Full Show - 7/12/2025

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, July 12th, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Varsity Blitz high school sports show, presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores
on Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeartRadio app coming
live from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios.
Any issues you have or you want to join their
maintenance program, go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com for under

(00:21):
two hundred bucks for the year. They'll come out twice
a year and just clean it up. Man. Make sure
that your furnace is ready to go, make sure your
air conditioners working well. Donovan Jorgenson dot com cannot recommend
those guys enough. The second hour today ten o'clock, Roy Henny,
owner of the MFC Sports Complex, is going to be

(00:42):
in studio and looking forward to to talking to Roy
about this complex that he built in the Whitefish Bay area.
The first hour, we're talking to American Legion Baseball, and
I got to tell you, I don't know a ton
about American Legion baseball, and this time year, you like
to talk about things that I don't know a whole

(01:03):
lot about, and American Legion baseball is one of them.
I didn't realize how big it is. Throughout the state
of Wisconsin starting to grow a little bit here as well.
Mike Arnette aren't aren't He is the principal in South Milwaukee.
He's a busy dude.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
When I tried to get a hold of him, he's like,
I got a school board meeting. I gotta be at Michael.
How you been?

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Oh, we're just living dreams.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
If you could bring the Mike Crome a little closer
to you, there you go. You are the director of
Region six. We're also joined by Scott Huffman, he is
the assistant director of Region six. And then Joel excuse me,
oh you got it, thank you. Thanks metcher that you're
talking to me. We also have Joel Recklets and he

(01:46):
is the coach of the Milwaukee Fire Post for twenty
six pipe man. I went to that game. I went
to their game the other night and it was really fun.
It was really a fun game. They beat Germantown, and
I know Joel was feeling pretty good about the way
he's team played. Hey, Mike Kidd, we talk about American
Legion and you being the director of Region six. How
long you've been involved with American Legion baseball.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
I've been involved actually since I played through high school,
and then I started coaching up in the in the
Green Bay area. I coached up at Kiwani County, and
then when I came down here to the southeast part
of the state, I actually started coaching down at Union Grove.
And so I've been involved, let's see, probably twenty four
years after since since out of high school and coaching

(02:33):
and doing other things like that.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
So yeah, oh that's awpen. Hey Scott, how long have
you been involved with it? Pretty much the same as Mike.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
I started playing high school all the way up through
and started coaching right after that.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
So it's been about.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
Twenty five years.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Where'd you go to high school?

Speaker 4 (02:46):
Turner High School and Blake?

Speaker 1 (02:48):
I got a great Bloyd Turner story for you. Okay, great, great, Yeah, guys.
When I was talking to other people, especially the guy
that runs the Germantown program, I said, hey, listen, you know,
tell me about the American League. And he kept talking
about Anago and he kept talking about what a great
job they do up there, and they're running a tournament
this weekend. But I got a hold of Alex Hanney,

(03:10):
who is the coach at Anago, and said, can we
just get five minutes with you, and he said absolutely, Alex,
how you been good? Good? Good morning, Hey, good morning.
So why is it that when I talk to people
in this area about American Legion Baseball in the state
of Wisconsin, Anigo keeps coming up in the conversation.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, that's is very kind of people to say that.
I think, God, you know, it takes the community. Uh,
you know, we put a lot of time and effort
into our facility at Kreuts Park, and you know we
have strong sponsorship and support on our American Legion post
and I guess you know, we put a lot of
time and effort and to you know, running a tournament.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Well, Alex, I got to tell you that they talk
about the facility, they talk about the community, they talk
about your team, and they said, look, they're always competitive,
but when you go and play there's it's just a
different experience because the entire community gets behind it. The
facilities are awesome. How long have you been involved with
American Legion baseball.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Alex, Well, you know, going back to my playing days,
I played three years for Annegal back in the two
thousand and six, seven eight, and then I started coaching
twenty fourteen. So I've been at it for This was
my twelve year as the head coach in Anago.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
So do you find do you also coach high school
baseball or just American Legion.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
I'm just American Legion coachure.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
So what I've been told is is American Legion baseball
gets you know, the crowds, especially an Anago comes out.
They come out for the high school team, but boy,
they really support the American Legion team as well. When
you're from Milwaukee and I've been around high school baseball
a lot. American Legion baseball in this area is starting

(04:58):
to grow, but it's not a as big as it
is in different parts parts of the state of Wisconsin.
Do you do you find an Anego that that the
American Legion draws more interest for the community than the
high school team does.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well, I think a lot of it has to do with,
you know, the summer, nicer weather, and uh, you know,
I'll be here all the summer and I'll be able
to do some promotional stuff to get people out the games.
You know, we have some good sponsorships from the community
and also the simple fact that we can serve our
beer at the games in the summer. Too, and that
helps brings people in.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Alex That's a great point. Nobody brought that up to me. Now,
I know, I get it now I understand that. Hey,
the facility. The other thing they talk about is the facility,
Uh that you guys playing. Can we talk a little
bit about about that facility and why people keep telling
me that, Man, when you go there, it's just different
because the facility is so nice.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, I mean Chris Park is you know, it was
built in nineteen ninety four. Uh, you know, we put
a lot of time and effort into the uh just
the field maintenance and right now, I mean we've had
guys working on the field. We had some rain last night,
Guys been working on the fields in the sixth a.
I'm just burning to try to get the games in today.
Uh games get pushed back a little bit, but uh,

(06:13):
you know, it really comes down to community pride and
just the time and effort of the volunteers committed to it.
And uh you know, we do the fundraising as far
as uh you know, with the signage on the field.
Community businesses really get behind supporting us, and uh, you know,
the last big thing to do was the project to
get that New Life solted field. Originally we had the

(06:33):
lights from that ninety fourth field and then uh we
had the class tournament out the point one and you know,
after that we were able to get that New Life
insulting in our field. So yeah, a lot of it
comes down to just, uh, you know, the great support
that we get and uh, the pride we take into
you know, trying to have one of the best fields
in the area.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, so just to like speak to that, I'm also
the double A commissioner. So I was up at that
State Yeah, I was. I was up at that state
tournament and Alex and Is that whole community did a
great job running that tournament. And that's something else that's
a little bit special about American Legion Baseball is that
community based you know programming. They shut down two streets

(07:14):
around it and they had this huge like just like
a complex essentially set up you know, merchandise and and
their concessions and everything, and there there were thousands of
people there on a Tuesday for the state final. Three teams. Yeah,
and Ago I think Kakana was in it, River Falls
maybe Alex I don't remember exactly, but I know I

(07:35):
remember being up.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, four was, Uh, it was awesome on Alaska Kanna
and the river falls and then Kakana knocked us off
on a walkoff hitting the championship game. But yeah, it
was a really great tournament.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
And not that you still remember that, but don't you
want to thank Mike for bringing up that memory again
for you? That's awesome?

Speaker 2 (07:58):
I mean no, I mean that was a great on
our team had, and like I said, you know that
was you know, just a great tournament. And you know,
aly thing would better is if we would have won championship.
But you know, I said, there's a lot that hair
hats on the both.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
That Mike, were you shocked how many people were there?

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Me personally? No, I mean I've been so that north
central part there, so between Merrill, I've been at state
tournament's in meryll Annago. Ryanlander has a great program up there, Monocua, Wassaw,
that whole central park. Plover has a great, great program.
Wayne does a great job up there with that Wisconsin Rapids.
They run a they Plover's got a huge tournament next weekend.

(08:42):
I think it is or but a senior Legion tournament.
But that area like it's super supportive. I mean just
in the history of that. That double A state tournament
is going to be in New London this year, which
is another historic park, and just going up and seeing
all these different facilities is just is really amazing. It's
it's all awesome to see how huge the support from
all of those communities are. But just to be able

(09:05):
to see, you know, anago, particularly with that with that
state tournament that was that was a really I mean,
they really did a nice job. And I've been to
a number of them over the years as a coach
and now as just a kind of overseeing things. Uh,
but they did a really great job that year. You know,
the local local businesses, the hotels, everything around there are

(09:30):
just the rallies and supports different organizations. It's actually super.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Hey, Alex, we got I know, we got to cut
you loose because you got a tournament to run. I
really appreciated and understand that when I started digging into
once once I got Joeld to talk to me a
little bit about American Legion Baseball, and he gave me
some contacts. I started talking to people around the state
and and each guy talked to you started talking a

(09:55):
little bit about Anego and that's where they're trying to
get to. If we get our commun you involve the
way Antigo has gotten their community involved, it would be great.
So people talk about you behind your back, Alex, but
only in a good way. So yeah, good luck this weekend.
How's the team this year?

Speaker 2 (10:13):
By the way, we're pretty young this year, a little
bit of a rebuilding season, but you all, I think
that's the talent there. I have quite a few sophomores
on the team this year, but you all a little rebuild,
I think we'll get back to playing some real good
competitive baseball here in a year or two.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
That's awesome. Alex. Thanks a lot. Good luck this weekend.
Have some fun.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
You got it. Thank you, Hey, Scott. When when people
talk about different parts of the state, is it the
is it the the the middle of the state that
that's the most active? Is it northern Wisconsin? Is it
different pockets? Are are are really hot when it comes
to American Legion baseball.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yeah, it's it's it's more so different pockets up in
Lacross Area, Holman on Alaska, lesbi Verokua, A lot of
good teams up there. Then you get up in the
Apple Valley. There's a ton of teams up there that
are quality. Mike talked about the central Wisconsin with Plover
and Wisconsin Rapids while I saw.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Do you know the only other time in my life
I talked to American Legion Baseball was doing a segment
for Around the Corner, which I'm a givern my brother
John and he. For eight years on that show, I
would go into different communities and talk about high school
sports there. What their program that everybody knows, right? And
I'm in Verroka and I'm talking to their coach and

(11:36):
we're talking before we start video to start taping, and
he goes, you know, you're you're talking to me about
the wrong team. And I go, excuse me? He said,
you want to talk to me about high school baseball.
He goes, you see that old Rundown bus over there.
I go yeah. He goes, that's the bus we take
around for our away games. I go, okay, He goes,
American Legion. Look at that really nice bus over there.

(11:57):
It was all wrapped with sponsors and fifty six ers
I think is the name. And he goes, that's who
you should be talking to me about. And I go,
I don't know anything about American Legion baseball. And he
looked at me like I spoke a different language, and
he goes, are you kidding me? Don't you like sports?
I go, I love sports, but I live in Milwaukee

(12:18):
and it's not that big. And this is probably seven
years ago. He said it's coming and I go, really, goes,
you got some guys very active right now trying to
build programs in that area to compete with guys like me.
And he said, I'm telling you, one day you better
be talking about American Legion baseball. He was so passionate
about it. He said, you see the hills around this

(12:40):
field and I go, yeah, he goes, during a high
school season, we get a lot of parents out, we
get a lot of family members. He said. Then summertime comes,
American Legion people come out at three in the afternoon
for a seven o'clock game and put their blankets on
the hills so that they can have a place to watch.
And I loved it. He was so passion.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, you go to yeah, well I'm Pete. Unfortunately we uh,
Pete passed away last year, but I know who you're talking.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
So Pete Swanson, Yeah, he passed away.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
That huge loss obviously for the Legion program.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
But what I'm sorry, but what a great ambassador for
American Legion base.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
He So yeah, Pete, and I will say so we
when I was coaching at Union Grove, we'd go out
to Rokua. They had a tournament in the summer end
of June.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
What a beautiful part of the state Park Bowl.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
We're you know, we're sitting, we're playing at Park Bowl
and honestly, they have this He's you talk about those hills,
you get those you get those people are plopping chairs
down everything else like that their concession there, you know,
to Alex's point, the dollar beer nights were all but
Ken Manning also broadcasts that stuff on TV for them.
So local television also is broadcasting all their games on television.

(13:55):
They don't do the high school games between west between
Westby and Veroqua. They always He's always broadcasting games. He's
reaching out all of those a tournaments. Pete actually put
helped was integral nationally in helping put together. So Wisconsin
is a little bit unique in the way we actually
organize Legion baseball. A lot of states only have one classification,

(14:19):
so that's only the top that what we call Triple A.
So Triple A is teams with a combined enrollment of
nine nine oh one to five thousand. So then we
also have double A, which is which is four fifty
or four one to nine hundred now, and then below

(14:40):
that is Single A. And we also have two classifications
in juniors because we have over two hundred teams statewide
and we're top five every year in terms of the
number of teams that we get to register and play
Legion Baseball in the state of Wisconsin. So we also
then actually what that gives us, that actually gives us

(15:01):
two teams that get to qualify. So out of our TRIPAA,
the top two teams in the state get to go
and play in the national Regionals, which I think is
in Illinois this year. I think that's Carol Stream.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
So is that what is so the the regional tournament?
And I got to figure this out because Jove's and
we're going to have Joel join us in the next segment.
But he's been really kind with his time to kind
of get me at least to ask some good questions.
So he his team plays Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, he sets
up his own schedule, plays teams, they travel a little

(15:35):
bit to change, Willie, They travel, you know, up into
the valley to get games. But then the regional tournament
is what you guys are all getting ready to play, correct, right? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (15:45):
So the regionals, so junior regionals will actually start next week,
So sixteen U seventeen U regionals will start next week
with their state tournament the following week, State tournaments the
following week, and then the senior legion teams will start
twenty third.

Speaker 4 (16:02):
I think is what I think we're starting the twenty second.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah, twenty second or twenty third triple A normally the
double A and single A one somewhere around the twenty
fourth and twenty fifth.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Then how does that work? Does the will Joel's team
play at least in the regional tournament in this area?
And then and and does everybody make the tournament? How
does it exceed it?

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Yeah? Everybody who will? So every team that registers is
eligible for the tournament. Some choose not to play, you know,
whether or not depending on the vacations other things like
that number of number of kids, but everyone is eligible
to play. And then so as regional directors, we all
get together and we actually you know, as for me,
I assign all of the Double A ones Mark over

(16:45):
and o'claire is the Triple A director. I think Jason
and fond lacas single A. Now, do you have to.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Play a certain amount of games throughout the year to qualify?

Speaker 3 (16:56):
You have to play a minimum of ten Legion games. Okay,
so you don't all Agion teams don't have to play
just Legion teams. They could go out and they could play.
If you go to a tournament and there happens to
be some non Legion teams, you can play non Legion games.
You know. We we try and promote and make sure
that you know, we play Legion teams. But we've got
a lot. I mean, there's a lot of teams in
our area now. And one of the reasons why it

(17:17):
wasn't you probably didn't know about it as much seven
years ago is state summer baseball was a huge high
school thing down here and really this part of the
state was all about summer baseball until the WA made
it all one season and that's where that's where myself, Scott,
we really had to start to try and you know,

(17:39):
educate people on what summer base was, what options kids
had in the summer for base.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Scott, do you guys compete with you with travel baseball?
Can can kids play both?

Speaker 4 (17:48):
So yeah, we do compete a lot with travel baseball,
and I think part of were some of the teams,
Like in our area down here, there used to be
a ton of teams to play travel baseball is kind
of taken away from But you can play both. You
just have to fill out the proper paperwork and make
sure that you're not missing regionals and state tournament games
during the tournament time to play travel.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Guys, we're going to get to a break. Other side
of the break, Joel's going to join us. He's the
head coach for the Milwaukee Fire Post for twenty six
pipemin They look pretty good the other night, by the way,
And I can tell you that that it was fun
for me because I knew some people there. His first
basement is a guy that his dad's the athletic director

(18:30):
at Greendale Martin Luther. I got a chance to sit
with them for a while at him and his wife,
and it was really fun to catch up with them.
Good crowd, good baseball, and I appreciate the invite that
Joel had given me and we'll talk to him 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

(18:52):
n twenty in your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to the
Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your local
Pick and Save and Metro Market Stores. Coming live from
the Donovan to Georgie and Heat and Cooling Studios talking
American Legion Baseball. It celebrated in one hundred years and
on their website their All Star Game is here in Milwaukee.

(19:14):
Their weekend is August ninth and tenth. August tenth Sunday
August tenth, they're going to be playing out at Amfam
Field after the Mets Brewer game. And man, that's pretty cool.
I love that, guys. I guess players from all over
the state. Who picks the All Stars? How does that work?

Speaker 4 (19:31):
There's a group of board of directors that sit in
a room and go through I think there was eighty five,
eighty six nominations this year, so they got a short
window to do it and put it together. And it
moves pretty clear.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
You go north south or how does that? It used
to be North South.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
Now they just do a stars and stripes and just
pick them randomly out of the whole eighty four.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
So I tough with that just to make sure the
game is competitive, or I think so. I think the
boys from North getting their butt kicked by a Southern correct. Yeah,
let's stay with that one. Let's stay with that one. Hey, Joel,
how you been very good, sir man. I really appreciate it.
And I told you this on the phone, but I
had your son in a couple of weeks ago talking

(20:10):
witno baseball, and and uh, what a nice young man.
Shook me, shook my hand, said thank you two or
three times, just looked me right in the eye, and look,
I always wanted to know what my kids were like
when they couldn't spell my colonne. You guys did great,
really nice young man, good baseball player.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
Yeah, thank you very much. He enjoyed being on the
on the show.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
He did a good job.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Yeah, he was a little nervous, but he did all right.
He did all right.

Speaker 6 (20:34):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
So the people I talked to and the guy that
I talked to you that runs the Germantown program, he said, Man,
that Milwaukee team, they're they're good like, and I go, really,
because you guys haven't been around that long, have you.

Speaker 5 (20:46):
No, this is our essentially our third year that we've
been in existence, and I want to give you just
a quick backstory of how I kind of found Legion. Yeah,
and it was in Hortonville's which is a small town
just west of Appleton. And I was driving my father
in law is convertible with my son and we're just

(21:06):
driving around at night and a small town, USA, and
I see some lights and so I drive up, park
the car, walk up over this hill and there is
this beautiful field in Hortonville, Uh, you know, with the stone,
the stone backdrop, the lights, and it was some phenomenal baseball.
They sold beer, It was a community that Yeah, it

(21:31):
was so cool and it was good baseball. And it
was a pitcher from I think they were playing Oshkosh
or they were playing someone, but it was a uw
Oshkosh pitcher. And what was cool about it is because
it's nineteen and under, you could see there was a kid,
a freshman from Oshkosh that pitched, and you had a
sophomore that was a good ball player playing second base.

(21:52):
So you had you know a little bit of age
group or age difference, but it was legitly good baseball.
And I've played my you know, my whole life, and
I would compare it to you know, just about Lakes level,
you know, baseball Land the Lakes baseball. I mean, it
was very good baseball. And I was like, Wow, this
is cool. And the next year I'm like, I'm gonna
do it.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Wow, do you know it's interesting? And you did it
so your son it had a chance to play, yea.
And will you continue once he's gone?

Speaker 5 (22:22):
Yes. So actually a lot of the team that we
have now is still eligible to play next year. But
I really enjoy this. And I'm a firefighter for the
city Milwaukee, and the Milwaukee Fire Department has its own
legion post Post four twenty six, led by retired Deputy
chiefs Konechki, and then our union, Milwaukee Professional Firefighters Local

(22:42):
two fifteen also sponsored us. So there is a desire
for it. I've had so many kids call me and say, hey,
I'd love to play for You'd love to play for you.
When we can talk about this later. Is when you
create a team, you can make your own schedule. So
I try to keep it where we play Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays.
That way the boys can do their things on the weekend,

(23:03):
they can work, they can go on vacation, whatever they
want to do. And then we say, hey, starting you
know regionals, let's go. This is go time. And there's
so many cool benefits that the American Legion offers that
it's just carrots for the kids. And we talked about
the All Star Game at Amfam Field, the amount of

(23:25):
scholarships available. I told them, so our boys, we have
a pretty decent team that I don't think anyone here
is going to be on a World Series field. I mean,
as good as we are, I don't know for major leaguers,
but every year the winner of the national tournament is
brought on the field at in the World Series. Really,
so like, if we want to be in the World Series,

(23:46):
we got to go to Shelby and that's where the
American Legion World Series is, and you win that tournament,
you get to go to the World Series and get
your name called out on the field.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
How cool would that being?

Speaker 5 (23:57):
Right?

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah, I love that. Hey what if I can't Scott
what what part of the country is there a part
of the country that's strongest with American Legion where you're
you're seeing teams win the national tournament from Florida all
the time, or from California or from you know, is
it is it all over the I.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
Think it's all over the place, to be honest with you.
There seems to be a hot pocket in the Midwest.
You know, there's typically a team from the Illinois area,
Indiana area that goes down there. I don't think we've
had too many Wisconsin teams if we've ever had any.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Nod Yeah, interesting, Well maybe this is the year. Is
there a team in the state right now that that
everybody goes boy, they're loaded? It's probably the team.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
It's funny you asked that because we were talking about
at the state meeting the other day and our commissioner mentioned,
uh Joel's team, and he just kind of broke my
heart when he said that almost everybody is eligible again
next year because we have to.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
Play the studio How's boy team this year.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
We're young, We're really young. I think in the next
few years will be fairly decent. We've got a good
crap of kids from fifteen years old down to the
twelve year old group that are pretty talented. Actually, I
went and watched Joel's team playing Bloy last this past week,
and my nephew's game. He's on the junior legion. He
they got canceled, so he pitched against them, a little

(25:23):
fifteen year old and Joel's team, I struggle a little
bit because he doesn't throw it hard. But then they
beat him up in the sixth inning and took control
of the game. So it was a really good baseball game.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Man.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Well, the game that I went to see you guys play.
I was impressed with how and look. As a former coach,
I always look at things that maybe other people don't look.
But I watched the communication side of it. I watched
them react on the bench when when somebody got a hit,
when somebody gapped one and scored a couple of runs,
And I watched how these kids and look, this isn't

(25:53):
a high school team where these kids are all in
the same class together and they all played juniors together, right,
they played youth baseball. These are kids from all from
all different schools. And I wouldn't have known that had
I not known it, And that that's that for me,
was a big deal, Like these are guys that don't
hang out with you know, they didn't play with baseball together,

(26:15):
but they're they're high five and they're hugging, they're you know,
they're talking on the field. They're they're they're the cutoff
guys talking to this guy there. I was just impressed
with the whole thing that that your team showed me
as I went out to watch, And I think that's
that that I'd certainly commend you and your staff for
doing that.

Speaker 5 (26:34):
Yeah, we uh, we try to keep it real loose.
That's kind of our model. Have fun, play loose, and
especially during those weekday games, you know, it's a it's
definitely a relaxed atmosphere. Now when we go and play
in the regional tournament, we'll amp it up a little
bit more and we'll be a little bit more focused

(26:54):
because it's do or die. And and what I love
about Legion Ball about it's seven in there's no time limit,
and for the tournaments it's double elimination, so like you
have the opportunity, like if you have a deep pitching staff,
which we hopefully we kind of do this year, like
we could actually make a run because and everyone knows
in baseball, like the best team in the world could lose,

(27:16):
you know, to a not so good team just you
know the way.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
The ball balls airs.

Speaker 5 (27:20):
Yeah, but with a double elimination, it really makes you
you need to have a deep team to make a run,
because too you have to win twice.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Hey Skatt, where's for this area? Where will that regional
tournament be?

Speaker 4 (27:34):
So both the sixteen you and the Triple A regionals
will be embloid at our complex in the turfield.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
A nice complex.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's about twenty years old actually, but
we just about two years ago Turner High School and
the YMCA came together and put a baseball on a
softball turfield in there.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
So speaking of softball, there is American League in softball.
How strong is that program throughout the country?

Speaker 4 (27:59):
I think gets off to a well throughout the country,
I don't think there is one, but in the state
it's it's off to a strong start. It started with
about a dozen teams or so, and I think they're
up to about twenty in the second year.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
There's a lot of really good softball being played in
the state of Wisconsin. I it's amazing to me and
I've told the story a hundred times, but I got
in the batter's boxing and it's a girl from Fort
Atkinson years ago. Cocky, I was talking smack. Never saw
the first You know what, it didn't go well. You

(28:31):
know how I knew it wasn't gonna go well when
the when I got in the batter's box and the
catcher stood up and said, outfield, come in, no hit
or no hitter, I thought, you gotta be kidding me.
I'm gonna I'm going to lose a bunch of balls
here and no chance. I gained so much respect. What
I didn't realize is I don't know if it started
ten twelve years ago, but but girls softball has increased.

(28:52):
The one thing that I have a problem with is
they're they're they're telling girls they got to play year round.
And so they were the girls softball, girls volleyball, taking
girls away from basketball and some other sports. And I've
always been one that I think that when you when
you're in high school, played as many sports as you can.
Were you a multi sport athlete? I played three? Yes? Yeah,

(29:13):
Ed turner, yep, yeah. Could you shoot the ball a
little bit?

Speaker 4 (29:17):
Let's just say I mean I played on the basketball
team and I played a lot of minutes.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
But did you defend real Well, yeah, I was a.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
Pretty good defender, but yeah I had I had a
couple guys on my team that could put it away
for us, so I don't have to shoot too much.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Well, I told you my Beloyd Turner basketball story. Yeah,
that guard that that year I was at Martin Luther.
I was there four years with the last year and
we beat Saint Catherines and the old ad is sitting
over there in the corner and he's shaking his head.
And then we played Beloyd Turner and that night one
of the guards went on social media and told Bloyd
Turner fans, get your ticket to the Cole Center. We're

(29:49):
going to State. Yeah, and we smacked him around a
little bit for that. We got up eighteen nothing, and
they were a really good program. They were young, and
they came back and I don't know if they got
I don't I think they got to State the next year,
but they're very competitive. How good is the baseball program
at bloy Turner.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
It's when you talk baseball in the southern part of
the state, Bloy Turners usually mentioned that conversation. Our head coach,
Jeff Klaus down there does a phenomenal job. They've been
ranked in the state every year, usually conference champs.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Do you guys have tryouts for the American Legion team
or if you want to play combine and join the team.

Speaker 6 (30:25):
We have tryouts.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
We've sent it out to Bloy Mortal High School and
Turner High School, a couple surrounding schools that they're interested.
If they don't have Legion teams, kids have to come
try out. It's just a one day tryout and then
we form the teams from there and then start our season.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Getting back to the regionals. If you win the region
here and let's just say let's say Milwaukee wins the region,
where then does Joel take his team to play for
the state? I don't know.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
We're in Stevens points Steven's point this year, that's right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
And then does one team from the state get to
play in nationals?

Speaker 4 (31:00):
Two teams?

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Two teams? Yeah, So if you take first or second,
you got a chance to then go to the nationals.
And where the Nationals normally.

Speaker 4 (31:09):
Held at various from year to years.

Speaker 5 (31:12):
It's in Carol Stream, Illinois. Okay, that's where the national
regional is.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
And then you've already looked into this, you have to write.

Speaker 5 (31:21):
Yeah, that, and then I got a trip going to Europe.
So I'm like really like, oh my gosh, how is
this going to work out? You know, Murphy's law for me?

Speaker 1 (31:27):
But you know what, do this. Here's what I always figured.
Go win the thing and then figure it out after that.
If you need me to coach third base for a
game or two at Nationals, you let me know. You
got to get a big boy uniform for me. But
I'll go ahead and do that. Hey, Scott, do you
do you see? And we're talking with Scott Hoffman he
is the assistant director for Region six, and Joe Reckless,

(31:51):
who is the coach for Milwaukee fire Post for twenty six.
And Mike Arnett, who is he's the principal at South Milwaukee.
That's how I kind of know him. He's also the
director of Regient six and he uh, he does a
great job over at South Milwaukee. I didn't realize he
was the ad at Saint Catherine. I've got a whole
bunch of stories with you know, lats and a bunch

(32:13):
of the coaches over there that I can tell you.
That was one my favorite gym to coach and other
than where I was, you know, Martin Luther at Dominican.
But that's what Indiana basketball must be like for me,
That's what I thought for sure. Hey, Scott, do you
find the numbers are growing? More interest? There's more competition

(32:33):
now for American Legion baseball? Right there's a number of
leagues that have popped up that that kids can can
play in. But you find that the numbers and the
interest in American Legion baseball in this area has has grown.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
Oh, I think it's grown substantially in this area. I
mean based on you know, summer high school being changed
over to spring baseball.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
It was a big help for that.

Speaker 4 (32:55):
But I think Mike and I have done Mike, Mike's
done way more work on it than I have in
this area. But trying to get teams the knowledge of
what Legion baseball is and what it's.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
All about, and try to grow the numbers.

Speaker 4 (33:06):
You see, we've had six or seven teams pop up
every year that have shown some interest and gotten involved.
And if that number continues to grow, then that's just
a big positive for this area.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Hey, and they talk to me about senior junior, What
is there an age you had talked about your nephew
at fifteen throwing. But there's a there's there's American Legion
for for younger kids, right, and then American Legion where
kids that play in college can come home and play
for their teams. Correct, correct, And it didn't matter if

(33:38):
your Division three in college division ie, you can come
and play for your team.

Speaker 6 (33:43):
Yep, yep.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
So the way it's set up is there's a nineteen
and under program that runs a triple AAA and single
A based on enrollment numbers, and then the younger kids
have seventeen and under Junior Legion and sixteen and under
Junior Legion and that's all based on birthdays.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
And and if a kid is really talented that he
is young enough to play sixteen under, he can he
can play in the nineteen and under. And like your
nephew's fifteen pitching, and you said he was thrown kind
of slow and it took them out.

Speaker 4 (34:11):
Well, he throws, yeah, he throws pretty well for his age,
but playing against these guys who were the giants of
the league, you know, he just seased to throw some
left side and threw everything, threw a lot of strikes
that night, and just was slow. Enough, they were having
a hard time timing him up. And then the sixth inning,
I don't know who the kid's name was, but he
didn't have a hard time because he hit a car
out in left field.

Speaker 5 (34:32):
That was rock o'conrad.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
He Rocco got a hold of.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
We were down.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
It was a great game. We were down two to
one or yeah, I think we're down two to one.
And then we had a man on first and second
with two outs and rockets and two strikes, and Rocco
hurt his hand, so like I was just going to
use him very sparingly or you know, not at all,
And sure enough, this was the right opportunity, and uh
we ended up taking a four to two lead on

(34:57):
his three run home run.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
In the time his hand wasn't hurting for the that minute,
well it wasn't, Yeah, he was. He was just fine. Guys,
we're going to get to a break. I'm gonna ask
Mike to join us. Joel, I'm gonna ask you to
stick around.

Speaker 5 (35:08):
She got.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
It's really good to meet you. I thank you for
having me. Nothing but good things about you. You were
here yesterday for softball year back in. Is there games
going on today?

Speaker 4 (35:17):
There's games going on today, but we don't have to
play because we qualified in the top six, so we play.
We have a buye for the day, which is unusual,
so we play tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
That's awesome. Yeah. Are you coaching that?

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah? Yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
Might have a fourteen year old daughter on the team.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
So she's a good player. She's pretty good. She she
works hard at it.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
She's a tiny thing, so she's been in the weight
room all summer and that's that's actually helped her confidence wise,
and she's getting stronger. So it's fun for meaching our kids.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Is something else? Yeah? Yeah. I coached my son a
lot in basketball and and an aau and then in
high school. The first year in high school, sophomore year,
I was not a great experience for him and I
and I had to make the change because I was
the adult in the room. I felt like I was
his coach twenty four and that didn't work out so
well for the family structure. Yeah. I've been there, done that.

(36:04):
Yeah you too. I can tell you I think Steve
Showalter all the time because show Walter was in studio
and I had this conversation and he said, look, I
can tell you what I did better with my second
son than I did with my first, and he recommended
I buy a book called Coaching Our Sons Coach Tank
of Basketball coach in Dodgeville wrote it and I learned

(36:26):
a lot from reading that book. We'll continue talking to
American Legion Baseball on the other side of the break.
This is Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by
your local Pick and Save and Metro Market Stores on
Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Welcome
back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market Stores.

(36:46):
Coming live from the Donovan and Jorgansen Heating and Cooling Studios,
talking to American Legion Baseball this hour. Then Roy Henny,
he's the owner of MFC Sports Complex, a new complex
in the Whitefish Bay Glendell area, and we're going to
talk to him a little bit about this complex starting

(37:07):
at ten o'clock. Guys, American Legion Baseball. I love the
fact that it's been around for one hundred years, and
look for a guy like me that that you know,
he's really involved with high school sports and doesn't know
a ton about it. I thank you guys for your
willingness to come in and talk about it. Hey, Mike,
whenn as the regional as the director of Region six,

(37:30):
you feel pretty good about about where American Legion in
Southeast Wisconsin is right now and looking forward to to
to the future as far as numbers, better quality players
coaches like Joel that that get teams ready to play
in the regionals and nationals. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Yeah, I think we're still growing down here, you know,
I mean, and for Legion Baseball to be around for
one hundred years nationally and ninety seven, I think here
in Wisconsin's it's still pretty new in Southeast Wisconsin. And
really the North Shore area is probably the one that's
growing a little bit faster right now. Keiskam added a

(38:10):
team Grafton, Port Washington, Cedarberg. They all have teams now.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
And do you reach out to communities and coaches or
do they reach out to you? And how do you
find like a Grafton, how did they get involved?

Speaker 3 (38:23):
Yeah, a little bit. It's a little bit of both,
to be honest with you. You know, Joel kind of you know,
he took the ball by the horns, and you know,
he reached out and we started having trading email conversations,
get on the phone. How do we do this? How
do we get you know? Whereas some others when when
w I A got rid of summer baseball, we actually
mass emailed all athletic directors and baseball coaches in southeast

(38:45):
Wisconsin to talk about what Legion Baseball did, what what
they can offer? How do you get teams started? What
the cost of that is? Because it's it's really super
People think it's going to cost thousands of dollars to
start a program, right, it does not cost thousands of dollars.
Senior Legion teams. I think it's four hundred dollars to

(39:06):
register and be in there, and that includes tickets to
the All Star Game. That includes to the Brewer Game
before the you know, so there's a lot of different
there's a lot of different ways to go about, and
that includes insurance and everything else like that too. It's
super affordable to be able to do it on a
local level.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Hey, Joe, did you then go to to the people
at Milwaukee Fire Post for twenty six and say, listen,
we're going to start a Legion team. Can you help
us a little bit? You want to back us? How
did that that work?

Speaker 5 (39:33):
Yep, no, I I know we had. My father was
served in the Army, my brother served in the Air Force,
and they're members of Post four twenty six, so I
knew that that they existed, and so yeah, I went
to the commander and I said, hey, Chief Ski, what
what do you think about this? And uh, one hundred

(39:53):
percent on board. I mean right, it's kind of like
the mission of you know, the American Legion is to
promote sportsmanship, commune unity, and development of youths. So you know,
for them, they were very excited. Likewise with the local
two fifteen, the Mawkey Firefighters Union, they again promoting sports,

(40:14):
promoting the community, representing the Miwkee Fire Department. So yeah,
they were on board. And I would think that if
you go just about to any Legion posts like that's
kind of what their purpose is. And yes, they have
money available and they want to spend it in the
right way. And so yeah, for a senior team with
you know, to start up a team, it was I

(40:35):
think eight twenty five. That was the insurance and the
state fee which covers everything, and it's a deal after that.
I mean we charge our players, you know, four hundred
dollars and that includes everything. And like when we took
a trip to Rochester for a tournament, like we do it,
I think the right way. We pay for the hotel room,

(40:57):
we pay a per diem and if you smart with
your money, you can make it work.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Four hundred dollars yeah, So.

Speaker 5 (41:04):
I mean I felt like that's you know, we don't
have overhead.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
It show you understand to play in an AAU tournament
like two weekends. Well you got we back and this
is years ago. I had we had to do a
ton of car washes. Yeah, and charge our families way
more than that. And then we had to come back
and say, look, if we need new uniforms. I liked
your uniforms. So those things looked pretty good.

Speaker 5 (41:28):
The guys designed them. What I was gonna say when
we went to Rochester, Minnesota for a tournament, the tournament
fee was four hundred and twenty five dollars, four game guarantee,
two umpires per game, full inning games, and then everyone
got a shirt on the team. You know, like it's
just a value for for what it provides.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
How did you find the kids to play? Did you
start with your son, start with whitnel and get kids
and then just start expanding.

Speaker 5 (41:58):
Incorrect, and that's exactly how it started. So I my
son did the travel Ball and he did played for
the Angels and the Halos, and it was a great
experience for them. They you know, the Lutzes have done
a tremendous job with that organization and have helped us
out tremendously. But he was at the point where he
wasn't really going to play in college, but he was

(42:19):
still a very good ball player, and he made All Conference.
And there was a bunch of kids like that that
you know, weren't going to play in college and didn't
want to travel necessarily, you know, around the US to
play on weekends. So there was like a group of
like six seven kids and then they talked to their
friends and then and then we had some success last year,

(42:40):
and then it was like, oh my gosh. And then
especially because you know, generally it's seventeen and under, so
you know, for most of the travel Ball and most
of the tournament. So if you're eighteen years old or
seventeen or you know, in that kind of that flux period,
there's not a whole lot of options for you. So again,
we had kids like Roco Conrad came to look, you know,

(43:01):
wanted to play this summer, and Sam Herthy wanted to
play this summer, and Brendan Shield wanted to play.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Well.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
Brendon and Corey Shield his dad I've known for a while,
and his mom was there and and it turns out
that girle he's hanging out with as a kid I
coached in basketball, he's working over at Current Electric and yeah,
he's going up to a Nona I think and playing.

Speaker 5 (43:24):
Yeah, right, and I have to play there and yeah.
So we have some like some very talented kids that
just want to keep playing, but again as their senior summer.
So it's like, do you really want to travel all
over and do that? So we're like, hey, let's do
it this way. This model seems to work.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Hey, Mike, what happens if a team has you know,
if they've got twelve players or are fourteen players and
six of them are going on vacation one week? Can
they pick up players from from the area? Do they
have to stay with who's on their rochester?

Speaker 3 (43:53):
So once once you get your roster, is I mean
you have a roster and as long as they all
have forms, it really locks in. Once you hit regionals,
So you have an eighteen player roster at regionals. So
you can have players as long as they fill out
the proper form two that say, and you can have
kids who come and play, you know, when you need

(44:13):
to or if you have vacations. And we understand that.
It's just really the roster itself locks in at the
start of regional play and then so you're committed at
that point in time. And that's once that roster is
submitted at the it's actually submitted the end of June.
That locks you in for that's your roster unless there's
a season. And like if you have a major catastrophic

(44:34):
injury to a player, then then you can reach out
and you can make that one.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Time, or you go ahead and do what Joel did
and the kid hurts his hand and you hold them
back to save them against that boy over there in
the corners, nephew, and I hate Joel. We I played
union league baseball and this is a gazillion years ago
after graduating from Mesmer and the police Union yep, sponsor.

(45:01):
Yeah yeah, And my best friend of the world is
Brian Kleisman. His dad was the president of the Policeman's
Union and we needed somebody to help sponsor us, and
he was like, yeah, well we'll do it, but don't
none of you guys better get caught doing anything stupid
with the Milwaukee Policeman Union on the front of your jersey.
And I'm hoping that everybody on your team understands, you know,

(45:23):
having Legion Post four twenty six be their sponsor, what
that means. Do you bring your players over to the post?

Speaker 5 (45:30):
Yeah, so we have brought them. Like so last year
in Wisconsin, Rapids was the state tournament and I took
a couple of the ball players to the Wisconsin Firefighter
Memorial and it's kind of cool. So our logo is
the pipe main. So a pipe man is a person
generally that's on the nozzle. Now historically that's kind of changed,
but it's called the pipe man. When you go all

(45:52):
and look at the wall, the granite wall with all
the firefighters have died in Wisconsin, you know, in the
nineteen twenties and nineteen you know, thirties, they are called
pipe man. So it was like pipe man, you know,
so and so, and it was just kind of a
connection for them, you know, being a firefighter, like it
was important and Wisconsin. Rappns did an amazing job and
it was a beautiful facility. I mean it was and
it was an amazing experience. So like we told that

(46:14):
to the boys and then you know, the old timers
that retired that, you know, they like to hear that.
You know, they appreciated. They have not been forgotten, correct,
And you know when we ask for money, we'll generally,
you know, show up with a couple of players and hey,
this is how our season went, and this is the recap.
So I have some ideas for next year to to help,
you know, make it a little bit better for the

(46:35):
union and and for post four twenty six with regards
to you know, sponsorship. But we'll see how that goes.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
How was your your wife feeling about all this? I
think it's kind of it's good right now because you
and your son get to hang out. Yeah, but she's
listening right now.

Speaker 5 (46:48):
You thinks she is. Her name is Kelly, and she's watching.
Actually she's I think in Rockford, Illinois right now for
a softball tournament that starts at eleven.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Well, hopefully Kelly's listening to you. Kelly. You thought maybe
next year things would slow down. Joel's got a whole
list of the ways to get his team even better. Yeah,
for next year, and he's not slowing down. Coaching gets
in your blood. It's hard to get it out man.

Speaker 5 (47:14):
Very true. Yeah, it's historically my dad. You had Johnny
Lutz on there.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
I did a good day.

Speaker 5 (47:19):
And yeah, I just remember, like my dad played against
him and yeah, he always you know, It's just it's
in my blood, you know, playing county minor ball, playing Langsdorff,
playing lakes. This is what I like to do.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
Yeah, my brother Tim from Flora's listening on the iHeart
app right now and I told you guys, seventy one
I think seventy seventy one still catching. He'll come down
the next couple of weeks and he's got a couple
of games over at the Rock. He just calls like
John Arnold and those guys, and they're gonna come in
studio on the twenty six. We're doing old guy baseball

(47:50):
for an hour and talk about you know, these guys
that still have this in their blood. And my brother
plays a ton and when he gets here, he'll come
in town and he'll come over to my house in
Pewaukee's sake, can we get out and throw a little bit.
I'm like, I, no, no, go find somebody else to
throw with. But you know, that's what you're creating with

(48:10):
these kids, and I really appreciate that. A ton Man
Scott over in the corner, it's really nice to meet you.
Other than being a boy turner guy, you're not a
bad guy. I can tell you that. Michael. It's good
to see you again. You know, I'll be calling you
again for the current electric Superhero of the week and
we'll get it. We'll get a rocket from South Milwaukee.

(48:31):
Big fan of the athletic director at South Milwaukee by
the way.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
Yeah, Auntie does a ante does a great job. And
he's yeah, he's he's South Milwaukee through and through. Miss Yeah,
he's really good, dude. Yeah, he's taken over the title
of mister South Milwaukee at this point in time.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
Now.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
Yeah. So we had a teacher who retired, John Reagan's
who was longtime basketball coaching there. Yeah, you know who was,
you know, mister South Milwaukee. So the baseball she was too, Yeah, yeah,
oh John Yeah yeah, yeah. The field named over it. Yeah,
there's a lot of a lot of history, a lot
of tradition, over there at South Milwaukee. They've done a
great job with the facilities now afore having that referendum

(49:09):
and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
So yeah, I was My brother did a show in
the theater there a couple of years ago. I had
and I was blown away, like this is a high
school theater. Yeah, it's good to see you. It's really
good to see you, Joel. Good luck for the rest
of the way. Right now, I'm looking at the odds.
You're the odds on favorite. So you guys better you know,
Oh yeah, you see Scott's like Scott's like knocking out.

(49:32):
Don't get nervous or anything like that. It's good to
see you, Joe. Thank you for all your help with
this show. I really appreciate it. And I tell your
son I said, good luck and what a great job
that he did. We're gonna get to a break the
other side of the break. Roy Henney, he's the owner
of the MFC Sports Complex, is coming in studio. We're
gonna talk about why he got this complex built, what

(49:54):
they're doing with the complex. I've been online. I promised
him i'd try to get over there. Was not able
to get over there this week, but I will in
the future, and we'll talk to Roy coming up in
the second hour. This is the Varsity Blitz High School
Sports Show, presented by your local Pick and Save and
Metro Market stores, only on Fox Sports nine twenty in
your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High

(50:18):
School Sports Show, presented as always by my friends at
your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores. Coming
from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios. Go
to Donovan Jorgenson dot com, the largest employee owned HVAC
company in the state of Wisconsin. I want to thank
Scott and Mike and Joel. Talking American Legion baseball. You know,

(50:41):
I laugh this time of year. You know, high school
football is going to get kick off here in a
couple of weeks and I'll start diving into high school
football and hopefully Ryan McMillan will come back in as
my co host. And this time year, I get to
talk about stuff that I don't know a lot about.
Last year we talked an hour and underwater hockey. Underwater hockey,

(51:03):
talked to high school bowling, talked ice fishing, and I
learned a ton about that American Legion is one of
those things American Legion baseball and now softball, I don't
know a ton about. And I think Scott, and I
think Mike, and I think Joel for coming in and
spending an hour with me to talk about American Legion baseball.
Roy Henning is in studio. One thing I don't know

(51:25):
anything about is drag racing. Nothing Roy, sorry about that.

Speaker 6 (51:29):
That's okay? Do we have this on?

Speaker 2 (51:32):
So?

Speaker 6 (51:32):
Yeah? Oh yeah, there we go, there we go.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
Yeah, so, uh, don't worry, especially he's got you too.

Speaker 6 (51:38):
But yeah, no, drag racing. I basically grew up at
the drag strip with my dad, so before he ever
bought it in nineteen ninety three, every weekend we were
down there and he raced the top alcohol funny car.
So I was already working on cars by the time
I was four or five years old.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
Wow, And that's what you do for your life right now,
regular jobs.

Speaker 6 (51:57):
So now I build engines for old volkswagens, which was
also his main job before he bought Great Lakes Dragway.
So yeah, we are the oldest company left that's still
building air cool volkswagons from back in nineteen sixty nine.

Speaker 1 (52:09):
Man, that's awesome. I kind of love the fact that
you and your dad like you kind of follow his footsteps.
Was that always the plan?

Speaker 6 (52:18):
Well, you know when you're a kid, you know you
have your dreams and your you know this is what
I might do and what I might not do, and
you know you have all these different things you think about.
But I really did love putting things together. I mean
kind of what's solidified for me. I tell the story
all the time. I was ten years old. So it's
nineteen eighty seven, and we had a church a church

(52:40):
rummage sale, and so we never had that's you know,
ten years old, you start getting to the time where
girls are calling your house.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
And when I was good for you boy.

Speaker 6 (52:51):
And so we we my parents even though you know,
we lived in Mechuan and we were pretty well to do,
but we had no answering machine. No answering machine. Parents
would buy an answering machine. So at this church auction,
at just church rumbergs sale, there's an answer machine sitting
at a table and it says free doesn't work. So
I asked him I to go, hey, can I take this?

Speaker 1 (53:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (53:08):
Sure, So I take it home, I take it apart,
I fix it. I put it back together as a
ten year old and plug it in. Call the house
from go to my neighbor's house, call the house to
see if it works. It works, and I had an
answering machine. And so so that was my first real
foray into like, oh my gosh, I can actually just
take random stuff apart. There was no internet back then.
I'm not reading instructions.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
I'm not fit.

Speaker 6 (53:29):
I just took it apart, figured it out, put it
back together.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
So I couldn't do that in today's world. And my
dad was a brickler and a mason, could fix everything,
but never had the patience to teach any of his boys.

Speaker 6 (53:41):
My dad had the patience of a saint when he
was younger. Just for the fact that my brother and I,
you know, you know, we're crazy kids. We live in Macwon,
and Macwan is not exactly especially in the eighties. Everybody
wore suits, you know, and they went to work, and
you know, my dad's wearing jeans and a T shirt.
So you know, we of the family that you know,
we got down in dirty, we put on we put

(54:03):
an addition onto our house ourselves.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (54:06):
And so I was really a hands on kind of
guy from that home. Yeah, nineteen ninety five, I know,
I feel old.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
Yeah. Well, I talked to Dave Kiel a couple of
weeks ago.

Speaker 6 (54:16):
Oh my gosh. So Dave Keel was my algebra teacher.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
He is, you know what, Every once while I reach
out to coach Keel and just check in and see
how he's doing. And is he's still coaching football? He
is not. Okay, he's he's coaching his grantson down in
I think in Georgia like pee wee football and staff.
But left Homestead a couple of years ago.

Speaker 6 (54:37):
Okay, yeah, there's only a few teachers left there from
when I was there.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
One of my favorite people in the world, by the way. Yeah,
he's a great guy, great, great guy. I am a
big fan of his. So let's talk a little bit
about this complex, MFC Sports Complex. You can go to
MFC Sportscomplex dot com to get more information. It's on
li like Dell in Glendale. The you built this complex

(55:02):
and you built it, Yes, I mean you cleaned out
a big old building from the company that you own
and put this shin. Correct. Yes, you did all the work.

Speaker 6 (55:11):
Uh no no, no, no no, So I mean I General
contracted most of the business or most of the work.
I did a lot of the work myself. Obviously I
had to hire guys for plumbers and electricians and stuff
like that. But so, yeah, a few years ago. I
played soccer my whole life back at Homestead. I played
in college, played post college, and then I kind of
swore off soccer for a while, a couple of injuries

(55:34):
here and there. So you know, then you have kids
and the kids start up, you know, playing soccer. Uh,
put in my time as a volunteer wreck coach, and
then was very excited to not coach anymore. You know,
the year my kid went up into academy at Bavarian
Soccer Club. But unfortunately, or fortunately, I guess is the
right word. Now, they had an opening and they needed

(55:54):
a coach, so they called me, convinced me to coach,
and so for the next couple of years I was coaching,
having a good time. And then we lost our indoor
training facilities. So Bavarian Soccer Club, the biggest soccer club
in the state, is one of the clubs where they
continued throughout the winter. They don't just say, hey, it's
cold outside, sorry, take a few months off and go

(56:15):
home and you know, we'll come back in spring. So
we were practicing indoor. We lost our indoor facility, which
was sold to a baseball training company, and so the
executive director, Steve Morris, kind of knew what I did
and said, hey, why don't you build this a soccer field.
So it's February, it's minus ten degrees outside, you know,
three feet of snow. This was twenty twenty two or

(56:36):
twenty twenty three. And I go back look at my warehouse,
which was stacked Florida ceiling wall, the wall with cars parts,
you know, anything you could imagine. You couldn't even see
in there, no power. I kind of laughed it off.
Great idea, would be really cool, but there's no way
I can do this. After a few months, I'm telling
the story to a bunch of my friends in Whitefish

(56:56):
Bay and they go, wait a minute, you have enough
room to actually do that, And I'm like, well, technically yes,
but I'm like, actually getting it done is another thing.
So in the end they took me out, you know,
lubed me up a little bit at the local establishment,
and convinced me that it was a great idea and
I need to do it. Raised a million dollars, which
is not as easy as you know me just saying

(57:18):
it right there, and you know, took nine months to
clean the place out and general contract at about a
third of the project. Myself had a huge help from
a guy named Mark Nicholson, who also coaches at Bavarian
Works for Ergen's development downtown. He was my shadow guy
in the in the background. I couldn't have done it
without him, and took us like nine months and you know,

(57:42):
piece by piece and we got it done. Luckily. When
my dad built the building, he had it zoned for
mixed use sports facility. Smart man in nineteen eighty nine.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
Did he really?

Speaker 6 (57:52):
Now, let me tell you. In nineteen eighty nine, I
was a very very very bad soccer player. I played rack.
You know, I had no future in sports. But he
somehow did that. So when I went to the city,
they're like, oh, yeah, you're already zone right, Yeah, go
for it.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
Why would did Why would he have done that?

Speaker 6 (58:08):
No idea?

Speaker 1 (58:09):
What I mean?

Speaker 6 (58:10):
I asked him. I asked a couple of the other
guys and they're like, yeah, it was easiest just to
do it that way. So just in case somebody wanted
to you know, use it in the future.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
You know.

Speaker 6 (58:19):
The other key was that he built the building with
a self supporting roof and no poles. So most buildings
obviously are much cheaper to build with poles all around
the inside of all those warehouses. So you go to
Rock and Jump, you go to all those different places,
there's big, huge poles, you know, all over the place.
And everybody apparently had been looking to build a new
place for sports in the Whitefish based Shoreward Glendale area

(58:42):
for like ten years. So Soccer USA, which was originally
built by Ron Creton back in the eighties for the
Milwaukee Wave. They were there from the mid eighties to
the mid two thousands. He retired, and now it's a
produced warehouse. What's that really?

Speaker 1 (58:58):
I was the director shows. I'm working for the Wave
for a long time and the Rampage. That's how I know.
Stevie Morris, let me tell you this Bavarian time for me.
When I started working for the Rampage, I would leave
at halftime every game and I would go set up
our postgame party. Well, we were at the same place
and the post game party was the same every week,

(59:20):
so I didn't and Bob Gansler Bavarian. Yep. Finally, mcgiven,
why why do you leave at halftime? I go outdoor
soccer is like watching paint and he goes really, I go, yeah,
I can't stand it, and he goes, well, we'll see
about that. Well his I was at Eline and that's
where my office was, the rampage, and Jim Harwood was
my boss. Ganser's office is right below me, and every

(59:43):
once in a while he'd call and go what are
you doing? I go, what do you need? Come down here.
I want to show you something. And he said, look,
i'm breaking down film in your sport, which is basketball.
I was coaching basketball and my sport are very similar.
I go, no, they're not. And he'd go watch, we're
playing man here and we're going we're going to squi
on any picks, and now we're playing zone and now
we're going to run a give and go, and that

(01:00:05):
he taught. An former World Cup coach taught me the
outdoor game. Yep. And I'll be driving through a park
and I'll stop to watch for a while. Yeah, it's
a beautiful It's a beautiful sport. If you understand it, I'm.

Speaker 6 (01:00:19):
Gonna tell you a little secret. So when I played soccer.
So I played my whole life, like I said, high school,
you know, I played twelve months out of the year
for the four years and then went to college. And
when I went to college, a lot of my friends
who were also soccer players, loved watching you know. Of
course I also I would also, you know, always watch
the World Cup, watch a men's national team. But I

(01:00:40):
thought the same thing as you. I couldn't watch soccer.
I was a player. I could not sit there on
a couch and watch people play. I wanted to be
out there. I thought it was boring to watch at
the time, I really did, because I had a player's
mindset and I was a goalkeeper. So it took me
a long time to be able to sit down. And
now as a coach, because I've coached for so many

(01:01:02):
years and I've really started breaking down the game in
my head and started to learn a lot of things. Now,
I can't turn it off. Yeah, and my kids watched.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Well, you know, I learned from Gantler, and he likes
the game to be one nil and he keeps everybody
in the back. And I would then say to him, man,
you got to be more aggressive offensively and he'd be like,
why did I teach you this game? Go back to basketball,
but giver, don't try to tell me to coach soccer.

(01:01:29):
And it was just what a good man. And he
was Bavarian through and through.

Speaker 6 (01:01:34):
Oh yeah, he still posts all the time on Facebook
on the Bavarian page all the you know, all the
old things that happened in the sixties, seventies and eighties
where I recognize the players that were then my coaches. Yeah,
throughout the because I didn't play for Bavarian. I played
for mec One United and Cedarberg and Verdi and a few.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
Of the other clubs hated Bavarian, didn't you.

Speaker 6 (01:01:53):
We did not like Bavarian normally because they always kicked
our butt, right, they really did.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
They were a break club. And those old Bavarians are
to the Wave games and complain all the time about
the indoor game. Yep, just complain And I'd be like, look,
you've been a season ticket holder for the Wave for
five years. Why are you complaining so much? I hate
this game, But you still come, don't you. They said,
it's the only soccer we can get right now. And

(01:02:17):
a bunch of our Bavarian boys are out there and
we're here to support them. Yep, and I love that. Hey,
this indoor complex ten thousand square feet, state of the art,
and I promise you that I'm gonna get to see it.
I watched the video you sent me and it's great.
But you said, look, you can't get the full gist

(01:02:38):
of what this is until you get in it. And
when you walk in it, there's a wild moment. Even
for you who was there and cleaned it out and
you've been like, this is your facility. You still sometimes
walk in there and go, man, we did a nice
job on this.

Speaker 6 (01:02:54):
I still walk in there and I'll just sit at
half field and I'll lay down and just be like,
I can't believe this is actual here, you know, with
playing for so many years, you know I was there
when Eline opened, I was there when Brookfield opened. I
played in those places, you know, the first years that
they were there. And you know my players now, who
are six, seven, eight, nine, ten eleven years old, when

(01:03:15):
we play there, they laugh at me and tell me
how old I am. But I played in indoor places
all over you know, the Midwest, and when I did
this one, you know, obviously I was constrained by the
building size, and there were some things that I couldn't change.
But I got very, very lucky. And I can't thank
my dad enough and the guy who designed it, the
building itself for what I have. Because I wanted to

(01:03:37):
have an indoor place. Most indoor places you feel like
you're in a basement. Yes, you feel like you're you know,
they build it into the ground because it's cheaper, you know,
less heating and cooling costs. And what I did was
I wanted to make sure that we had more light
than any other place. I wanted you to feel like
you were outside but inside. And so I spent a

(01:04:00):
lot of money on windows, let me tell you, And
you can't just buy you know, the home depot specials.
I mean, our windows, including our seat through garage doors
are basically one step below bulletproof because you got they
got to take the impact right even though we've got
nets uff. You want to make sure things aren't gonna
break and it's gonna hold in the heat and the cooling.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
So we've got to I'm sorry. Yeah, So I want
to go back to the idea of you thinking we
need more natural light in this facility. That sets you
apart from a lot of indoor facilities to that I've been.
The other part is it seems to me and and
and reading an article, you guys have the state of
the art turf. That for me, I think sets you

(01:04:41):
apart too, because a lot of indoor facilities spend a
lot of money on different parts we want. We want
to make money and concessions. We're gonna spend a lot
of money and concessions. We want places where people can
see but their turf is not very good, and they
go cheap on the turf, and they go cheap on
not having any windows. Yeah, I love the fact that

(01:05:01):
you said, no, no, we're gonna spend a lot of
our money making sure we got natural light and making
sure the turf is best.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
Well.

Speaker 6 (01:05:09):
The nice thing is that I was able to build
this with the perspective of a kid, a player, a coach,
and a parent because I've been all so most people
that build these things don't have all four of those things.
So I'm looking at it from every single perspective. So
with the turf, what we really wanted to do is
I wanted to replicate outside inside. So I didn't want

(01:05:32):
people to say, well, I don't want to play in
there because it's green carpet. You know, that's not going
to help me outside. I didn't want people coming in
and saying, well, we might as well just go to
this other place that's farther away because they've got better turf.
So we went with the best, and so we are
the first place in the entire country to put this
system inside. Really, so underneath our turf is a plastic

(01:05:56):
impact pad. So what that's supposed to do. It's one
inch plastic and it kind of bounces, which they lay
down before the turf. It's supposed to completely eliminate the
possibility of concussions. Now you can't not one hundred percent,
but falling on because there's it's a concrete floor. So
most people put a little tiny felt pad and their turf,
and when you hit that ground it hurts. So as

(01:06:18):
a former goalkeeper, I'm like, you know what, I'm like,
people are gonna be diving all over the place in here,
plus people are going to be following. We got kids
of all ages, we got adults that are going to
be playing. When you hit the ground, you know, we
don't want people unable to get up, So we had
that put down. Then with the turf itself. This was
a brand new system through Hellas Construction, which is out
of Dallas, Texas. And then with the infill. Everybody knows

(01:06:42):
and hates the black pellets. So the little black pellets
are a little ground up tires. They stick to your shoes.
You get home, you got to dump them out before
your wife yells at you because you got them in
the entry away it looks like you had, you know,
a mouse fest in there. The other problem is that
it's not good for you your health wise. So what

(01:07:05):
we did is we used it's called green ecofill, so
it's a vegetable based system that's the little green pellets
instead of black pellets, So it's non toxic. Not sure
if you're supposed to eat it, but with the kids
rolling around in there, especially goalkeepers and other people, it's
supposed to really basically be the new and upcoming things.

(01:07:26):
So when you put the green pellets outside, because when
I played in the nineties, there were no turf fields.
Nobody had enough money to put turf fields in for
high school kids. So now everything's turf and with that
black pellets when it's eighty five ninety degrees outside and
the sun shining, it feels like it's one hundred and ten.
So these green pellets when you put them outside, actually

(01:07:47):
plays thirty degrees cooler. So that part doesn't do much
for us because it's inside. But it is a whole
brand new system. So I have had current professional athletes,
former professional anths athletes in football, soccer, indoor soccer, baseball.
We've had, you know, Gilbert Brown, the Roy Butler have

(01:08:07):
been there. We've had We've had Logan Farrington who is
from Racine, played with played with Bavarian and he is
the highest drafted player from Wisconsin ever in the MLS. Okay,
so he plays for REFC Dallas right now. He came
and did a couple of camps. Ian Bennett from Milwaukee
Wave comes and does a lot of training in there
as well. And then, oh, go ahead, you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
Know what, I'm sure we have to get through a break. Okay,
I want you to hold that thought. The other thing
I want to get into is this facility is not
just soccer.

Speaker 6 (01:08:38):
We do it all anything on turf, you know, we
do it with lacrosse and field hockey and baseball, cheerleading, yep,
cheerleading everything.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
Man, he is Roy Henning. He's the owner of the
MFC Sports Complex, Carolyn involved in this.

Speaker 6 (01:08:55):
Or yes, I would not be able to do this
without my wife Caroline. And that is the huge shout
out right there.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
In more ways than one man, Well, you know what,
when you came home and said, guess what I'm gonna do,
she must have rolled her eyes. But knowing your dad,
knowing your background at ten, you you know what you did.
She probably said, all right, well, let me know what
you need from it.

Speaker 6 (01:09:18):
For nine straight months, she looked at me every week
going are you sure you can do this? And I
of course said, oh, yeah, absolutely, And then I went
around in the back going, oh my god, I hope
I can finish this thing.

Speaker 1 (01:09:28):
Is there somebody that runs this facility for you?

Speaker 6 (01:09:30):
You're talking to him.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
So if somebody wants to lease it, somebody wants to
rent it, they would contact I'm the guy. Go to
Mfcsportscomplex dot com, MFC Sportscomplex dot com, and Roy can
take care of it. We're gonna get to a break.
Other side of the break, we're gonna talk about this.
This started as kind of an indoor soccer facility, but boy,

(01:09:52):
it's a lot bigger than that we'll talk to Roy
about some of the things and the events that he
has going on at this facility. This is a 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 Pleix High School Sports Show presented by your local

(01:10:12):
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores. Coming from the Donovante,
Jorgensen Heating and Coolian Studios. Again, any issues you're having
with your HVAC system, These guys are the best. I
love Scott, I love everybody over there, three different locations,
the largest employee owned HVAC company in the state of Wisconsin.
Commercial they'll do a little bit, but a lot of

(01:10:34):
residential and I would highly recommend their maintenance program. In
studio Ron Henny Ron Roy Henning, thinking of Ron Creeton
Jim Peters, Although.

Speaker 6 (01:10:44):
So what's funny about Ron. I'm gonna bring Ron back up.
So I was able to get a hold of On.
So my dad at Mofoco used to we used to
plow all the local businesses. So I got to plow
Soccer USA while I played there, So I knew Ron
back then. So I got a hold of him while
I was building this and I figured I'll throw a
couple of questions at see what he has to say.

(01:11:05):
We talked for four hours.

Speaker 1 (01:11:06):
Is he still in the Bay Area?

Speaker 6 (01:11:08):
He comes back sometimes. He lives all winters in Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:11:14):
But he was a really good man.

Speaker 6 (01:11:15):
We were on the phone for four hours, four hours,
and he gave me the breakdown of from the building
to the running to the this. I mean, he gave
me every single last bit of information he ever learned
running soccer at USA.

Speaker 1 (01:11:28):
Jim Peters played a lot of soccer over at Soccer US. Well,
he was on a team, but he was a doers
guy back then. And you have a couple of doers
and and I can tell you that working for Ron,
he was a true professional and a really good man
and a great businessman. And I enjoyed him. Yeah, I did.

(01:11:49):
Some of the other people there, you know, not so
much sometimes. But they did a few things to me
that I'm not too happy about. But that's all right.
Ron was a really good dude.

Speaker 6 (01:12:00):
Funny story about Soccer USA, myself, Mofoco and Steve Morris,
because Steve is my boss. But he and we didn't.
I didn't even realize this until about a year ago.
So my dad used to sponsor our indoor soccer teams
called Mofoco FC.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
He paid for all the uniforms. Good for him.

Speaker 6 (01:12:17):
And so telling Steve this story, and Steve goes, wait
a minute, he goes, that was you guys. I'm like,
what do you mean. He's like, well, we would practice
for the Wave there and then we would go sit
have a few, you know, have a few, and we
would see these guys walk in in Mofoco shirts. He goes,
we didn't know what it was. We thought you guys
had some kind of swear word thing. You know, We're going,

(01:12:41):
who are these kids that are writing that on their jersey?
And so we was sitting watching games and you know,
laughing up and have a great time. And he's like,
and that was you, and I'm like that was me.
He's like, oh my gosh, he is a great player.
I mean I miss the Wave at the Bradley Center.
I really really do. I got the opportunity through Macwan United.

(01:13:04):
We would get to play at halftime sometimes or there
would be some tournaments beforehand. I've still got my Milwaukee Wave,
big shot. I was a north Ridge big shot. You
know T shirt from back then, which somehow still fits.
But I loved Wave games back then. I mean Wave
games in the Bradley Center were just different, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
I go now.

Speaker 6 (01:13:21):
I love the games, don't get me wrong. I love
the team, but the atmosphere in there is just not
the same as a Bradley Center.

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
No, it's not. And I can remember I worked for
them when the Bradley Center opened up and we were
playing at the auditorium and then we'd have a couple
of games at the arena, and I'll never forget I
was just a part time salesperson. The director of sales
left and Jim Peters interviewed me and he said, look,
we'll we'll We'll let you finish the rest of the year.

(01:13:48):
You'll be our introm and I I'll tell you what.
We have a game at at the arena coming up
in six or seven weeks, and I'm going to sell
out the arena. And when I do, then I want you.
I need three things from you. I said, take the
interim thing, and now i'm your direct shows marketing. I
want to raise and I want you to buy me
a beer. And I went to Center and did a

(01:14:11):
vendor program with them. And I can tell you that
ten minutes before game, our Barbara who was our ticket manager,
had kept twenty tickets and she was out. We were
sold out, but she had twenty left in her hand
and she was selling for cash out on the street.
And I see Jim Peters like right at kickoff, and

(01:14:31):
I look at him. He goes, all right, you're no
longer the intrum. Yeah, let me buy you a beer. Yep.
I go what about the raise? He goes, that's not
going to happen. Yeah, that's not going to happen. I
loved it. Hey tell me about this facility, MFC Sports Complex.
You did this so the Bavarians would have an indoor
a facility, but boy, it's a lot bigger than that.

Speaker 6 (01:14:52):
It so, yeah, that was the initial reason why. And
so you know, I kind of did this feel the
dream style on a wing prayer, going hey, if I
build it, hopefully they will come. There was you know,
there's obviously no indoor facility in the North Shore and
we are currently still the only you know, indoor facility

(01:15:13):
that's turf one hundred percent of the year, you know,
in the North Shore and there's a there's a big need.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
And so.

Speaker 6 (01:15:21):
Last year when we opened, you know, I had a
few months off. As soon as we uh you know,
finished finished, finished the build, got our occupancy. You know,
got had a little hospital stay, a little infection in
my arm. Uh you know, had had a little bit
of a surgery and some uh uh some rehab time.

Speaker 3 (01:15:38):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:15:38):
But once I got everything going in about September October,
you know, people start calling it, starting to slowly start moving.
You know, I'd emailed a million people, had a few
people come by, and then all of a sudden, you know,
in November, you know, my phone's ringing off the hook.
I'm getting emails, I'm getting Facebook messages, I'm getting Instagram messages.

(01:16:00):
And we filled the place last winter with lacrosse. We
had baseball, we had girls flag football, we had field hockey.
Obviously soccer, a lot of soccer pickup games. Because our
field is a little bit smaller than eline, a little
bit wider, a little bit shorter. But it's great for

(01:16:21):
kids and also for old guys like me that don't
want to run as much anymore. You know, our goals
are the same size as E line too, and Brookfield
to keep everything, you know, pretty standard, but it really
morphed into something that I really didn't expect, and in
a great and positive way. You know, one other thing

(01:16:42):
that we did was, you know, along with the natural
light and everything like that, I also wanted to make
sure I put in air conditioning cause you know, Ron
you know again told me, he's like, look, Roy, I
don't care what you have going on in there. I
don't care if you have exercise classes. He goes, I
don't care what you got going on. You got to
fill that place all the time with as much as

(01:17:03):
you can do. You got to have people in there
because you can't have it sitting idle, because then you're
not making any money. And so I'm like, all right,
I've got to have some nice air conditioning. So this
summer compared to last summer, after we had a very
successful winter where we were putting in between seven hundred
and nine hundred people a week through the place over
the winter, seven days a week, starting you know, during

(01:17:25):
the week, starting at three thirty in the afternoon, ending
in about eleven Saturdays and Sundays starting at six am,
going all the way until about eleven pm six am
on Saturdays, We've got something called Camp Shutout. It's a
goalkeeper camp, so based out of they were working out
a racine. They do some stuff in Steven's Point. Stan
who runs that place, went to the same goalkeeper camp

(01:17:48):
as I did back in the nineties, doctor Joe Matchnik.
So they run these goalkeeper camps during the winter six
o'clock in the morning until seven forty five am, so
they were only running it out of park Side. And
he's like, Roy, I've got people driving from Lacrosse, from
Eau Claire, from Stevens Point, from Warsaw, so if we
can cut off some of that time'd be great. So

(01:18:10):
I've still got parents driving an hour and a half
to two hours, which means they're leaving at three o'clock
in the morning, wow, to get their kids down by
me to do an hour and a half goalkeeper camp,
which is fantastic. And then Bavarian's got the rest of
the day. And then at night we're running, We're running leagues,
we're running pickup games, you know, all kinds of different things.
So we were so busy, which is fantastic that probably

(01:18:34):
within a month or two I've got people emailing me
right now, trying to finalize, you know, schedules for this
next winter. I'm probably going to be completely packed, probably
by about September for the entire winter.

Speaker 1 (01:18:47):
So and when we talk about lacrosse, and we talk
about some football, and we talk about soccer obviously the
cheerleading part. Do schools contact you to to youth groups
contact you? Do you guys do like birthday party stuff
like that.

Speaker 6 (01:19:03):
We do a lot of birthday parties. So you know,
it's three hundred bucks for two hours. And the best
part about our parties is is it's private. So you know,
you go to all those places. You go to Eline,
you go to the Yard, you go to Brookfield, you
go to Rock and Jump, you know wherever. Great places.
Don't get me wrong, but half the time you lose
your kids, the kids lose everybody else in the party.

(01:19:26):
You're stuck in a little tiny room with what they
have to sell you, and it kind of is just,
you know, a very random show of you know, insanity.
Ours is a nice private place. You get the entire field.
What I've not even talked about yet is our entrance area.
So we've got a fifteen hundred square foot lounge with
a ten foot by eight foot video board. So the

(01:19:48):
same thing that you see in five serve, you say,
the same thing you see, you know, down at the
Marcus Amphitheater, which not only shows sports and any other
streaming service. But I've got cameras in the field that
shows the action on the field on this big screen.
And so the parents can come in. You can bring
you know, twenty twenty five kids, and you bring your

(01:20:09):
own food and drink. The parents hang out.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
In the little room. There's the difference. You parents hang
out in the little room.

Speaker 6 (01:20:16):
As a grandfather of six, that's a huge Oh yeah,
you know, nice couches, nice chairs. You can either watch
the sports, you watch the kids in the other room.
The kids go in there, they run their butts off,
they have a great time. They come back in and
they eat their pizza or their subs or their ice
cream or whatever. Go back out there, you know, run
around for another, you know, a couple hours, and you

(01:20:38):
don't lose anybody. So as a parent, and this is
where this really helped. I'm taking my four or five
six year old kid to birthday parties. They won't let
you leave. You know, you got to stand there, you
gotta walk around this place with the four hundred other
people and you know, holding hands at my place.

Speaker 1 (01:20:54):
The parents either a.

Speaker 6 (01:20:56):
Want to stay because they want to sit and hang out,
or the kids are like, yeah, mom, go home, like
I'm fine because you can't get lost. There's no strangers.
It's it's a really great place to have not only
birthday parties, but uh, you know, corporate parties. People are
coming by to watch Packer games, Brewer games. You know,
they rented for a couple hours.

Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
Give me idea if somebody wants to rent it for
a birthday party for a couple of hours, what are
we looking at costs wise?

Speaker 6 (01:21:21):
Oh, it's three hundred bucks. That's it done.

Speaker 1 (01:21:24):
And then you bring in all your own stuff. You
need me to talk price. You need to raise that
up a little bit.

Speaker 6 (01:21:31):
Well, we started off cheaper actually, So it's for two hours, yep,
two hours for.

Speaker 1 (01:21:36):
Three hundred bucks. Yep. Lights get turned on, yep, you can.
You can bring your own.

Speaker 6 (01:21:40):
Food, yep, bring your own food and drink. So we've
got a couple of delivery services. Yeah. So we've got
a huge parking lot that holds like thirty thirty five cars.
There's street parking as well.

Speaker 1 (01:21:51):
I got to get there. I wish I would have
gotten there this week because I didn't and I promised
you that I would try. Wasn't able to do that.
We'll get there in the next couple of weeks because
now I'm really interested.

Speaker 6 (01:22:03):
So in addition to the parties though we're doing, we're
doing corporate events, we're doing charity events. So the biggest
one we did was we did an event for the
Adetakoumpo Foundation, so the so CAF so the Charles Adetakoumpo Foundation,
about two months ago, spearheaded obviously by Mariah and she
was fantastic. So what they did was is they were

(01:22:23):
doing an event for brand new mothers and families of
small children, you know, under privilege that that that couldn't
afford all the things you need as a new parent.
So they collected up items all throughout the city throughout
the month of April, brought them all to my place
in May, which for moving trucks full of stuff, it

(01:22:44):
was pretty impressive. They had sponsors. So when we did
this event, we had bounce houses, we had a DJ,
we had popa shot, we had food trucks, we had
face painters, we had all these different things, and then
they invited it was a private event. They invited seventy
five families that could basically come then and shop and
get all the things that they needed in this store

(01:23:06):
set up for you know, that they needed to take
home with them. And it was just an absolutely fantastic
event to showcase what this city does when it gets together.
So hopefully that's going to become an annual event. They
had done one in Greece before, and you know, hopefully
when they get back, we're gonna be planning out another one.
But we did a couple other ones for a couple

(01:23:29):
other you know, good charity events through burn boot Camp
in Whitefish Bay. I'm trying to work with I'm a
local guy. My dad always was a local guy where
he wanted to use instead of buying something from California,
He's gonna try and buy something from down the street.
And so that's really permeated with me to where I
look around and go, Okay, how can I find in

(01:23:50):
a five mile radius as many businesses as I can
to include in my business? Help them, they help me.
We all help each other, and so I'm working with
a lot of Whitefish Bay businesses a lot of Shorewood businesses,
a lot of Glendale businesses, and just trying to bring
more people to the area really.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
Quickly before we get to break. When you see a
corporate event, what does that entail? What does that look
like at your facility?

Speaker 6 (01:24:16):
So we got full use of the parking lot, so
you know, we're looking at you know, people are coming in,
like I said, mostly doing charity events or like end
of the year parties. We did a lot of end
of the year soccer parties for teams. And I basically
I could have rented this place out initially to an
organization and just let it be right, but I wanted

(01:24:40):
to make sure I included the entire city in what
I did, and so some things I do. So we're
working with a lot of an organization on the South
Side called Brilliantes. And so what KB is doing is
she's trying to bring soccer to a lot of people
that can't afford it, a lot of people that don't
speak English, and we're trying to basically use this to

(01:25:03):
help everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:25:05):
But I you know, I congratulate your dad. That's why
I congratulate because what he has done is put the
servant leadership part and he's taught you what that is,
and you know, I I think it's phenomenal. I'm going
to before we get to a break here, I'm gonna
rip you for one thing. Okay, the website's got to

(01:25:26):
be fixed. Oh yeah, oh yeah, we got to get
the website up. You know, you can go to MFC
Sportscomplex dot com and there's a way to contact Roy
and and and look at one picture of the facility.
But I think I think the website, now that you've
done all this in Carolina, I'm sorry to tell your
husband that you just spent some time on on on

(01:25:48):
updating that website so people can really get a feel
for what this facility. Have a picture of the entryway
and the parking lot, so you can get a real
feel for what this is.

Speaker 6 (01:25:58):
Yep, that's my that's that's that's actually my next big one.
And you know, every week I go, Okay, I'm working
on the website this week, and then I'm working on
the place instead. And so it's been you know, we've
done no advertising, I mean absolutely zero. It is just
by Instagram, Facebook and by word of mouth right now

(01:26:20):
that we're so busy, which is which is awesome. But
I really I do want to put out there what
it really looks like, what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:26:27):
And you have that video that you sent me in
The video would be great on the website. And I
want to thank Brian Pierce for the introduction.

Speaker 6 (01:26:34):
Absolutely absolutely DP has been my guy for a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:26:36):
Yeah, Brian's a good dude. Brian is a good dude.
We're going to get to a break other side of
the break. Roy Henny, he's the owner of the of
the MFC. What does MFC stand for?

Speaker 6 (01:26:46):
So everybody asked that question, and I wanted to incorporate
mufoco because you know, that was why I have what
I have when I bought the building and the business
from my dad thirteen years ago now. But I wanted
to make I wanted to give pay homage to that,
but I didn't want to make up something brand new.

(01:27:06):
So MFC could be Mofoco Football Club or it could
be just an acronym that really means nothing and causes
everybody to ask me, what does MFC mean?

Speaker 1 (01:27:16):
Yeah, I thought Midwest Football Club, but.

Speaker 6 (01:27:18):
Milwaukee Football Club exists, so it's not that I've had
people ask that question before. But we also want to
be known obviously for all the other sports as well.
And on the other side of the break, I can
tell you about some of the expansion we are already doing.

Speaker 1 (01:27:31):
We're going to talk expansion with Roy Henny and Caroline
right now is shaking her head going expansion. I didn't
know about that. We'll find out a little bit more
about that. On the other side of the break again,
you can go to MFC Sportscomplex dot com to get
more information and contact information for Roy. This is the
Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your local

(01:27:53):
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores, only on Fox
Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app. Go back to
the Varsity Flix High School Sports Show presented by your
local Picket, Save and Metro Market stores. Roy Henny. He's
the owner of MFC Sports Complex. What is the day
of Carolines built business?

Speaker 6 (01:28:12):
So she runs a digital marketing agency that she started
called Evalier Digital.

Speaker 1 (01:28:16):
And what kind of businesses does she work with?

Speaker 6 (01:28:19):
So she works with everybody, she really does. She's she
decided in the middle of COVID to quit her job
and her and four people to start their own business.
And I looked at her and said, are you sure?
And she said, I'm sure, and it was the smartest
thing she's ever done, besides you know, marrying me.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
Probably Mary, next time you're here, we should have her
come in because she's very active in Whitefish Space sports.

Speaker 6 (01:28:46):
She is so in addition to being one of three
ever female coaches for for a white Fish Bay Little League,
and I think there's more now, she's also on the
white Fish Bay Boarders directors for a little league. She
played softball her whole life.

Speaker 1 (01:29:04):
Her dad, my.

Speaker 6 (01:29:05):
Father in law, coach softball for twenty four years, all
the daughters and so yeah, I got one son that
plays baseball now. But she's very Between the two of us,
we don't have a lot of a life, you know,
outside of what we do. But we figure, you know,
we've got the two kids. There's seven. The older one
turns eleven tomorrow. Are the kid Will and James? James

(01:29:29):
turns eleven tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:29:30):
James Kenny, Happy birthday, young man.

Speaker 6 (01:29:32):
So he's setting up I got to go home. He's
setting up a lemonade stand this afternoon, so you can
make some money. He's already an entrepreneur like mom and dad.
But we really figured, look, we're just going to immerse
ourselves into the community, to the sports, to the kids.

Speaker 1 (01:29:47):
Because one day, as you know, it all ends, it
all ends, and you're like, what happened? I agree, it
goes quick, it does. Hey, you talked before the end
of the last break about some idea. It is not
an expansion. You have space there.

Speaker 6 (01:30:03):
So yes, so I own the whole building. We own
the whole building, and so you know, each expansion area
I need to clean out more stuff. So right now
we are three to four to five weeks away. I've
been working since January or actually last September with bat
for batting cages. So we are going to have indoor
batting cages because again in our area, I've got friends

(01:30:27):
and coaches and kids. They're driving to Menominee Falls, they're
driving a German town, they're driving downtown to go batting.
And so I've got enough room that another two thousand
square feet. We're putting two batting cages in, one which
you'll have a machine, the other which you'll have a
mound where you can either pitch or the pee wee's
can use a little bazookas. And then with that room,

(01:30:50):
we're gonna be able to pull the nets back so
that we can have individual and group training because I've
got a lot of coaches that want to do some
smaller group training during the winter in our Our big
room is full.

Speaker 1 (01:31:01):
Last week I had the lutches on from Angels Baseball
Halo Baseball, and they have a facility out in I
believe it's either walkshow in New Berlin. I was there
and they have it's it's you might want to visit
that facility they've got. They've got a basketball area, nice
floor with one hoop, They've got a number of batting cages,

(01:31:25):
and then they've got another area for pitching in the back.
And when I walked in there, when I parked, I thought, huh,
not much going on here, And then I walked in
and went, Holy cow.

Speaker 6 (01:31:36):
Now that's the reaction. You'll happen to get to my place.

Speaker 1 (01:31:38):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to that, and I will. When
do you think the batting cages? Have you already figured
out what cages you're going to use? Stuff like that? Oh?

Speaker 6 (01:31:46):
Yeah? So, I mean I was just stuck on a
door for the last because I'm general contracting this myself. Again,
of course I was stuck on I had to order
a fire door from one of the walls. That took
me six weeks to get in. But right now we
are actually have the cages in. You know, a few
things gotta be finished. I've got to level up the
floor and I've got again we're gonna be turfing. It

(01:32:08):
not the same as my big field, but it's still
gonna be uh the you know, non toxic, you know,
PIFA free. You know, we're kind of on that kick
with our place is being natural, being non toxic, because
we want to be the new We knew we weren't
gonna be the biggest, so we want to be the
most up to date, the safest, you know, type of

(01:32:31):
facility that we're gonna have. And so in this little room,
you know, with the batting cages, which we again is
gonna be probably three four weeks. Maybe we're gonna have
the individual training all summer and I mean, excuse me,
all winter as well. So we're gonna have baseball in there.
We're gonna have lacrosse, We're gonna have soccer, uh some
field hockey. I've got uh good funny story that Steve

(01:32:53):
Morris hooked up here. So uh, Charlie Trout is the
coach of the Puerto Rican national soccer team, lives in Chicago,
runs a program called Fundamental Football. I started coming up
here a couple of months ago doing Wednesday night sessions
for kids anywhere between nine and eighteen. And he comes

(01:33:14):
up and runs these sessions. He wants to run them
all winter as well, but we didn't have space for him,
so he's going to be in there as well. But
having a coach of his caliber come up and teach
these kids how to play. And it's sixty dollars a session,
it's not a million dollars. It's limited size, limited space,
but we are trying to bring in such an array
of coaches into this facility for training. Just finished up,

(01:33:37):
we are going to have another session with His name
is lu Cologne, based out of New Jersey, played, you know,
was in the minors, had a couple of invites to
camps in the nineties. But now he's a baseball coach
and he was actually in camp. He was a catcher
in camp with the Nationals and with I think the
Mets in the preseason down in Florida. And he traveled

(01:34:00):
the country and does baseball camps and he came over
the summer and did one. He's got over the winter
and did one. He's coming back in about a month
and he's gonna run another camp. So we're bringing people
in from everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
Hey, we only got two minutes left. How are you
finding all these people? Are they finding you?

Speaker 6 (01:34:17):
They're kind of finding me? And when we have some
of the organizations, So one of the baseball organizations in
Whitefish Bay brought him in and then he said he
looked at me and said, look, this is one of
the nicest places I've ever been. I need to come back.
We need to run another camp. I said, absolutely, let's
do it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:33):
Hey, next expansion. Pickleball getting pretty big.

Speaker 6 (01:34:40):
I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it.
But if it's gonna happen, somebody else has got to
bring their pickleball in. Because I can't run any more businesses.
I'm a little maxed out at this time.

Speaker 2 (01:34:49):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:34:49):
Carolyn just sent me a text said, talk to my husband.
He should be doing pickles. I think that's what they're
text singing Roy Henneing. I just got a text from
Brian Pierce said you sound great on the air, and
he thanked me for bringing the in. This was as
quick hour as we've done, and I appreciate that lot
because because of the knowledge and the passion that you have,

(01:35:12):
and again I think your debt for it. Look, the
servant leadership thing of giving back to your community, it's
not something we're born with. It's a learned behavior. And
there's no doubt in my mind that's where you learned
it from. And I thank him, and I think the
family you grew up in to give back to this
community and to do what you're doing, a lot of
people go, yeah, yeah, that'd be a great idea. I

(01:35:32):
hope somebody does it. Well, you did it.

Speaker 6 (01:35:35):
And one thing you know that I'm trying to push
really hard with my place, with our place, is that,
of course I've got to make money, don't get me wrong.
You know, the lights have to stay on. You know,
we've got to pay people back things like that, but
you have to include people. There are so many places
that it's only about money in corporate and they can't
do things like that. And so the great thing about

(01:35:57):
our location and our organization is that we can say, hey, look,
nobody's gonna be here these few hours. You guys can't
normally afford to come in here, you know, why don't
you come in for these two hours and see how
it works for you and we'll give you a location. Otherwise,
these people don't have these opportunities.

Speaker 1 (01:36:14):
Roy henning Man, it's really good to meet you. I
really appreciate what you're doing. I look forward to seeing
this complex. I think you need to raise that birthday rate.

Speaker 5 (01:36:23):
That's just me.

Speaker 1 (01:36:24):
You know people are gonna be like, quit telling them that.
Go to Mfcsportscomplex dot com. It's good to see you. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:36:31):
You can also find us on Instagram at MFC Sports
mk E and that's where we post most of our stuff,
so you can see things that we're doing and you
can also contact us through there.

Speaker 1 (01:36:40):
That's awesome. Hey, thanks Spencer, great job today, a lot
of movie parts you did great. This is the Varsity
Blitz high school sports show, presented by your local Picking
Save and Metro Market stores, only on Fox Sports nine
twenty in your iHeartRadio app