Laying it on the line

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)

Published: Nov. 8, 2013

HS FOOTBALL

Laying it on the line

Area coaches talk about recent health scares with NFL coaches

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

Their weight fluctuates, their stress and blood pressure levels can reach high levels, and they have a hard time getting away from the game.

That’s the norm for a football coach, no matter what level: NFL, college or high school.

At the same time, however, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“The game of football is very special,” Hartford Union coach Tom Noennig said. “It’s meant a lot to us as coaches. We’ve learned so much from coaches that we had as players and we want to go back and give the kids the best experience possible. I want them to have the best possible experience.

“You put others first a lot of times. It’s a big strain on your family, physically and mentally. At our level, it’s more selfinduced. We just try to do it for the right reasons.”

It was hard to find a coach that disagreed with Noennig’s analogy.

“It is a lot like parenting,” Kewaskum coach Jason Piittmann said. “What parent doesn’t want it better for their kid than they had? You want those kids to have a great experience.”

“My whole life is based off my football experience in high school,” Germantown coach Jake Davis said. “One of my main jobs is to create great experiences and memories.”

However, the cost for this is often one’s health.

The health of football coaches has surged to the forefront this week after Houston Texans head coach Gary Kubiak collapsed at halftime of Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts. He was taken off the field on a stretcher. He suffered a ministroke.

Also this week, Denver Broncos coach John Fox had open heart surgery.

“It’s scary,” Piittmann said. “Knowing the age of some of these guys and their health problems and the connection of being football coaches creeps into the mind.”

While the sequence of events forced area coaches to put things in perspective as to why they coach and put themselves through such stress, they conclude they do it for the kids.

They just can’t see themselves doing anything else.

It gets frustrating, especially when pressure builds up from school administration and parents if a team isn’t doing well or they don’t like how the team is being run.

“Our stress is that you’re trying to mold young minds and keep them on the right track,” Jacklin said. “There are stresses in football that are different than in other sports.”

Why do they do it?

It’s because they have to, especially as technology has evolved to where coaches have access to game film in so many forms.

“There’s a lot of pressure in high school sports to win,” Jacklin said. “I find myself laying in bed and if I can’t sleep, I’m watching film on my phone; I’m watching film on my iPad.”

Sports are measured in wins and losses maybe more than ever, some coaches said. In order to maintain a program, it needs to be successful. If it’s not successful, support drops off, as does the interest from potential players.

When that happens, the ability to stay competitive and making the experience fun will go away too.

Jacklin said he lost more than 20 pounds during football season. Unfortunately, it had nothing to do with diet and exercise. It was the opposite.

Jacklin admitted he doesn’t eat well, if at all, during football season.

“The problem that I see with this type of job even at the high school level, is it’s a labor-intensive job,” Noennig said. “You don’t sleep well, you don’t eat well. You just don’t take care of yourself as you normally would during the offseason.

“It’s the scariest thing for us as coaches. It’s such a grind.”

But they love it.

“I’ve always wanted to help people and this is the best way I know it,” Davis said.

It’s easy to tell these coaches they should just quit. They know that. But they have such a vested interest in doing great things. At the NFL level, money is such a driving force too. Millions of dollars are at stake. At all levels, coaches live under a microscope. The intensity of the microscope varies depending on the level they coach at.

“Being a coach, you understand the stress,” Davis said. “I don’t think the average Joe really understands it.”

Davis added about coaches at the NFL level, “People are critiquing and criticizing what you’re doing. It’s tough. It takes its toll.”

That can apply to the high school level, too.

“It’s just the nature of beast when you’re really involved what you’re doing,” Jacklin said.

Each coach tries to set aside time for family and fun time. The biggest help, according to area coaches, is having a good support group, whether it’s other coaches or family members.

“I’m fortunate to have a tremendous wife that does a lot for me during the football season,” Davis said. “She really steps up. She understands what I’m doing for the kids. She helps me a lot.”

Suns' state dreams dashed again by Rockets

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)

Published: Nov. 5, 2013

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL — WIAA SECTIONAL FINAL: NEENAH 3, EAST 0

Suns’ state dreams dashed again by Rockets

East loses 4th straight sectional final

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

MANITOWOC — From the first day of practice, West Bend East volleyball coach Colleen Hasse told her team if they worked hard and did their best, they would succeed.

So imagine what it was like for Hasse to look at her team after a season-ending loss and have to tell them their best wasn’t good enough.

“It sucks,” she said.

For the fourth year in a row, the Suns came up one victory short of the WIAA girls volleyball state tournament, losing in three sets to Neenah, 25-13, 26-24, 25-19, on Saturday night in a WIAA Division 1 sectional final at Lincoln High School.

The Suns (40-5) lost the 2010 and 2011 sectional finals to Fond du Lac and last year’s sectional final to Neenah (41-4).

“From a coaching standpoint, when you work so hard with a group of kids to get them prepared and just cannot seem to get through that roadblock that is the sectional finals,” Hasse said, “it takes a little beating on your pride.”

Hasse called Saturday’s loss the toughest in her career, which includes a loss in the 2007 state championship.

“It’s tough because you never want to see kids disappointed because of all the hard work they put in,” she said.

The battle was going to be tough for the Suns, who were trying to get back to state for the first time since 2008. Dating back to last year’s final against Neenah, the Suns had lost three straight matches to the Rockets, failing to win even a set in those matches.

The Rockets got the boost to start the match, scoring the match’s first three points.

East was able to tie the set at 4, but that was it. The Rockets got in a rhythm and the Suns were struggling. When Hasse took a timeout with the Suns down 23-11 in the first set, she said the team had made 16 errors of some kind up to that point.

“I can’t figure it out right now,” Hasse said about the slow start. “It’s probably something I’ll process for the next couple of weeks and figure out why it takes 25 points to get the first-game jitters out. I wish I could go back and take that first game away because we’d be looking at a whole different ballgame.”

In the second set, the Suns made it tough on the Rockets who, under coach Bruce Moriarty, have gone to 14 sectional finals in 16 seasons but are 5-9 in those matches. East has now lost three of its last four postseason meetings against Neenah.

“West Bend East makes you work really hard for everything you get,” Moriarty said. “I have so much respect for them, their coaching staff, their players. They play so hard and they make you earn everything you get.”

East appeared to have a chance to get the momentum late in the second set. Tied at 23, Geidel got a kill, but she was called for a net violation. So instead of the score being 24-23 East, it was Neenah with the lead. It was an unfortunate blow for the Suns, but they were able to tie the set again at 24. Then back-to-back blocks by Carley Ramich and Lexi Watt helped Neenah escape with the set victory.

“They were really giving us their best punch,” Moriarty said. “Had it been tied 1-1 at the end of the second set it’s a whole different ballgame. Mentally, it’s such an advantage to be up 2-0.”

East held a 7-4 lead in the third set before Neenah reeled off three straight points to tie it. The Rockets took the lead for good following a kill by Hope Werch to make it 10-9.

“What killed us was they ran their middle fast and we just couldn’t seem to get a block on that,” Hasse said. “I thought we did a pretty good job this time around getting better touches on the ball and their serve receive hits.

“It was just the rally plays where we would keep getting balls up and getting it back over and they would just keep punching them at us.”

The Suns had so much hope of breaking through to the state tournament. They had nine seniors, including three who were All-State selections last year (Delaney McCreary, Baylee Gross and Natalie Geidel). The Suns also had all six starters back, plus their first four spots off the bench.
The Suns finished in the top four in two of the state’s most prestigious volleyball tournaments, The Joust and The Sprawl. They won 40 matches for the first time since 2008. They went undefeated in the Wisconsin Little Ten for the first time in Hasse’s tenure, which dates back more than 10 seasons.
“We’ve got to look inside ourselves and we’ve got to see what we’ve got to do to make it better,” Hasse said. “While we’re trying to make ourselves better, everybody else is too.
“We can’t continue the way it is. Otherwise, teams are going to continue to get better and we’re going to stay status quo.”

Hartford’s Ratajczyk way works

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Nov. 2, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

West Bend’s Chris Ratajczyk is too meticulous with his car. While it’s frustrating sometimes, it is a trait he inherited from his late father, Bob.

It’s what Bob Ratajczyk was known for throughout his racing career. He prided himself on how the car looked at the race track. After all, it had to look good in victory lane.

“He was my hero growing up as a kid,” Chris Ratajczyk said.

Bob Ratajczyk of Hartford won the 1954 track championship at Hales Corners Speedway and won two big races in 1970 as the highlights of an eventual Hall of Fame career.

Ratajczyk will be inducted into the Southeastern Wisconsin Short Track Hall of Fame tonight in a ceremony at the Wisconsin Auto Museum in Hartford.

More than 500 tickets have been sold for the event, which, according to the event organizers, is a sellout.

Joining Ratajczyk in the Class of 2013, the seventh induction class in the Hall of Fame’s history, is West Bend’s Frank Heimerl, as well as Conrad Morgan, Charlie Weddle, Jack Aschenbrenner, Darrell Dodd, Tom and Jerry Mueller, George Scheffler, Gary Laack, and Joe Shear.

“It’s a real big honor because you’re in a class with the best drivers in the state,” Chris Ratajczyk said.

Bob Ratajczyk died in 2007 at the age of 74.

“He would think it’s great,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “He’d be really honored.”

Bob Ratajczyk began racing in 1950 and raced for more than 25 years, competing in Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada.

He won 18 features in his career and was often near the top of the speed chart during qualifying. Not to mention his car was always looking in tip-top shape.

If it wasn’t ready to go to the race track, he wouldn’t go, which wasn’t very often as he competed six nights a week throughout his career. In 1959, he finished in the modified stock car points standings at Waukegan Speedway in Illinois.

“Too much,” Chris Ratajczyk said when asked how much of his dad’s personality and attention to detail he inherited. “He turned me into being way too meticulous.”

That wasn’t a bad thing, he added.

“He took care of his equipment,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “He was more of a finisher than a hard charger. He never drove over his head.”

At Ratajczyk’s race shop in West Bend, some tools can be found sitting on the shelf, unorganized. Bob Ratajczyk would get angry if he could see it today. It’s just the way he was, on and off the race track.

He made sure his son Chris understood it. It’s what worked for him.

“Take care of your equipment,” Chris Ratajczyk said on his father’s greatest lesson to him. “He was a stickler for that.”

Bob Ratajczyk won the award for the best appearing car three years in a row during a time where more than 100 cars could be spotted in a pit area at an area race track on any given night.

“It’s just the way he was,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “He was one of those guys where every wrench was measured out. He was a stickler for neatness and organization.”

Ratajczyk began his racing career in 1984 when he was 21. During his career, he’s competed in the Slinger Stinger division and eventually moved into a late model. In 1991, he was the Slinger Superspeedway Rookie of the Year in the super late division. In 2005, he won the limited late model track championship at Slinger.

How he prepares for a race is similar to his father.

One of Bob Ratajczyk’s proudest moments happened in 1970.

In that year, he won the state championship race at Slinger, a 100-lap dirt modified feature. Also that year, he won a feature in Canada, beating more than 100 cars to the checkered flag.

It was a victory Ratajczyk still had satisfaction for long after he accomplished it.

Chris Ratajczyk, one of Bob Ratajczyk’s four children, will give the acceptance speech and accept the honor on his father’s behalf.

“It’s a great honor,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “It’s a pretty neat deal.”

Area women fulfilling their fantasy

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Nov. 2, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

Don’t underestimate the power of women when it comes to football.

Some area women are proving they know just as much about football as men through fantasy football.

“I thought it was kind of foolish and a waste of time,” Heidi Grogan of Germantown said about the concept of fantasy football. “Now that I’m in it, I love it. It’s a lot of fun.”

She, along with Krysta Johannsen of Hubertus, are in first place in their respective leagues, while Laurie Schultz of Jackson and Ashley Weske of Hartford are right in the mix.

The guys in their league call it luck. With a smile, the women say they know what they’re doing.

“A lot of girls know a lot about football, but I didn’t,” Johannsen said. “This has taught me a lot about the sport.”

Johannsen is undefeated in her first time playing fantasy football. Last year in Johannsen’s league, a woman was in her first season of fantasy football and won.

For those unfamiliar, fantasy football allows people to set up leagues, mostly online through websites like Yahoo.com and ESPN.com. People in the leagues can draft any active player in the NFL to be on their team, essentially creating a dream team. Then, throughout the season, players monitor their roster, changing it for roster moves, player injuries, etc.

Teams earn points based on a player’s performance. The better the game, the more points a player will receive from an NFL player. The statistics are tabulated each week and the team with the most points in a matchup each week wins the week.

Since the Internet boom, fantasy football went right along with it, allowing fans to be more involved in the NFL.

For most people not involved in fantasy sports, including baseball, basketball, hockey, auto racing and even golf, they often perceive those who are in it as obsessed fanatics.

“Before I started in fantasy football, I had this idea of people who I thought were in an obsession,” Weske said. “Maybe that was an understanding of not knowing what it was.

“It’s just people who enjoy the game.”

Fantasy football has also done good things for spouses and work colleagues.

Grogan just started a new job with Graef Engineering in Milwaukee. It was a maledominated work environment. About a year after she started the job, she heard about a fantasy football league her colleagues took part in. She asked to join as a way to get to know more about the people she worked with.

“I was in it for the socialization factor,” she said. “I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I have.

“It was a way to build the relationships and be accepted in a male-dominated field.” Schultz has been married to her husband, Steve, for five years. The two have used fantasy football to build their relationship in a different way.

“We watch the games together,” Laurie Schultz said.

“I’ve learned a lot about football. I watched the Packers, but never watch any other games. My husband wants to watch every game he can.”

This week has been fun for their household, because the husband and wife are pitted against each other.

The wife is 2-1 all-time against her husband.

“I like to laugh in his face,” she said. “He knows better to laugh in my face because I’m a poor sport, but it’s all in good competition. We don’t take it too seriously.”

She promised they’ve never had a domestic problem when she beats him.

Schultz got into fantasy football while she was on 12 weeks of maternity leave. She needed something to pass the time.

It’s all fun for each of them, win or lose, but it’s sure fun to beat the boys.

“I get excited when I win,” Weske said. “It’s an exhilarating feeling, but I don’t get upset if I lose or let it overwhelm my life.”

They all promise it’s not luck, as each woman said they do the research online or through magazines to prepare for the draft and monitor the NFL on an almost daily basis.

“I love it,” Johannsen said. “I’m always checking my score.”

It’s just as sweet to win as it is when the ladies have a player the boys desperately want, weeks after criticizing them for the pick.

For Grogan, she drafted Green Bay Packers rookie running back Eddie Lacy. The guys thought she was being a homer. Lacy was just named the NFL’s Rookie of the Month for October. And last year, she drafted Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, who went on to be the NFL Rookie of the Year. She was made fun of for that pick too.

“You want to show them up,” Grogan said. “That’s a big part of it, but in a healthy and fun way.

“They like to say I’m lucky.”

Suns get fired up

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Oct. 29, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

West Bend East volleyball wasn’t playing its best.

Coach Colleen Hasse gave them a reality check about it.

In the midst of an early match battle with rival West Bend West in a WIAA Division 1 regional final Saturday in West Bend, Hasse had seen enough. She called a timeout and let her team know how unhappy she was.

Her yelling could be heard throughout the fieldhouse, her face a bright red.

“My heart rate probably went a little too high,” Hasse said. “I was so frustrated because these girls are really good, but they allow teams to get out on them. They were making the match harder than it needed to be.”

It was the only timeout Hasse used the rest of the match as East went on to sweep West in three sets, 25-20, 25-14, 25-17, to claim the regional title and advance to the sectional semifinal.

East (39-4) has advanced to the sectional each season since at least 2006.

West’s season ended with the loss and finished with a 22-22 record.

“Our motto was go big or go home,” West coach Alison Tanking said.

“They played really well,” she added. “They played really hard. They gave it all they got.”

The start of the match wasn’t anywhere near what East did against West on Oct. 15.

East started that match with leads of 3-0, 6-1 and 9-2. On Saturday, West got the jump, leading 4-2 early in the first set and led for most of it.

The last straw for Hasse was an attack by Lexie Uselding that went out of bounds to give the Spartans a 17-16 lead.

“She was trying to do something fancy,” Hasse said.

“From a coaching aspect, it’s the mental,” she added. “We’ve seen them twice; we beat them twice. How do we get kids fired up to play their game? Well, you make the coach mad.”

After the timeout, the Suns went on a 9-3 run and won the set. From there it was all East.

“I always tell the girls to keep it clean, keep it fundamental, I’m not looking for anything fancy,” Hasse said.

“Yeah, I got a little upset,” she added with a smile.

West got out to a 3-0 lead in the second set, but it didn’t last long as East scored five straight to take a 5-3 lead. The Suns never trailed the rest of the match, including taking a 9-1 lead to start the third set.

West challenged East early in the match because it played with a nothing-tolose attitude. The Spartans were coming off an upset Thursday at Oshkosh West.

In addition, West didn’t like how it played two weeks earlier against East, so it had something to prove.

“They were pumped,” Hasse said of West. “They had nothing to lose in this match. They came ready to play and it showed.

“It was the best I’ve seen them play all season.”

East will play Manitowoc Lincoln at 8 p.m. Friday at Neenah High School in the sectional semifinal.

Hartford Union will play Neenah at 6 p.m. in the other semifinal.

The Suns beat Manitowoc Lincoln last season in the sectional semifinal.

“I’m always happy when we get to the next step,” Hasse said.

As for West, the Spartans will say good-bye to five seniors (Lexi Wolf, Megan Kohlmann, Alason Koenig, Meghan Walters and Rachel Wilberg). The senior class played a big role in a transition year with a new coaching staff.

“It’s really hard,” Tanking said about the seniors having a new coach for their final season. “I had that happen to me my senior year of college where we had a new coach come in.

“It requires a lot of communication; a lot of trust, which is something that needs to be earned. I think they, for the most part, tried their best. I changed a lot of things than what their previous coach did and I think it was hard for the team to adjust.”

The Spartans had six juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen on the roster this season, which Tanking believes will bode well going into the offseason.

“That’s a positive for next season,” she said.