Published: May 22, 2014
Evening a special moment for West senior
Rindfleisch receives rousing applause
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
As a sophomore, West Bend West’s Brad Rindfleisch was
diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease. Its effects hit
Rindfleisch hard, taking away most of the things dear to him. One of them was
sports.
With the disease, he lost a lot of strength and
conditioning, including 30 pounds almost instantly. Because of that, he found
himself on the sidelines of games, cheering on his teammates.
On Wednesday night during the annual West Bend Senior
StudentAthlete Awards night, his teammates, his classmates gave him a
thunderous round of applause that left him shaking.
“It definitely meant a lot,” Rindfleisch said. “It was an
honor to hear the response. It shows how close-knit and how much of a family we
all are.”
Rindfleisch received the West Boys Coaches Award, which
ignited the cheers.
West baseball coach Bill Albrecht called Rindfleisch an
inspiration to everyone. Albrecht also announced Rindfleisch was selected as a
team captain for the upcoming summer baseball season, even though he may not
play.
“Everything about Brad is what’s best for the team; not
what’s best for Brad,” West boys basketball coach Ryan Wietor said.
Rindfleisch said, “The hardest part is being limited with
what you used to be able to do.”
Erica Wanie received the West Girls Coaches Award, while
Owen Gluck and Sarah Laufer received the Coaches Award from East.
Rindfleisch had a feeling he might win the award as he heard
his coaches talk about him. When he realized it, he got nervous. Then when he
had to walk up to the stage, all he could think about was to not trip up the
stairs.
“I was shaking,” he said.
The Pick Award winners were announced during the ceremony.
From East the winners were Natalie Geidel and Ben VandeZande.
From West the winners were Celina Wanta and Alec Miller.
Since 2007, it has been tradition to invite former winners
of the award to present the boys awards. Representing East was Donald Liebetrau,
the East winner in 1974. Wietor, the 2000 winner for West, presented the West
winner.
Since 1948, the winners have been presented with a watch,
commemorating the honor. Liebetrau said he still wears his and it works. “It
provides a point of remembrance for me,” he said. “I feel humbled and honored
to be in this family.”
Longtime presenter Prudence Pick-Hway continued the
tradition of presenting the Pick Award to the East and West girls recipients.
Four people were also inducted into the West Bend high
schools Athletic Wall of Fame — Luke Bodensteiner, Dean Rondorf, Laurie Finley
(nee Fellner) and Penny Maletzke (nee Gerner).
Rindfleisch is a multisport athlete at West, competing in
football, basketball and baseball. He had high hopes for a successful high
school career.
“Brad knew his playing time was going to be very limited at
best,” Wietor said. “So for him to come to practice everyday just speaks
volumes about the character he has.
“I don’t know how he did it.”
Since his sophomore year, he’s been in and out of the
hospital for various treatments. In the spring of his junior year, the disease
flared up, which caused him to lose about 30 pounds, limiting his athletic
capabilities.
He’s dealt with excruciating pain in his stomach as an
effect to the disease, intense inflammation in the intestines.
“I try to take everything with a grain of salt; live life as
best I can,” Rindfleisch said.
Rindfleisch has been a model for overcoming adversity and
has been the perfect example for when the going gets tough, just think about
someone who might have it worse. In practice, he stood on the sidelines
cheering on his teammates. He helped out in practice whichever way he could.
Wietor always pointed to Rindfleisch when his players
complained about something.
“What an incredible achievement to battle through that and
still make it to practices and games,” Wietor said.
Because of Rindfleisch’s struggles, which Wietor said is not
fair for a person with such class and character to have to go through, Wietor
said it was a slam dunk to award the Coaches Award to Rindfleisch.
“I didn’t even have to think twice about that award and who
it should go because Brad is so well-deserving,” Wietor said.
No comments:
Post a Comment