Semrau
Like father, like son, Maturi glad he gave prep sports a try
by
Dennis Semrau,
9/8/2009
Dennis Semrau
Wissports.net
As a long time coach and athletics administrator, Joel Maturi learned the value of and preached about the rewards one could receive by participating in sports at the high school and collegiate levels.
My relationship with Maturi, who has served as the athletic director at the University of Minnesota since 2002, dates back to the 1980s when we both worked for the University of Wisconsin athletic department.
Before entering the college ranks, Maturi spent 19 years as a high school coach and administrator at Madison Edgewood High School where he coached football, basketball, baseball and track and field.
But it was while serving as an Associate Director of Athletics at UW in the early 1990s that Maturi relayed a story to me of how he “made” his son, Mark, go out for a high school sport.
Mark opted for cross country and went on to run for Madison Edgewood High School for four years. He also ran track in the spring for the Crusaders, who participated in the now-defunct WISAA.
Well, time flies and I recently became reacquainted with Mark Maturi -- who I covered as a prep sports reporter for The Capital Times during his high school career -- through the social networking web site, Facebook.
And I heard it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, about how Maturi became interested in distance running.
“I remember my days as a cross country runner for Edgewood,” Maturi recently wrote. “However, I almost did not go out for the team.
“The summer of 1991 entering my freshman year, I was told by my dad that I had to go out for a fall sport -- no exceptions -- because he wanted me to get involved with activities and meet other people.”
Mark explained that he wasn’t planning to participate in a fall sport because he wanted to prepare for tryouts for the freshman basketball team.
But before participating in Bo Ryan's basketball camp at UW-Platteville during the summer, he had to complete the form that indicated which sport he was going to play in the fall. So he chose soccer.
“Then, the Sunday before all the sports practices began, I had a "change of heart," and decided to go out for the cross country team,” he wrote. “I ended up making the varsity squad by the end of the season.”
So, sometimes father does know best.
“Now, I am an avid runner who is training for the 2010 Boston Marathon,” Mark wrote. “I was planning to run in last year's race, but I suffered an injury during my last week of training.”
With the passing of another Labor Day brings the unofficial end to summer and another high school year shifts into gear.
Hopefully, a new generation is learning what Maturi and many other former high school student-athletes have experienced in regards to high school sports as well as other extracurricular activities.
Don’t be afraid to try something new. You might just discover a passion you will enjoy for the rest of your life.
Portage girls golf team on top of its game
by
Dennis Semrau,
9/3/2009
Dennis Semrau
Wissports.net
Why do we have high school sports?
The Portage High School girls golf team won't have to think twice the next time it is asked that simple question.
During the WIAA’s area meetings across the state a year ago, former executive direction Doug Chickering issued a challenge at each meeting for the school administrators, athletic directors and coaches in attendance to come in with several reasons why high school sports do exist.
By the time the meetings had ended, Chickering’s list was long and distinguished and served as fitting tribute to his tenure with the association.
The 2009 area meetings will begin next week on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at Watertown. Other stops and dates include: West Allis (Sept. 15); Appleton (Sept. 16); Antigo (Sept. 22); Barneveld (Sept. 23); Black River Falls (Sept. 29); and Rice Lake (Sept. 30).
That question, though, won't be the No. 1 item on new executive director Dave Anderson's list, which will include ground-breaking proposals for football and boys and girls basketball.
While it should still remain an agenda item, we’ll leave it to some student-athletes themselves to emphasize what competition at the prep level is all about.
Portage High School’s girls golf coach Ed Carlson announced earlier this week that the Warriors will host their first annual breast cancer awareness and benefit called “Golfing In Pink” on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
On that date, the Portage lady golfers will be competing in their final home meet of the season against Mount Horeb. Both schools will be attired in special pink outfits in an attempt to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. The meet begins at 3:45 p.m. at the Portage Country Club.
Since there is no admission fee charged to attend the meet, collection bins will be located in the pro shop as well as Suzy's clubhouse. All money collected will be donated to the Pink Ribbon Angels of Columbia County.
In addition to the golf match, the clubhouse will be offering a special benefit dinner from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Dinner will consist of salad, lasagna, garlic bread, dessert, and choice of tap soda or milk for $10. For every dinner served, $2 will be donated back to the Portage team as part of its contribution that will be making to the Pink Ribbon Angels.
In a show of fellowship and support for the cause, both the Mount Horeb and Portage golf teams will be eating together after the meet.
“I realize it is hard to do this on the golf course, but we are very excited to give it a try,” Carlson said. “I think it will be a great experience for all involved. In addition to joining the fight against this terrible disease, it is also a great display of sportsmanship between the two schools.
“Golf is a game of honor and integrity and I can't think of a more appropriate event to showcase those principles.”
--WSN--
Madison Memorial football team connects with community
by
Dennis Semrau,
8/11/2009
Dennis Semrau
Wissports.net
As the strength and conditioning coordinator for the Madison Memorial High School football program, coach Chad Gunnelson was looking for a way to assess the fitness of the Spartans entering the 2009 season.
So second-year head coach Rick Saenz and Gunnelson came up with the concept of the first Spartan ‘Night of Champions,’ which made its debut Monday night at Mansfield Stadium.
But not only did the plan assess the team's fitness and strength, it provided another avenue for the Spartans to connect with the Madison community as well.
The Spartans’ ‘Night of Champions’ included testing of the varsity players in four movement skill drills -- the 40, L-Drill, Vertical Jump and Broad Jump -- and three strength drills -- Squat, Power Clean and Bench) inside Mansfield Stadium under the lights.
“It worked better than we expected,” Said Gunnelson, who is in his second year as an assistant football coach at Memorial and will serve as the Spartans offensive coordinator and defensive backs coach this season. “It came together nicely. It was a fun event.”
Gunnelson said the primary purpose of the event was to test the athletes to show improvements they made from their summer strength and conditioning program and to set new goals for the upcoming off season.
“We invited all of our parents, younger players (as this event was for Varsity athletes only), youth, and friends of the program to join us and support their Spartan football players as they performed,” he said.
But the concept had a unique twist.
“They needed to bring something with them for admission to the event and it wasn't a ticket, or money,” Gunnelson said. “We asked for each person to bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the Lussier Community Center.”
How successful was it?
“We collected two truckloads of food to donate for those in need,” Gunnelson said
In addition to the testing that was done, the pom-poms squad also performed.
Hopefully, next year we’ll get even more people involved,” Gunnelson said.
Following is a list of the top performances.
In particular, Lechein Neblett, an all-Big Eight Conference receiver from last year and one of the states top track and field athletes, and Brett Wise, an all conference hockey player as a sophomore and a three-sport athlete (including baseball), were able to showcase their unique skills.
Top performers:
40 Yard Dash (Speed)
Lechein Neblett - 4.45 seconds
Ron Covington - 4.48 seconds
Jordan Fredrick - 4.59 seconds
L Drill or 3 Cone (Agility)
Lechein Neblett (WR/DB - Senior) - 6.76 seconds
Luke Galle (WR/OLB - Senior) - 7.49 seconds
Kevin Meier (WR/DB - Senior) - 7.49 seconds
Standing Long Jump or Broad Jump (Horizontal Power)
Lechein Neblett – 10 feet, 5 incyhes
Keith Larson (RB/LB - Junior) – 10 feet, 1 inch
Ron Covington (RB/DB - Senior) – 9 feet, 11 inches
Vertical Jump (Vertical Power)
Brett Wise – 35 inches
Ron Covington – 33 inches
Keith Larson -- 30.5 inches
Squat (Lower body strength)
Jon Jung (RB/LB - Junior) -- Max 428 pounds
Brett Wise (RB/DB - Junior) -- Max 407 pounds
Patrick Mather (OL/DL - Junior) - Max 405 pounds
Power Clean (Power Test)
Brad Dombrowski (OL/DL - Senior) -- 251 pounds
Jon Jung -- 244 pounds
Luke Galle -- 222 pounds
-WSN-
Super Six honored by National Wrestling Hall of Fame
by
Dennis Semrau,
7/25/2009
Dennis Semrau
Wissports.net
The National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma, will bestow Lifetime Service Awards on
Lee Ecklund of Wisconsin Heights;
Don,
Dale and
Steve Evans of DeForest;
Mitch Hull of Evansville; and
Jim Stephenson of Waunakee at a banquet at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells August 16.
The award is a national honor, but the banquet is held locally to accommodate friends and families of the honorees. The award recognizes individuals who have devoted a lifetime as coaches, referees, scorers, benefactors and friends to the sport of wrestling. The honorees each have given more than 20 years of service to wrestling.
In addition to being honored at the banquet, the recipients will have their names permanently enshrined in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Following is a short bio of each of the award recipients:
***
Lee Ecklund served as assistant wrestling coach at Wisconsin Heights High School in Mazomanie for 38 years. During that span, Wisconsin Heights produced five state champions.
From 1971 until 1991, Lee served as the official scorer for the WIAA State Wrestling Tournament. In 1978, Lee set up the first computerized Wisconsin State Tournament scoring system. In 1991 Lee assumed the role of Administrative Assistant at the state tournament. That position ultimately led to Lee's being named bout coordinator of the state tournament. Lee logged 37 years at the head table of the WIAA State Tournament.
Lee also coached cross-country, basketball, and track at Wisconsin Heights. He retired from teaching in 2003. He and his wife,
Peg, live in Verona.
*** The
Evans family of DeForest has been involved in wrestling in Wisconsin ever since
Don went out for wrestling at Madison East High School in 1942. There was one brief interruption while Don served in the Navy during World War II.
After the war, Don enrolled at the University of Wisconsin and wrestled for the Badgers in 1946-47. A generation later,
Steve, a two-time state champion at Deforest, turned down an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy to wrestle at Wisconsin. When Duane Kleven became coach of the Badgers following the tragic death of George Martin, Steve Evans was his first recruit.
Only a missed phone call kept older brother
Dale from wrestling for the Badgers. However, he did wrestle for UW-Stout where he was the first-ever four-time WSUC conference champion. He was also a two-time NAIA All-American. From 1974-1979, Dale served as assistant coach for the Badgers.
As good as the Evans family was as competitors; its off-mat contributions to the sport are even more impressive.
Don was the first president of the Wisconsin Weigh-In Club and has been a generous donor to Wisconsin wrestling. When the Russian Olympic team wrestled in the UW Field House in 1973, it was Don Evans who paid the expenses. That was just one of many such instances of the Evans family's generosity.
Although Don has retired, Steve and Dale continue the Evans family tradition in wrestling. In addition to being benefactors, Dale and Steve have years of coaching service between them. Dale has been coaching wrestling -- freestyle, Greco, high school and middle school for 38 years. He also served as president of the Wisconsin Wrestling Federation.
Steve has also been coaching wrestling, primarily at the high school level, for many years. Since 2006, Steve has been head coach of the Madison Edgewood/Monona Grove co-op program.
Don and his wife,
Joan, live in Reno, Nev. Steve and his wife,
Julie, live in Madison. Dale and his wife,
Debbie, live in DeForest.
***
Mitch Hull earned 10 letters in football, wrestling, and track at Evansville High School. In 1975, he became Evansville’s first wrestling state champion. He also became Wisconsin's first Junior National champion, winning both the freestyle and the Greco national titles.
Mitch attended Kansas State to play football but later transferred to the University of Wisconsin where he wrestled three years for the Badgers. As a junior and senior at UW, Mitch was the Big Ten champion at 190 pounds and was a two-time All-American,
After graduating from UW, he concentrated on international wrestling and is one of only two U.S. wrestlers in the past 40 years to compete in the World Championships in both freestyle and Greco. In 1984, Mitch finished second in the Olympic Trials.
From 1980-1986, Mitch assisted Russ Hellickson as coach of the Badgers. In 1986, he became assistant coach at Purdue and two years later became the head coach of the Boilermakers. While at Purdue, Mitch coached Charlie Jones to a national championship.
In 1992, Mitch became the National Teams Director for USA Wrestling. As National Teams Director, he has overseen the preparation and organization of the USA Olympic team for the past five Olympic Games.
This spring, Mitch was the moving force behind a wrestling camp to raise money for Jake Janes, a former Evansville High School wrestler who lost both legs in the war in Afghanistan. Mitch and his wife,
Peggy, live in Colorado Springs
***
Jim Stephenson grew up in Pennsylvania where he excelled in football and wrestling in high school. He wrestled at Lock Haven University and later transferred to UW-Superior to study biology and wrestle for the legendary Mertz Motorelli.
After spending a year as a graduate assistant at Superior and a year with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Arizona, h was hired to teach and coach at Waunakee High School. His tenure at Waunakee was interrupted by a five year hiatus to return to his home town in Pennsylvania to coach.
When he retired in 1997, Jim's teams had amassed a 237-199-3 record. He coached 45 conference champions and 29 state qualifiers, including two state champions. Jim has also been very active in the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association. He chaired the committee that established the George Martin Wrestling Hall of Fame and inducted the charter class in 1977.
In 2001, Jim was inducted into the George Martin Wrestling Hall of Fame. He currently chairs the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association Alumni Chapter and edited the first edition of "Wisconsin Wrestling, 1940-2007". Jim and his wife,
Wenona, live in Waunakee.
The National Wrestling Hall of Fame Banquet will be held Aug. 16 with a social hour at 4 p.m., dinner at 5 p.m. and the program at approximately 6 p.m. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased by contacting
Joe Kaster at (608) 758-8758 or by e-mail at
thecrossface@sbcglobal.net
Some things never change at Baseball All-Star Game
by
Dennis Semrau,
7/15/2009
Another Major League Baseball All-Star Classic, the 80th annual love fest for the game, has come and gone. And for the 13th straight year, the National League has come away without a victory.
I was hoping for Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, a St. Louis area native who pinch hit for the NL in the eighth inning, to jack one out of the park and propel the senior circuit to the win.
Instead we had to settle for 4-3 AL victory at St. Louis’ new Busch Stadium on a night where defense and relief pitching were the stars. Tampa Bay outfielder Carl Crawford, who earned game MVP honors, pulled back a home run with a leaping grab in the seventh inning and Detroit’s Curtis Granderson tripled and scored the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning.
The AL is 12-0-1 since its 1996 defeat at Philadelphia - the longest unbeaten streak in All-Star history.
All three Milwaukee Brewers representatives played in the game. Outfielder Ryan Braun started in right field and went 0-for-2, first baseman Prince Fielder hit a pinch-hit, RBI ground-rule double in the second inning and relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman tossed a scoreless sixth inning.
The All-Star Game has always served as a personal reminder that summer is rapidly passing us by. In less than a week, the final prep state tournament of the 2008-09 school year will begin. The 45th annual WIAA state summer baseball tournament is set for July 29 and 30 in Stevens Point.
So I spent another Tuesday night in July glued to the TV set watching some of the best and brightest stars of Major League baseball compete in a meaningless exhibition that somehow has been allowed to determine which league has the home field advantage in the World Series.
The annual All-Star game has been used to determine home-field advantage in the World Series since 2002 when the game ended in a 7-7, 11-inning tie at Milwaukee.
I still don’t like it.
But putting that negative aside, I love watching the introductions, seeing which legends of the game will be honored by the baseball community, listening to a stirring rendition of the National Anthem and hoping my favorite players, including the hometown Milwaukee Brewers, will get to play.
This year, Major League Baseball added a new twist as 30 hometown heroes from across the country were honored. People from each of the 30 major league team’s markets were recognized for the commitment and energy they have given to their communities, people who make a difference in the lives of others.
While I’m a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America and could have applied for a media credential to cover this year’s ceremonies, the $1,500-plus price tag was too much to pay in this year of budget cuts, furloughs and lay-offs.
Capital Newspapers, who I have covered the Brewers for over the past 14 years, like many other media outlets objected to the high price tag to cover what is nothing more than an exhibition game.
However, since my daughter and I are planning to take a trip to St. Louis to visit the new Busch Stadium for a game later this summer, I also opted to pool my finances for that trip and watch Tuesday’s game at home.
I was fortunate to be able to cover the 2002 All-Star Game in Milwaukee at Miller Park, which remains one of the highlights of my professional career. The whole week of activities, which included a FanFest in downtown Milwaukee, was a memorable experience.
While it was a big autograph fest for the fans, the media are prohibited from soliciting autographs and photo ops at the risk of losing their game credentials.
That actually doesn’t bother me too much since I've never been too big on autographs. Instead, as a sports reporter, I have attempted to interview and chat with as many players as possible. It has been more enjoyable to see the final results in print than a few scribbles on a baseball or photo.
I've interviewed and written columns for the Capital Times on four icons from my youth -- Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Reggie Jackson and Robin Yount. Spending time getting to know them as more than baseball players has been one of the major perks of my job.
Note to self: I've still got to get those clippings mounted and framed for my office at home.
If I could have been in St. Louis this week, my interview hit list would have included Stan “the Man” Musial, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Ozzie Smith, four of my all-time favorite Cardinals. I’m sure it also would have been fun to talk to many of the 28 first-time All-Stars, who reveled in the moment as fans of the game as well.
I still remember talking to Arizona catcher Damian Miller, a 2002 NL All-Star and La Crosse area native who played for the Milwaukee Brewers from 2005-07. We both marveled at the roster of stars present at the 2002 Classic.
Watching the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game the past two days, I also saw numerous displays of that same enthusiasm on camera as the players sought out interviews and documented video memories of their own that they will treasure the rest of their lives.
At the same time, how about Prince Fielder winning the HR Derby? He's just a big kid at heart. I’ve enjoyed watching him progress from a minor league star with big league potential into the youngest player ever to hit 50 home runs in a Major League season and now the winner of the 2009 Home Run Derby.
I had to chuckle when Prince said during interviews following the Derby how he just tried to swing as hard as he could and have fun.
Hey, after all, it’s still just a game, isn’t it?