Published: March 19, 2014
Flyway representin’
2 teams from conference heading to state
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Going into this season, Kettle Moraine Lutheran and St.
Mary’s Springs were the favorites to win the Flyway Conference.
So it shouldn’t have been a surprise KML and St. Mary’s
Springs finished 1-2 in the conference and also qualified for the WIAA girls
basketball state tournament, which starts Thursday at the Resch Center in
Ashwaubenon.
“I think it just shows the strength of the conference,”
Springs coach Mitch Redig said. “It proves night in and night out (Flyway teams
are) going to get good games.”
KML coach Jason Walz added, “I’d like to think our
conference has prepared both of us to have success. It’s a tribute to our
conference. It shows that we have a good conference; competitive girls
basketball.”
“It gives us a little bit more validity.”
KML and Springs are at the girls state tournament for the
first time since they were members of the now-defunct WISAA more than 15 years
ago.
KML won a WISAA Class B championship in 1990, finishing
undefeated under the direction of current KML boys golf coach Dar Schramm, and
have finished runner-up on four other occasions.
Springs (22-3) will play Algoma (24-2) at 6:35 p.m. Thursday
in the first Division 4 state semifinal, while KML (25-1) will play Oconto
Falls (22-3) in the first Division 3 state semifinal at 9:05 a.m. Friday.
The KML-Oconto Falls game will be broadcast by AM1470
(WBKV).
“It’s exciting,” Walz said. “We’re looking forward to the
opportunity to compete at a state tournament.
“We’d like to see how we match up with these other teams we
don’t usually get to see during the course of the regular season.”
The Flyway Conference is one of two conferences to have
multiple representatives at the state tournament. The Cloverbelt Conference has
three, including Neillsville, which will play Brodhead of the Rock Valley
Conference in the other state semifinal Friday.
Also representing the Cloverbelt is Eau Claire Regis
(Division 4) and Owen-Withee (Division 5).
“Coach Walz and I are good friends and we were pulling for
each other (during the tournament series),” Redig said. “We’re hoping to play
back-to-back for titles on Saturday.”
The Chargers won the Flyway title this season outright for
the second straight season and shared the conference title with Lomira in the
201011 season.
Springs is 24-4 in the Flyway the last two years, all four
losses were to KML.
KML is 28-0 in that span, 43-1 in the last three years in
conference play.
“I thought it’d be between us and KML for the championship,
then just a lot of tough individual games for the rest of the conference,”
Redig said. “We were the two best teams, but there were a lot of teams vying
for third place, fourth place and fifth place.”
Walz said about Springs making it to the tournament, “I was
happy for them because they made it to the sectional final last year and lost
in a close game.”
The other teams from the Flyway have lent their support for
KML and St. Mary’s Springs.
“That’s really exciting,” said Springs junior Liz Bohn, a
West Bend resident. “All the other conference teams have been nice about it.
We’ve gotten cards and tweets. They’ve been so respectful.”
Redig likes KML’s chances at the tournament.
“I think Kettle Moraine Lutheran has a really nice chance to
win the state title,” he said. “They are battle tested. They’ve had big games
this year. They’re very well balanced with three good scorers on their team.”
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