Full Show - 8/9/2025

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, August 9th, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the Varsity Blitz.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
High school sports show is always 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 Jorganson Heating and Coolian Studios, three locations West Allis,
New Berlin mcgwanago, the largest employee owned HVAC company in
the state of Wisconsin. Any issues you have or you

(00:23):
want to make sure your furnace you don't want to
turn it out today, obviously, but it's going to have
to be turned on soon. You want to make sure
it's ready to go, go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com.
At nine forty, we're going to talk to Brian Nate.
He's the head football coach at Lafayette Central Catholic in Indiana.
Had a chance to meet him a couple of weeks
ago and asked him to come on and talk a

(00:44):
little bit about Indiana high school football. We'll talk to
him at nine point forty. At ten o'clock, Eratreski, head
football coach at Wisconsin Lutheran College, will come on for
a few minutes. At ten twenty, Bill Jacklin, Man state
champion coach from Slayers to join us at ten twenty
in studio with me and I really I wanted these

(01:04):
guys to come in because I want to know how
they're feeling. Steve Rucks, retired head football coach from Waukeshall West.
Keith Kleshinski coach k retired head football coach from Milwaukee Marquette. Keith,
I'm starting with you, brother. Look, both your dad's Hall
of Fame coaches. So you guys, like from as long

(01:25):
as you can remember, you've been at a football practice
this time of year.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
How you doing right now? Brother?

Speaker 3 (01:30):
It's weekend. I'm doing fine. I feel very weird though,
you know, like by now I would have been at
school getting things ready, meeting with coaches, getting ready for practice.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
So that's that routine's a little bit different. And I
think I'm one thing that's buffered a little bit is
I'm trying to help our new head coach as much
as much as possible. So you know, we're kind of
on the phone, especially this time of year, almost daily.
And then I also got kind of you know how
they say they keep pulling you back. My son coaches,

(02:03):
my grandson and Junior Hilltoper Football and they started on
the same day that the varsity started this week on
Tuesday with practice, but my son had had to go
to Colorado for work, so I filled in for him.
So I've been coaching the junior hilltop for seventeam team
this past week.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
It's been great. I love that, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
People asked me when I got done after thirty six,
and I said, I'm still talking to coaches every week
and I get asked to come into practice and run
a couple of drills, and now we're doing games on
nine twenty, and so I get that little taste.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Do see you guys both know.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
My wife said I thought you'd be home more after
you retire from coaching. I said, no, I'm still going
to practices, still going to games, but it's not that grind.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Steve Rucks, how you doing. How you feeling this week?
Doing well?

Speaker 4 (02:52):
I think like Keith, it's unusual after a lifetime of
fall camps not being there with the guys, but stay
busy and still involved in the game, also in teaching,
and so it's been good, but very unusual.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Throughout the show, we're going to talk about when you said, hey,
still kind of involved. Another thing you're doing kind of
a side hustle. I guess is it called answers dot Ai?
Is that what it's called.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Yes, it's called the Answers dot Ai. It's a n
s RS dot ai and so it's a video breakdown system.
It allows coaches to be able to get to where
they want to go as far as their breakdown dynamic
charts and it's all connected to video. And when it
was proposed to me and brought up to me, I

(03:38):
thought it was something that really was game changing for coaches.
And so it's something I've been promoting for the last
six months.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
So still be so you're involved, still talking to coaches.
You cover the state of Wisconsin.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
For the state of Wisconsin, yes for you, Yes.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well great, right up on their website about about having
you join their team and if people have interesting we're
going to talk about it a little bit later in
the show. But it's a n s RS dot AI.
I watched that video and then I showed Andrew, who
coached some high school football, and his jaw dropped and
he said, look, when I was at Whitewater, who's take

(04:12):
me all day to do this? And now they're saying,
look at it's fifteen seconds. I mean, you could just pull,
drag and drop. And I think it's really really interesting. Hey,
the decision I'm gonna ask both of you guys is
now start with you coach Coach Kmon instead of Steve
coachk your decision to step down as the head coach.

(04:32):
Had you made that decision before the last year you were.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
There, Yeah, I did.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
I actually went to the school the athletic director, had
separate meetings with the athletic director and the principal two
years prior, so this was even before the state just
just so they could kind of think ahead. It's very
difficult at the high school level trying to get a
new football coach because of usually tied to openings in

(05:03):
the teaching staff and you always want your your head
coach to be in the building. So I said, you
may need to hiring cycles to find a head coach.
And they actually did some interviews the year prior, and
I said, you got to be bold and thinking because
it might not be kind of fitting in your perfect

(05:23):
box of what teacher opening you.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Have, right, And look, they Marquette normally stays within the family.
You were there and you were on staff, but you
didn't graduate.

Speaker 5 (05:35):
I know.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
I grew up in Mantuah, So I went to Ron
Collie High School in Manuttwac.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Where your dad Hall of Fame football coach. They went
back to their Their new head coach is a Marquette
High guy, and I did a great job at Berkfield Academy, right, he.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
Did, he did, And they had some great candidates, you know,
for this job. I think when they look at you
know what's going to be a great fit for the program.
I think there were numerous candidates that would have been
a great fit for the program. Are you still in
the building.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
I am not.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
No, I'm totally totally so. May twentieth, I think was
my last smile.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
That's the book.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
I've known you for a really long time. That is
the biggest smile I've ever seen. Are you playing golf?

Speaker 1 (06:22):
No? No, not at all.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
But I'm really getting some joy in the fact that
I'm still somehow on the faculty email list. So when
they when the list came out for a faculty in
service and all that stuff, I said, I won't be there,
but I'm happy that everything's going there.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
But coach trucks for you. The decision to step down.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Had you made that in your head prior, like a
long time ago, or is this something you were thinking
about or talk to me about that decision process.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
Well, two years ago, when we finished the season, I
went in with our athletic director, Kyle Emu and so
we sat down together and I just said, I need
some time to think about whether I'm going to come back.
And it was between he and I and also talked
about with my wife. And as I started getting the
weight room and started working with the kids, you know,

(07:12):
I knew I wanted to do it in another year.
I wasn't sure if I was going to follow after that,
but I think at some point it's it's pretty clear
as a head football coach after doing it so long,
chasing the perfect season, and it's year round. I mean
it's year round that you're on the treadmill, and Keith,
I think can relate to this. Most head coaches can.
This year, you know, it's pretty clear by the end

(07:34):
of the season that it was time to step down.
And then the question was what do you do next
after that?

Speaker 2 (07:41):
And and you're no longer and you have retired as
a public school teacher, but you're you're over at Catholic
Memorial Teaching.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
I am, I am.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Does Bill Young know that?

Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (07:54):
You know, a couple of weeks ago with Joe Cook,
he's the offensive line coach over there, and you know,
I don't know if.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Bill Young knows you're walking down the hall.

Speaker 4 (08:05):
You know, I've talked to Bill a couple of times
and he understood, and he understood where I was at
and I just wanted to come over and start new
and finish my career as a teacher at a really
great place. And so really he just said, well, I'm
not gonna bug you this year, and then that was
about it.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
He'll get other people to bug you just in case.
Come and just come out watch us play, Come break
down the little film. Kind of like Keith, they're gonna
pull They might pull you in a little bit. The
decision to not only step down as the head and
retires to have football coach, did you did you think
it was important then to maybe step out of Wakshaw
West to be to stay in the in the building.

(08:44):
I think would be kind of difficult. Coach Wallersheim's going
to do that this year. He retired as basketball coach,
but he's gonna stay in the building as the dean
and students, and we've had that conversation and he's like, look,
this is new for me. I will be here if
the new head coach wants to ask me anything, but
I'm going to try to stay out of it if
I can just be in pure respect to let him

(09:05):
run the program the way he wants.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
And I'm wondering your thought process on that.

Speaker 4 (09:10):
Yeah, from a football standpoint, Steve Vitally is now the
head coach. He's the guy that played for US years ago.
He's been my defensive coordinator for the last five or
six years, on staff for about eight or nine years,
and just a great young guy. So I want to
step away completely from the football program answer any questions
that he needs, and so we've talked time to time,

(09:32):
but he's really taken an ownership of it, and that's
what I wanted him to do. It's been strange being
in the building. Waukeshaw West has been my home for
the last twenty five years. I've got nothing but good
things to say about it, but it's been very strange
being in the building and having football players coming through,
and it's so much part of my identity. Sure, but

(09:54):
I knew I still had a passion for teaching, and
I was thinking, what am I going to do? I
retire after this year. I planned on teaching at West
this following, you know, this year, and so I was
looking for opportunities. Catholic Memorial had two open and I
went in and they interviewed me, and you know, I

(10:14):
think they understandstand that I'm somebody. As a veteran teacher,
I'm showing that I'm capable. I still have a passion
for teaching in the classroom, having an impact on young people.
And so it's been a good transition. It's different, and hey,
I got it today. I was talking about you behind
your back, but in a good way. I had to

(10:34):
call Tony mccutten on something. And this coming Friday night,
we just recorded a one hour preview show for the
high school football game of the Week on my twenty
four and we looked back at the last fifteen years,
sixteen seventeen years, if you're throw in the Thursday night
lights and Terry Kelly brought up Marquette up. I didn't

(10:55):
have to do that, but I.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Called Tony because we're going to tell different stories about
what you know, things memories that came up. You guys
were at mcgwonacoh and he won in overtime on a
game that we tell okay, we had live and Tommy
mccutten got it in the end zone in it was
a two point conversion to win the game, right and

(11:19):
right in my ear they were saying, hey, we're coming
to you live in thirty seconds. I had the player
of the game next to me to interview, but I
knew Tony's I know Tommy's grandfather, Tony's Dan Ron, who
had passed away, and I grabbed.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Tommy mccutten, who was going, yeah, he was cheering.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
I grabbed him by the face mask, and because I'm
an idiot, we're going live on TV here in a minute,
and I go, your grandfather would be so proud of you.
And he stopped cheering and he looked at me. He
went and he started bawling, and I couldn't get him
out of the live shot, and so I interview the
player of the game. We get done, and Tony was
standing there. He goes, what did you say to my son?

(11:56):
And I go, Tony, I'm such a Tomy's grandfather would
be so proud of it. Ton He started crying, I
do the interview with you, and Karen mccutnon walks up
and said, what did you say to my boys? I said, Karen,
I'm not a very good TV guy. By time, He's horrible.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
And I told him. She was like, why would you
do that for me?

Speaker 2 (12:13):
That memory of being on that sidelines when he put
that ball in the end zone and for you guys
to beat a really good McGonagall Clay Iverson team and
then to interview him and to have Tommy it just
I had to get his okay because I didn't want
to talk about it.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
If this was he goes. We talked about it all
the time. Mcgiffern.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
You can bring that up for sure, and I told
him you were going to be here and he obviously,
Tony mccutton has the utmost respect for you. He's very
excited for the new guy. He said, he's a really
good young head football coach and you know what, he
will do things differently than Steve did. And I wish
him all the luck in the world. But man, the
mccutnon family a big part of that Wakshaw West success

(12:53):
that you had there.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
Yeah, for sure. From twenty ten all the way through
twenty thirteen, three sons that were outstanding players, incredible family
and that's really what you rely on, is the continuity
with families and that camaraderie and that family feeling that
you have on the football field. And that's something that's

(13:14):
gonna last a lifetime. At my retirement party, you know,
the mccutta and showed up and I had a chance
to be able to see them and reconnect.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
And they're coming in studio, the boys and Tony are
coming in and I don't know. I tell them to
pick a Saturday. I wanted them in for the second
half of this show. And Kevin's best man at a
wedding and Tony's officiated the wedding today and it's a
walk show West guy, and I said, pick a sarity
that works, and I said, we'll do an hour, and

(13:42):
Tony was like, we might want to do two hours
with these boys, and I said, you might be right
on that, and so I will do that on that
show that and we talk. I have to tell you, Keith,
I didn't see that run coming for the state championship,
and we may have discussed that on that show. I
didn't pick you guys to win in the in the finals.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
And I don't think anyone did I except which is great,
except the people in that locker room.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
You guys knew it. And it's funny because I've talked
to players and they said.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
You did. Franklin.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Franklin players and coaches said the same thing to me
in different times. We had no idea how physical and
how tough that team was. We didn't see it, we
didn't see it on tape, but boy we felt it.
You know, by the middle of the first quarter, we
knew that we were in for a battle. You knew
that team that The funny part about that for me

(14:35):
is that Sussex Hamilton game. And I've said this a
couple of times to you and on the air where
they they took it to you pretty hard. And there's
such a thing as a good loss. That wasn't a
good loss at that moment. But boy, when you look
back at that year, Keith to you go, man, that
was a good loss that opened our eyes a little.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Bit, absolutely, And when I look back on that there
there I think there were you know, four kind of
major points. One was we had really define who we
were in our vision and in the off season we
worked on that, really getting back to what market high
football is, which is, you know, fighting for championships, but
doing it the right way, you know, faith, family football.

(15:15):
And so we knew that we had to have a
good culture on the team and we had some great
kids who implemented that. We knew we had to have
a better strength situation, and so we changed. So we
tweaked some things in our strength program, our off season
strength program. We added nutrition to it, and we found
that our kids were getting bigger, they were getting stronger.
We were focusing on kind of the right things. We

(15:36):
felt if we want to go to the Promised Land,
we've got to, you know, be able to duke it
out with the Walkshaw West of the world, with the
Kimberlys of the world, with the Bayports of the world,
with the Franklins of the world, Arrowhead, Muskigo. You want
to compete with those teams. They are very big, physical
teams and you're going to need to be able to
do that. So that was a key. But then there

(15:57):
were two moments in that season of adversity. And it's
interesting that coach Roux is sitting here because he was
involved in one of those. A lot of people might
not know this, but we did a joint practice for
numerous years at the end of our mini camps, and
I wanted to purposely get with you, coach, because I
look up to you so much, and you do things
the right way. You have a great program, and we

(16:19):
want to play against great programs and learn from great programs.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
So we were out.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
The first time we did it was that year and
we were out at Waukeshaw West, and you know, there
were times during that shared practice, you know, it was
beautiful because all the kids were working together to become
better football players, and we were co coaching them and
team you know, you do a drill, we'll do a
drill and so forth. But then we got to some
team activity at the end and things didn't go as

(16:45):
well for us as we thought. And I think our
kids went in with a you know, a little bit
of a big head into that, and so I remember
it vividly. When we got back to school, we went
into our cafeteria as we usually do after a game,
for kind of a post mortem on the game, and
the guys were just like, man, you know, you could
just tell they were disappointed. And I said, guys, I
want to ask the seniors, because there are leaders. I said,

(17:06):
I want one of you guys to tell me what
we learned today. And I remember it as clear as
it was today. Thad Hoffman, one of our receivers, raised
his hand and I said, Dad, what we learned today?
He said, We're not ready. We're not ready, and and
thank you for that. And then the other thank you

(17:27):
moment was that coach gum and Hamilton came into our
house on homecoming. You can fit five thousand people at
Hart Park, and I don't think there was a seat available.
It was junior hilltopper night today night you couldn't have
I mean, there was all this stuff, you know, and
people thought that we had enough to kind of win

(17:48):
the conference and all that kind of thing, and they
put fifty points on us, and we had the worst
body language. We didn't handle adversity well, we did not execute.
And we always said to the kids, you know, you
have to go in with confidence, urgency, resilience, and execution,
and we had none of those. But in the games
that we won, we knew we had all four, and

(18:11):
so I have to thank them, you know. In fact,
in the shake line, I thanked him for kicking our
butts because I think that it was the biggest wake
up call for these kids. We had so many things
we could point to in terms of body language. We
were talking about body language before that it's your billboard.
And our kids didn't handle the adversity well and things
didn't go our way in that game, and we knew

(18:33):
that we were at a kind of a crossroad and
it really gave us. I think, in order to get
to the Promised Land and win it all, you have
to go through some adversity.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
And coach Trucks would you agree you you would agree
with that, And because as coaches we look at you know,
once you can kind of take up where I think, Okay,
the season's over. What worked, what didn't work? He knows
exactly right. He was at Wakshow West and that Sussex
Hamilton beat down that they gave open their eyes and
they came back. I remember talking to Coach k a

(19:04):
couple of days later and he said, our kids came
ready to practice. Man, on Monday, they got after it
like nobody's head was down, their heads were up. And
then we started hitting a little bit harder, a little
bit better because we realized we're not that good. We're good,
but we're not that good. Yeah, you would agree with
it with that through through some magical seasons that you had,
there is some some things that happened throughout the season

(19:25):
that you can lay your hat on.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
Yeah, I think that you can't always be on your
players are not not always a peak performance. Keith and
I used to have that contact day together and when
they'd come over for our guys, this was late the
Super Bowl, you know, so they're all jacked up and
ready to go, and they're looking on all these great athletes.
I'm wondering if they can compete. And we were able

(19:47):
to do some things and his team responded from that.
So I think whenever you take a difficult loss, if
your guys can if you can use that as a
learning experience and use that to drive you give you
an edge moving forward. That is something that we've always had,
you know, throughout the course of our state championships and
deeper runs in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, Hey, we're gonna get to a break. I'm gonna
ask a little bit about some memories. I'm gonna ask
you because I know, for me, I know the exact
answer If I say the toughest loss you had as
a head football coach, what would that be a basketball coach?

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Is Zeusberg, I'd say it every week.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
I think I didn't drive to Sheboygan for a week
because we lost them in overtime to get to State
and on a basketball for But I'm gonna ask you
your toughest loss. I don't know if we know our
best wins. It's kind of like, yeah, and once we
get to win, it's good. Let's remember that loss we
had though two years ago. I'm gonna ask you guys
that and then some memories and some of the things

(20:47):
that you guys remember most about being the head football
coach at Milwaukee Marquette and Wakshaw West, two of the
best high school football programs in the state of Wisconsin.
And it's because of these two guys sitting in studio
with me. Again, at nine five or so, we're going
to talk to Brian Nay, head football coach at Lafayette
Central Catholic in Indiana. Ten o'clock, Eric Trusky, head football

(21:08):
coach Wisconsin Lucin College, will join us, and at ten
twenty Bill Jacklin State champion, head football coach at Slinger
will give us a couple of minutes. This is the
Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented by your local
Pick and Safe and Metro Market stores only on Fox
Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back
to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show. Remember on

(21:32):
our sister station ninety seven to three. It's the Packers
Radio Network broadcast today three o'clock Packers Game Day with
Doug Russell. Five o'clock Packers Radio Network pregame show begins.
Seven o'clock Packers and Jets kickoff, Wayne La Revie, Larry McCarron.
Make sure you tune in three o'clock with Doug Russell.
It's a great show for that, that game day show,

(21:53):
and then certainly the network pregame show starts at five o'clock.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Boys, can you I can't believe Packer football. It's great. Great.
Are you are you a pro football fan?

Speaker 5 (22:04):
Coach?

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (22:05):
Yeah, yeah, not as much college anymore, just with all
the you know, N I M and all that kind
of stuff. That's shenanigans that are going on. But we
we have we're fortunate to have Packer tickets.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
So oh that's awesome. Steve Rocks. Are you a Packer fan?

Speaker 4 (22:17):
Yeah, I like watching the Packers. My wife is a
Bears fan, so is my son. It's a little a
lot of tension in the house, but they're all Bagger fans, right, yeah,
all right? Did you get up the games watch anymore?
You know during the season, it's it's once or twice
a year, just because we've got our own season going on.
Hoping to get up there a little bit more.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah, now you'll be up there a little bit more,
maybe right all this time that no, you don't have
all that amount of time, but especially with with now
teaching and being part of this answers dot Ai And
we're going to get talk a little bit about that
a little bit later. Guys, when when when you think
back now on your career and you've had a chance,
in fact, before we get to the toughest lost thing,

(23:00):
it's a family event, right, It is a family affair.
If you, guys didn't have supportive family, supportive wives, to
be able to do this, to be able to coach
for as long as you have. I always say there's
a special place in heaven for coaches wives. And Steve,
I know that you know you would agree with that,
how was your daughter feeling, by the way, health wise?

(23:21):
Everything's good, right, Yeah, she's doing great. She's doing great.
She's in theaters. She's going to be a senior at
Walkershaw West.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
She's a senior. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:29):
Yeah, so she's doing really well.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
We got old? When did we get old?

Speaker 4 (23:32):
Yeah? Good question? That was like your eyes all growing up?

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
But you know what you can't, especially the amount of
time that you have to put in to be the
head football coach at a program like Marquette or at
Walkshaw West. You've got to have supportive spouse and you've
got to have supportive family to be involved in that.
Do you think that your family's going to miss you
being the head coach at Walkshaw West.

Speaker 4 (23:56):
I don't think so, certainly. Certainly my wife is not coach. No.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
You know.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
Actually, after the season, I was trying to figure out
what I was going to do next. I knew it
wouldn't be good for me I continue to coach at West.
So I started talking to different people Hamilton about possibly
coaching off at the line, and my wife just looked
at me and says, what are you doing doing? Because
you're not gonna spend any less time. And she was right.
And you know, I took twenty four hours, thought about

(24:25):
it and stepped away, and and I think it's a
good move.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Coach, I same thing. Yeah, your wife's not like crying
begging you to go back.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
No, no, no, I think sainthood is you know, for
all coaches, wives.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Is just a prerequisite.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
It's it's it's hard to believe that your family understands
kind of what they're going to experience. You know, I
say oftentimes that I've spent way more time with other
people's kids than my own kids, and I apologize to
them for that, and they but they understand that. You know,
one of the things in life that you want to
try to do is is follow your passion. You know,

(25:01):
do the things that that you're good at to the
things that you feel can make a difference. I think
we've made his coaches hopefully made a difference for a
lot of people. But you know, my my son Alex
played for us in the last several years. He's been
our game tech guy, our video guy, and so forth.
And my grandson has been one of our ball boy

(25:22):
water boys all.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Along the way. So yeah, oh yeah, I know he's
a quarterback guy. You're at hard Park. I'm like, hey man, you.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Can absolutely absolutely so they're all They're all part of
the program and the key part of the program because
without the support that we have from our families, we
can't do the things that we need to do.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
Do you think you'll go to a Milwaukee Marquette game
this year? Originally?

Speaker 3 (25:45):
You know, initially my thought was no, just you know,
I don't want to be kind of overlooking the situation.
But you know, I probably will go to some games,
you know, and just support truck.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Same question. You think you'll you'll go to watch out
West Camp.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
Yeah, definitely, definitely, I'll stop by and see how they're doing.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
And do you think that you will stand go through
this with me? And I don't know if you've even
thought about it. You go to their first home games,
will you go sit up in the stands by yourself?

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Where you go stand in the end zone?

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Will you go stand with Jeff Jeff tricky and and
hang out with him or what's the thought.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
For I think I'll stand on the field, you know,
kind of distant. I don't think I want to stand
up in the stands, stay in the stands.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
No, I with some of the comments recommend you don't
do that.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
But don't go there and support and you know, support
the guys, support Steve vitally and looking forward to seeing
how they compete this year.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
Somewhere inconspicuous, you know, we've we've got to Yeah, well,
uh yeah, John John Colly is uh. He's going to
do a great job. And he understands our vision, he
understands our mission. He has most of the staff still intact,
and he's a market high guy, so he understands, you know,

(27:05):
that part of it and what we're trying to do.
So I want to give him as much room and
space as possible, while at the same time letting him
know that whatever he needs he can get from me.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Hey, you're that When I said to you guys, I'm
gonna ask you about your toughest loss in your career,
you both kind of looked at me, and I could
see like light bulbs going onto your head. But is
there one that sticks out to your coach k that
over at Marquette High, that that if you could get back,
if you could, if you could run it back one

(27:37):
more time and and get that game again. There's one
that sticks out for you.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
Well, there's plenty of them, you know. Obviously, we I've
been very fortunate to be a part of two state
championships as a coach and a state runner up, and
four state semi final games.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
You know.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
One of those state semi final games, and we were
talking about this before the show, was against Muskego Arrowhead
and it was one of the coldest days I think,
you know that I've ever coached a game in and
it was so so cold. We were having problems with
our electronics, so you know, our headsets went out and
I don't even know if sideline video if we had

(28:14):
it at that point, it went out, didn't work, so
like for the whole second half, we didn't have communication.
So it's kind of go back to talking to the
kids and coaching them. And I think we lost by
two or three points in that game. Unfortunately, it was
twenty three twenty one, was the final something, and so
it would have been nice to get that one back.
But really one of the one of the ones that
I felt so bad for our kids, having worked very

(28:35):
very hard, was against again Sussex Hamilton, and you know earlier,
this was in twenty twenty two earlier that year, we
had beat them at their house on grass with a
last second fifty one yard field goal and dot if
you remember that, Eric Schmidt.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Oh, who's at Notre Dame right now?

Speaker 3 (28:53):
Okay, So, and they tried to ice them, and I
called Eric over and I said, Eric, now, they're going
to try to ice either to call a couple timeouts. Here,
I want you to get away from us, and here's
what I want you to do. I want you to
think about your mechanics and just drive the football. If
this gets blocked, it's on me. Do not worry about
the blocking, all right, You don't worry about the b
It's you and the football. So he go do your routine.

(29:15):
Just go get away from us, Go do your routine,
and lo and behold, he drove the ball and got
the fifty one. So that was a great moment for
us in that season. It was a kind of a
turning point for those kids to get better and continue.
And we're fortunate enough to make the playoffs. And who
did we have to play in the first round of
the playoffs? Ussex Hamilton out there and it was a

(29:36):
very close game. We had an opportunity with about I
want to say, thirty one seconds left on the one
yard line, and we died.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
On the one. Unfortunately, we couldn't put it in.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
So I still kicked myself because I don't know that
I put our team in the best position. I still
had a time out left at that moment. I probably
should have called that timeout and made sure that we
were ready to go.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
With an offense to play. But man, yeah, I wish
I had it better. Trucks toughest loss in your career
over at Wakshaw West.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
What would you think when you asked me? I questioned
before the break. I have a long list here, we
all do, but I'm narrowed down to you know, really
it's twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen, and we were fortunate,
fortunate to win two state championships and then play for two.

(30:28):
But sometimes best teams don't make it to the finals.
Everything has to go right as far as injury, how
the ball bounces, and you play great teams sometimes in
the quarterfinals semi finals twenty sixteen was against Monona Grove.
Peter mccutten was I think a junior at that point
in time, and it was a track race. I mean,

(30:51):
they're throwing the football all over the place and couldn't
stop them in the throwing game, and we had incredible
yards in the run game, and just a great football team.
It came down to overtime. We ended up giving up
a score and lost an overtime and so that was,
you know, still something that's debated.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Was he in? Was he not in?

Speaker 4 (31:13):
But you know, we lost that game, but we had
most of a team coming back the following year and
we won the Conference Classic eight, which is really difficult
to do with such great teams. And then in the
semi finals we lined up against Brooks Central. At that
point in the quarterfinals, we had lost Brooks Lounde, who

(31:34):
was our quarterback just really an outstanding quarterback, the best
quarterback that we've ever had at West and started for
Oshcosh this year, and so we had lost him and
we became more one dimensional and it was a very
close game. Brooks Center was a great football team, you know,
Jed Kennedy excellent coach, and we got knocked out of

(31:56):
the playoffs where we were picked to win it that year.
Potentially we could have won it, ended up losing that game.
I'm just going to go back to one more, which
we all have many. I know I could talk for
another going back to twenty thirteen. You brought up Thomas
mccutt and he was a full back for US that year,

(32:17):
and Connor Blount, yes Brooks's older brother, and we just
had a great football team. But we had very small numbers.
I think we had thirty eight guys on the Varsit
eight team, but they could all play, and it was
just a train wreck in practice because he got starters
against starters, and they were so competitive and so talented,

(32:38):
and Kimberly had clocked everybody throughout the course of the year.
I think we lost, you know, it was twenty one
to ten, and we played at Titan Stadium up there
in Oshkosh, and then they got in the state finals
and they clocked the team that they played against. So
we were close. You know, we had our opportunities, but
I felt bad for them because they so much into it,

(33:01):
and there's such close teammates and a lot of those
guys end up being my assistant coaches. They're on staff
right now, and so I think the former players always
make the best coaches. And we've got a whole host
of guys that come from that twenty thirteen group.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Hey, you know, when I talked to both of you guys,
you both asked, Hey, are we going to have time
to talk about the great staffs that we have had?
And we will later in the show if you guys
can stick around a little bit. But boy, both of
you said the same thing. Hey, man, if I'm coming in,
I want to be able to talk about these staffs
that we put together and guys that stayed with us

(33:38):
for a while. And we will try to do that
later in the show. But you know, when you talk
about Joe Setti and you talk about Jeff Trickey, and
you talk about guys that have been with you guys
for a while, and for both of you to say
the same thing to me, Look, I was the head coach,
but man, our staffs are so good. Can we talk
about those guys? Absolutely? And both of you have said

(33:58):
just glowing, glowing things about the guys that have been
on your staffs. And later in the show, if I
can keep you guys for you know, the entire show,
we'll have time later in the show to talk about
those guys. We're going to get to a break other
side of the break, We're and try to get a
hold of Brian Nay.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Guys. I went on a US Marine boot camp a
month ago, maybe six weeks ago, participated in I did. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
I was in San Diego for a week. It's called
the Educator's Workshop, and they put you through all this.
And Major Blackwell is a guy that would always be
on the sidelines for the high school football game of
the week, and I called him Captain America six to
play college football. Really good. Look at his wife's even
better looking. In fact, one day I said, you can't
sing right because you got everything else. He goes, I
was the lead in every musical I was ever in.

(34:42):
I got that's not right, you got it all. I
didn't get any of that. But he got promoted and
I went out to all the pomp and circumstances you
can imagine. He's now in Kansas, but as a college
football player loves football. And Brian Nay, who's the head
football coach at Lafayette Central Catholic in Indiana, was there
because the Captain America, who I nicknate a nicknamed Major Blackwell,

(35:04):
that he would go and spend time and run drills
and go to practice with these guys and So Brian
Nay came up for this and we talked for a
while and I said, you should come on my show.
I want to see what the difference is between Indiana
high school football and Wisconson high school football.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
He said, I love that.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
So I text him this morning having her back from
but we're gonna try to get a hold of Brian
Nay 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 ninety twenty in your iHeart Radio app.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
Welcome back to.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
The Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show is always presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores.
Starting in September, we'll get back to doing a Pick
and Save Student Athlete of the Week. And what we
do is we name a student athlete does great work
in the classroom and is an outstanding athlete, and we
will have them come in studio, have them on the show,

(35:59):
and then and I go out to a different Pick
and Save, the closest store to the school, and we
award this this Pick and Saves studentatal a beautiful plaque
and we do it inside the stores, and I think
my friends at Pick and Save and Metro Market. In fact, guys,
I'm going to be a celebrity for the bag contest

(36:20):
at the Pwaukee store on the nineteenth of August, and
I have to I'm going to be picking who the
best begger for that store is. And they obviously celebrities,
so they they must have like went through a thousand
people before they got to me. But it's right very
close to where we live, and I'll be over there
on August nineteenth from ten to newt being involved in

(36:42):
the event at our local Pick and Safe stores. We
tried to get hold of Brian Day, the head coach
at Lafayette Central Catholic in Indiana. He did not pick up,
and so you know what, no worries. I'll get him
on later in the year. I've got Steve Rucks and
Keith Kolesyinski, who is the retired head football coaches. See
I almost just said that had football coaches. I'm so

(37:03):
used to doing that. They've retired. The former had football
coaches at Oackey, Marquette and at Waukshall West. Guys, we
can now talk a little bit about the staffs that
you guys had Steve Roxs. I'm gonna tell you one
quick story I had. Once we started doing Thursday Night Lights.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
I was around.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
I didn't know a ton of the high school football coaches,
but I kept hearing the name Jeff Tricky over and
over and over again, and so I had him up
by this pedestal. I had never met him before. And
we were at mcguanaga doing a game and I was
there at five five fifteen and I saw him, but
I'd never met him, and he was making a bee
line for me, and I thought, all right, and I

(37:45):
get a chance to meet Jeff Tricky. And Jeff Tricky
was like, are you Mike McGivern, I said, I am.
He goes, hey, Matt, big fan, and I go, excuse me,
I go, I'm a really big fan of yours, coach.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Do you know what?

Speaker 2 (37:56):
He is one of the nicest, most caring guys I know,
and he outkicked his coverage right is way too good
for him. However, he is just a good guy that
has that servant leadership part that I'm telling you cares
about Wakshaw West, but he cares about high school football
so much in this area that I'm just a big

(38:17):
fan of his, and I know that.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
You are as well. Coach.

Speaker 4 (38:20):
Yeah, Jeff has really had a lifetime and commitment, and
really what I respect about his camps is it's more
of a leadership camp and it goes very along with
the mechanics, but leadership is every part of what he
does and his impact. I think he saw with quarterback camps.
So when I was hired at Waukeshaw West, he had

(38:43):
gotten offered the job, but he saw his message really
he could bring through those quarterback camps, and so he
was very supportive of me. I had not met him
or I met him very briefly prior to that, but
he was very supportive of me and helping me as
a young head coach, making sure that I do it
the right way, understand what integrity and how to treat

(39:04):
kids and how how you should act on the field
as a football coach as a professional if you're truly
going to impact the lives of young people. So I've
been fortunate to be close friends with Jeff throughout the
course of my lifetime. You know, we just talked a
couple of days ago. We're getting together quite soon, you know, Jeff.

(39:25):
It was our quarterbacks coach. But you know, certainly you
know assistant head coach Route Man.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
You guys both had in crowsas last time he was
in studio, were promoting his camps. And this was six seven,
eight weeks ago, and I told him that I almost
quit golf. I was going to give my clubs way
because it's I I am too mentally weak. I'm mentally
fragile in the golf course. You know, I hit one
bad shot, now I'm gonna hit three. And I said,

(39:51):
I don't have the patience, like there's always a fourcesroome
ahead of us. And Tricky said, if you want to
go fast, play hockey, and I go what he goes,
You're not going to play gol fast. He just just
be patient, take your time. Let's go out and play.
And I go, I don't know if I'll play with you, Tricky.
I got a feeling that you're really good. And he
started laughing. And look he is he If you want

(40:12):
to know what he says about you as as a
coach or a man, it's all like, look he talks
about Steve Rucks as what a good man and a
leader he is of young men. And then he goes
over to what a great football coach he is. So
he's been a great ambassador for you, Steve Coach k
When we talked before, he said, look the staff that
I've had a lot of marquet guys.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
Yeah, I think the secret sauce of any great football
program is your staff. And I have two thoughts on that.
One is that you learn from those people who kind
of went before you, Like when I look at my
privilege to be able to coach under Dick Basham, and
you know, Dick had a tremendous staff, Terry Kelly and

(40:56):
Dan Hofisberger and Bob Newman and Jeff Mazerchik, and I
came in at the same time, you know, thirty some
years ago, and.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
We just build it.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
And you look at you know, Ev Jenkins and Brian
Ballardi and the Papa Christos and now I've got you know,
Jake Josetti then came in they want to stay title
in ninety four and three of those guys, four of
those guys are on our coaching staff. You know, Joe
Chucas who ended up playing for the Badgers, Paul Conratzon,
who's our offensive line coach, Billy Jureki, who's with the

(41:31):
freshman program. I think I counted it up last year
and I think we had twenty coaches top to bottom,
and I want to say fifteen of them were alums.
So I think that's the second part of it is
that I think it's the sign of a good program
and the influence that you've had on these kids as
to how many of those players want to come back
right and coach and give back.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
You know.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
A few days ago, I was at Storms hitting golf
balls and there were there was a mom and a
couple of younger kids down the way hitting balls, and
then the grandmother. The kids were sitting behind them, and
I had hit enough. I had about fifteen balls left,
and these two young boys were arguing over the last one.
So I went down and I said, hey, guys, I'm done.

(42:13):
Let me once you guys split these. And the kid
had a baseball like hitters and I said, you play there, yep?
Or do you go to school at Saint Dominic's where
you going to go to high school? Marquette? I go,
really come on, you know, and I get you know,
as I was, I was investment grad and coach hit
Dominican and competing against Marquette.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
And we smiled and laughed, and I said hello and
walked away. Didn't introduce myself, you know.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Well then Coach Bassom later that day said, hey, did
you give my wife's grandkids some golf balls at storms?
Over tired you? And I'm thinking, oh, my goodness, how
do you know this? Well, my wife was sitting there
and her daughter was there. Her daughter's got a great swing,
and she she knows who you are, and said, you know,
what a nice man he gave my grade? And I said,

(42:55):
had I know? And then he said, if you knew
they were going to Marquette, you probably wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
Give those But coach bash and what a great guy.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
Great and and you know you not only learn so
much from him, but he's such a great role model,
you know, for how to live life beside football. If
I had never experienced him in terms of coaching for
him and and just was able to get near him
and learn how to be a good person, he would
be right at the top of the list.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Hey, I should have given you guys heads up on this,
But how how do you think your dad would be
with you retired? Would would would they say? No, you
got one more year? And your boy you got two
more years in your boy, I'm wondering how your fathers
would react with you retire, and you think he'd be

(43:43):
he'd put his arm round and you see, you know what,
you've run a good race.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
I think you talk to him before he retired and thought,
you know, and then projected forward, that's the response. He
would have been, well, of course you're going to coach, right,
But then after he retired, he found that that's what
he needed. He really needed to do that. So I
don't think he would begrudge me. And it's funny because
you know a lot of the people who've kind of

(44:07):
talked to me after the fact, when they found out
I was retiring, they said, well, of course you're going
to keep going with football, right, And I'm like, oh,
I'm retiring, you know, retiring from all of it. And
and I don't have any regrets. We always say with
our kids, no regrets, you know, no excuses, no regrets.
I don't have any regrets. I just have great memories.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
And do you think he would have he would have
put his arm rounding and he said, and he said,
it's a good good timing for.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
This, absolutely absolutely, you know, he was still very very
much part of everything that I did. We talked daily,
you know that type of thing. I had told him,
you know, he was going in the twenty three year.
I had told him that summer prior, not that summer prior,
actually the about January prior, that he was going to
address the team at the Arrowhead game, our first game

(44:51):
that twenty three season.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
Unfortunately passed away that March. So I know he was
there with us.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
I know he was at State with us, but no,
I think that he would have said, hey, you know, job, well.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
Done, coach, same question for you if we can. And
there's not many father son combinations in the Hall of Fame,
but you know Ed was great coach at o'condom walk
and the retirement part he'd be okay with.

Speaker 4 (45:19):
Yeah, I think so. I think so back in the
nineties I had a chance to be able to coach
with him from ninety six to two thousand, and you know,
I think that it's always difficult to know exactly when
that time to step away is. And talking with Coach
Tricky and other retired coaches, they told me you would

(45:40):
You'll just know. I think when my father retired, I'm
not sure if he really thought about what was next,
and I think that transition was very difficult for him.
So I think you would respect where I'm at that
I'm trying to make this transition still do things I'm
passionate about. It's hard to go from being a head
football coach, teaching ap classes. You know, you're you're working

(46:03):
as a workaholic pretty much all year. And to be
able to just stop that transition, I think for some
people could be difficult. It was for him, I think
it would be for me. So I think it would
respect you know what I'm trying to do now.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
I love the fact that you've had you had that
thought process of Okay, I want to make sure that
I'm still busy doing some things. I have two buddies.
One is struggling with retirement. The other said, look, I
work out for an hour and I paint. He's a painter,
and he's got this it's a garage, but it's more
like a barn. And he goes in and paints for

(46:39):
an hour every day. And he said, and then it's recess.
He goes it's recess every day. Like I can go
hit a bucket of balls. I can go, you know,
watch a movie I can go, he goes. I absolutely
love it. I have no regrets, and I love the
fact where you said, look, I'm getting it. I'm done
with all of it. How has it been the first
few months now, it's been great. I mean I'm still

(47:00):
I'm still busy.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
So, like you know, Steve just said, you know, we're
we're like workaholics and we you know, we go a
million miles an hour. And so I'm learning how to
do retirement. So like you know, I would be like
I'd have this list of things every day, like a
new list, and it just never ended. You know, you'd
fill up the list. And back then I taught ap
as well, and also with the football, you had to

(47:22):
get that list done by tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
Right.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
So like a few weeks back, I'm outside doing yard
work for eight hours in the burning sun. My and
my wife says to me, what are you doing? You know,
I said, wallet's on my list. I had to get
this done.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
I'd get that.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
It's like, you know, you're retired now, you know so,
but but you know I've got, you know, thirty nine
years of deferred maintenance on my house that I got
to take care of. I too, However, have a side gig.
So I have a business on the side I've had
for twelve years as we do so K two timing,
I time track and field meets so thirty thirty seven

(47:56):
meets a year.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
So yeah, so I'm still We're not We're.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Still busy, Still busy, guys. We're going to get to
a break eight before we do this. Steve, when we
talked to Erski that had football coach wiscons Lutheran, is
he the kind of guy that that you would talk
to about answers?

Speaker 4 (48:14):
Yeah, I think that coach Stretsky has had a demo
with answers. It wasn't me, it was somebody else, you know,
through a zoom demo. So you can ask him about it.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
See what it's nice to have you in the market,
right you can. You can head over to Scotch any questions.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
That Eric had.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
I would love to sit down with them. Yeah, you know,
what was their agent? If I set this, you know
McGivern agency gets it.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (48:41):
Get some exciting new things that have just come out,
and we're going to talk about that a little bit
with Steve Rucks. The name of the website A N
S R.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
S dot AI guys, if you're if you're part of
the staff, go to that website A N S R
S dot A I and trust me, yeah, your job
will drop the way Andrews did and the way mine
did when you watch that video at the amount of
time that you could save on some of the things
you're trying to accomplish as a football staff and as

(49:11):
a coach. We'll get you a break. Other side of
the break, Eric Treusky, head football coach at Wisconsin Lutheran College,
will join us. This is the Varsity Blitz High School
Sports Show presented by your local Pick and Save and
Metro Market stores, only on Fox Sports ninety twenty and
your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz
High School Sports Show presented by your local Pick and

(49:33):
Save and Metro Market Stores, Live from the Donovan and
Jorgensen He didn't Colleen Studios. That last hour might have
been the quickest hour ever on the show. Anytime I
get guys like Steve Rucks and Keith Kleczynski, both we
retired now head football coaches to sit in studio with me,
I've got fourteen hundred more questions for me, and we

(49:53):
don't have the time. But I just love these guys
to the best high school football programs in the state
of Wisconsin. And there's a handful, right that we talk
about all the time on this show. But if Steve
Rucks led one, coach k led one, those are the
kind of programs we talk about a lot. And I
thank them and and I kind of begged them to
stay in studio with me for another hour and they said,

(50:16):
we'll see.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
But I'm so pleased that that we have.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Hey, Steve, when when I talked to about this other
company that you're now the rep for in the state
of Wisconsin, Answers dot A I A N S R
S dot AI, and he said, Hey, I know that Eric,
the head football coach wiscons Lutheran who's going to join
us here in a minute, has seen that the demo.
If he has questions on it. Now, you would be

(50:39):
the contact for him.

Speaker 4 (50:40):
Yes, yeah, anybody can contact me through Coach Rucks at
answers dot AI and that's my email address through the company,
I could do a zoom demo or I can show
up in person if it's convenient either way. And I
just love the system because I think it helps coaches.
That's a number one core value of the company. I

(51:03):
could see the value coming out of the coaching world
and how it's going to save time as far as
getting to your answers faster, as far as breaking down film.
All the tagging of film would take about twenty five minutes.
And then you have dynamic reports that are connected to
video instant cutups that you can form your game plan
around and teach players.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
Man, if you're on a coaching staff for the head
coach of a program, what Steve Rush's talking about, he
can He'll talk to you about it. He's the rep
for the state of Wisconsin. Again, I'd watch that video
in my jaw dropped. I just loved it. We are
now joined by the head football coach at Wisconsin Lutheran College.
He's so kind with his time every year for us,

(51:45):
and I thank him for that. Eric Trusky, how you
been coach?

Speaker 5 (51:49):
Doing good? Thank you for having me on?

Speaker 1 (51:51):
Yeah? You bet. Hey.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
When I get a chance to have guys like this
in studio with me, and you know, two of the
best high school football coaches in the state of Wisconsin,
they're now we're retired. You know, if you need somebody
to come do a drill. Call coach k call coach
Steve Ruggs'll they'll head out to help.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
You a little bit.

Speaker 6 (52:07):
There.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
I've gone to Eric for drills. There you go, very smart, hey, coach.
Great year last year, right, I think seven and three overall,
six and two in conference, and uh match your best
record of program history.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
Feel pretty good about this year's team.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
And what you guys got coming back and how the
first couple of weeks of camp gone.

Speaker 5 (52:29):
Well, we're not quite in camp just yet. Our guys
are moving in this week. Okay, so we're talking a
week and I'll let you know.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
But well, yeah, talking with the talking with the AMAC kid.
Maybe it's just him doing all the workouts on his
own getting ready.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
Right.

Speaker 5 (52:45):
Oh, He's one of the reasons I'm excited about this
coming year is you know, I think for any any
team to be successful, you have to have an upper
classman group that's willing to lead, willing to lead by example,
and willing to lead by serving. And Colin is one
of many seniors that they're ready to do that. They

(53:06):
had a phenomenal spring. I really feel like you talked
about last year's season. We did take a lot of
strides on the field, But much of that was just
it was due to our cultures, the character of our kids.
It was the values that they emanate. You know, obviously
we talk about them, but that doesn't matter if we
don't live them out, and they really do. They try to.

(53:27):
They try to show how much they love their teammates,
about how they work, and we're excited to see them
get after it again this year.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Hey, looking at your staff, a couple of names jump out.
Justin Parves, who was a really good athlete, here is
your defensive backs coach.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
And Patrick Wegner. Is he on your staff again this year?

Speaker 5 (53:46):
Pat is on our staff this year. Actually, Pat's transitioning.
He's been such a blessing to have them on the staff. Obviously,
being a phenomenal head coach for a long time, he
sees the big picture view but also understand and you know,
the need to fill in kind of different gaps. So
he's played quite a few different roles for us on staff,
including just being like a mentor to me. And this

(54:10):
year he'll be coaching DB's as well. And actually Justin
I wish we had Justin back. Justin's gonna be with
Eastern Michigan this year, so he was able to jump
on board with them, and we're excited for him. He
finished up his graduate assistantship, so excited for that part
of his journey too.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
Hey, talk a.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Little bit about what you got coming back from from
last year. A lot of times in football it seems like, look,
are we have the whole offensive lineback, but none of
the skill guys are back, or we have you know,
all our linebackers and deep backs back, but our defensive
line is everybody knew you have a wide variety of
guys back from last year.

Speaker 6 (54:48):
We do.

Speaker 5 (54:49):
I think we all start defensively. You know. That was
one of the reasons I think we took a huge
step last year was our defense, and we return you know,
just about all of the back end. You know, our linebackers.
We lost one really really good leader and Sabon Goodwin,
but we have a good crew of guys at the
linebacker position. They're really uniquely athletic. They let us be

(55:10):
very multiple, present different looks. They can you know, playing coverage,
they can be aggressive in the run fits and pressure,
and our safeties kind of do the same thing. Connor
Martin is going to be a senior for US that
really really smart football player that lets us be pretty diverse.
And then the offensive side of things. I think our
biggest challenge is is figuring out how to get such

(55:33):
we have such a good perimeter groups, Like, how do
you get all these guys involved. You know, we've got
a receiving core that three guys were all conferenced at
one point in their career. We had two backs that were,
you know, two of the leading rushers last year as freshman,
and another kid that was a sophomore that was really dynamics.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
So it's it's a.

Speaker 5 (55:51):
Fun problem to have, is how do you find a
way to get you know, really really good players involved
in the scheme and let them impact the football game
doing what they do. I'm excited about the crew.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Hey, coach, I look when we have guys, when we
have college coaches from outside of the state of Wisconsin,
they say the same thing. And I don't know if
they're just being nice because they're in a radio station here,
but they go, look when we get guys that played
for guys like coach km Marquette and Steve rust at
Walkshaw West, These these coaches in your state are really

(56:25):
good high school football coaches, we don't have to do.
These guys understand a lot of what we're doing already,
and we have guys from other parts of the state
that we have to, you know, teach to get in
a better stance sometimes. And I'm wondering if you feel
that way because looking at your roster, look for years
prior to you, I would say, guys, can we recruit

(56:46):
more kids from the state of Wisconsin and you and
there's a lot of kids from the state of Wisconsin
on your roster, and I thank you for that. When
you get a kid that's played in the program, like
a Marquette or Walkshaw West, do you feel like they
are ahead of the game for some of the incoming freshmen.

Speaker 4 (57:04):
I do.

Speaker 5 (57:05):
I mean, I think those guys have an understanding. You know.
One of the things that I'll compliment Coach Rucks and
Coach can on it's not just the technique and the
things that you see on the field, it's the it's
the culture aspect. It's the understanding that there's a year
long commitment that you're going to be a guy that's accountable,
a guy that follows through, a guy that's selfless. Right

(57:27):
put your teammates above yourself. You know, I even had
a chance to get to know some of Coach Rux's
former players who are coaching tricky camps and stuff, and
just seeing the character and integrity of those kids. Man,
it goes such a long way. It helps you do
things that no longer need to be taught. I felt
like our first year when I took over, there was
a huge transition. And anytime you're like trying to rebuild

(57:51):
the program, it's it's like it's like relearning what's what's
a cultural norm? Like running to the football right, Like
we had a double whistle every every day, just teaching
kids like you know, you have to play to the
whistle and honestly beyond. And we're at a place now
because of a lot of trained patterns and because now
we're able to recruit kids like you're talking about that

(58:13):
that's just a norm and we can now get to
the deeper levels of football what you need to do.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
You know, hey, coach k you know, when you have
a kid at Marquette that isn't going to Alabama or
Notre Dame right Wisconsin, but a kid that wants to play,
wants to wants to play college football. I just love
guys like Eric and some of the Division three coaches

(58:40):
in our area that do everything they can to give
kids that want to play at the next level the
possibility of continuing to play football as long as academically
they can get in school. They're taking care of their business,
they're good kids. I love the fact that Eric and
his staff and some of the other guys in this
area do a nice job of recruiting kids at different

(59:03):
high schools in our area, giving them the opportunity to
play at the next level.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
Well, I think Wisconsin is a very unique state in
the sense that you have the one, you know, Division
one program, you have not much in the middle in
terms of Division two or anything, but that it is
the best Division three football in the nation. And we
try to tell our kids, you know, all of our kids,
you know, they get these messages through social media. I

(59:27):
got to go play D one football, I got to
be FBS, I got to be FCS, I got to
have a scholarship. And we're trying to tell them, no, no, no, no,
You're going to play some of the best football in
the nation in this state and you will be found
if you're good and there are and it has proven
out if you look in the NFL the number of players.
We have two from market high in the NFL right now,

(59:49):
and so I think if you look at it, there
are players from that Division three level who have come
and done a great job, and they'll be right recognized
by the NFL and even they will develop as better
human beings because of some of these coaches at the
D three level in our state.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
Hey, guys, my son played Division three college basketball and
two months before he graduated, he sent out eight resumes
and he got eight phone calls for interviews and.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
He said, give me that resume. What are you saying
on this thing?

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
And it turned out because he played Division three college basketball,
played for four years, was a two time captain academic
All American. They were like, look, this kid played Division
three for four years and he's stuck with it and
he's got good grades.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
We want to talk to him.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Steve, and I wonder if you could follow up on
Coach k When somebody gets a chance and gets a
call from Eric Treski at Wisconsin Lutheran College and they
have this passion of playing football at the next level,
I want them to take his call.

Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
Every time, for sure, and I think that really you
got to find the right fit. That's what I always
talk to players about when they're being record rooted. You've
got to find the right fit academically, number one, because
if you decide that you're not going to continue with
the sport, you don't want to be in a major
or university where it's not going to be a good

(01:01:12):
fit academically. And you better love football because what we
expect of kids at the high school level was an
incredible amount. We want them to be multi sport athletes,
but if they're not in another sport, they're training with
us if they really want to do it right. And
at the college level, I would say, the meeting time
and the expectations really are increased significantly. And I think

(01:01:39):
that also as you're graduating from a college and if
you can show that you've been able to budget your
time and be disciplined academically, do the right things socially,
and then you're also competing in a sport at the
college level, you know, all those skills really translate into

(01:01:59):
positive careers as you look at where you're going to
go next, and really throughout the course of your lifetime,
you know, I think the true judge of how your
players have done and if you've done a good job,
and we're just a small snapshot of it, you know,
as far as the impact. But really, when guys are
doing the right things in their career, they're good family members,

(01:02:20):
good husbands, good fathers, and good community members. I mean
that's really the true payoff.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Hey, Eric, let's talk a little
bit about the schedule. Pretty exciting news. I think I
can talk about my twenty four tie in correct.

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
You can?

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Yeah, yeah, your home games this year is all going
to be televised on my twenty four.

Speaker 5 (01:02:42):
Yeah, we're really excited about that. It's actually kind of
an interesting time, and especially in smaller college that's like
you know, Division III, Division two. We've seen a lot
of conferences, a lot of schools transition to a paywall
system right where there's companies that come out essentially they
give you a small, you know, amount of stipend or

(01:03:02):
whatever to be able to have the rights to broadcast
your games, and then they pass that cost on the
families and whatnot. And and we're really grateful and thankful
that we're in a position where we can expand our
reach for free for the viewer, and so yeah, I'm
really excited about the opportunity to be in my twenty
four I think it's going to be good for our program,

(01:03:23):
for our school, and hopefully it's something that's good for
our conference too.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
Well, for your first five games you are at home.
You gotta love that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
You're right, you're you're playing on September sixth is your
first game, and then the twentieth and twenty seventh. In
October eleventh, there will be there's a bye week I
think in between there, but you get a number of
games to start the season at home. Coach, real quick,
who is the Is there an odds on favorite in
the conference this year?

Speaker 5 (01:03:52):
I think I think Aurora will still be the favorite.
Then they've been the top team the last few years,
and your coach, Don Bibi's head coach, does a good
job there and everyone's gunning for him. I think that
the gap has narrowed between them and the rest of
the field, and it'll be interesting to see how this
year plays out.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
Well, boy, I can't thank you enough for the time
that you give me, coach, and we are very excited
about this year's season for you and you can catch
all of their home games on MY twenty four and
good luck this year. I'm sure that we'll talk here
in a couple of weeks, just right after I think
your first week, maybe we'll get you back on and

(01:04:31):
be able to talk a little bit about either week tour.
Maybe just before that Concordion of Wisconsin game, which is
always a big game for you guys, we'll get a
chance to have you back on.

Speaker 5 (01:04:41):
That would be wonderful. Thank you guys for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
You got it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
Eric Trusky had football coach at Wisconsin Lutheran College. Again,
all of their home games will be on MY twenty
four and a week from a week from yesterday, next
Friday night at seven o'clock on MY twenty four, Terry Kelly,
John Widron and I did an hour pre show of
the upcoming season, but also looked back at some really

(01:05:04):
fun series. You guys talked about Jeded Kennedy at Brook Central.
We talked about him a couple of times on that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
We played him at Bradford and brook Central.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
So yeah, we had a few Jed Kennedy stories. He's
not even in the market anymore, but he's got a
lasting president of a few people, and we did talk
about him a little bit. We're gonna get to a
break other side of break Bill Jacklin. You know, guys,
you know what he's going through this year. You win
a state championship and you got to put that behind you.
I'm going to have to ask him to talk a
little bit about it, and then he's got to just

(01:05:34):
look forward. But what a magical year it was for
him and the Sun, and we'll talk to him on
the other side. This is the Varsity Politics 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, Hey don't forget later on today and
our sister station ninety seven point three, the Packers Radio

(01:05:55):
Network broadcast three o'clock Packer Game Day with Doug Russell
Clock Packer Radio Network pregame show seven o'clock kickoff Packers
versus the Jets, Wayne Larryvy, Larry McCarron. Make sure you
tune in again to our sister station ninety seven point three.
Guys in studio with two retired former HAD football coaches.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
They're both smiling a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
Steve Rouxs Wakshaw West Keith Kleczynski coach K from Milwaukee Marquette. Hey, guys,
talk to me about the first week of practice after
winning the state championship, because our next guest is going
through that right now. Coach Coach K, what was it like,
are you trying to get the players that were on
that team, Hey, let's just look forward forget about what

(01:06:41):
we did last year. This is a whole new year,
or would you bring it up a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
Well, you've got to be careful in terms of allowing
those boys to have their own identity and to have
their own team. Really, and you know, the interesting thing
after winning a state title is that there's all these
events that occur, and they don't necessarily occur right away
after the season, you know, whether it's awards programs or

(01:07:06):
ring ceremonies and different different stuff, and you're just kind
of looking for that moment to cut the cord. I
think for us, one of the realities was that we
always started our off season program about two weeks after
the season, So you know, we played the third week
in November and December one, we were starting with that

(01:07:27):
new group and the guys that you know were mainly
you know, part of that state championship game were gone
and it was just us in the room, and so
I think that was when it sets in for that
new group. Hey, we're it, this is our team.

Speaker 4 (01:07:43):
Coach Ruck, same question for you, yeah, Keith, is you
know you hit it right on the head that really
every team that you have is going to write their
own chapter. Yeah, for us, it's wood chapter. Is how
going to read when it's all said and done. Because
what's in the past, whether it's good or bad or

(01:08:05):
somewhere in between, is in the past. So focus on
from now until we get to the season, and then
focus on each day how can you get better for
your teammates. And Jeff Tricky would always call it making
it to the mountain, and it's a process that you
go through. You never really make it to the top
of the mountain. It's that journey that you go through.

(01:08:26):
And so how does that look? And you might have
some kids that drop out or some kids that potentially
have injuries, and you might have some losses along the way.
So you really just focus on what is happening right now.
Don't focus on that state championship. It's done. We want
to celebrate it. You can never take that away. Let's
focus on what this year is going to bring.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
So, guys, our next guest, and he is.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
He's one of my favorite and again he's a guy
that gives me a lot of time on this show
and I appreciate it a year ago. And look he's
looking forward right now and then it's like me keep
bringing him back. Fourteen to zero they beat Rice Lake
in the finals, thirty one to thirty. One of the
greatest high school football games. I'm telling you it was
so fun. I sat in a nice, warm living room

(01:09:12):
and watched that game and watch coach Jacqueline and the
amount of joy that he had.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
We are now joined by the.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
Head football coach for the Slinger Owls is state champion
Slinger Owls, Billy Jacqueline. Coach, how you doing today?

Speaker 6 (01:09:26):
I'm great? Thank you so much, my friend for the
kind words man.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Fourteen to oh that magical run to win thirty one
to thirty in the state finals. You know when when
I have guys like coach k and Steve ruson studio,
they both won state championships, and I thought we would
lead off with with some recommendations for them on how
do you cut the cord and how do you not
keep going back to that?

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
Has that been difficult for you at all?

Speaker 6 (01:09:52):
It was hard because they know a lot of the off
season stuff that we awards and things, you know that
they have moved all the way into, like you're talking
to me, almost they had like a Brewer game that
we had to go to and have to go with too,
but we wanted to know. So it was difficult that
way because they just like community members putting up, well,
we're gonna do this in the community, so you know,

(01:10:13):
I want our community to celebrate and want our kids
to celebrate. But it was a little difficult. I feel
we're more than good now. I mean, I think we've
moved turned the page. I feel really good where we're at.
Our kids are our seniors. It's true, they want to
make their own identity. You know, there's there are a lot
of we have a lot of starters in offense that
play in that state game, but they want to do
it again. They want to make it theirs, you know

(01:10:34):
kind of thing. And I think that's that's you got
to support that, and really, you know, I think that
that's probably the best thing that has happened, is that
they've just kind of taken control because now they're the
seniors and it's their team.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
Hey, coach, I I don't look I I would never
write a movie or produce some movie. But the year
that you went through last year with some some some strategy,
some personal loss, and to be able to coach Chase
that last year and win state championship together, that's just
a movie I would watch, right. I would watch it
because it has all of the turns that that a

(01:11:07):
movie would have. Right, And I'm wondering if after you know,
you got back from deer hunting, if you had a
chance to just take a breath and say, man, lord,
this is what a phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (01:11:20):
Year this has been.

Speaker 6 (01:11:22):
I think it took like probably after Christmas, like I
was able to fly. It was work. The Chase. He
goes out the next day, twenty four hours, less than
twenty hours after week win the stage title. Of course,
at the first time, I didn't go out deer hunting morning.
He goes out deer hunting and he shoots like one
hundred and eighty four inch buck, the biggest buck we
ever shot on the farm. And I'm like, this kid,
I gotta be near him because he's pretty lucky. Go

(01:11:43):
buy a lottery ticket. But uh, it took a while.
It took a while to sink in. I think it's
still now. I mean, I don't know it just uh
it's kind of a blur. But uh, I enjoyed it.
And like I said, I'm enjoying this team this year.
I feel really good.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
About him, Billy. I'll tell you this.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
You and I have probably they had fifteen conversations about
the Slinger community and how this community put their arms
around you, put their heads around you and your family
and and and loved up on you guys when when
you needed it. And you know, you made a comment
to me and said, after you won the state championship,
you said, look, this is great for me and my

(01:12:21):
staff in the school, but Ben, it's best for this
whole community that all put their arms around me and
my kid and my family when we needed them most.
And you said, I feel so good for them. And
I thought that was so like right from the heart,
and I appreciated it so much. And I'm sure that
that you still feel that way with this community. That

(01:12:42):
just man, they show you a lot of love and support.

Speaker 6 (01:12:46):
Yeah, it's the community's crazy. I was a youth coach
when we won the title ninety eight and it's a
very supportive community, but a man, they love their football.
It's crazy on Friday nights. And you know, I was
just glad that we put Slinger back on the map,
and you know, it just feels everything feels right. You know,
I'm in the heart and everything. So I'm just I'm ecstatic.

(01:13:08):
It's there. Are wondering where the trophy is right now.
It's in the team room, but it's over a team
room because it was just in office, so they haven't
put it anywhere. But people want to see it. They
want to see the trophy and they want to they
want it up in the trophy case a little bit
up there soon. And I think it just means a
lot of community because they take it serious.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
Hey guys, what would you tell Bill? Because look, Slinger
has been chasing, right, They've been hunting for a long
time and now they're going to be the hunted.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
And I'm wondering.

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
No, I'll start with you, coach k that year after
you guys wanted to state championship.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
Everybody circles you.

Speaker 2 (01:13:43):
Everybody wants to knock off the state champ any advice
you could give to coach Jacqueline to understand what he's
in for this year.

Speaker 3 (01:13:49):
Yea, I think, you know, that's kind of a yearly
thing with us. It's you know, we're always kind of
going to get circled and we always want to carry
on the tradition of the program. But I think and
one of the things that unfortunately goes along with that
state championship is that the expectations the next season obviously
are sky high. And you know, I I was just anticipating,
you know, these rankings that come out and so forth

(01:14:11):
online and I'm like, don't rank us number one, Please,
don't rank us number one, And of course what do
they do rank us number one?

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
And so forth?

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
And I'm like right, and I'm going, well, and with
sports and all that, and I'm like, you know, don't
don't eat the rat poison to borrow Nick Saban's kind
of kind of thing. But I think you have to
really work. And that's where it goes back to your culture.
Do you have humble, servant leaders who want to do
the work to carry on a tradition And if you've

(01:14:38):
been planning those seeds all the way along, then they're
going to kind of see through that. Yeah, they you know,
I think they welcome the expectation, but they can't you know,
kind of get a big head about it or feel like, yeah,
it's just going to be a cakewalker very easy.

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
Hey, coach Rucks, same question. And look the conference. You
know our conferences are really strong. Yeah, you were coming
off when you win the state championship. You know that conference,
everybody's going to be guiding for you. And I'm wondering
the advice you'd give to coach Jacqueline and getting his
kids wady for that August twenty second game at home

(01:15:13):
against me nomine faults.

Speaker 4 (01:15:14):
Well, coach played the West, I think for the semi finals,
and just watching those guys on the sideline and the
positivity and everybody's pulling in the right direction and the
community and how they support it, and so what you
got going right now? You just want to continue to
perpetuate that and understand that every team is going to

(01:15:35):
be different. The leaders on your team, you want them
to be themselves. They're not going to be the guys
of the past. They're going to write their own chapter.
And you know, I think you got to going and
so looking forward to seeing what you.

Speaker 1 (01:15:49):
Can do moving forward.

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
Hey, Billy, one of the things that I tell people,
there are some things that happened down the stretch last year.
One that I that I remember most against Homestead, Like
the day before that game, right at the end of practice,
you guys took your tallest guys and said, hey, if
we got to block a field goal, let's let's just

(01:16:11):
put this in. And you ended up running that I
think against Homestead that won the game. And you put
in some things that you just hadn't done before right
at the end of practices that you actually used to
get you guys into a state championship game. And and
that part feeds right into that whole idea of a
magical year.

Speaker 6 (01:16:32):
Yeah, that was one of the best plays for this
reason because we're doing that. We talked as a team
and as Jude, he's gonna be our starting next this year,
but we talked about, hey, how many plays, Jude, have
you been in? One real important play? Right like the
preaching those kids that you know, you don't know when
your numbers called, and it could be your one play

(01:16:53):
could be the play. And that was that helped carry us,
I think you further into playoffs. I will say we
talk about having your own that. I had an unbelievable
conversation our quarterback Jeffrey Ford. He was struggling a little
bit in summer seven on seven is that? And I
just I pulled him aside finally said, Hey, I don't
need you to be Michael Feede. I need you to
be the best Jeffrey Ford.

Speaker 1 (01:17:13):
You can be. Oh there.

Speaker 6 (01:17:14):
Then since then he is just he has turned it on.
I have been so impressed, so happy. It's just so
I you know, I just gotta you really got to
try and get them rounded back and you know, set
the expectations more real and that they can build on.
And I think that's what's really important is our kids
welcome the challenge. We know there's gonna be targeting on

(01:17:35):
our back. We welcome it. But they do know what
takes our Our best players are our hardest workers. Our
best players always try to get on scout. So that's
the culture thing that we kind of now have and
I think it just speaks volumes to our younger kids
on our on our team.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Hey guys, there's something that happens in the school when
a team wins the state championship and I've seen it firsthand.
Players and at fleets in other sports want a piece
of that. And I saw it when I was at Dominican.
Joe Cook won a state championship in football at Dominican,
and then the basketball team won a state championship the

(01:18:12):
same year, similar to you guys, right, and similar to
Milukee Marquette. And I don't know what happens in the school,
but you have success and that drives more success. And
I saw it firsthand, and you saw it. And I
think Slinger be careful by the way, coach Jacqueline that
Slinger school might become a basketball school soon, that they

(01:18:33):
got a really good basketball program.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
But Keith, you would you agree.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
That that success in one program breeds over success in others.

Speaker 3 (01:18:41):
But definitely, and I would agree, But I would also
say that it's not just sports. So like when we
came in, you know that after winning a state championship
in the fall, everybody in the school, yeah great is
walking around a little taller, and all the alums and
it's just a boosting, just a very positive thing for

(01:19:04):
your entire community. I must have received maybe three hundred
correspondents from alums that I've never met, that graduated from
the school thirty years ago and just we're so proud,
and so it's an uplifting thing that impacts not just
your football program, not just your sports program, but your
entire community.

Speaker 1 (01:19:23):
Steve Ruck same question for success. When you had a
lot of success on the football field, do you think
that helped other programs, helped the overall feeling in the school.

Speaker 4 (01:19:34):
Yeah, I think especially just because you have really some
of your best players are also multi sport athletes. And
that's one of the reasons why we always promote it.
Be that multi sport athlete. Might be a great football player,
you might be a role player in basketballer, but continue
to do it because you're always in a position to
compete in lead. And you know, if you have that going,

(01:19:57):
especially in the size of school that Waukeshaw West is
and Slinger, you know, you can have kids be that
multi sport athlete. Joe Shobert was outstanding. You know, he
might have been a better basketball player than football player
in high school. You know, obviously he went on to
be a great linebacker over at Wisconsin and an NFL career,
but he brought that leadership to different sports. But then

(01:20:20):
also in the classroom. As Keith had talked about. You know,
the impact that student athletes have in the culture of
your your school is so critical and if they and
it could go either way. You know, if the leaders
in your football team are not living out to what
your expectations are a lot of times that carries it
over into the classroom. Teachers are wondering, you know, this

(01:20:42):
kid's a football player, why does he acting this way?
Excellent point, and we have to have that conversation with
him and be able to change that culture and put
on them, you know, your players to make sure that
they are great leaders.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
You know, Coach Wallasheim, you say this a lot. You
can't be undisciplined all day in the classroom and then
kind of be disciplined for an hour and a half
basketball practice. See, it can't happen. Hey, Coach Jacqueline, you
had talked about Michael theaty and I hate to bring
him up, but man, what a year he had gonna be.
Look gonna it's gonna be a different team because this

(01:21:15):
kid that he did a lot for you guys, right,
He could throw it, he could run a little bit,
he was tougher than nails. But to have a young
man that watched him and now is gonna come in
and that's gonna be his team. I think what perfect
advice for you to give to him, and that is, Look,
you're not him, You're gonna you're gonna be your own guy,
and we're You're gonna be fine, but you're be yourself

(01:21:37):
and will work around what what your skill set is.
And I think that he I hope that he takes
that to heart and understands that he doesn't have to
be the next Michael THETI.

Speaker 6 (01:21:47):
Yeah, I didn't think I had that big impact, to
be honest with you. I mean I talked to him
as one of those things came to mind. And since
I've said it, it's like, wow, that was kind of
one of those magic pills, uh.

Speaker 1 (01:21:58):
Night and day.

Speaker 6 (01:21:59):
I mean, it's really unbelievable. So it was that's fun
to see him development.

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
Hey, what what is I know that Chase won the
Scholarship Award Student Athlete Award for my twenty four last year?

Speaker 1 (01:22:11):
Where's he going to school?

Speaker 6 (01:22:14):
Madison for electrical engineering?

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
When does he leave for school?

Speaker 6 (01:22:19):
The twenty sixth man leave and him and I probably
need a little break from each other. But we're doing
a fine.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
It's going to be really quiet at your house, isn't that?

Speaker 6 (01:22:29):
I have two dogs. I'll spend a lot more time
watching fill him.

Speaker 2 (01:22:32):
I guess well, you know what, you don't have to
do that if you listened to the last second. Coach
Steve Rucks has got something he'd like to show you
that can you have you spend more time with your dogs? Hey,
on September fifth, we're going to be at the Hartford
Slinger game on my twenty four and Coach, it's a
very easy when we start picking the games that we're

(01:22:53):
going to be doing. Our first game on the twenty second,
we're at hard Park is Arrowhead takes on Marquette and
then Oak Creek up Muskigo than Hartford, that Slinger. We
lock that one in each year because it's more than
just a game, that that game for us to be
a part of, to raise money for cancer research and

(01:23:14):
to see you and John Redders and the coaching staff.
You tell me this every year. Hey, the coaching staff
we love each other. Our players really don't like those
guys and they don't like us. So there's would be
some hitting going on tonight. But as staffs, we talk
all the time, especially leading up to this game, because
the game is important, but what we're raising money for

(01:23:34):
is even more important. So thank you for allowing us
to be part of this again this year.

Speaker 6 (01:23:38):
I am so happy to hear that. I didn't know that,
So I'm so happy, and it is a really important gamy.
John is just the classiest guy I know in the
coaching field and me a players. They actually they see
each other all the time, you know, they know each other.
It's just it's one night a year that we kind
of get after it. And but it's really an unbelievable cause.

(01:23:59):
We raise over twenty five dollars last year. I think
we're over like two hundred and some thousand or right
around hundred eighty thousand for the whatever eleven twelve years.
We're doing it, unbelieree.

Speaker 2 (01:24:09):
You know last year at the end, you guys were
having your way with Hartford a little bit and things
got a little chippy, and uh, coach Ritters and I
saw you do the same thing. Hey, where that's not
what we're doing. In fact, he took a time out
and he told his kids to knock it off.

Speaker 1 (01:24:24):
Knock it off.

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
I don't want to see anybody hitting anybody out of bounds,
nobody late. Just you know what we're getting beat, take
it like a man, and we'll shake hands after, wish
them luck, and then we'll get after and practice. But
when I was watching that and listening to him and
his staff direct these kids to knock it off or
you're gonna sit down and uh, you know you're gonna

(01:24:45):
you're you're I'm gonna play you out of the game.
You do something like that again, just that idea of
teaching kids, you know, how to be good winners, how
to be how to be understand we're gonna lose, but
we're gonna shake hands and we'll get better next week.
I thought it was a really really big part of
that game last year.

Speaker 6 (01:25:03):
Yeah, it's been great. I mean it's obviously rivals, but
and sometimes it's you know, kid's emotional game, and there's
still kids in me. I mean, that's what they are.
I've had a lot of in elementary school. I've seen them, girl,
But there's still kids and they get you know, sometimes
motions run over and then you just have to kind
of correct it and that's the place to do it.
And you know, we all have to do it. I
think every coach has kids where you don't want to

(01:25:25):
see that on the field, but you have a kid
that does something and that's the time to teach a lesson.

Speaker 2 (01:25:30):
Well, I can't wait to see in person on the
fifth And how will it be? How's it been the
first week not having Chase be a player that you're coaching.

Speaker 6 (01:25:41):
Very weird because it's the first time since like I
think twenty sixteen where I don't have a child in
the program.

Speaker 1 (01:25:47):
Yep.

Speaker 6 (01:25:47):
So I do have a nephew. He's an eighth grader,
so eventually be another Jacqueline. And it's so weird. I
have I shout out one kid to Sam Bowden's he's
a kid that he can be senior this year, and
we do a lot of stuff with their But I
had Sam in fourth grade. But I've known Sam since
five years old. He was on our sidelines. He was
called Super Sam. She had a cape and mask and

(01:26:08):
then he'd run around our sideline getting the crowd going.
He was actually in the huddle at Economy Walk with
me when I was calling a play. I looked down,
he's six years old. Time, Sam, what are you doing here? Well,
I don't know what to play running. So that's kind
of my prime this year. I'm kind of taken a
brief of him and yeah, he's been with us for
a long time and I can't wait two day as
a senior year.

Speaker 1 (01:26:25):
Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:26:26):
He is Coach Bill Jacquelin, had Football, coach had Slinger
and coach if you if you're not if it's not
available for you to listen to the last segment, We're
going to talk a little bit more about something Steve
rus is doing and I'm going to send you I'll
text you the the website for this. It's a n
s rs dot AI and man, I'll tell you what

(01:26:48):
watching that video. It could save you a bunch of time.
It could save some of your assistant coaches a bunch
of time when it comes to film work. And Steve
Ruxs is now the rep here in the state of Wisconsin,
and we'll talk to him. But I'll send you the
information on that website and he's he's available to answer
me questions that you have about it or if you
want to do a live demo on it.

Speaker 6 (01:27:10):
Yeah, thank you so much, you got it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:12):
Coach Jacqueline. I'll see in a couple of weeks. Good
luck this week.

Speaker 6 (01:27:16):
Thanks so much. I love you and coaches. Good lucky retirement.
I hope you're enjoying it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:20):
Thanks for good luck this year, good luck this here.

Speaker 6 (01:27:22):
Yeah, I'm a few years from that yet, not very far, but.

Speaker 1 (01:27:25):
Hey, you know what, you'll enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
Okay, either of these guys are available to come run
drills for your team. I think their wife, their wives
are going get out of the house. You're in the
house too much. You give him a call, they'll head
out this to Owl country to help you out. Sounds great,
all right, you got it, Thanks man, Bill Jacklan. Guys,
he is just one of my favorite. He has so

(01:27:47):
much love and passion for for high school athletics and
that community Slinger. I can't tell you how many times
he said, Mike, with all the stuff that I've been
going through, this this this Slinger community, not football community.
They've been involved in it, but the whole community has
just they're dropping off cakes, they're dropping off food for
fan they're just praying for us, and and he just

(01:28:09):
loves it out there, and that's what this is supposed
to be all about. So guys, let's get your break.
Other side of the break. We'll wrap this thing up
in studio. Keith Koczynski, head former head football coach I'm
sorry at Milwaukee Marquette and Steve Rucks, the former head
football coach at Walkshall West. I thank them so much
for coming in studio. This is the Varsity Blitz High

(01:28:30):
School Sports Show, presented by your local Pick and Save
and Metro Market stores only on Fox Sports nine twenty
and your iHeart Radio app.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
Welcome back to.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
The Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, as always presented
by our friends at your local Pick and Save and
Metro Market stores. Coming live from the Divan to Jordans
and Heat and Cooling Studios in studio. Steve Rucks coach
K from Milwaukee Marquete, Steve Rouks from Walkshall West, Steve,
before we get into another thing you're doing than other

(01:29:00):
than teaching over a Catholic moral.

Speaker 1 (01:29:02):
Now, I'm going to ask you this, what do you
think you're going to miss the most about coaching being
the head coach at Wakshow West.

Speaker 4 (01:29:12):
Well, I think just being around the guys, getting to
know new players and see how they develop. You know,
you have kids that go from being you know, being
role players as juniors and then how they you know,
develop and blossom as they go into their senior years
and having those relationships, you know, players through the last
twenty five years, I still stay in touch with and

(01:29:33):
we have lunch together, you know, and and to have
that connection lifelong friends is you know, something to loo
going to miss. But I still have it, you know
with the number of years and the number of guys
I had coached in the past, and Friday night lights,
you know, it's there's nothing like it. The smell and
the sounds, you know, the the intensity of it. You know,

(01:29:55):
it's really hard to match that.

Speaker 1 (01:29:56):
Ever. Coach kse same question.

Speaker 3 (01:29:58):
Yeah, no, I would say, same thing. It's it's the relationships,
you know, whether it be not just with the athletes,
but the coaches. The routine that you go through, it's
an interesting routine. You know, what your what your daily
routine is through the week, what your Friday night routine is.
You know, we would start with a meal and go
through walkthroughs and meetings and.

Speaker 1 (01:30:17):
Yeah, show up at the site.

Speaker 3 (01:30:18):
We'd have a whole itinerary and it's just exciting to
be part of all of that stuff. And then you know,
Friday or Saturday morning, I would be stopping a quick
trip and getting donuts, and I'm in by six thirty,
so like making coffee and making sure we're ready to
start out.

Speaker 2 (01:30:33):
Hey, guys, I didn't know. I didn't think of this
after I got done. But now you go to Let's
you go to hard Park to watch them play, and
you get there at six thirty and you can't find
a parking spot in a basketball I can't see disappointed silines.

Speaker 1 (01:30:48):
I gotta sit in the crowd, Like, wait a second.

Speaker 2 (01:30:50):
I don't want to sit in the crowd because then
it's like, welcome, you didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:30:53):
Play my kid and you ruined my son. I don't
want to hear about it.

Speaker 2 (01:30:57):
My kid could have gone to the show, could have
gone to the show five eight, and you could have
dribbled his left hand. You can't blame me for that
kind of stuff. Is what I would be thinking while
they were doing that. But that part of it, the
ease of Okay, we got the bus ride over right,
or you're driving and watched out Western they're nice and earlier,
but we got a parking spot. Now you get there
a quarter to seven before kickoff and you can't get

(01:31:17):
a parking spot, and you're like.

Speaker 1 (01:31:18):
Wait a second, get in trust me.

Speaker 2 (01:31:23):
I know that I'm I'm so cheap. I'm like calling
athletic directors. Hey, Steve, we have talked a couple of
times about this this and again I can't recommend you
at least go and watch this video. It's answers dot AI.
It's a N S R S dot AI. Can I
ask how did you find it? How did you get

(01:31:43):
involved in it?

Speaker 4 (01:31:44):
Yeah? In January, There's there's a friend of mine that
I coached in college. I was a graduate assistant at
the University of Utah and so he's their national sales
coordinator and he saw I retired on Facebook and he said,
I think I might have something for you that you
would want to promote, and so we did a demo.

(01:32:05):
At first, I was skeptical, as any coach would be.
You know, is this really a game changer? And fifteen
minutes into the demo, I knew it was something that
was different and something that could save time and be
able to get coaches where they want to be With
the amount of time that we put in with tagging film,
trying to create dynamic reports, getting cut ups, and getting

(01:32:28):
to your game plan. This is really a game changer.
I've never quite seen anything like it.

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
Hey, what explain? So would coach k if you still
let Marquette take his game film and put it into
the system.

Speaker 1 (01:32:43):
How does that work? Well?

Speaker 4 (01:32:45):
Right now, we have something that's called a chrome extension,
So any film that they have on huddle they can
bring down to answers and any data also, any data
point is a cutup. You just click on it and
automatically you're going to be able to see the film.
So if you have a defensive coach board, hit charts
are a big thing. And so what they do is

(01:33:07):
they'll draw the formation, look at different tendencies as far
as down in distance, and then they they'll do all
the calculations by hand on tendencies. Now that's already done
for them, and it connects to cutups through that, so
you can look at all the third and short situations
depending on field zone, by formation, and there's a variety

(01:33:30):
of different reports that you can create.

Speaker 1 (01:33:32):
Coach, is this being used real quick? And we got
to get out is this being used by high school
and colleges?

Speaker 4 (01:33:37):
Yeah, we have about seven high schools right here in Wisconsin.
It was new so guys had never heard of it.
So we have seven high schools. UW Stevens Point is
using our system, so is Saint Norbert's and the University
of Wisconsin, or over three hundred schools throughout the United
States that are using it right now. Last year was
our first year. So if anybody's interested, it's you know,

(01:33:59):
our number one goal, number one core value is to
help coaches and they can contact me through Coach Rucks
at answers dot AI and we can set up a demo.
I can talk to them about it, and you know,
it's really something that's different than anything that's out there,
and there are some really great companies out there, but

(01:34:19):
putting film and data together and being able to have
that merged together is something that is something I think
that's truly incredible, incredible and the.

Speaker 2 (01:34:29):
Change said coach Jacqueline could spend more time with those
two dogs, right, Yeah, that's what he's looking to do.
So Steve, I can't think enough. Coach k thank you
so much. It's really good to see you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:34:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:34:40):
I don't know if you know how much respect I
have for you two as men and as football coaches
to be able to have you come in today for
a couple hours.

Speaker 1 (01:34:50):
I truly appreciate it. I owe you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:34:52):
If there's anything I can do Coach Rocks, I'd love
to have you back in three, four, five, six weeks
from now to talk more about this product, because I
think that's something. This is something that is gonna catch
on and you and You're gonna have a lot of
teams and a lot of coaches in the state of Wisconsin.
Tore getting involved in this thing, and you're the point person.

(01:35:13):
And I've got a bunch of questions for you that
I didn't get to today.

Speaker 1 (01:35:16):
But thank you. It's really good to see you guys.
Thanks Mite, thank you. It's two different ways to retire.

Speaker 3 (01:35:23):
He's got two jobs well, and we bumped into each
other at the Wiscony's Athletic Club a couple of weeks back,
so we were working out so awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:35:31):
Two different ways to retire, one to just go and
one and to let's find new things to do. Guess
what it's gonna work for both you guys. And if
there's anything I can ever do for you guys, please
let me know. Andrew a great job. Don't forget he's
ending up the Green Bay. You can turn on our
sister station ninety seven three at three o'clock for Packer

(01:35:51):
Game Day with Doug Russell, five o'clock for the pregame show,
seven o'clock kickoff against the Jets, Wayne Larrvy and Larry
McCarran Larry McCarron and over on ninety seven point three Andrew,
great job. Was good to have you back. Luddy in
the building. I didn't give him that nickname, but it
definitely is sticking. This is the Varsity PLITX high school
sports show, presented by your local Pick and Shave, a

(01:36:13):
metro market stores only at Fox Sports ninety twenty and
your iHeartRadio app.