how do I promote celebrate what you
guys do to help raise funds? How are you guys?

(49:45):
How's the fundraising? How does that work?

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Teams?

Speaker 3 (49:49):
Team numbers are purchased by every individual team and We,
which is a very inexpensive program to be part of
compared to like Robotics or First Lego League, and we
count on our parents and staff, some teaching staff. They
act as volunteers for their teams. They also the only

(50:10):
reason that they do fundraise is if teams are going
to go on to Global finals. Individual team and We,
which is a very inexpensive program to be part of
compared to like Robotics or First Lego League, and we
count on our parents and staff, some teaching staff. They
act as volunteers for their teams. They also the only

(50:33):
reason that they do fundraise is if teams are going
to go on to Global Finals, which is a fifty
five hundred dollars team registration fee.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
If they're if they're fundraising, these kids are doing that
I can promote on this show. Please let me know
I will. I will, now that we've wor now that
you know that it's me and it's not me trying
to sell you something or trying to get your By
the way, can I get your so security number in
your banking Yeah? Right, you know I'm not doing any
of that. Mary Greeb, it's so good to get catch
up with you. You're doing great work. And I get

(51:03):
it now when we talked and you told me how
important this is to some of these kids and these
families and these communities, I get it. And thank you
for letting me giving me the opportunity to highly prone celebrate.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
And I appreciate all the folks that are in this room.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
They came down because they've been part of it for
a long long time. It means a lot, and I
hope that they continue to help and are looking forward
to our alumni to help them jump in and be
part of the program.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Well, I can tell you that that I'm not sure
that Lexian and Ellie wanted to come on on the mic.
And you guys did great. You guys did really really good,
and in fact everybody that came in obviously did great. Mary,
thank you so much. We're going to get to a break.
The other side of the break. We're going to talk
some baseball and softball with coaches that recently, like as

(51:54):
early as two days ago one state championships and will
do that on the other side of the break. This
is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented by
your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores, only
on Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeartRadio app. Welcome
back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, as always,
presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores.

(52:18):
Coming live from the Divan of Jorgans and Heating and
Cooling Studios. I want to thank the people from Destination
Imagination and Mary Greeb, girl I went to high school
with a long time ago, and she's doing a great job.
Destinationimagination dot Org is where you're gonna want to go.
And that was a really fun hour. We're gonna get
back to sports now in studio with me State champion,

(52:41):
State champion baseball coach from Muskigo, Jake Page is in studio.

Speaker 7 (52:46):
How you Ben, Thank you for having me very good. Yeah, congratulations,
Thank you very much. It's definitely a fun run. It's
a great run. Boys did a great job, super exciting time.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
Yeah. I thought maybe the four and six year old
and your wife might join us in studio.

Speaker 7 (52:59):
Still recovering from my travel this week.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Yeah, that's awesome, man, good for you. Hey, that last segment,
we're gonna talk nothing about about anything except this team
and the journey that you guys been on, but I
appreciate you sitting in with me. We're gonna uh talk
to a couple of coaches, one from softball, you and
one other one from baseball who just came off state championships.

(53:21):
And and one that's joining us right now is the
head softball coach at Kakanna, Tim Aaron, Tim, Congratulations, how.

Speaker 15 (53:30):
You been I've been good. Thank you very much for
having me today.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
Hey, coach, I gotta tell you I had you on
a couple of years ago Kakana Softball. You guys are
always in the conversation when it comes to winning the
state championship, when it comes to winning a conference. Can
we talk before we talk about this year's team, can
we talk about the building that program and Kakane and
and why is it that that you guys are always

(53:56):
in the conversation to be a state champion or to
win a conference, but you're always in the conversation on
a team that's got a chance to do really, really well.
Building that program. Qul you talk a little bit about
what the keys are to be so successful in the
game of softball up in Konkana.

Speaker 15 (54:17):
Yeah, I think your number one thing is, you know,
we have built just a tremendous feeder program for a
high school program. At our youth level. We're all the
way down to five U right now for softball, and
we build those kids and work with those kids as
much as we possibly can. You know, you look at

(54:39):
I don't think there is a program in the state
that can say they're successful without immediately talking about their
feeder program. And for us, that is our heart and soul.
Our little kids in our program are wonderful. I know
every kid from varsity all the way down to five U.
I can tell you the names, the faces, and I
know their parents. I know what they're doing, and we

(55:00):
really go at it there. And I think that's the
heart and soul of Tacona Softball right there is our
feeder program.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Hey, Jake, you would you would agree with that be
the head baseball coach at Muskego When when you when
you're trying to build a program, the idea of youth
programs and feeder programs are so important.

Speaker 7 (55:20):
Absolutely, And our program is built around the community. So
guys that are coming up in Meschigo, they have a
goal playing varsity baseball and Meschigo. And when we can
all be on the same page of what's expected and
everybody kind of like coming up together, that means something.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
Hey, Tim, did you know coming into this year that
that you guys had a chance to possibly win a
state championship? Did you know that this team had that
kind of talent?

Speaker 15 (55:50):
Absolutely? You know, we lost our first game in one
hundred and nine games last year in the semi finals.
We you know, we had been one hundred eight in
a row that we had won, and we returned a
good portion of we returned eighth starters from last year's team,
and we knew it. We have Carl Meredith, who was
a three time Gatoray Player of the Year on the mound,

(56:12):
and we have a whole lot of horses behind her.
Uh So we knew going in we were gonna be tough.
And if you know, you know, these kids have always
been trained to go out and perform and perform at
a high level from a very early age. And uh,
you could see the fire after we lost last year.
At first you know, our first loss in one hundred
and nine games. The day after they were back in

(56:35):
the weight room. Literally got off the bus and I
got a text that night and said, coach, we're gonna
be in the weight room tomorrow. Please open it up
and be there. And I was there and they went
right back to work.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
Hey, Jake, you and I were laughing when you said
one hundred and nine wins in a row. I played one.
I I literally, if I go to the gym and
get shots up and I played against myself, I'm not
getting one hundred and nine in a row. I don't
even know. That would be like, you don't get bored
with all the winning, do you, coach?

Speaker 15 (57:06):
No, I never get sick of winning. I'm gonna tell
you that right now. That's never a problem with us.
And you know, somebody else said, is it a blessing
or a curse? Well, you know, I think any varsity
coach and any competitor, it's a curse in some ways
because it never sleeps. That drive for success, that drive
for championship level ball, never ever dies. It never sleeps,

(57:28):
it never goes away. It's just part of who you are,
and it's part of the culture you build in your program,
So you know, that's just where we're at in Kokona.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
Hey, how happy are that the other teams in the
Fox Value Association that this Gatorade Player of the Year
is now graduating? Right?

Speaker 15 (57:47):
I think there's probably parties going on in about nine
other communities in the Fox Cities area that Carle has
now gone. Considering for combined era over the last four years,
I think is like zero point one nine. An opportent's
batting average over the last four years has been sixty seven.
So I think everybody's pretty happy that Carl's finally gone.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Hey, yeah, you're not retiring now, right.

Speaker 15 (58:11):
You know, never say never. I gotten a kind of
a serious car accident last last summer, got hit and
I've been doing some health issues and I still working
through some of those things. So never say never. I
just gotta I gotta figure out my health right now
and figure out where I'm at healthwise, and then we'll
go from there.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
Yeah, I'm sorry, I did not know that, coach. I uh,
I was kind of being funny like, now that she's graduating,
maybe it's time for you to move on. So I'm
sorry that you were in the car accident. We certainly
will be praying for your health. Tim, Congratulations on another
state championship. How many do you have now?

Speaker 15 (58:49):
That is number six? That is number six for Kakona
and for me as a varsity coach, but six unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
You know what, keep getting those ranks. Well, I know that. Look,
I get that the community after one hundred and nine
winsday were shocked that you had a loss and then
come back and win another one. I just think that
what you're doing in that community, the legacy that you're
going to leave whenever it is that you step away,
is pretty incredible and I really appreciate a couple of

(59:19):
minutes of your time. Congratulations, be praying for you on
the health side of it, and and hoping that next
year again this time of here I call you and
beg to come on my show so we could say
congratulations Kakan. What a great sports community that is, and
certainly softball is at the top of the list in
that community. Hey, Tim, thanks left for a couple of minutes.

Speaker 15 (59:43):
I appreciate having Neil on and I want to congratulate
the coach from Moskego on their championship as well. That
was I got to watch the game, and it was
one heck of a game. So congratulations coach.

Speaker 7 (59:52):
Thank you very much, and congratulations to you too, and
keep that run going.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
Gay he set off the record. He's going to get
that one hundred and the row. He's gonna be.

Speaker 6 (01:00:01):
He's gonna be.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
No, you never said any of that stuff. Tim, Thank
you so much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 15 (01:00:07):
Thank you very much. You guys take care.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
You got it. Jake. When he said one hundred and
nine in a row, we both looked at each other, like,
are you okay? Who has one hundred and nine wins
in a row in anything?

Speaker 7 (01:00:18):
I can't even fathom that. I mean, we think we
went on a good run here at the end of
the season, but not one O nine, Holy cow.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
And they went twenty eight and o this year. So
they restarted that again and twenty eight and you know
what he's thinking, health wise, he's going to try to
get that. I was at your game against Wakshaw North
and guy that I met on the golf course, him
and his son and a couple of other buddies were playing,
and it turns out that there are a couple of

(01:00:44):
basketball officials who had teed me up, I think at
one point, and I got a chance to hang out
a little bit Mike Curtis and the son Connor and
aj from Wakshaw North who is playing up a lacrosse
and he said, hey, if we beat Brooks Central, then
we got to play Meskeigo. And I said, I can't
get to the brook Central game, but I'll get to

(01:01:05):
the Muskeigo game. And I'm telling you, and we agreed
on this. They got up, they got a lead, I
think two nothing, and then you had a kid come
up and the next pitch he hit one out and
he hit the scoreboard, and the whole momentum to that
game completely changed. That the life on the batch at

(01:01:26):
Muskigo completely changed when that kid jacked that one. And
you agreed that that was the turning point of that
game for sure. When you get into the playoffs, especially
scoring first is so important, and they obviously did that
in the Section final.

Speaker 7 (01:01:40):
And then to come back and the very first pitch
of our half of the inning, Callen Contrak hit that
ball off the scoreboard. You could just kind of feel
the momentum swing back our way, even though it's still
two to one at that time. I think that just
gave us the confidence that we're not going away and
and we're gonna keep coming.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Hey, you guys, preseason rank number one in the state
and had quite the journey this year. Look, as a
form of basketball coach, I talk about that journey and
and very seldom do I talk about a state championship
and a win, but the sectional semis and the and
winning our conference and and look, there's always, as we

(01:02:18):
know as coaches, there's always it's a roller coaster, right
that the dynamic within the locker room sometimes isn't what
we thought. And there are times throughout that long season
that we got to get this back to to to
getting on the rolls again. And you did a great
job of doing that obviously, But it was an up
and down year for you guys.

Speaker 7 (01:02:38):
It certainly was, especially the first half. We'd say they're
definitely peaks and valleys. And yes, we were number one
ranked coming in, and we talked about that at the
beginning of the year. To me, that was more about
the number one ranked talent, not necessarily team. And I
think as the season progressed, we did become more of
a team and played much more unselfish baseball. The second

(01:03:01):
half of the season. And that's a credit to our
players because everybody wants to come in, want to live
up live up to those expectations as an individual. But
then once they realized all they had to do is
play free and be themselves and become part of something
bigger than themselves, that's when we really kind of put
it all together.

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
Jake Page, the head baseball coach at Muskego State champion,
Jake Page, excuse me for that. Hey, give us your
background before we get to a break. How long you've
been coaching Meschigo? Where'd you go to high school? And
did you play baseball in high school? And stuff like that?

Speaker 7 (01:03:33):
I did so. I went to West South Central High School?
And now this was my fifteenth season at Muschigo.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
Or were coaching?

Speaker 7 (01:03:43):
I just turned thirty one when I got the job,
so I've been there for a little while.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Now did you play at Central? I did.

Speaker 7 (01:03:51):
I played for coach Gainer at the West South Central
in the late nineties. Okay, where'd you go to college
Colonel Stritch? Did you play? I did play there on
their baseball program a few years back. They got rid
of that and now the school of course, now they
should have kept the baseball I guess, so did you
know that you wanted to get into coaching. I didn't

(01:04:13):
really think about that too much until after after college,
and coach Gayner at West Half Central actually gave me
my first opportunity.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
That's awesome.

Speaker 7 (01:04:23):
That gave me the taste and from there I just
kept on going.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
And get it out there and it gets you your
blood can't get it out. What is your wife's first name, Whitney. Whitney.
I say thank you to Whitney because for me, for
you to give me an hour in studio today, like
the season is long, there's a special place in having
for coaches wives and Whitney, I say thank you. You
know you could have said, come on, man, you know

(01:04:47):
you've been coaching and I need help. We got these
two kids. Whitney, I say thank you. Maybe next time
if I do a coach's Wives show, you're gonna stay
home watch these for these four and six year old
and I'm gonna have Whitney come.

Speaker 8 (01:05:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:05:01):
I could not be more appreciative either, not just for
obviously this run here, but year after year supporting what
we do as as coaches and the schedule and all
that goes on. At home too, could not be more appreciative.

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
Hey, before we get to a break, do we want
to rip the athletic director at mischievo a little bit
or that McMillan has no idea what he's doing. They
win because of the coaches. Not No, I'm just kidding.
I'm a huge Ryan McMillan fan. And at the Wasston
North game I get a chance to go hang out
with him for a little while, and and he's just

(01:05:36):
a really good dude, and he gets it, and and
he he puts coaches and players and programs ahead of
himself all the time. And and I think that that
he's as good as athletic director as there is in
the state of Wisconsin.

Speaker 7 (01:05:50):
I could not agree more. You could not ask for
a more supportive athletic director, and not just at at
games and things like that, but always available talk things
to there for you, to support you, back you up
in certain situations. Just very thankful to have him as
the AD.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Yeah, I think there's something to be said for somebody
who coached at a really high level. And he's really organized,
and he's got a great look when he's sitting where
you're sitting. He always wants to talk about his team
and the people that make him look good. But he
is in charge of that department and he's the one
making decisions. And I think Ryan McMillan, and obviously through

(01:06:28):
the success that Musquigo's having, you know he's part of that.
For sure. He's Jake Page and he's not kind of
my co host that last segment, we're going to talk
a lot about this year's team, but I wanted I
wanted his background and certainly the congratulation of winning the
state championship. Look, the first goal of this team was
to win their conference, and they didn't get that done.

(01:06:50):
They didn't get it done, but they got hot at
the right time. And I always think that when I
see teams that get hot down the stretch, those are
the teams that are really well co And I commend
you and your staff for that. And that's for sure.
We're gonna get to a break. The other side of
the break, we're gonna talk to the head baseball coach
at New Berlin, Eisenhower. Hey, he's on vacation. He's up

(01:07:10):
in Door County, and he's like, man, I'll come on
be a cell, but I need it a little bit
of time, so we'll talk to Joe on the other
side of the break. This is the Varsity Blitz High
School Sports Show, presented by your local Pick and Save
and Metro Market stores, only on Fox Sports nine twenty
in your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz
High School Sports Show, as always presented by your local

(01:07:33):
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores. Coming from the
Donovan and Jorgensen Heat and Coolian Studios in studio Jake Page,
the head baseball coach at Muskego. I want to thank
the head softball coach at for Kanna from Kakana for
a couple of minutes of his time. And now another
state championship coach. He is Joe Dathy. He is the

(01:07:55):
new Berlin Eisenhower head baseball coach. And they beat Seymour
five four. They scored one in the bottom of the
seventh to win a state championship. And I think Joe
headed up for Dori County to get some sleep, is
what I'm thinking. I don't know, Hey, coach, congratulations, what
a great year for you guys.

Speaker 8 (01:08:15):
Yeah, thank you so much. No, Di'd not get allow
a sleep. We had a big thunderstorm, but that's all.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
Right, Yeah, that's all right. You're still thinking about beating
Seymour in that state final. Can you talk to us
about this year's team. Did you know coming in you
won the Woodland West good really good baseball from Greendale
to New Berland West to to Wisconsin Luthor to Milwaukee
to Pies. There are some really good baseball teams in

(01:08:41):
that conference. Did you know coming in, Joe, that you
guys had a chance to have this kind of year?

Speaker 8 (01:08:48):
I think in the in the back of my mind,
I always thought that we could, that we should. It
wasn't until we made it to sectionals that I was like, Okay,
you know, without a doubt, we're going all the way.
You know, undefeated conference champs. It hasn't been done, and
I don't know if it's ever been done. So I
knew we were good, but I knew that the state
had some pretty tough competition and our sectional that we

(01:09:11):
re seated into is was incredibly tough. So we knew
that it was an uphill climb for sure. But once
we got the sectionals, I knew that I knew that
we could do it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
Hey, coach, talk to us about state championship game? If
you can. You guys got up four to nothing in
the bottom of the third, and they came right back
in the top of the fourth and scored four, and
then it was four to four until the bottom of
the seventh. Talk to me a little bit about Look,
as a baseball coach, you get up four to nothing,

(01:09:41):
and you can maybe take a little bit of a breath, right,
You think, Okay, we got a chance here, and then
they come right back and score four and then shut
you down in the bottom of the fourth. You get
a little bit nervous at that point.

Speaker 8 (01:09:53):
Right, maybe a little nervous. I mean with our pitch
on the mound. Sam he uh, he hasn't been tested
like that all season. He has been unhit well, it's
not unhittable, but almost unhittable all season. We thought about
pulling him, but decided to give him, give him a
little bit of time and and and lean into him

(01:10:14):
and let him overcome it. You know, Seymour is a
phenomenal baseball team. And when we watched them a little
bit against the Quinas the day before, we saw that
they they rally together, and so we knew that that
that was a big possibility happening during the game and
whatever we could do to try to stifle that. But
you know, giving up four, yeah, that that was tough.

(01:10:36):
We we don't like giving up runs and rarely give
up that many. So really we just stuck to the
script and said, hey boys, it's zero zero, let's let's
keep fighting, let's win this game.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
He not only did Sam throw six innings and and
and you know, get you to where you needed to be,
but it looks like he had a couple of hits
and three RBIs. He certainly is the m v P
of of that game, right.

Speaker 9 (01:11:02):
I mean both of the games he and U and
of the other senior Carter Hollendback. I mean, what what
a senior duo to take us all the way. You know,
Sam had all three RBIs against Reidsburg the day before
and then you know, the game winning hit. I mean,
it's just you know, storybook ending for us. And then
Carter also had three hits in the you know, state series.

(01:11:24):
Just a phenomenal, phenomenal baseball player and an even better
human being. And in both of those guys to do
it was was awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
Hey Joe, how long you been the head coach over
at at.

Speaker 8 (01:11:35):
Ike a couple of days. This is my first year, the.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
First year, you know, it's not easy. Yeah, look for
us guys that have been coached in a while, you're
not going to expect this every year, are you.

Speaker 8 (01:11:50):
Well, you know there's thoughts of you know, retiring, you know,
to to end on top. But no, no, of course
we didn't. You know, I don't expect to do this
every year, but I'd like to and and you know,
look of next year, we definitely have the talent to
take another shot as well.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
Man. I love that Year one. I can tell you,
Jake that I think you're one at the high school level.
For me, we won like four games, and so it
was this uphill climb all the time. You come out
year one win a state championship. That's not a bad
way to be a first year head coach? Is it

(01:12:24):
not a bad way to get started? For sure?

Speaker 7 (01:12:26):
No, especially coming in brand new and you're trying to
instill some of your own things and being able to
finish on top like that. That's quite a feat.

Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
Man. I love that. Joe. What's your background? Where'd you
go to high school?

Speaker 8 (01:12:38):
I grew up in Lombard, Illinois. It's about twenty miles
west of Chicago. So I went to Glen Bardin's High school.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
And how did you end up here? At ike?

Speaker 8 (01:12:48):
Great question? So I went to U doub Whitewater for education.
I went to play baseball, ended up not working out,
And then I taught at mcgwanago for seven years and
coached at the lower levels there, and then four years
ago made the made the move to Eisenhower and became
the assistant varsity coach. Did that for three years, and

(01:13:10):
then when our previous head coach left, decided to give
it a shot and happy I did.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
You know, I don't know the last time Eisenhower in
in baseball has UH has kind of and I hate
to say this, but you kind of own Pewaukee a
little bit. And I live in Pilwaukee, and that's a
heck of a baseball program over there. But you beat
him four nothing, then you beat him the next day
three nothing, and then in the in the sectional final,

(01:13:40):
you beat them seven to three. And sometimes it's hard
to beat a team three times in a year, but boy,
you guys beat a really good program UH three times.
Wisconsin Lucian another good program in in UH in your conference.
I can tell you that to beat Pewaukee three times
might not seem like a big feat to you, joke,

(01:14:01):
because you know you you just went out and did it.
But boy, I'll tell you that tells me something about
your your baseball team and your baseball program to be
able to get that thing done in Pewaukee's used to
winning big baseball games. And certainly congratulations on that.

Speaker 8 (01:14:18):
Oh yeah, no, absolutely, thank you. You know, Mark and
Adam run a great program over there, and they and
they have for quite some time. You know. The only
the big reason we were able to get them this
year three times is our our pitching this year has
been amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
Well, do you have some young Do you have some
young Do you have some young guys with arms coming back?

Speaker 8 (01:14:41):
Yes? Absolutely so. Most of our all of our pitchers
are coming back except for number three, Sam Herley. He's
the only one that's that's leaving us from the mounds.
So we have our our guy this year, Cal Schneider,
the one that threw a lot of our innings five
I can't remember which one strikeouts on the season. I

(01:15:02):
mean him coming back as a junior and then getting
him an extra y as a senior. We're blessed with
some arms right now.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
Man, that's awesome. Hey, Joe, go and Georgia and George
Door County. Try to get a little napping if you can.
Congratulations first year head coach, State champion, head coach from
New Berlin Eisenhower Man, thank you so much for a
couple of minutes of your time. I really appreciate it.
Keep roland. I can tell you that the Kakana coach

(01:15:30):
in softball came on and said, you know, we had
won one hundred and nine in a row and then
we lost, and now we've won twenty eight in a row.
So that's the bar right now. Joe, good luck with that.

Speaker 8 (01:15:43):
Yeah, we'll see about that.

Speaker 10 (01:15:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:15:45):
No, thank you very much for having me. Thank you
for the recognition and getting our boys' names out there.
And appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
You got it. Joe Dathy is a head baseball coach
at New Berlin Eisenhower State Champion New Berlin Eiseno Hour
and yeah, if you if you haven't seen how they
want it in the bottom of the seventh take, go
on on YouTube and take a look at it. What
an exciting time for that whole New Berlin Eisenhower Group. Hey, coach,

(01:16:12):
when when the last uh for Mosquio to Winnestate Championship,
for that last out had to just feel remarkable.

Speaker 7 (01:16:20):
For you, for sure. And the best part about that
is when that ball got through the infield and just
to see our guys the excitement on their faces and
how they just kind of ran to each other, and
that's something that they they'll never forget. And that's that's why,
that's why we all love baseball so much. For moments
like that and to see those kids that excited. You

(01:16:43):
can't you can't get better than.

Speaker 1 (01:16:44):
That, coach. You guys were were down. It was four
to two. At one point, it was four to two
going to the bottom of the six and you got
one to make it four to three. And I didn't
see the game, but I got to believe that after
they got the two in the third, for your pitchers
and your defense to shut them down in the fourth, fifth, sixth,

(01:17:05):
and seventh was the key to this thing. Huh.

Speaker 7 (01:17:08):
For sure. We put in Jake Cardellis in the in
the fourth inning. He came in in relief and he
faced twelve batters and retired all twelve. Wow, So he
really like settled things down for us, there's a high
emotions and let's be honest, there's nerves going into that game, right,
So the first few innings are very important and for
us to be able to keep it close, and maybe

(01:17:29):
we didn't play our best baseball those first three innings
and then for Jake to come in and settle things down.
I'm that sure surely was a difference from that standpoint.

Speaker 1 (01:17:36):
Hey, what do you say to your kids on the bench? Look,
as a basketball coach, I kind of know I take
a time out in time, but between innings, Look, you know,
you guys are down. You're you're down two nothing to start,
and then you get one in the first, you get
another one in the second. Now it's tied, but then
they get two. Now you're down four to two, and
you go a couple of innings before you score. How

(01:17:57):
do you keep your kids locked in?

Speaker 7 (01:17:59):
We just have to keep relying on the fact that
we've done it before, we did it the night before.
Actually we're down to and came back later in the game.
And just to keep battling every out is so hard
to get, especially this time of year. So and we're
out when we're out on defense, we look at it
that way. Every out is a struggle. Well, it's also
a struggle for the other team to us out. And

(01:18:20):
that's the mindset we have to have, is you can't
give anything away. You have to keep playing and when
opportunities do come up, eventually we're going to come through.
And that's what the boys did.

Speaker 8 (01:18:30):
Ye Jake.

Speaker 1 (01:18:30):
If somebody asks you the kind of baseball coach you are.
Are you a guy that likes to go station to stations,
you like stealing bases? Are you aggressive, offensively locked in,
defensively thrown to the right base? But what kind of
baseball coach do you think you are?

Speaker 7 (01:18:46):
I would say I try to adjust more so to
the team as much as possible. I do have the
philosophy we like to be aggressive on the basis with
this team for sure, and it's very situational. I would
expect everyone to be able to put it bunt down
if needed for a team play. But at the same time,
if a guy swinging the bat and they're really hot,

(01:19:07):
and I'm going to give their opportunity to do that too,
So try to adjust to not only the game, but
to the team also.

Speaker 1 (01:19:13):
Well, I looked right away again at that watch to
the North game that I was that when that kid
hit went out and he smacked the scoreboard pretty good,
I immediately turned to look at the bench, and you
want to talk about a group of boys that were
so happy and and rushed out to the to meet

(01:19:33):
him at at home plate. And you could just tell
from from a team that was kind of quiet to
a team that was fully engaged and fully happy for
this kid that just hit that one out. I was
impressed with that coach because you don't always see that
at the high school level, right.

Speaker 7 (01:19:51):
I was impressed by that too. I mean, we came
to a point in the year where we were really
playing for each other and you could see it in
that one at bat and it was kind of like
a release for everybody too little tents and that home
run kind of was a weight off of some guys shoulders.
Now we can go. Somebody stepped up and got momentum
back for us, and we're happy for him. And you

(01:20:12):
guys had lost to Watsha North twice we did early
on in the season. I think the second second week
of the season, they meet us twice in three days.

Speaker 1 (01:20:19):
I want to say, and I can tell you that
that the family, and I had Connor Curtis and Mike
Curtis and their family and studio with me a couple
I think last or two weeks ago, and he said, look,
I was getting the ball for brook Central and I
wanted to get us to that game against Mouskeigo. But
I have to be honest, I was hoping that maybe

(01:20:40):
I could get on the mound against Mouskego because I
want to pitch in big games. You're feeling when you
saw him pitch against Brook Central because I think he
was their horse. They they have a couple of really
good pitchers, but I think that he's the kid that
does a lot with with guts and courage and toughness.

Speaker 7 (01:21:00):
Happy that he pitched against Brook Central, Well, that's a
big careful what you wish for a type of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:21:05):
You know.

Speaker 7 (01:21:06):
He's definitely their horse, and he pitched very well against
us early on in the season. But so did their
other pitcher. Yeah, kid going to Whitewater, right, we knew
we were getting one of the two. So neither one
is a perfect draw, you know. Yeah, But the fact
that that he wants the ball in every game. And
I don't know him personally, but now competing against him
now the last couple of years here, you can tell
that that he's just a competitor.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
And if he wants that ball, hey, I'm gonna give
you a tip. If you ever see him on the
golf course and you're and he wants to say, hey,
let's play for skins, game for a buck, don't do it.
Don't do it. He hits the ball about three hundred.
It takes me three shots just to get to his one.
And the kids are really good golfer. Don't don't. Don't
get caught into oh I've never played before I did,

(01:21:48):
and don't you do it. We're gonna get to a break.
The other side of the break, we're gonna talk about the
Classic Gate Conference and baseball. But I want to talk
about some of the kids that got this team to
the state championship. And we'll talk about some of the
Musquigo kids that I was really impressed with. You got
some boys that can straight up play on that team.
We'll talk about this team and the makeup of it

(01:22:10):
and what it looks like next year. And certainly the
Classic A Conference. People talk about them as a football conference,
and it is. It's a great football conference, I think
the best football conference in the state. But baseball man
mcgwanago Arrowhead walks down north. There's some really good baseball
being played o'conomwalk Kettlmoorin in that conference. And we'll continue

(01:22:33):
our conversation with Jake Page, head baseball coach at Buskeigo
High School on the other side of the break. This
is the Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on Fox
Sports ninety twenty and your iHeart Radio app. But welcome
back to I was about to say the Creative Construction Wisconsin.
It's been at Dave pel It's been a day. Welcome

(01:22:53):
back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports show as
always presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro
Market stores coming from the Donovan and Jordans and Heating
and Cooling studios. I thank god Jake Page had baseball
coach at Muschigo High School. A couple of days after
winning the state championship and bringing the gold ball back
to Muskeigo, He's willing to sit in studio with me

(01:23:17):
for an hour in talk high school baseball. And it's
really good to meet you in person, young man. I've
only heard good things about you and I, and it's
always good to be able to meet new people in
different sports. Football coaches call me and asked to come
in studio. Basketball coaches call and ask to come in studio.
You baseball guys are a little different, by the way.
I I don't really want to do that, So thank

(01:23:38):
you for coming in and talking about Mustigo baseball. Hey,
let's talk about next year. Look, we can't celebrate it
very long. You win to state championship and idiots like
we always wanted to say, but what do you have
coming back? Can we think about repeating I'm wondering what
you have coming back next year? And how good and
how healthy is this baseball program over at Muskeigo.

Speaker 7 (01:24:02):
We definitely have a solid corps coming back next year.
We lose five seniors off off this year's state championship team,
all that did contribute this season. But what we do
have coming back where our program's in a pretty nice
place right now. It's one of the deeper programs we've
had now in a couple of years, going down to

(01:24:22):
the JV levels as well, So we're in a pretty
good spot.

Speaker 1 (01:24:26):
Hey, how do you I would struggle as baseball coach
with a number of things. And one of the things
I would struggle with is in the sectional, semi finals
and finals. I would always I gambled a little bit
years ago and I lost all the time, so I
stopped because I stunk at it, and so I would
always want to hold my ace back to the for

(01:24:50):
the final. The sectional final and your mindset on that,
how do you figure who you're going to pitch to
get to State on that day where you have to
play two games.

Speaker 7 (01:25:02):
So our philosophy has always been since I've been at Muskigo,
is We're going to throw our number one to get there.
I don't think I could sleep at night if we
didn't do that, then we didn't make the final, because
there have to be there to win it, right. So
there's an old saying that we use often within the
coaching staff is that we won't leave our horse in
the barn, and that's kind of the philosophy we kind

(01:25:23):
of go with.

Speaker 1 (01:25:24):
And then the game I was at Washington North, you
came out, I think the second inning and made a
change or maybe third, I'm not quite sure, but it
seemed to me like you were pretty comfortable with a
number of pitchers that you had on the roster. In
spring baseball in the state of Wisconsin, you're playing sometimes

(01:25:46):
five games a week, four games a week, so you've
got to have a number of guys that can give
you innings. How comfortable were you with the pitching staff
that you had this year.

Speaker 7 (01:25:58):
Very very comfortable. I think our pitching depth was certainly
a key for us throughout the entire season, and the
fact that we can go in big games and make
a change in the second, third, fourth inning to guys
that we are very very confident in. We're very lucky
to have that, and that speaks to the depth of
our pitching staff. And when you have pitching, like you say,
especially in spring baseball, you give yourselfself a chance every

(01:26:21):
single day, and early on we're playing in forty five
degree weather. We don't let our pictures go very long anyway. Yeah,
So to build up their arms to when it gets
through the primetime at the end of the year and
have all those guys contribute throughout the season is certainly impactful.

Speaker 1 (01:26:36):
Hey, Jake, how different are you as a baseball coach
today than when you were early on in your career
as a head baseball coach. Your philosophy, the way you
handle kids, the way you handle pitchers. How different are
you now than you were back then?

Speaker 7 (01:26:54):
I would say there's quite a bit of growth there
coming in brand new. There's so much that you don't
know until you do know, you know, so like you
don't know some of that stuff until you have that experience,
and not only with dealing with players, but all of
the things of running entire program, not just a team.
Those things kind of come naturally at a lung here.

Speaker 1 (01:27:16):
Around Hey, that that moving six inches over on the
bench might as well be sixteen miles right right.

Speaker 7 (01:27:21):
For sure, when you.

Speaker 1 (01:27:22):
Think as an assistant coach, you think, oh, I would
have maybe tweaked this, or I do this different, I
do that different. And then when you when you're the
face of the program and now it's you've got to
take a time out and go make a change on
the mound, a whole different animal for sure. For talk
about the leaders of this year's team, the guys that

(01:27:43):
now that this has sunk in a little bit. It
hasn't been very long, it's only been a day and
a half, but the idea of sinking in when you
think back on this team, talk about the guys that
kind of got this thing and the culture in that
locker room figured it out and talk about those guys.

Speaker 7 (01:28:00):
Yeah, for sure. So we didn't name specific captains this year.
We kind of just let that happen and happen naturally.
Guys that wanted to be vocal leaders could be vocal leaders.
Guys that led by example lead by example. So I
can't say enough about our catcher behind the plate is
Madix Lasard. He kind of makes things go out out
on the field in terms of leadership and keeping everybody calm.

(01:28:22):
And then our seniors of course hold on he's is
he a sophomore, He's a junior.

Speaker 1 (01:28:28):
He's a junior. So he's coming back.

Speaker 7 (01:28:30):
He's coming back for sure. A great place to start, right. Absolutely,
he holds down. He's a lead behind the plate, he
certainly is. He's We're very lucky to have him. And then,
like I said, the seniors that that stepped up and
kind of took some ownership down the stretch to and
understanding this is their last run. And then when you
have guys on on the mound like a Tyson Grokowski

(01:28:53):
who was our number one this year, and you have
players in our lineup, I'm like a Ben Koglitch and
our shortstop is Kyle Rogashinski. Those type of players that
are just flat out baseball players. They live and breathe this.
They work harder than than you can imagine. And to
have those guys be like the leaders of your team

(01:29:13):
makes the coaching aspect that much easier.

Speaker 1 (01:29:15):
You have many multi sport athletes on your team, and
we have we have a few, but we we have
a lot of guys that play baseball all year round.

Speaker 7 (01:29:24):
Yeah, and kind of have a focused in on this
right now.

Speaker 1 (01:29:27):
Do you find that look? I always felt as a
basketball coach that playing au was was important for these
kids to to be able to play.

Speaker 6 (01:29:38):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:29:39):
Their their practices are obviously quite a bit different. I
think playing for your school team, everybody is playing for
a common goal. I think in travel ball you're playing
to get yourself a better look and to get yourself
a scholarship, where if you're the backup shortstep, you're almost
hoping that the shortstep has a couple layers you get in.

(01:30:00):
I don't think that I know that happens on high
school teams, but on the front of the jersey is
what people are playing for for sure.

Speaker 7 (01:30:08):
I mean, call me old school. But to me, there's
nothing better than playing for your high school team and
representing your community. And don't get me wrong, I have
great respect for all that goes on in summer baseball
and how hard these kids work nowadays throughout the year.
But to me, playing with your best friends and getting
to go through especially something that we did this year,
that's something that bonds up together literally forever.

Speaker 1 (01:30:30):
Coach to the turnout for that game against Washington North,
there is a lot of Washington North people. I was
shocked at the turnout for Mustigo baseball. It was three
quarters packed of Muskigo people that were really involved in
every pitch and every defensive play. And I was really

(01:30:50):
impressed with the backing that your team had.

Speaker 7 (01:30:54):
Our community is so great to us, the support that
we get from not only youth baseball families but just
a community in general and from our school and to
have them show up like that certainly made a difference
and it was very noticeable, especially to our players, and
that just gives you that little extra as you're going
through a game like that.

Speaker 1 (01:31:14):
Hey, coach, as coach, is our first goal as I
was to win the conference, right, That's kind of what
you're looking at. Do you think the idea. I never
wanted a team I was coaching to be preseason ranked
number one, because I think that gets in kids' heads
like all we got to do is show up. Everybody
knows how good we are, and then a couple losses
happen and they start looking around. I'm wondering for you

(01:31:37):
not to win that conference. Sometimes when you look back,
that's not such a bad thing, Like these kids understand
that we can't just show up because Mosquigo's on the
front of our jersey. We have to go perform and
come together as a team when you look back at that,
obviously as coaches were like, oh cool, we're ranked number
one in the state. Was that a good thing or

(01:31:59):
not such a good thing.

Speaker 7 (01:32:00):
I don't know if any coach really wants to be
never wanted to start the season before you've even shown
up and thrown a pitch or swung the bat yet.
And it is good for our program and our kids
to kind of get their names out there, and we
definitely appreciate that. But to have that target on your
back early is difficult, especially we're talking sixteen, seventeen, eighteen

(01:32:22):
year olds here that put pressure on themselves already. So
but having said that, we did take some lumps early
on in the season, but they that's a learning opportunity
and we took that to heart, and the kids understood
where we're still headed, and we battled through those hard times.
It was certainly a grind this year, and it ended

(01:32:42):
up to work out.

Speaker 1 (01:32:43):
Well, Hey, do you think that had you run the
table right won the conference? Do you think that down
the stretch, in some of those close games where you said, look,
we've been here before, We're good, we've been here before,
do you think that that maybe losing a couple of
close games throughout the year was actually an advantage for you.

Speaker 7 (01:33:01):
Absolutely it was. I think we were talking about this
funny on the way home the other night. We had
two comeback wins in the state tournament six weeks ago.
We might not win those games because we were still
in that process of like becoming our best team and
learning what it takes to get through those moments. So
all those other things are just part of the bigger

(01:33:22):
story now that we're at the end here that without
those struggles, I don't think that this happens.

Speaker 1 (01:33:28):
Hey, when you had your first moment where it's now,
it's just shoot, whether it's in the car with your
wife and kids, or it's putting your head on the
pillow after winning the state championship. Was it more of
a relief or was it a celebration for you, your
staff and team.

Speaker 7 (01:33:44):
I think it was more of just being thankful. When
I stop and think about it, I mean our coaching
staff we have here. I'm very blessed to have the
coaches we have, the time that they put in that
no one will ever even know about, for not only preparation,
but how they treat our kids. I'm just thankful for
that and thankful for the opportunity that these kids have.
And I just get to be I'm part of that.

Speaker 1 (01:34:04):
Coach. You know that that's the third time, and we've
only talked a little bit, the third time that you
have said that about your staff. And I'm sorry we
don't have more time to talk about each one of those,
but for a head coach in a five minute phone call,
and now you've been in studio to tell me three
times how thankful you are for your staff and the

(01:34:25):
amount of work that they put in that you get
to just be part of it. Man, I appreciate that
a lot because I was an assistant coach a lot
and Coach Wallersheim always talked about his staff and I
appreciate you doing that. And I hope that those guys
know how thankful you are to the amount of sweat,
equity and time they put into this program.

Speaker 7 (01:34:44):
I hope they do too. I couldn't be more grateful
to have them. And like I said, this is a
community program, team accomplishment.

Speaker 1 (01:34:53):
Jake Page, you're a good man, man. You know what.
Ry McMillan said that, and he's right, and it's so
good to me you in person again. Thank your wife.

Speaker 6 (01:35:02):
You know what.

Speaker 1 (01:35:04):
You're going straight home, right? I am, Yes you are.
I'm going to take a nap. You're not getting much
of that. He is, Jake Page. He is a state
champion high school baseball coach at Muskego and that program
is in really, really good hands. Man. It's good to
see you. I want to thank everybody that's been involved
in the show. Spencer, my producer, A lot of movie

(01:35:25):
parts today, man, A lot of movie parts. You did great, guys,
thanks for listening. This is the Varsity Blitz high school
sports show, presented by your local Pick and Save and
metro market stores only on Fox Sports ninety twenty and
your iHeartRadio app