FOOTBALL: Howard’s journey takes him back to D-III title game

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Dec. 18, 2014

Howard’s journey takes him back to D-III title game

West Bend native a senior wide receiver for UW-Whitewater

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

Quite possibly nobody knows what it means to get a second chance and relish it better than University of Wisconsin-Whitewater receiver Justin Howard.

Howard, a native of West Bend, but a 2008 graduate of Homestead High School, has played for three schools, been suspended for off-the-field issues, sat for two years waiting to become eligible again, won a national championship and is the leading receiver for a team on the brink of a second straight title, fourth in the last five years.

“It’s been a crazy journey,” Howard said Wednesday from Salem, Virginia, where the Warhawks will play the Mount Union Purple Raiders in the NCAA DIvision III national championship.

The game is at 6 p.m. Friday and will be televised by ESPNU.

“I couldn’t be more blessed with the way things turned out,” Howard added.

At 25, Howard has seen it all.

After Homestead, he accepted a scholarship to play football at Minnesota State in Mankato, Minnesota. After one year, he transferred to North Dakota State, where he sat out for one season because of NCAA transfer rules and played one season for the Bison.

He left Minnesota State because he was on defense and he wanted to be a receiver.

Then he got into some trouble off the field at NDSU, which resulted in him being suspended from the program.

He sat out for another two years as he waited for his eligibility to return. Howard said he spent most of that time working and staying in shape.

He also did some soul searching.

“I had to get my life back on track,” Howard said. He returned to the playing field in 2013 for Whitewater. Last season, Howard was second on the team in receiving and won a national championship. This year, he leads the team in receiving and was an All-WIAC selection.

“I was nothing short of happy for him,” said Joe Worth, a 2011 Hartford Union graduate, a fellow receiver for the Warhawks and a good friend of Howard’s. “To see one of your good buddies get a little recognition and get the opportunity he has gotten, I’m more than happy for him.”

Another reason Howard left NDSU was he wanted to be a go-to receiver. He waited a season-and-a-half for that to happen.

Receiver Jake Kumerow went down with an ankle injury, opening the door of opportunity for Howard.

In the four games Kumerow missed, Howard made 32 catches for 452 yards and three touchdowns. Going into Friday’s game, Howard has 76 catches for 1,089 yards and 11 touchdowns.

“I approached it as exciting,” Howard said of his opportunity to be a go-to receiver, adding he just wished it was under a different circumstance. “It’s something I’ve been waiting for.” Friday’s game will be Howard’s last college game. He still hopes to continue his football playing career in some way.

“I’m very proud of myself, looking at it from my perspective and my family,” Howard said.

“He loves the game; he has so much passion for the game; it rubs off on me,” Worth said. “I admire that from him. He taught me to never give up on your dreams.

“For him to be here playing, I respect him a lot for that.”

Daily News All-County Volleyball: Germantown’s Carly Townsend

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

Daily News All-County Volleyball: Germantown’s Carly Townsend

Senior steps up her game, leads team to state

Don’t let the looks fool you when it comes to Germantown’s Carly Townsend. Coach Ted Gollakner let it fool him.

That’s what happens when Townsend believes she has something to prove.

“When you look at her, you’d never guess by the look of her she’s a tough girl,” Gollakner said. “She’ll dive through a brick wall for you. I wouldn’t have guessed it even though I knew her mom and dad years ago.”

The team was playing a 6-on-6 intrasquad scrimmage during an open gym session and a ball went flying off the court. Gollakner looked over and saw Townsend diving for the ball, banging her chin on the floor and cutting it.

“There was blood coming out of her chin and she said, ‘I’m OK,’” Gollakner said.

He stood back in amazement and admiration.

“This was at an open gym before we started (the season),” Gollakner said. “I could see how much volleyball means to her. She didn’t want to come off the court.”

She had plenty of reasons to not want to come off the court. Gollakner couldn’t afford to not put her on the court and leave her there. He didn’t take her off the court.

The result? Townsend was voted the 2014 Daily News All-County Girls Volleyball Player of the Year by county coaches and the Daily News sports staff.

“It’s been a remarkable ride for her,” Gollakner said. “All the credit goes to her for the amount of work she put in.”

It’s been a ride for the University of Toledo signee.

As a freshman, Townsend was sidelined with an ankle injury, which required surgery. As a sophomore, former coach Diane Harrod preferred to play upperclassmen, leaving Townsend to watch from the bench.

In came Gollakner, a former assistant at Divine Savior Holy Angels in Milwaukee.

Townsend, now a junior, saw a window of opportunity open.

“It was definitely a new start,” Townsend said. “I wanted to prove myself to him. I think that’s why I became so aggressive.”

“I’m the most aggressive person I’ve ever known, as a girl at least. I want every single ball. My drive is the best part of me. I don’t want to lose and my team knows this.”

Outside of her physical toughness, her mental toughness and confidence are equally impressive.

After the Warhawks lost in the sectional semifinal in 2013, Townsend calmly walked up to her first-year coach and guaranteed the team will go to state next season.

“I was so glad she was already looking forward to next year that I could tell she was going to do something to get us to state,” Gollakner said. “It made a world of difference.”

Townsend believed she had to do something, knowing she only had one more chance at leading Germantown to the state tournament for the first time since 2005.

“I definitely wanted to go to state,” She said. “I wanted to win. We needed to be on top.”

Townsend put the team on her back and led it through numerous offseason workout sessions. She also stepped up her offseason preparation.

Gollakner consistently saw Townsend at the gym and couldn’t help but be wowed again by her dedication.

Even she impressed herself, improving her vertical leap by 7 inches in three months.

“It was crazy improvement,” Townsend said.

Her teammates followed her without hesitation.

“Her teammates show her the most respect,” Gollakner said.

“Off the court, she’s a great person,” he added. “She treats everybody with respect.”

Another area that saw a remarkable improvement was her hitting, especially her power.

“She hits the ball with so much more power than last year,” Gollakner said. “She has a lot of power and the way she approaches the ball; she was going up a lot more vertical. When I got here, she’d take her approach and she was doing more of a long jump than a high jump.”

This year, Townsend made a mark in the state, being named first-team All-State by the coaches association and was the North Shore Conference’s Player of the Year.

A lot of that is attributed to Townsend’s versatility, which made it quite simple for Gollakner to keep her on the court.

Townsend was in the top three on her team in kills, attack percentage, solo blocks, assists and digs.

“I didn’t know she’d perform at the level she did this year,” Gollakner said.

As for her chin scrape in practice, Townsend got six stitches. It’s just a battle scar.

“It’s developed,” Townsend said when asked if she’s always been tough. “I’ve just had this drive the last two years. I have no idea why. I guess I just don’t like losing.”

GYMNASTICS: Shining at right time

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

Shining at right time

East takes 2nd in season’s first meet

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

West Bend East gymnastics coach Haley Ransom often tugs at her hair or stresses out in practice when she watches sophomore Zoey Roberts.

Flip on the spotlight and things change for some reason. That’s when Ransom is glad to have Roberts on the squad.

On Saturday, in the third annual West Bend East Gymnastics Invitational, Roberts finished second, fourth and eighth in her three events, which helped East take second at the meet.

Roberts, a junior, was second on balance beam with an 8.35, fourth on vault with an 8.450 and eighth on floor exercise with a 7.9. And on floor, she struggled with the routine, which would’ve gotten her an additional 0.5 points. Had she done that, Roberts would’ve finished fourth.

“I was nervous all week for it because the first meet always makes me nervous,” Roberts said.

Cedarburg/Grafton took first in the meet with a team score of 128.075. East was second with a 126.15. Manitowoc Lincoln was third with a 122.225, followed by Watertown (122.175), Port Washington (121.125) and Oconomowoc (107.5).

East had the highest team score on beam (31.225) and floor (31.9).

“(On) beam, I was having trouble in practice all week,” Roberts said. “I’m very happy to say it went well.”

Ransom was happy too.

“She pulls things out that don’t look as good in practice,” Ransom said. “I love watching her at meets. I’m really proud of what she did today.”

Why things go this way for Roberts, Ransom doesn’t fully know.

“But she always shows up to a meet with a different attitude,” she said. “I think she just loves the competition.”

At least it’s not the other way around, Ransom joked.

“I totally prefer it this way,” she said. “But it’s weird as a coach because you tell them what they should compete in based on what you see in practice. Sometimes those decisions are really difficult.” How excited was East for its score? Very.

“It’s a solid start, especially with everything that went wrong today,” Ransom said. “It’s going to be easy for us to improve that, which is a good thing.”

The goal this year for the Suns is to eclipse the school record in the all-around, which is 134.475.

Scoring a 126 is a six-point improvement from last year’s meet. At that time, Ransom was excited for that score.

“And we took second and that’s awesome,” Ransom said, adding the Suns’ score topped Watertown, the defending Wisconsin Little Ten Conference champion, and Oconomowoc.

“Placing above them was awesome — really, really cool to see,” she said. “Hopefully, we can keep running with that. There’s going to be a lot of improvement for the year.”

As expected, it was an up-and-down meet for a lot of the gymnasts and not just East.

It was the first meet of the season and in a lot of cases, the scores reflected it. Only one 9.0 was issued — Cedarburg/ Grafton’s Maddie Gleed on vault (9.0).

East’s Brandi Kreger finished fourth on floor (8.3) and second on uneven bars (8.275). It was the event in-between that appeared to rattle the junior.

Still working through a sore toe, Ransom and Kreger decided to scale back her vault routine for the Yurchenko, an event with a start value of around 9.5. Instead she went with a half-full and both times she fell on her dismount.

After the second vault, she sat next to the runaway and buried her face in her arms. Ransom walked over to console her.

Kreger managed to collect herself and pick up an admirable score on bars.

“She needed a confidence booster going into beam because if she still went into beam upset, beam’s not an event you want to have high emotions on,” Ransom said. “You have to go in there confident and focused.”

On beam, she had one fall, which slipped her score to a 7.675.

Storey Forster, another gymnast with a high start-value vault this season, also had to scale back her vault for the time being. Forster had an 8.1 on vault.

“I know going forward, especially getting into the January meets, those two will both be flipping vaults,” Ransom said.

Kreger finished fifth in the allaround (32.1). “I’m not worried,” Ransom said.

FOOTBALL: Badgers, Trotter have reason to smile

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Dec. 2, 2014

Badgers, Trotter have reason to smile

Fifth-year senior had 14 tackles in victory

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

MADISON — Wisconsin’s Marcus Trotter doesn’t like to smile while playing football.

But after the Badgers’ 34-24 come-from-behind victory Saturday against rival Minnesota, neither he nor could his coach, Gary Andersen, could stop smiling.

Trotter, a fifth-year senior playing in his 25th career game for the Badgers, had a collegiate-best 14 tackles, besting his 12-tackle performance in this season’s opener against LSU, to hold off an upstart Gophers offense in the second half on the Badger’s Senior Day.

“It means the world to me,” Andersen said about Trotter’s performance. “Marcus Trotter is a kid, probably repeating this to many of you, but, you know, the first thing he says is just thanks for giving me the opportunity to play, coach, when you tell him nice game, great job, or thanks for believing in me.

“That’s come out of his mouth four, five times throughout the season. It did again today.”

A zoology major, Trotter is from Racine and went to Marquette University High School in Milwaukee. His twin brother, Michael, is also on the Badgers’ team.

To get to this point has been a test of patience for Marcus Trotter.

He redshirted as a freshman. Then in his second, third and fourth years in the program, Trotter played in 14 games. There was consideration for him to change positions.

“There were some times here I was like, ’Dang, coach might be right. I might have to go to fullback,’” Trotter said. “I wasn’t getting any plays or opportunities.”

An injury on the defense last year gave him the chance he longed for — a chance to get more playing time. He rose to the occasion. In five games, he made 23 tackles, including two tackles-for-loss, with a fumble recovery and a pass defended.

In preseason camps, Trotter was given the opportunity to win the starting job, which he did.

This year, his first as a starter, Trotter has been one of the key cogs on the nation’s second-ranked defense (260.3 yards per game), trailing only Clemson (259.6).

“Just getting the chance to play here has been great,” Trotter said.

“I think it’s just a good example that if you really believe in what you can do, even if you’re not getting the opportunity, just keep on working because sooner or later something’s going to happen,” he added. “I’m very blessed.”

Trotter’s chance came when All-American Chris Borland got injured last season.

“I’m thankful that I worked really hard and seized the moment when I had the chance,” Trotter said.

On Monday, Trotter was rewarded. He was named honorable mention All-Big Ten by the conference’s coaches and media.

“To see him come out, not only hold down a spot down, but, I said it a week ago, I thought he was the best player a week ago on our defensive side of the football,” Andersen said.

“It’s fun to see a young man like that have success, it really is,” he added.

Trotter’s game highlighted a day full of emotion, capped with the Badgers’ 11th straight victory over the Gophers and an end to a two-game slide on Senior Day.

Last year’s loss to Penn State was the worst. The loss shattered any small hope the Badgers had of going to a BCS bowl.

“It was a tough day,” Andersen said. “We played against a very talented team. They executed, and they frankly deserved to win that football game, and did.

“It’s tough to see those kids go out that way when they’ve done so many things and fought so hard within the program.”

The hype surrounding the Minnesota game enhanced the satisfaction of triumph.

It was only the fifth matchup of the rivals in 123 previous meetings where both teams were ranked in the top 25. Wisconsin is 5-0 in those meetings — 1954, 1962, 1999 and 2005.

This year’s senior class saw the look of disappointment after the Penn State game and vowed for it to not happen to them.

“Me and all those seniors, leaving Camp Randall with a victory, you can’t take that for granted,” Trotter said. “It’s something we’re going to remember for the rest of our lives.”

Trotter is bummed the end of the line is this close. The Badgers have the Big Ten Championship game Saturday and a bowl game.

“I was telling my brother I wish we had one more year,” he said. “I just feel like I’m getting more comfortable with the scheme. ... The last couple of games, I feel like I’m getting into my zone.”

If it were up to him, Andersen would welcome him back for another year.

“He made some big-time plays (Saturday),” he said. “He plays with such energy and passion.”

 

VOLLEYBALL: KML grad thriving at Marquette

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Nov. 29, 2014

KML grad thriving at Marquette

Niemann becoming elite player

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

MILWAUKEE — Meghan Niemann, a 2012 Kettle Moraine Lutheran graduate, and her Marquette volleyball teammates weren’t liking how the first two sets were going so they decided to change it up.

They changed uniforms.

Niemann is used to changing things up.

The Golden Eagles rallied from an 0-2 deficit to tie the match and came up just short in their quest for a repeat Big East Conference Tournament championship, losing in five sets to Seton Hall on Friday, 25-23, 25-12, 19-25, 18-25, 15-11, in the semifinal of the conference tournament at the Al McGuire Center.

Seton Hall will play Creighton today for the conference tournament championship and an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Marquette was the defending tournament champion.

“I thought we got out-executed in Game 5,” Marquette coach Ryan Theis said. “I tip my hat off to Seton Hall.”

After a 10-minute break after the second set, the Golden Eagles trotted onto the court in new uniforms. For whatever reason, it worked as they tied the match by winning the third and fourth sets.

In the fifth set, Marquette led 3-2. Then tied at 5, Seton Hall took the lead for good. Marquette nearly pulled off the comeback as it trailed 13-11 in the fifth set, forcing a timeout by Seton Hall. But a service error and a kill gave the Pirates the victory.

“It would’ve been nice to not be in that situation,” Theis said.

For Niemann, who had seven kills, three solo blocks and seven block assists, just to be here is something special. She has gone from a little- known barely recruited volleyball player to one of the top players in the nation.

Coming out of KML, Niemann drew little interest for a volleyball scholarship, especially from Division I programs. Even Marquette’s interest was minimal. Bond Shymansky, Marquette’s coach at the time, told her that he doubted whether she could play at that level.

In one way, it was easy to overlook Niemann. After all, she didn’t start playing volleyball until she got to eighth grade.

In another way, it was puzzling as to why she was being overlooked. She was an All-Conference performer in three sports and a state champion in the high jump.

What turned Shymansky onto Niemann her impressive competitive spirit. By the time he realized it, a scholarship wasn’t available for Niemann and she was ready to head to Martin Luther College in Minnesota.

Then it all changed.

Shymansky came up with an offer Niemann couldn’t pass up. Niemann was offered a spot in the program as a walk-on, earning a scholarship the following season. Niemann took the offer. It has been an unbelievable blessing.

“It has been an experience of a lifetime,” she said. “I couldn’t asked for anything different. I’m so blessed.”

Unfortunately for Niemann, there was some resentment for her to go to Marquette.

She dreamed of going to Martin Luther College, which KML is a feeder school for, to become a teacher. She seemed pretty set on that path. Then, the offer from Marquette, a Catholic university, came along.

Niemann prayed for days trying to figure out the right path.

“It was really tough,” she said. “I had a lot of great support around me, my parents, my teachers at KML. I’m happy with my decision.”

Niemann, who was the WIAA Division 2 state champion in high jump as a senior, redshirted in 2012 and absorbed coaching like a sponge.

In 2013, as a redshirt freshman, she was first-team All-Big East, an All-Big East Tournament pick and an honorable mention American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American.

This season, she was a preseason All-Big East pick, and on Tuesday, the conference announced its All-Conference teams and Niemann, once again, got a first-team All-Big East nod.

“It was great,” she said, adding it was neat to have two teammates also get recognized on the first team, which included Autumn Bailey getting the Player of the Year award.

“I had no idea I would be at this point,” Niemann said, adding when she held the Big East championship trophy is when she realized she made the right choice.

This year, the Golden Eagles got a new coach — Ryan Theis.

Theis was hired in the offseason after a successful six-year run at the University of Ohio of the Mid- American Conference. At Ohio, Theis went 144-57 and entered this season with the 18th-best active winning percentage in NCAA Division I. The Bobcats went to the NCAA Tournament four times under Theis.

He’s taken Niemann’s game to another level.

“Ryan’s always had very good blocking teams,” Niemann said. “He changed a lot of my techniques and worked with me a lot on reading (offenses).”

“When she gets going, we’re tough to handle,” Thies said of Niemann. “She a leader on the team, a motivational leader.”

Of course she can’t help but thank Shymansky, who is now the head coach at the University of Iowa, for what he did for Niemann. He changed her life.

“It’s too good to be true,” Niemann said, adding she’s enjoying the journey.