Volleyball standouts come home for Marquette Invitational

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 13, 2014 (A1)

Volleyball standouts come home for Marquette Invitational

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

MILWAUKEE — Sara Blasier’s 75-minute anatomy class seemed like it would never end, especially at 8 a.m.

It was hard to concentrate.

When class ended, it felt like three or four hours passed.

“For the last 15 minutes, I kept looking at the clock and I just wanted to go,” Blasier said.

The redshirt sophomore on Rice University’s volleyball team was ready to go home. For the first time in her collegiate volleyball career, Blasier, a 2012 Slinger graduate, played a match in her home state.

It was a homecoming a year in the making. Despite the wait, she wasn’t nervous.

Rice, which is in Houston, was at the Marquette University Invitational along with Marquette, James Madison University, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and University of Texas-San Antonio. The invitational started Friday.

“It was a really cool feeling, coming home and bringing my team home because they don’t know where I grew up,” Blasier said.

The tournament also has a twist — three women competing in the tournament are from Washington County.

In addition to Blasier, 2014 Germantown graduate Beth Kuske plays for UW-Green Bay and 2012 Kettle Moraine Lutheran graduate Meghan Niemann plays for Marquette.

Blasier, Niemann and Kuske each started Friday for their respective colleges.

“There are a lot of good players coming out of our area,” Niemann said.

Blasier was glad to be home and the weather welcomed her appropriately: rain and sub-50degree temperatures.

When the team left Houston on Thursday, the temperature was close to 90 degrees. It was about half that when they landed in Milwaukee.

The cold air hasn’t sat too well with a lot of Blasier’s teammates. Of the 16 women on the roster, 10 are from Texas and two are from southern California.

“I told them to bring a lot of sweatshirts,” she said with a smile, adding most of the Texas natives are wearing two or three layers this weekend.

It’s still cool for Blasier’s liking. One layer will suffice.

Blasier’s parents, Mark and Amy, were happy to have their daughter home as well. They only get to a couple matches a year and have to fly to see them.

“I was so excited,” Sara Blasier said when she found out her team was going to play in the tournament. “I don’t get to play in front of my family or friends a lot. Having them here is pretty special to me.”

To celebrate her homecoming, more than 40 family, friends and former teachers were expected to attend.

Blasier, who wants to go to medical school, decided to go to Rice because she liked the campus, the city of Houston and the education opportunity. Rice University is ranked No. 19 by U.S. News & World Report.

She would also get to play NCAA Division I volleyball.

“It was the best academic school I could go to,” Blasier said.

“And I like the warm weather,” she added.

Blasier, Niemann and Kuske weren’t aware of the circumstances surrounding the tournament with the Washington County representation. When they found out, they were excited and proud.

“That’s pretty awesome,” Kuske said. “It’s cool to see where everyone has gone the last couple of years.”

It speaks highly to the level of volleyball in the county. Germantown is also represented at NCAA Division I Toledo University with Maggie Johnston, and Carly Townsend is expected to join Johnston next fall.

In 2011, Blasier’s and Niemann’s senior years, four girls volleyball players, including Blasier and Niemann, were on the Daily News All-Area team who are now playing college volleyball on scholarship. The others are West Bend West graduate Meghan Conley and KML graduate Becca Roembke, both are at UW-Parkside, an NCAA Division II program.

Also slated to join the NCAA Division I ranks next year is Hartford Union’s Brooke Schumacher, who is committed to the University of Tennessee.

“It’s definitely rising,” Blasier said about volleyball in the county. “I think a lot of high schools and colleges are doing a good job training the younger girls and getting them recruited.

“The Midwest is becoming more well-known for volleyball.”

East, West combo would impact state

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 11, 2014

East, West combo would impact state

KML makes surprising move

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

If the West Bend School District decides to combine East and West high schools, the whole state could feel the aftermath.

Plus, Kettle Moraine Lutheran made a surprising move during Tuesday’s WIAA area meeting at Oconomowoc High School.

Per WIAA rule, a school’s conference affiliation is aimed to be best in line with the enrollments of the other schools in the conference. Combining East and West would bring the potential West Bend enrollment to about 2,300 students. Hartford Union and Oconomowoc are the largest Wisconsin Little Ten Conference schools, each with an enrollment of about 1,400. Wisconsin Lutheran has an enrollment of less than 800 as the smallest school in the WLT.

Wisconsin Lutheran requested to withdraw from the WLT last year.

So, in a nutshell, if East and West combine, what conference does West Bend go to?

“The questions have been raised,” West Athletic Director Scott Stier said. “There are no answers to it.”

If East and West were to combine, what would be done about the vacancy that would exist in the WLT? It’s a move that would impact a large number of the WIAA membership schools when determining proper conference alignment. Who should fill what vacancies and where does West Bend fit? Which school will have to leave?

Speaking of conference alignment, KML Athletic Director Len Collyard requested to be considered for conference realignment, despite KML set to join the newly formed East Central Conference next fall.

KML will join the East Central as part of a massive realignment plan that included more than 70 schools. When it was proposed, Collyard said he was against KML’s placement as it complicated travel for the school’s teams and its supporters.

Collyard tried to find a positive about the realignment.

What happens next is on hold for now.

The WIAA presented possible amendment proposals for next spring’s annual meeting regarding conference alignment. One of them that piqued interest was the possibility of re-evaluating school’s enrollment every eight years and change conferences then, if needed.

There is support for that idea.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Collyard said. “Because I think the shuffling that happens too frequently makes it hard to establish some type of conference continuity.”

Deb Hauser of the WIAA Executive Staff estimated about 30 percent of the membership has requested conference realignment. There are more than 500 members in the WIAA.

Collyard indicated KML wants to move south and join more schools in the southeastern region of the state. As far as what conference suits KML’s interest, Collyard didn’t know.

“Our clientele is more closely related to the suburban Milwaukee area than it is to as far as where we’re going right now,” Collyard said.

The East Central Conference will have, as it stands now, Berlin, Campbellsport, Kewaskum, Plymouth, Ripon, Waupun and Winneconne. Play with those teams start in fall 2015.

“There is the travel issue, but I think the connection issue is also a factor,” Collyard said. “More people connect (KML) with urban Milwaukee than it does rural areas of the conference we’re joining.”

As for West Bend, potential conference destinations could be the Classic 8, the North Shore or Fox Valley Association. The Classic 8 features Arrowhead, Catholic Memorial, Kettle Moraine, Mukwonago, Muskego, Waukesha North, Waukesha South and Waukesha West. Catholic Memorial has the smallest enrollment (659), while Arrowhead has the largest (2,266).

The Fox Valley has Appleton East, Appleton North, Appleton West, Fond du Lac, Hortonville, Kaukauna, Kimberly, Neenah, Oshkosh North and Oshkosh West. All schools have an enrollment of at least 1,000, with Neenah having the largest (2,022).

The North Shore Conference, which East and West play in for summer baseball, has Germantown, Homestead, Cedarburg, Nicolet, Whitefish Bay, Port Washington, Grafton and Milwaukee Lutheran. Germantown is the largest at 1,409 and Milwaukee Lutheran is the smallest at 582. Milwaukee Lutheran has requested withdrawal from the NSC.

A course of action on the potential consolidation is slated to take place within the next month.

“They are aware of that and are concerned about that,” East Athletic Director Shane Hansen said about the West Bend School Board’s knowledge of the conference alignment situation. “There’s so many chips that are associated with athletics.”

Enrollment multiplier research data revealed

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 10, 2014

Enrollment multiplier research data revealed

Committee comes up with 3 possible solutions

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

OCONOMOWOC — A proposed 1.65 enrollment multiplier is gone and will not be adopted.

That much we do know after Tuesday morning’s WIAA area meeting at Oconomowoc High School.

What we don’t know is what is the best solution moving forward as an adhoc committee tries to solve the issue of competitive equality. And that solution could include no action at all.

“I was really pleased by the process laid out because you have a good representative body of people running through different scenarios,” West Bend West Athletic Director Scott Stier said.

Three people represented the 21-member ad-hoc committee Tuesday. The members on hand to present the research findings were David Bartelt, Kettle Moraine Lutheran superintendent, Janet Bahr, athletic director at Lake Country Lutheran, and Gus Knitt, district administrator at Pardeeville.

The presentation accounted for 46 minutes of the three-hour meeting.

“There’s no perfect solution at this point; we still have more studies to do,” Bartelt said. “It showed that this membership is very engaged in the problem.”

The 1.65 multiplier proposed by members of the Six Rivers Conference, consisting of schools in southwestern Wisconsin, has been thrown out. The problem the committee had with the multiplier is it is not universally applied to the membership. According to the committee’s research, Illinois, which has the 1.65 number the Six Rivers Conference members used for its proposal, has had issues with universal application.

The committee’s mission was to study competitive balance and equity, and evaluate the current procedure of using enrollment for division placement in postseason tournaments, plus offer a solution.

The committee explored nine viable solutions, which include the original 1.65 multiplier, retain status quo, add a division that contains no private schools (except football), long-term success, reduced/free lunch students, equal distribution of private schools throughout division, sport specific rules, geographic placement and out-of-feeder/ open-enrolled student multiplier.

Three areas met the committee’s criteria for further study: free/reduced lunch student multiplier, success factor and geography or boundary-specific multiplier.

Minnesota uses the free/reduced lunch method in which 40 percent of the students in that category count toward enrollment.

Bahr said it’s worked well for Minnesota.

The success factor is an easy tracker. However, the committee feared it would punish success.

The geographical boundary would establish a radius for attendance regardless of open enrollment and add a multiplier for each student beyond the boundary. The problem there is: Where is the boundary drawn?

The committee will reconvene Oct. 1 after all the WIAA area meetings to go over notes and formulate a proposal, which may include no action be taken.

“This is an issue not unique to Wisconsin,” Knitt said. “It’s an issue across this country.”

Knitt also said the committee is confident it will meet the deadline where it will present a proposal for the WIAA’s Board of Control meeting in December.

At that time, the board will decide if the proposal will be advanced to next spring’s annual meeting in Stevens Point, which appears likely will happen.

The main thing the committee wanted was to not single out any segment of the membership.

“Our solution had to be flexible,” Bartelt said, adding if modifications needed to be made, a solution had to be possible.

While school administrators have been kept up to date through email about the committee’s progress, it was good to hear the progress directly from the committee.

“I think they’re working very hard to find a solution, which everyone can appreciate,” Slinger Athletic Director Dan Karius said.

“I give them a lot of credit,” he added.

“They’re going about the process the way I had hoped,” East Athletic Director Shane Hansen said. “I learned quite a bit.”

The parting message from Knitt was the committee is focused on the big picture. And given the research data presented, there is a better feeling about the issue of competition equity going forward.

“I came out of the meeting with a positive mind frame,” Hansen said.

Bilderback gets emotional victory at Slinger, edges Farrell

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 9, 2014

Bilderback gets emotional victory at Slinger, edges Farrell

Driver was 2013 Rookie of the Year

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

SLINGER — Michael Bilderback and Ryan Farrell put on a show that left a crowd Sunday at Slinger Superspeedway hoping this offseason won’t be as long as the last one.

Bilderback edged Farrell by 0.059 seconds — tied for the ninth-closest super late model finish since 2007 — to win the TUNDRA Super Late Model Touring Series race at Slinger and finish the 2014 season in style.

In addition to the close finish, which was the 12th to be less than 0.1 seconds since 2007, there were 14 lead changes among six drivers in the 75-lap feature, including the last one coming with two laps to go.

“What a race,” Bilderback said. “Holy cow. That was fun.”

It was also an emotional victory for Bilderback, the 2013 super late model Rookie of the Year at Slinger. On Friday, his grandfather suffered a stroke and has been unresponsive since.

“It’s been hard,” Bilderback said. “He’s my rock. He’s my best friend. He’s my everything.

“He’s been to every race for 18 years and he hadn’t missed one. But he’s missed the last two races.”

Bilderback added his grandfather, Roger Bilderback, wasn’t feeling well last week, which forced him to miss the race. Bilderback finished third at Slinger.

“Definitely a piece of our hearts is missing without him here,” Bilderback said.

Moments after pulling his car into victory lane, Bilderback was on a cellphone. He called his grandmother, who was at Grandpa’s bedside at Waukesha Memorial Hospital where he is in intensive care, to reveal the great news.

And for the first time in days, Grandpa showed a response: A tear dripped out of his eye.

The Bilderback family is from the Rockford, Illinois, area. Roger Bilderback was on a work trip in Milwaukee and was driving back to Rockford when he pulled over on the freeway because he wasn’t feeling well. He was found on the side of the road by police and was transported to the hospital.

“He’s been sick on and off the last couple of weeks,” Michael Bilderback said.

“When they took him to the ER, we were all thinking the worst,” he added.

Bilderback quickly dedicated the victory to his ailing grandfather. He honored his grandpa by having the words “Get Well Soon Grandpa” etched in big yellow letters on the hood of his red race car.

“He’s the strongest guy I’ve ever met,” Bilderback said.

Holding back some emotion, he paused, and then added “He’ll be fine.”

The finish tied Dennis Prunty’s margin over Conrad Morgan on Aug. 1, 2010. The closest finish in that span is 0.004 seconds by Steve Apel over Scott Schoeni on Aug. 22, 2010. That is believed to be the closest finish in track history.

Bilderback has also been involved in one of the most lopsided races in the last seven years. Bilderback beat Jeremy Lepak, the 2011 track champion, by 4.838 seconds Sept. 4, 2011. That was Bilderback’s first career super late model victory at Slinger.

For Farrell, he was oh-so-close to his first career super late model victory in his first season.

“Second sucks,” he said. “I don’t know what else to say. I used every ounce of the track. I gave him all I had.”

The feature winners were Danny Church (limited late model), Kyle Chwala (area sportsman), Jack Stern (midwest sportsman), Jacob Schraufnagel (Slinger Bees), Ryan Lovald (Figure 8) and Derek Doerr (American Super Cups).

Track championships were issued to Church and Chwala, plus Brandon Tackes (Slinger Bees), Ryan Gutknecht (midwest sportsman) and Scott Goetzke (Figure 8). Dalton Zehr, who was fifth at this year’s Slinger Nationals, was crowned champion of the TUNDRA Series.

Church is Farrell’s car owner.

“We get to celebrate a championship, a career best super late finish; it’s a pretty good day,” Farrell said.

Farrell took over the lead with 14 laps to go after Brad Mueller spun in Turn 3 while battling for the lead with Dennis Prunty. During the caution, Prunty pulled off the track, relinquishing the lead to Farrell.

It was a single-file restart and Farrell got the jump he needed. But a yellow came out one lap later when James Swan spun because of a flat tire. Farrell got a good restart and so did Bilderback.

The two battled side-by-side for 10 laps, with Farrell holding tough on the bottom line, while Bilderback tried to move into the lead on the high line, the line that’s been the preferred line this season at Slinger.

“We weren’t giving up,” Bilderback said. “He ran us really clean,” he added about Farrell. “It was a great race. It was fun. ... There was no letting that one go.”

Sprint car driver killed in Wisconsin

Associated Press (Sept. 20 and Sept. 21, 2014)

BC-CAR--Sprint Car-Driver Killed,2nd Ld-Writethru/194

Eds: Updates with police statement.

Sprint car driver killed in Wisconsin

NICHOLAS DETTMANN, Associated Press

BEAVER DAM, Wis. (AP) — Sprint car driver Scott Semmelmann was killed in a wreck during practice for a race Saturday night at Beaver Dam Raceway.

Beaver Dam Raceway general manager Carolyn Mueller and Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprint Car Series President Steve Sinclair confirmed the death.

Beaver Dam police later confirmed that a 47-year-old driver was killed, but did not provide a name.

Semmelmann's car made contact with another car during the second practice session, flipped three times and hit the outside concrete wall. The 47-year-old Semmelmann, from Brookfield, was racing for the first time this season.

"This incident appears to be (a) tragic accident at this time," the police statement said.

The race was canceled.

Beaver Dam Raceway is a 0.33-mile clay oval about 75 minutes northwest of Milwaukee. Mueller said it was the first on-track fatality at the track since the facility re-opened in 1993.

Last month, Kevin Ward Jr. was killed in a sprint car race at a dirt track in upstate New York when he left his car and was struck by a car driven by NASCAR star Tony Stewart.