Published: June 18, 2015
A Father’s Day classic
Area teams aim for annual tournament title
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
When the youngsters of the West Bend Thunder U9 baseball
team won the Father’s Day Classic in West Bend in 2010, coach Russ Schlosser
called it one of the proudest days of his life.
“I had 12 kids show up for tryouts that year,” he said. “We
didn’t know what we were going to do. To come battle all the way through the
tournament and see them win the championship that first year and on Father’s
Day, it was a special moment.”
It’s a moment Brad Geldnich, coach of the Thunder’s U12
team, wants to enjoy this year.
Geldnich’s team has lost in the championship game of the U10
and U11 brackets the last two seasons.
“We’re looking forward to it,” he said. “I hope we can
finish it off this year.”
The three-day tournament, which is hosted by West Bend, will
have 116 games played Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“As a coach and as a dad in West Bend, it’s a very special
event,” Schlosser said. “They’re born and raised in our town. ... Winning this
tournament showcases the talent of West Bend.”
Schlosser is the coach of the U14 Thunder. All of the
players on his team will be high school freshmen in the fall.
Schlosser’s group has won this tournament four times in five
years. They won it in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014.
In all, they’ve won 16 tournaments since 2010.
“They’re a special group of kids,” Schlosser said.
The tournament will feature three teams from West Bend:
Thunder, Bulldogs and Warriors.
This year’s U11 Bulldogs won the tournament as U9 players in
2013.
It is the team’s fifth tournament of the season. They won
their most recent tournament in Hartford two weeks ago.
Locally, there are also teams from Richfield, Germantown,
Living Word Lutheran and the Washington County Kings.
The communities of Cedarburg, Mequon, Menomonee Falls,
Grafton, Beaver Dam, Milwaukee, Plover, Kimberly, Whitefish Bay, Wauwatosa,
West Allis and Columbus are also represented.
“It’s some of the better teams around,” Geldnich said.
“The competition is tough,” Schlosser said.
For Schlosser’s team, it’s a shot at a fifth title,
especially knowing it’s their last West Bend Father’s Day Classic.
“I want them to go out with a bang,” he said.
“There’s always good competition,” Schlosser added. “Once
you get to U14, it’s usually the kids that are here for the long haul.”
After this tournament, the U14 Thunder will play in a
22-team tournament in Mauston — a tournament the team won last year.
“We’re proud of the tradition of baseball in West Bend,”
Schlosser said.
Geldnich admitted the hometown tournament is not like other
tournaments, no matter how hard they try to make it like all the others.
“The tension picks up,” he said. “Multiple West Bend teams
are there and we might get a chance to play against them, play against their
friends.
“When I coach I’m normally a little more nervous.”
This year, Geldnich’s team is 19-1. Its only loss was in the
championship game at a tournament in Wind Lake.
“I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids,” Geldnich said.
“They’re very athletic and they listen very well.”
Geldnich’s team is 96-7 since they were at U10 — two of
those losses came in the Father’s Day Classic championship game.
In 2013, the Thunder lost to Germantown, a team they beat in
pool play.
In 2014, the Thunder lost to Whitefish Bay, a team that has
the son of Brewers manager Craig Counsell.
The common thread in those two games is the Thunder suddenly
being unable to swing the bat well — unlike during the rest of the tournament.
Winning the hometown tournament would be “very cool,”
Geldnich said.
But the best part of winning this tournament is it’s on
Father’s Day weekend.
“It’s about to getting play baseball and watch my kids on
Father’s Day play baseball,” Geldnich said.
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