African-American driver withstands tough time for induction

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Oct. 31, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

Charlie Weddle waited for a chance to let his driving earn him respect from other drivers. Unfortunately for him, respect may have been harder to get.

Weddle is an African-American and competed during the 1960s, the heart of the civil rights movement.

“It was a long, uphill climb to where I was recognized,” Weddle said.

Weddle will be inducted into the Southeastern Wisconsin Short Track Hall of Fame on Saturday during a ceremony at the Wisconsin Auto Museum in Hartford.

Weddle will be inducted with Hartford’s Robert Ratajczyk, plus Conrad Morgan, Frank Heimerl, Jack Aschenbrenner, Darrell Dodd, Tom and Jerry Mueller, George Scheffler, Gary Laack and Joe Shear.

“I think it’s awesome to be honored,” Weddle said. “It’s magnificent.”

Weddle will be the museum’s first African-American inductee.

“I felt so sorry for him because he was a black man in a white man’s sport,” Heimerl said. “I always hoped he would win. I was happy when Charlie would win because it’s mostly a white man’s sport. Plus, he’s a happy go-lucky guy.”

Weddle’s Hall of Fame résumé doesn’t stack up against most of the other inductees as far as track or national championships won. He never won a track championship during his career.

He was savvy behind the wheel, though, and withstood every bit of criticism that came his way, whether it was from a driver’s mouth or from a driver rubbing their fender on Weddle’s car, even if they didn’t need to. He would also be called names.

“I just smiled and walked away,” Weddle said. “I did what I had to do.”

Weddle, who became known as “The Black Fox,” wasn’t wanted at race tracks, simply because he was black.

In his first race in 1962 at Cedarburg, he didn’t help his cause. In an eight-lap heat race, he was lapped four times.

At the time, Weddle was working at Braeger Chevrolet on Milwaukee’s south side. The next night after the race, a driver they called “Crazy Jim” saw him at the dealership as he bought a lot of cars at the dealership and told him to stay away. He was only going to get in the way.

“You’ll never be a race car driver,” Weddle recalled being told by Crazy Jim.

He just smiled at him.

“You can’t let people tell you what you can and can’t do,” he added.

For most of his career, Weddle was on his own. He drove the car to the track, raced, was his pit crew and drove back. It took a couple years before anybody would even talk to him, at least cordially.

“I ran a clean race record,” he said. “I didn’t try to run into people to win a race. I just outdrove them.

“They’d hit me sometimes, but I never said anything about it. When I got good, they couldn’t catch me and hit me anymore.”

By 1965, he was slowly gaining respect. He climbed to fifth in the Milwaukee area Sportsman Stock Car point standings, racing at Slinger, Cedarburg, Hales Corners and Wisconsin State Fair Park. He also won the mid-season championship race at Beaver Dam, setting a track record and winning the heat race before winning the feature.

By 1970, he finished third in the championship points standings at Wilmot.

“He was in the sport during hard times,” Heimerl said. “I don’t know if anybody would’ve helped him out. I always had a soft spot for him.”

Weddle grew up in Milan, Tenn., about two hours east of Memphis. He moved to Wisconsin when he was 20 years old.

Times were tough in Tennessee. His wife’s uncle told him if he moved to Wisconsin, a job would be waiting for him. He began to work for Bob Braeger and his dealership on 18th and Forest Home. He worked there for 13 years.

“If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Weddle said. “They gave me everything I needed to build a decent car.”

He got into racing after watching a friend at a dealership next door to Braeger do it in 1961.

In 1962, he built a 1957 Ford Sportsman at the age of 30.

“I always kept myself humble,” he said.

In the years after his racing career, he has become a motivational speaker for children.

“It’s never too late to achieve what you want to achieve,” he said.

Eventually, Weddle developed a large fan base and friendships that would last a lifetime.

“It was a blessing,” he said.

Protecting the future

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Oct. 23, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

Donald Hooton just wants to save your child from what happened to his. In 2003, Hooton’s 17-year-old son, Taylor, committed suicide after suffering from depression, brought on when he stopped using anabolic steroids.

“It was devastating,” Hooton said. “There aren’t any words in the dictionary that can describe it when you lose a child.”

Once he did more research as to why he did it, Hooton couldn’t believe what he discovered.

“It is unbelievable to how many kids were using anabolic steroids and we had no concept that these drugs can be as dangerous as they are,” Hooton said. Since then, Hooton has become one of the nation’s most vocal leaders in preventing steroid or performance- enhancing drug use by young student-athletes, especially those younger than in high school, founding the Taylor Hooton Foundation.

“We need to be getting to these kids,” he said. “The younger the better.”

“With this one single outreach with an organization, we have an opportunity to affect the lives of millions of children in one swoop,” Hooton added. “I’m extremely proud of the legacy that Taylor is leaving. Hopefully we’ve got the opportunity to affect the lives of a whole bunch of kids.”

This summer, Little League Baseball announced it will introduce a drug education program, starting next year.

“It is our hope that once Little League Baseball has implemented the program, most, if not all, other baseball leagues will be inclined to pick them up,” Hooton said, adding the awareness shouldn’t be limited to just baseball. He applauded Little League for being one of the first youth sports organizations to step up in this rapidly growing problem. He hopes other organizations don’t lag too far behind in all sports. “It’s exceedingly a positive thing that Little League Baseball is taking this step,” Hooton said. “We need to be talking to these kids when they’re younger. Eighty-five percent of kids have never had an adult ever talk with them about why they shouldn’t use these drugs.”

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So why are kids using steroids?

Brad Burns, a manager with the West Bend Warriors traveling baseball team, suggested the pressures on student- athletes, regardless of age, from parents, coaches, classmates and even themselves is where the blame should be focused on with kids using steroids.

“It’s sad from the standpoint there’s a lot pressure on kids,” he said. “In some cases it’s from parents as far as expectations and achieving excellence and achieving a scholarship. That’s where the problem lies at the lower levels.”

Area student-athletes agree with Burns.

“I think athletes might take PEDs because they feel they are in the shadow of another, greater player on their team and feel the need to outshine their competition,” West Bend East’s Natalie Geidel said. “I also think some might take PEDs because they know colleges are recruiting them and want to try and impress the coaches as much as possible.”

West Bend West’s Dane Mauland said, “Maybe the kid is feeling a lot of pressure to do well from home, teammates, coaches. The athlete doesn’t know how we can meet those expectations and doesn’t realize it’s OK to fail sometimes.”

In today’s professional sports, money is such a driving factor for use or even thought of use. And for a long time, those players were easily getting away with using drugs without any penalty.

Young athletes saw this and often asked themselves, why can’t I do it?

“They might think they aren’t good enough so they try to make themselves better with PEDs,” East’s Cassie Gillian said.

As sports fans today are seeing with concussions, more is being learned about the long-term effects head injuries have on the body. That’s not quite the case with PEDs. The sample size is too small for people to see what can happen in the long run.

“With the long-term repercussions, the jury is still out on that,” Burns said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen long-term yet.

“As time moves forward, there’s going to be more answers about the use of PEDs. Hopefully it’ll be a deterrent.”

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An empty victory

Mauland had an interesting take as to why he doesn’t take PEDs.

“When I was younger, I played a deer hunting game on the computer,” he said. “There was a cheat code that would teleport you to the biggest buck in the game.

“After I killed the buck using the cheat, I thought ‘Sweet. Now what?’ It was an empty victory. It didn’t mean anything.”

Burns and Bill Schubert, president of the West Bend Little League, said they leave it up to the parents to discuss steroids with their children.

“I think any increased awareness, no matter the age of the child, is a good thing,” Burns said. “Anything you can put in place early on and create a habit, that way kids are doing it at a younger age.”

Gillian suggested student-athletes should be tested, while Mauland and West Bend West’s Ryne Prinz suggested lifetime bans.

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Will steroids ever be eliminated?

It’s possible, but not likely, Schubert said.

As technology advances, so does the possibility of drugs being introduced that will be harder to trace through testing. If that trend continues, sports will be dealing with PED use for years to come. The hope is it’s not as abundant as it is now.

In addition, the pressures of being involved in sports, especially as college scholarships are getting increasingly more difficult to obtain, will continue to linger over the heads of student-athletes of all ages, thus increasing the motivation to use PEDs.

“Major League Baseball needs to set a precedent,” Burns said. “The only way that can be done is one strike and you’re out, lifetime ban. I think that’s when guys will stop taking it.”

Hooton hopes the health problems people can develop from steroid use will eventually turn them off from the use, too. He pointed to professional wrestling as an example.

“The average professional wrestler is 12 times more likely to die from heart problems than the average male which relates to high use of steroid use,” he said.

Champion stays calm under pressure

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Oct. 22, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

MADISON — West Bend East’s Lexi Keberle doesn’t pay much attention to what’s going on over on the other side of the net, at least in between points. She just concentrates on her game and her emotions.

And that, her coach Laura Vraney said, is what separates a good player from a great player, a state champion.

“I think she frustrates her opponents because she doesn’t show her emotions,” Vraney said. “She doesn’t let her opponents get to her.”

In her two matches Saturday en route to the WIAA Division 1 girls tennis state singles championship where she beat two-time defending state champion Elizabeth Konon of Homestead in three sets, Keberle played two emotionally charged players — Konon and Arrowhead’s Emily Kolbow — who weren’t shy to reveal their excitement or frustration after each point.

On the other side of the net, Keberle was calm, cool and collected, which she credited to a club soccer coach when she was 9 or 10 years old.

Being that calm is a bonus for Keberle, who is already tough to beat with her skill set alone.

“It helps her out in the long run,” Vraney said, adding D.C. Everest’s Gabi Kitchell in the state quarterfinal was having points deducted because of her attitude on the court.

Whether they won or lost the point, Kolbow and Konon would do something, shout in excitement or shout after missing a shot. Keberle had the same face every time.

“I’ve gotten so many other coaches who have come up to me and said how they love Lexi’s style of play and how she carries herself on the court,” Vraney said.

It’s not to say that a player who shows emotion in a match can’t be successful. Take Konon as an example. She’s a two-time state singles champion and won 141 matches in her high school career.

It’s just not Keberle’s style.

“I try to use it to my advantage, if they’re frustrated,” she said. “But I also try not to worry too much about what’s going on with them. I just continue with what I need to do.”

However, Keberle had a chance to mentally break down in the final.

After losing the first game of the third set, the seventh straight game she dropped in the match, Keberle changed rackets because of a broken string.

With the new racket, Keberle held serve to even the set at 1-1.

A change of racket was just a coincidence at that point in the match.

“After losing the seven straight games, I realized what I was doing wrong,” Keberle said. “I broke it down and did whatever I had to do and I started executing it.”

Even after Konon hit a return shot into the net to end the match, Keberle gave a minimal fist pump and calmly met Konon at the net for the usual post-match handshake. As she walked off the court, with a large support group sitting above the court, she didn’t even wave or look up at the crowd.

But once they got access to her on the court before and after the awards celebration, the team let her know how excited they were.

And just because Keberle was calm, doesn’t mean her mother was.

Throughout the state final, Laura Keberle had her hands folded or her face in her hands, barely able to watch the match unfold. That was especially the case when Lexi Keberle battled through six championship points to get the victory.

Afterward, Laura Keberle jokingly said she felt like she was going to have a heart attack. At least we know where Lexi Keberle didn’t get her calm demeanor from.

Tops in the state

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Oct. 22, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

MADISON — West Bend East’s Lexi Keberle knew if she wanted to be a state champion, she had to beat arguably one of the greatest girls tennis players in state history.

It took six championship points to do it.

Keberle finally broke through on the sixth championship point of the match when her opponent, Homestead’s Elizabeth Konon, hit a return into the net to secure the WIAA Division 1 girls singles state championship in an epic three-set final, 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 on Saturday at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium.

“It sounds pretty good,” Keberle said of her new state champion title moments after receiving the gold medal. “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet.”

Keberle (30-0) not only became the first West Bend tennis player to win a state tennis championship, but also the first player from a Washington County school — boy or girl — to win a state title. The girls tournament has existed since 1971, while the boys tournament started in 1925.

“It’s super incredible; I’m so excited for her,” East coach Laura Vraney said. “She worked so hard and she’s so driven. This has been her goal since Day 1. I’m just so, so proud of her and the team is so excited for her.”

Keberle is also the first freshman to go undefeated in her first season since Homestead’s Aly Coran in 2008.

“I probably just played the best match of my life,” Keberle said. “I played one of the greatest champions to ever come through here.”

While it was a match between the tournament’s top-two seeds, some were still billing Keberle’s victory as an upset, maybe even the greatest in state history.

Here’s why:

■ Konon was a senior and the two-time defending state singles champion with a 141-1 record. Her only other loss was in the state semifinal in 2010, her freshman year. Her wins total is believed to be a state record, according to the WIAA, by more than 25 victories. She was the top singles player on a team that has won the last five team championships.

■ Keberle was a freshman. It was her first state appearance. She was relatively unknown to those outside of the core circle of local tennis.

“I felt some nerves,” Keberle said. “I just knew I had to go out there and play my game and do what I do well.”

Those familiar with Keberle’s background also knew a senior versus freshman meant little to nothing as to which player may have been the favorite. If there was a favorite, it would’ve been Konon, only because of her experience at the WIAA state tournament.

But Keberle has won USTA Regional tournaments, so her being in the final with a legitimate chance to win was no fluke.

Keberle had no double faults in her match, while Konon had seven.

And it wasn’t like Konon didn’t know about Keberle.

Konon beat Keberle in a USTA tournament earlier this year in the only other matchup between them. They could’ve faced each other during the regular season in a tournament at Nicolet, but Konon didn’t compete in the tournament, which Keberle won.

“She’s in great shape,” Konon said. “She’s really fast; she gets to every ball. I think the match could’ve gone either way. It was really close. She deserved it.”

As expected, it wasn’t easy, even after taking the first set on Konon.

Konon took the first game of the first set when she served three straight aces to end the first game. The players held serve until Keberle broke Konon’s serve to take a 4-3 lead and go up a break.

In the second set, Konon got into a groove, while Keberle said she felt like she was rushing her points and her serves.

“Elizabeth has won so many matches in third sets,” Keberle said. “She’s such an amazing player, so experienced that she knows exactly how to come back and win a second and third set.

“It was very important for me to win the first set,” Keberle said, adding if the tide was reversed it would’ve been difficult to pull off a comeback. “Even after the first set was over, I knew it almost meant nothing because she could come back and win the second and win the third set because that’s what she does great.”

Vraney expected the second set to be tough on Keberle, but not the way it turned out, dropping all six games to force the winner-take-all third set. Vraney said Keberle didn’t look like herself, so she just reminded her to stay confident.

It was a see-saw battle in the third set, up to 3-3, as each player held serve. Then, just like she did in the first set, Keberle broke Konon’s serve to go up 4-3 and up a break. Keberle held serve to go up 5-3.

With the match on the line, Konon made it tough on the freshman, fighting off consecutive match points to force deuce. They continued to go back and forth, and Konon fought off match point after match point.

Konon gave everything she had as she tried to become the sixth threetime state singles champion, even having to be stretched out late in the third set with cramps.

“I was preparing myself for her to win that game and have to regroup myself and win five more points to get the championship,” Keberle said. “As the match went on, I kind of just enjoyed the moment.”

Orioles send seniors out with victory

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Oct. 19, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

Hartford Union has struggled to finish games and drives.

When it had to at a crucial point, the Orioles finally finished the job.

The Orioles held on for a 28-13 victory Friday against West Bend East to send their 21 seniors into the cold night with a victory.

“The seniors really worked hard all year,” Orioles coach Tom Noennig said. “I could never say anything bad about their effort, their dedication and how hard they worked.

“I was just hoping that we would get that fourth win (in conference) this year and get in the playoffs.”

As for East (0-9, 0-7), it is the Suns’ second straight winless season and 18th loss in a row, dating back to the 2011 playoffs.

Faced with the chance to put the game away, the Orioles (3-6, 3-4) came through.

Midway through the fourth quarter, the Orioles got the ball after East scored a touchdown, converting on fourth-and-goal, to make it 21-13 in favor of Hartford.

When they got the ball, the Orioles rode the legs of senior running back Bryce Semrad, who managed 44 yards on five carries in the first half — 38 on his first two carries.

In the second half, Semrad was tough to stop.

Semrad used his elusiveness to make cuts and mixed it with some power running and wound up with 117 yards on 18 carries for the game.

On the crucial fourth-quarter drive, Semrad had 21 yards rushing on three carries, but they were the first three plays of the drive. Hartford used that momentum shift to its advantage.

Ethan Willer also had a couple key rushing plays, and Tommy Noennig completed a 4-yard pass to Jordan Jewell for a touchdown and a 28-13 lead with 2:47 left in the game.

The drive covered 67 yards in nine plays and took 4 minutes, 35 seconds off the game clock, leaving the Suns just 2:47 on the clock and down two scores.

“It was huge,” Tom Noennig said. “The last two weeks we struggled finishing football games. That was our message all week was to finish every play, finish every drive and finish the game. I was happy we were able to finish that drive off.”

After the point-after attempt, an East player and a Hartford player had a small scuffle, but only East was penalized 15 yards. It was one of many penalties in the game and given the circumstances with both teams, both coaches weren’t terribly surprised.

Afterward both coaches had a cordial chat at midfield about the sloppy play and had no hard feelings.

“For the most part, I was proud of my guys for not retaliating as much,” Noennig said. “It’s hard when you’ve got two teams that have had rough years. That happens.”

Six personal foul penalties were called, including having one player from East being ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. For the game, the teams combined for 17 penalties and 178 yards.

“The chipiness, that’s not the way we play football,” East coach Scott Mindel said. “That’s not the way we coach our kids. It was the result of a little bit of frustration.”

“Football is an emotional game,” he added. “Sometimes those things happen.”

Noennig and Hartford will wonder “what if” this offseason as the Orioles had chances to upend Watertown and Oconomowoc, but came up short. A big reason for that was turnovers.

However, he liked how his players recovered in just enough time to make a season-ending victory a bit satisfying despite falling short of the goal to reach the playoffs.

“Our JV group is a pretty good group of guys,” Noennig said. “We’ve got some pretty talented underclassmen coming up. The juniors got a lot of experience this year and I think the seniors did a pretty good job of leading them.”

The Orioles started the season 0-4, which included losses to Homestead and Germantown in nonconference play.

“Unfortunately this is the only way, unless you take home the gold ball, you win your last game,” Noennig said. “It’s good for the kids. It’s good for the coaches.”

After a decade-long run of making the playoffs, the Orioles are not playoff bound for the second straight year.

“We just got to get stronger,” Noennig said, adding a victory in the season finale can bode well going into the offseason.

As for East, the Suns are ready to move forward.

“I think we played probably some of the most aggressive football all year,” Mindel said. “It just came down to a couple plays where they were better than us and that’s what showed up on the scoreboard.”