Dettmann a winner in APSE contest

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Appeared in Feb. 13, 2015: From the Newsroom - A2

Dettmann a winner in APSE contest

A story by Daily News sports editor Nicholas Dettmann was a top-10 selection in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2014 contest. Dettmann was cited in the game stories for less than 30,000 circulation category for his feature on Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun on opening day last season at Miller Park.

COLUMN: Adults not doing their part

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Feb. 14, 2015

Adults not doing their part

We want what’s best for our kids, right? Of course we do. Why wouldn’t we? So why do we feel it is necessary to do something that would embarrass and/or punish our kids?

At last week’s Wisconsin Little Ten Conference championship wrestling meet at Oconomowoc High School, a fight broke out among a handful of parents from Wisconsin Lutheran and West Bend East.

The details on how and why the fight started are sketchy. We don’t know who started it. We don’t know who pushed whom first. It doesn’t matter.

Then, this week, the Jackie Robinson West Little League team out of Chicago had its U.S. title stripped because of illegal recruiting, where the organization redrew the boundaries without proper notification.

What are we told as kids and what do we try to tell our kids? It’s never good to fight to solve a problem and it’s never good to cheat.

There is a line between being supportive of your children. But don’t dare cross it. Otherwise, more harm than good is taking place.

Handle situations like mature adults. As adults, we are role models. We have to act like it. We’re trying to teach how to respond and act in various situations of adversity. Fighting left one person with an injured and bloodied nose, and another person on a battery charge.

So was it worth it?

It took away the accomplishment of the wrestlers and changed the mood in the building. It was an embarrassing sight to see, people fighting at a high school sporting event. Can you imagine what it must’ve felt like for the kids whose parents were involved in the mess or even the ones who weren’t involved?

You have to feel sorry for them.

What lesson was learned here?

Again, the reason it went down is moot. But if it was because someone’s vision was impaired by someone standing up in front of someone else, then get an event administrator.

It’s disheartening to see the lack of respect people have for other people these days.

With the Jackie Robinson West Little League team, it’s a harsh penalty the kids have to pay for. There is just no other way to punish what happened. The adults were ignorant and it cost them a heart-warming accomplishment by their kids.

If we’re not careful, something like what happened in Indiana can occur.

A fight broke out after a hard foul was committed in a boys basketball game. The video of the fight between Hammond and Griffith high schools in northwest Indiana was jaw-dropping.

The state’s high school association did the right thing: It forfeited the rest of the season for both schools.

There was a difference. It started with the players on the court.

However, the message was sent: Behavior like this will not be tolerated under any circumstance.

Thankfully the fight at Oconomowoc was short-lived and no one else was injured.

However, how do we know it won’t escalate further next time where someone could get seriously hurt or even die?

At that point, just be lucky or grateful to have the rest of a season canceled.

 

GYMNASTICS: Remains dedicated

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Feb. 12, 2015

Remains dedicated

East senior supports teammates despite season-ending injury

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

Tuesday night’s Senior Night for the West Bend East gymnastics team was supposed to be a joyous moment.

It still was, but with a different approach.

Senior Paige Bintz has been sidelined all season with an elbow injury and her chance of returning this season are slim.

She’s holding out hope, but her doctors aren’t as optimistic.

“They said it’s a very hard injury to come back from,” Bintz said.

About a week before the season started, Bintz fell off the balance beam. She ruptured the ulnar collateral ligament, on the medial side of the arm in her left elbow.

To repair the ligament, Bintz had two options: surgery or rehab.

The surgery would have been Tommy John surgery, most often associated with baseball pitchers. The injury typically sidelines a professional athlete at least a year. It is named after the first baseball player to undergo the surgery, major league pitcher Tommy John, whose 288 career victories ranks seventh all-time among left-handed pitchers.

She passed on the surgery, opting for physical therapy.

“It’s going to take a long time,” Bintz said.

Nonetheless, the injury news was devastating.

“I cried a bit,” Bintz said. “I felt down a bit.”

Bintz is the lone senior on the Suns’ roster and hoped for a big season in her last go-round of high school gymnastics.

She also had high hopes for the team, with a lineup of depth and talent good enough to challenge for the program’s first Wisconsin Little Ten Conference championship since 2006.

The conference championship is still a possibility, but things changed when Bintz injured her elbow.

“It’s one of the saddest things you have to witness as a coach,” East coach Haley Ransom said. “Paige was such a performer. She did dance and tumbling troupe for years and that really brings out the performer in gymnastics. That’s why she’s so good on floor. And to not get to see her is so sad.”

Bintz’s strongest events are floor exercise and balance beam. With Bintz’s experience as a tumbler, the Suns took a hit on floor with her out of the lineup.

“She set the stage,” Ransom said. “She showed them how to perform, how to get through a floor routine.

“Not having her out there has definitely put a hole in our team.”

When Bintz got the news her senior season was not going to happen, instead she’d have to watch from the side, it was devastating.

She struggled to watch the first meet of the season — the West Bend East Invitational. She also wondered how she’d make it through the entire season.

That’s where her character took over.

“I knew I had to be here for my team,” Bintz said. “I love this team; they’re like sisters to me. I couldn’t imagine not being here, injury or not.” This season, Bintz has been the model of dedication for the Suns.

“She is the biggest supporter for someone who’s had to sit for her senior season and stand on the sidelines,” Ransom said. “The girls call her the third coach.

“She’s here in practice every single day. She helps every single girl in any way she can. She watches their floor routines; she works with their showmanship, their jumps, with their tumbling, anything she can.”

As the season has progressed, it has gotten easier to be on the side watching her team work toward a goal — a conference championship.

On Tuesday night against Hartford Union, a large poster with pictures and her name scribbled onto it was on display. Plus, members of the Suns’ gymnastics team wore T-shirts that read “We love our senior.”

“She always brings a positive attitude,” teammate Erica Fahrenkrug said. “She’s always helpful at practice. She’s always been a part of our team. There wasn’t anything different.”

Still, it was a bittersweet day.

“It’s always tough because I always wish I was out on the floor or on the beam because those were my two favorite events,” Bintz said. “But I really enjoy cheering on the girls. They are so sweet; they do such an amazing job.

“Of course, I wish I was out there, but I’m having a blast cheering them on.”

The Suns appear to be the top contender to challenge rival West Bend West for the conference championship at the Feb. 20 WLT Championship in Oconomowoc.

A trip to state is also an attainable goal.

“We have such a strong team,” Bintz said.

She added, while disliking the idea of sounding arrogant, her experience could only boost the Suns’ chances at their goals.

“It does kind of hurt not being able to compete,” Bintz said.

Her presence is plenty good enough. It brings a smile to everyone’s face in the gym.

“We tell her how much we appreciate that she’s still there,” Fahrenkrug said. “We still have a lot of fun. She always comes with a smile every day.”

Ransom added, “It’s a testament to her character.”

BASKETBALL: Warhawks turn it on in time

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Feb. 7, 2015

Warhawks turn it on in time

Germantown trails by 12 in 4th quarter

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

GERMANTOWN — A scream came from the corner of the court in front of the Grafton bench Friday night.

Then the gym went silent.

On the floor was Germantown’s all-time leading scorer, Taylor Higginbotham.

“That’s not a very comfortable sound to hear, that’s for sure,” Germantown coach Matt Stuve said.

Just about everybody, including Higginbotham, thought the senior’s night was over in her last regular season home game.

With about six minutes left in the fourth quarter, Higginbotham checked back into the game.

That was the motivator Germantown needed as the Warhawks rallied from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Black Hawks, 44-41.

“I don’t want to get into a lot of these situations, but it’s nice to know they’ve been there, they’ve done that, they don’t lose their composure.”

For three quarters plus two minutes, it was a game the Warhawks (16-3, 11-1) had no business winning.

They struggled all game long making shots, going 8 of 37 (21.6 percent) through three quarters, which led to them trailing 37-25 going into the final quarter, with Higginbotham on the bench with an ice wrap on her left ankle.

“When Taylor went down, we knew we had to step it up,” Germantown’s Val Meissner said. “It looked pretty bad.”

Soon after the quarter started, the ice pack came off Higginbotham’s ankle, she put on her shoe and went into the hallway.

Moments later, she took a seat on the bench, looked at her coach and said she was ready to go.

He didn’t waste any time.

“It was nice to get her back in there,” Stuve said. “From a confidence standpoint, having her on the floor just helps other kids.”

For the first time all game, the Warhawks played with energy as the Black Hawks dominated the first 24 minutes of the game.

Val Meissner made a 3-pointer with 4:53 left in the fourth quarter to make it 37-28 in favor of Grafton. And here came the Warhawks, chipping away at the lead, and Higginbotham did her part.

The Western Illinois-signee made some defensive plays that led to fastbreak points.

“It just clicked,” Meissner said.

Higginbotham scored nine of her game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter.

“She’s a tough kid,” Stuve said.

“That could’ve been a long-term thing,” he added.

The Warhawks scored 19 points in the fourth quarter after scoring only three in the third quarter on 1 of 10 shooting.

“We just didn’t match their energy,” Stuve said. “They’re a tenacious team. Not as skilled offensively as we are, but they get after it.”

Higginbotham went down early in the third quarter.

“The girl was doing a cross-over and I wasn’t ready for it and I just stepped the wrong way,” she said. “I’ve never done anything to my ankle so I didn’t know what that feeling was like. It was a scary feeling at first. I’m just glad it wasn’t anything serious.”

While on the bench, she became a cheerleader, trying to motivate her teammates who were rattled.

What she noticed was a lack of energy.

“I knew I had to go back in that game,” Higginbotham said.

She also didn’t want to finish her senior night on the bench with an injury.

“My teammates didn’t need me,” Higginbotham said. “But at the same time, having the feeling of being out there with them was a lot better than being on the sideline.

“I’m glad I got to go back out there.” Higginbotham made a basket with 3:40 left to tie the game at 37.

The Warhawks took the lead with 1:04 to go on a 3-pointer by Meissner and held on for the victory.

“It’s definitely big,” Higginbotham said of the victory. “We’re still one game ahead of everybody in the conference and that’s a good feeling.”

SWIMMING: Taking off the pressure

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Feb. 4, 2015

Taking off the pressure

Freshman makes it easier on seniors

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

Bryan Fitzgerald’s addition to the West Bend co-op boys swimming team wasn’t a burden lifted off some of the veterans.

Instead, it was more of an improvement and a motivator.

“You don’t want to lose to someone younger than you,” senior Colten Lawson joked.

All kidding aside, Fitzgerald has opened eyes this season, sticking with some of the top swimmers in the state, which was evident at the West Bend Invitational on Jan. 24.

The East freshman took fifth in the 400-meter freestyle, with a time of 4:26.32, putting him right up against powerhouses Madison Memorial and Arrowhead.

“It was really cool to be next to them,” Fitzgerald said.

It’s no fluke he’s there.

He will likely contend for a Wisconsin Little Ten Conference championship at Saturday’s meet at Riverside Middle School in Watertown.

“I just wanted to be a part of the team and see where it went,” Fitzgerald said. “I didn’t know how good I was going to be compared to the other kids.”

Fitzgerald’s consistency to be near the top of the board in the distance events for West Bend has made things easier on swimmers like Lawson and Mike Smale.

“He elevated it a lot,” West Bend co-coach Jim Sachse said of how Fitzgerald has improved the distance events.

That’s not a dig on Lawson, Smale or other swimmers. Lawson said he’s fine with a freshman filling in on the distance events.

Last year, when the West Bend co-op was split, Lawson was forced to compete in some of the distance events. Ultimately, it took him away from concentrating on his marquee events — the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke.

With the 400 or 500 freestyles out of the picture, Lawson believes he is a stronger swimmer in his best events. That bodes well for the West Bend co-op.

“They didn’t feel like they had to be the guys on the block that are dragging everybody along and putting pressure on themselves that shouldn’t be there,” co-coach Chris See said. “As seniors, they want to be able to go to state. By adding Bryan’s experience and talent, that took a little bit of pressure off of them, that way they can swim the way they swim. They don’t have to over-extend themselves.”

Fitzgerald hasn’t been intimated, but he admitted he was intimidated early in his swimming life.

He got into swimming by doing lessons at the YMCA about five years ago and saw there was a club team in West Bend.

“I thought it’d be fun,” Fitzgerald said.

It was fun, but a bit intimidating. One of the older swimmers Fitzgerald looked up to was Ryan Zamzow.

“He was kind of scary,” Fitzgerald said with a smile. “He was scary because he was big.”

“They were always in the lane next to me going really fast,” he added.

What kept the wide-eyed Fitzgerald involved was how Zamzow, who was three years older than him, welcomed him to the club.

“He was always nice to me,” Fitzgerald said.

Once over the intimidation, Fitzgerald’s progression began and it went up in a hurry. He used what would’ve been intimidation and turned it into a challenge.

“He never takes a challenge and says, ‘I can’t do that,’” See said.

In 2011, Fitzgerald won the state championship in the 400 freestyle, the 50 butterfly and the 100 butterfly at the 12 and Under State Swim Championship in the 9-10 age group. He was also second in the 200 free, and fourth in the 50 backstroke and the 100 freestyle.

With each year, he continued to be right there with the state’s best at his age level.

Now in high school, he’s swimming against guys two or three years older than him, which makes his performance more impressive. In the 400 freestyle at the West Bend invite, he was the highest-finishing freshman, two sophomores and two juniors finished ahead of him, and two juniors finished behind him.

“It was very impressive,” Sachse said.

Fitzgerald was also second at an invite at Shorewood earlier this season in the 500.

“He’s coming in as a very good freshman,” Sachse said. “He’s a state champion and he brings that experience. ... He’s doing very well.”

In the latest state swim coaches rankings, Fitzgerald is 24th in the 500-yard freestyle.

“I just try to swim whatever the coach asks me to swim; just fill whenever he needed me,” he said.

Sachse was one of Fitzgerald’s club coaches, so he knew the kind of ability he had.

“The drops he’s making is very good, with what he started with in club,” Sachse said.

Sachse and See envison the drops continuing. However, they wouldn’t compare him to Matt McHugh, who won the 100 butterfly state championship in 2013.

At the same time, each believe Fitzgerald is on the right track.

“The guys who are really good (at the 500) look like they’re sprinting the whole thing,” See said. “And the fact that he doesn’t even realize it, I think that says a lot about his talent and a lot about how hard he works and I think it sort of a sign of where he’s going to be able to go.”

Hartford’s Krause finds calling behind the mic

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Feb. 3, 2015

Hartford’s Krause finds calling behind the mic

1980 HUHS grad cut from basketball team twice

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

MILWAUKEE — Dennis Krause was cut from his high school basketball team twice and his high school career in cross-country and track and field wasn’t much better.

That wasn’t his calling, however.

It was to be on the call for sporting events — television and/or radio — something he’s done for more than 25 years in the Milwaukee area, including the last 18 with the Milwaukee Bucks radio network.

“I knew I was never going to be good enough to be an athlete,” Krause said. “The irony of someone who was cut twice from the Hartford high school basketball team doing color analysis for the Bucks is kind of crazy.

“But I never really wanted to be a pro athlete. I always wanted to do this because I liked to communicate. I thought it was a nice way to be affiliated with sports without being good enough to be an athlete. They always talk about it’s a frustrated athlete that goes into broadcasting. I wasn’t really frustrated. I knew I wasn’t going to be good.”

Krause, 52, graduated from Hartford Union High School in 1980. He has been the color analyst for the Bucks radio network for the last 18 years.

Krause is a five-time Wisconsin Sportscaster of the Year winner, most recently in 2012.

In 1987, he joined WTMJ in Milwaukee, where he served as the sports director and won a Midwest Emmy Award.

In addition to his duties with the Bucks, he hosts the daily “Roundtable” show and the interview program “The Dennis Krause Show” on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel in Milwaukee. He is also the host of the Green Bay Packers’ pre-game show, “Packers Preview,” on the Packers radio network.

Krause has also covered three Super Bowls and a Rose Bowl.

“I never tried to be something I’m not,” Krause said. “I’m still a kid from Hartford. I was very fortunate, have been fortunate and blessed, but I don’t ever start to think I’m something because I know a lot of people that would love to be in this situation. I’ve been very blessed to be here.”

Krause learned relatively early broadcasting was something he wanted to do.

“When I was growing up in Hartford, I listened to a lot of sportscasters,” Krause said. “One of them was Eddie Doucette with the Bucks. It just seemed like a cool job to do, to be able to describe sporting events. I just thought it’d be something interesting and I gravitated to it.”

In reality, it took some time for Krause to pursue his ambition.

At Hartford, he said the audio and visual department was ahead of the time in the late 1970s. But, for some reason, he didn’t pursue it until he got into college at UW-Oshkosh.

“Maybe it was because I was paying for the education,” Krause said with a smile. “I felt motivated.”

Of all of his years in sports broadcasting, last year’s 15-67 season by the Bucks was one of the toughest of his career.

“It was very painful,” Krause said.

“We will try to present an entertaining product so that if people are listening to it, of course they know the Bucks were struggling, but we try to give them a reason to have fun, to listen to the games,” he added.

Krause is the broadcast partner for Ted Davis, who’s been the play-byplay voice for the Bucks for 18 years.

“From my standpoint, I work better when I can bounce things off of someone and get a reaction,” Davis said. “That’s what we’ve developed over 18 years where he knows where I’m going with stuff.”

Davis also admires Krause’s preparation.

“He comes up with things I wouldn’t have,” Davis said.

“He’s a very good interviewer,” he added. “Dennis has the ability to ask people thorny questions that they would’ve otherwise found irritating and not realize they’re being asked a thorny and irritating question. He has this ability to get information out of people that probably wouldn’t want to tell if I asked the question.”

This year, it’s been different for the duo as the Bucks are 25-22 after Saturday’s victory over Portland.

“This year has been a blast because the team is so much better,” Krause said.

“It’s always easier if the team is doing well,” he added. “I’m not saying anybody can do it, most people can do that.

“The challenge is when the team is not any good. How good are you then at keeping their interest and give them a reason to tune in. I think last year was the ultimate challenge.”

He has wondered what life would’ve been like for him without broadcasting and he got a glimpse of it from 2004-06.

“It just reinforced to me how lucky I’ve been to do this,” Krause said.

He was a fundraiser for Concordia University in Mequon and the Mequon-Thiensville School District.

“You don’t have the immediate report card with how you’re doing,” Krause said. “You’re sowing seeds for years down the road and building relationships.”

There are not many hard feelings about the two basketball coaches who cut him in high school — Doran Timmer (freshman) and Bob Halsey (sophomore). He can at least say he has a connection with NBA great Michael Jordan.

“I was very unexceptional in both,” Krause joked about his involvement in cross-country and track. “I was in track and cross-country to get in better shape for basketball.

“You see how that turned out.”