Alex Prunty began racing because of his uncle, wins super late championship

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 11, 2018

Alex Prunty began racing because of his uncle, wins super late championship

By Nicholas Dettmann

ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043

SLINGER — When Alex Prunty was 5 or 6 years old, he sat inside uncle David Prunty's race car bleeding the brakes. At that moment, growing up in a family with a long tradition in short-track racing, that little boy first gave thought about whether he was on a similar path.

Fast-forward 20 years later.

That little boy, all grown up, is a champion of the super late model division at Slinger Super Speedway.

“It's what I aspired to do from Day 1,” Alex said.

“It was never, ever even close to being forced upon,” he added when asked if he had a choice to go into racing or not. “It was one of those deals where dad was pretty straightup honest with me saying this if is what you want to you, you're going to be in the garage every night. I'm not going to play these games of me being in there by myself. He really pushed me to succeed, put in the time and understand that people that work on the cars understand how they work. Go get an engineering degree and understand how these cars work are the guys that are successful.”

Alex Prunty finished fourth in Sunday's 75-lap super late model feature as part of the track's

finale of its 71st season of racing to wrap up his title run, becoming the fourthyoungest super late model champion in track history.

And speaking of history, Prunty accomplished a feat only done one other time in 71 years of racing at Slinger: win a track championship in three divisions. He joined Southeastern Wisconsin Short-Track Hall of Famer Miles “The Mouse” Melius in that category. Melius won a midget title in 1949, a stocks title in 1954 and five modified titles in 1958, 1960, 1961, 1964 and 1967. Prunty won a Slinger Bees title in 2010, which was just his second year in racing, and two limited late model titles (2012 and 2015) before adding the super late title Sunday.

Maybe fitting was Melius' logo was on the side of Alex's car.

“How cool is that?” he said. “What a neat accomplishment.”

Brad Mueller won the super late model feature for his third victory of the season. He was followed by Grant Griesbach and Dennis Prunty. Chris Blawat, the 2016 track champion, was fifth. For Mueller, the three feature victories this season where the most he's had in one season since winning five in 2003.

Also picking up feature victories were Tyler Schley (limited late model), Jayden Buckley (Super Beez), Zach Greer (Slinger Bees), Bill Shavlik (Figure 8), Ryan Gutknecht (midwest sportsman), Jake Schraufnagel (area sportsman) and Jessica Talley (American Super Cup Series).

Gutknecht’s and Schraufnagel’s feature victories capped championship seasons in their respective divisions. For Gutknecht, it is his third midwest sportsman title in five years, while Schraufnagel joins his father, Ken, as a track champion. Ken Schraufnagel won the 2008 Slinger Bees title.

Brandon Tackes won the Super Beez track championship for his second career title at Slinger (Slinger Bees, 2014), while Brady Held (Slinger Bees), Ryan Lovald (Figure 8) and Shaun Scheel (limited late model) won their first track championships.

Scheel edged EJ Waldron by 36 points for the title. Last year’s champion, Gutknecht, finished third, 46 points behind. It is Scheel’s second career championship, but first in a late model. In 2005, he won a 4-cylinder bandit title at Jefferson when he was 15 years old.

To come away with the championship was also a relief for Scheel as Gutknecht had been building momentum in the final weeks of the season with four top-two finishes in five races, including two wins in a row Aug. 5 and Aug. 12. However, a planned off week Aug. 19, followed by back-to-back rain outs, helped Scheel hold off the division’s reigning champion.

“It hasn’t sunk in that we’re a late model champion, especially at a prestigious track like Slinger,” Scheel said.

As for Alex Prunty, he had a comfortable lead heading into the final points race, leading his uncle Dennis by 70 points. If Dennis Prunty had a

max points day, Alex needed to finish seventh or better to win the championship.

Because of the gap, Alex said it wasn’t nerve-wracking waiting out consecutive weeks of rain outs to see how the championship was going to play out. He tinkered with the car a little bit each day, just to make sure nothing fell out of place. But, for the most part, he was calm.

When he got into a race car in 2009, there was never a plan for Alex. It was just see how much he liked it or didn’t like it. He quickly learned not only did he like it, but there was talent too.

Two of Alex’s crucial career progressions came when he moved into a limited late model in 2011 and then won the Kulwicki Driver Development Program national championship in 2016.

Alex sent the message to his dad, Dan, about how serious he was about racing when he moved into the limited late model division. His father said if Alex wanted to do that, everything was on Alex, minus helping with the engine.

“I was able to go find sponsors and find the money to be able and go and do it and that’s when he realized the kid must really want to do it,” Alex said.

Winning the Kulwicki national title gave him the confidence and maturity he’d been searching for, let alone the funding.

This season, Alex was one of only three drivers to start every feature in the super late model division – Griesbach and Conrad Morgan. One of his closest competitors, Gary LaMonte, last year’s champion, didn’t return to the track after a controversial finish between him and Steve Apel on July 22. LaMonte was penalized for what appeared to be

contact with Apel that spun out Apel while they battled for the lead.

“I can’t control when people decide they don’t want to race here,” Alex said. “I come here to race every single week with a smile on my face and we’re here to win.

“We had a great year. You can’t take anything away from that.”

And he put in the work, which started after the 2017 season.

He attended a four-day seminar in Charlotte, North Carolina, called the GRIP Seminars, presented by Gary Crooks Racing. According to its Facebook page, the seminar isn’t designed to “give you the ’secret’ setup, but rather to provide the necessary working knowledge needed to have a better understanding of your race car.”

After achieving something he’s dreamed about since he was 6, Alex said there is still unfinished business.

“To win the Slinger Nationals,” he said.

Rodney Atkins works at creating country music to remember

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 8, 2018

Rodney Atkins works at creating country music to remember

By Nicholas Dettmann

ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043

WEST BEND — Country music star Rodney Atkins loves hearing how his songs have affected his fans — years after their release.

“I still get every single show somebody coming up telling me that’s their song,” Atkins said. “It could be ‘Watching You,’ ‘If You’re Going Through Hell’ or ‘These Are My People.’ Those songs seem to remain relevant. That’s part of the goal when making music. That’s more important to me than even having a hit.” Atkins will headline the inaugural Country Live Music Festival presented by Hanke Trucking on Sept. 15 at Washington County Fair Park in the town of Polk. Gates open at 1 p.m. Saddlebrook takes the stage at 2:30 p.m., followed by Reckless Remedy at 3:45 p.m., Austin Burke at 5:15 p.m., Dylan Schneider at 7 p.m. and Atkins at 9 p.m.

This year, Atkins, the 2006 Academy of Country Music’s Top New Male Vocalist, released new music for the first time since early 2015 with “Eat Sleep Love You Repeat” on his “Greatest Hits” album. His newest song is “Caught Up In The Country.” The song takes a different tone than what fans are used to from the native of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, with a slower tempo — it’s almost spoken rather than sung.

“I learned a long time ago when I first started learning how to sing in a studio, part of learning to sing in a studio is not yelling at people,” Atkins said. “I sing loud a lot. It was more about experiences, not yelling at people. It’s about them hearing the lyrics. I think I’ve just learned ... a lot of times it’s about relaxing, being able to tell the story inside the song, whatever that story is. I think this felt right to almost be speaking and that’s how you wind up with a vocal like that.”

Atkins has seen a positive response to “Caught Up In The Country” on tour. “This song has claps and stomps,” he said. “It’s very exciting.” Atkins’ debut album was “Honesty” in 2003. His next, “If You’re Going Through Hell,” was a breakout hit in 2006, reaching No. 1 and certified platinum. The title track, “Watching You,” “These Are My People” and “Cleaning This Gun” all went to No. 1. In 2009, “It’s America,” included his fifth No. 1 — “It’s America” — and, in 2011, “Take A Back Road” had his sixth No. 1, the album’s title track.

“I’m very involved in the record-making process,” Atkins said. “It just takes that long to assemble songs that are songs that’ll be out there and be gone ... songs that go No. 1, but people don’t really remember it a month after it being off the chart. You can’t really build a career that way.”

Atkins still enjoys performing as he approaches 50, although there was a time when he wondered how he’d get through a set.

“When I started trying to pursue music, I wrote off the idea of being a singer,” Atkins said. “The first several times I tried to sing in front of people, I had a glass of water and I couldn’t even get a drink I was so nervous.

“Somewhere it changed.”

That it did, releasing songs he sings loudly and proudly and often with 15,000 fans singing along with him word for word.

“My goal is always for us to be singing together,” Atkins said. “It kind of takes the pressure off me really.”

The mind games behind social media

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 8, 2018

The mind games behind social media

Chemical released in brain similar to satisfaction with drugs, alcohol, gambling

By Nicholas Dettmann

ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043

WEST BEND — Your phone does a ding.

A text message was received.

Then there are a few more dings.

Your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram post just got some likes from friends and maybe some additional likes or retweets from followers you may not even know or met face-to-face. Feels good doesn’t it?

It’s supposed to.

A chemical called dopamine is released in the brain when that happens. It also happens when humans drink, smoke, gamble or have a tasty burger.

Psychiatric experts say because of the human’s lust for that rush, especially for those ages 12-17 when it correlates to their social media use, that may be the start of dangerous and addictive behavior that could have significant impacts on their brain development going into adulthood.

A 2011 survey by Columbia University, “National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XVI,” said 70 percent of those ages 12-17 reported spending time on social media at least once per day, which equals about 17 million teens. In the study, it revealed teens that spend time on social network sites in a typical day compared to ones that don’t are five times likelier to use tobacco, three times likelier to use alcohol and twice as likely to use marijuana. Studies are also showing there is a great resentment to those findings, which

is highly concerning to health professionals. In that Columbia study, 87 percent of parents said they believe spending time on social networking sites doesn’t make it more likely their children will drink alcohol; 89 percent said a similar statement, but related to drug use.

Part of that resentment may be attributed to the lack of hard data and that smartphone and social media use is a widely accepted part of the day-to-day life. However, health professionals argue, while research is ongoing to assess social media use and its possible connection to drug and alcohol abuse, teens and parents and all social media users shouldn’t ignore the findings.

“There hasn’t been a landmark study that tells the definitive,” said Himanshu Agrawal, a child psychiatrist at Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin. “There’s many theories and there’s many concerns about correlation not causation.”

Agrawal said one study he read said the number of hours a teen spends on social media is equal to that teen’s depression — the more time spent on social media equals more depression.

“By definition, adolescence ... it’s your role, it’s your responsibility, your duty to define who you are socially,” Agrawal said. “The most common way that any adolescent does it is by comparing themselves to their peers.”

Often with social media, users are posting the best moments of their lives, a front-row seat at a concert, a vacation, a party, etc. Thus it gives a false illusion or a misinterpretation that everything is great in one person’s life. If one is 14 years old and sees friends posting online a great time at party — invited or not — the teen quickly develops, according to health professionals, increased feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and depression.

Teens need to take a step back and realize something important.

“You get a really biased view of what everyone else is doing and not just teens, everyone’s busy putting out profiles on social media that are not based on reality in terms of what their lives are actually like,” said W. Hobart Davies, professor and chair of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “They’re exaggerating the range of activities they’re into or how wonderful their lives are going.

“If you’re relying on that as a basis to evaluate what other people are doing, you’re going to get a biased perception of the world.”

Other development shortfalls with excessive social media use, according to health experts, include a lack of interpersonal communication skills, such as reading body language and facial expressions.

“It’s a time of great psychological growth,” Agrawal said of people ages 12-17. “It makes the average adolescent brain susceptible to peer pressure and influence.

“The one thing that social media has done is you’re no longer just a kid on your block or in the sandlot. Your peers are now hundreds of thousands of people that you have access to and to compare their lives to. So when they see their peers binge drinking or using drugs, then it not only glamorizes it, but normalizes

it.”

❑❑❑

What to do?

Agrawal said research still needs to be done to see if the addictive behaviors of teens are related to their social media use. But steps are being made in the right direction to get that question and more answered.

Until it is, still, Agrawal said, serious attention should be paid to one’s behavior and use of social media.

“If it’s true that social media is increasing risks for addictions, then that’s scary,” Agrawal said. “We know for a fact that access to social media is so much more prevalent than access to drugs and alcohol. There are far many more checks and balances when it comes to drugs and alcohol and cigarettes than there are for social media.”

He added, “Damage is being done.”

“When we are spending more and more time on social media, it’s taking the place of the interpersonal, face-to-face interaction with others,” said Jennifer Hagel, outpatient psychotherapist at Aurora Behavioral Health in West Bend. “Messaging someone across a social media site is starting to take the place of our ability to speak to people.”

According to Davies, The American Academy of Pediatrics came out with a set of guidelines when assessing children’s use of social media and smartphones. The most controversial was the parents’ involvement and monitoring the kids’ activity, especially at an age when children are learning to be independent.

“It’s very challenging for sure,” Davies said. “You need to try normalizing the involvement much earlier, much younger than (ages 12-17), but also be aware that kids are motivated to set up different social media accounts, one of which is for parents consumption and one is where parents are kept in the dark about.”

Davies suggested cellphones not be in bedrooms at night and that they’re located in a neutral spot in a home, such as the kitchen. There is also a recommendation that cellphones be put away at least one hour before bedtime. Hagel agreed, adding a limit of two hours per day is fair.

“Getting those restrictions in place before the child is 16 or 17 gives you a much more of a fighting chance,” Davies said. “It’s hard to reel them in after they’ve had that freedom.”

Parents also need to be mindful of their own social media and smartphone use.

“We’re seeing that consistently when we talk to youth — is it too much? Should there be limits? — We get a lot of pushback about, ‘Hey, my mom is on her phone all the time,’” Davies said. “That’s going to have to be an important part of all these sort of limit settings and trying to come up with rational limitations. Youths are very aware of any double standards.”

Davies said more studies and resources are in the works to get a better handle on long-term effects of excessive social media use among adolescents.

“There’s a lot of layers to this onion,” Davies said.

Stop, think before hitting send

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 1, 2018

Stop, think before hitting send

What you share is being watched

By Nicholas Dettmann

ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043

WEST BEND — When the old tweets of Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Josh Hader resurfaced during the Major League Baseball All-Star game in July, tweets filled with racist remarks, it offered a harsh reminder to social media users: Nothing goes away with social media.

Local users took notice and acted.

“I think when I first heard of it, obviously I was shocked,” said Nick Becker, who is a graduate assistant coach for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside’s wrestling team and a Hartford Union High School graduate. “Then my second thought was, ‘Do I have anything on my social media?’ and I deleted them.”

Becker went through old posts on his Twitter to see if there were any damning tweets. He found some. He said found some swear words in some posts from when he was 15 or 16 years old, which was about eight years ago.

“I was young, 15, 16 years old,” Becker said. “When you’re that young, you don’t know how it can affect you later. I thought, ‘What was I talking about?’” Thankfully, it was caught before more damage could be done. Others, like Hader, haven’t been so lucky. Because of that, a greater sense of urgency has taken place for social media users to be more cautious with what they’re sharing on the information super highway known as the internet.

“The past few years, people using social media, especially with our president using social media to not only campaign, but also get his word out, can have positive and negative impacts,” Becker said.

“It reinforced what my parents have taught me, to keep it clean,” said Ben Hoitink, a senior at Slinger High School and member of the Owls’ football team.

Hoitink is verbally committed to play football at the University of Penn. He started a Twitter account during his recruiting period. He did so as a way to stay in touch with coaches of programs he was interested in or were interested in him. He also kept track of recruiting news.

Hoitink received more than 10 scholarship offers to play football in college and he made an announcement for each offer received on his Twitter page, including his verbal commitment to Penn.

Not much of a social media advocate to begin with, Hoitink was aware of the dangers behind certain things that can be posted online. He was taught to keep everything clean and to avoid political debates. If he desires to express an opinion about something, it’s usually best to do so through interpersonal communication or through phone calls.

He said this was always his approach, but with what happened to Hader, it was a learning tool.

“It definitely brought the topic to light,” he said. “I’ll be more careful with what I say. Even if you delete it, it’s still out there.”

The tweets from Hader were sent in 2011, when he was in high school, just like Hoitink.

“He was a young guy back then and didn’t realize the impact it could have on your life down the road,” Hoitink said.

It has a role in college recruiting, too, Becker said, from the coach’s perspective.

“You don’t want to judge an athlete by what they post,” he said. “Everyone makes mistakes and we do understand that.”

He added at Parkside, the coaches want to get to know the studentathlete in person. However, if there is an uncomfortable pattern of posts on Facebook, Twitter, etc., Becker said, “we’ll pass on those student-athletes.”

Sports is not the only avenue that can have long-term damage with poor social media or text messaging use. Prospective employers have adopted greater use of social media to not

only recruit applicants but, to a degree, also evaluate them.

“I think it’s a huge part,” said Dawn Schicker, vice president of human resources for ContinuumHR. “As a recruiter, utilizing social media seems to work quicker. You can communicate to more people.”

Because of that, with the help of sites like Linkedln, social media profiles are more accessible for recruiters. Schicker said Linkedln is designed as the online resume recruiters can search through, not Facebook or Twitter or Instagram.

And the evaluation may not stop during the hiring process, Schicker said it’s plausible for someone who may be out on medical leave, but the employee post a picture of himself or herself playing basketball when they should be resting and ultimately lose their job or “counteracting” what they’re telling their respective employer.

When it does come to hiring, employers are cautious with how they evaluate prospective employees.

“It’s understanding you can’t always validate what’s on social media,” Schicker said, adding evaluating social media profiles is a small part of the process, but “it’s human nature” to at least look at them.

Another potential problem spot for employers when considering prospective employees is the possibility of litigation, such as discrimination claims.

“You have to focus on the things that are relevant,” she said, adding, “I want to make sure I’m compliant and see how they conduct themselves in the interview.”

The advice for job seekers?

“Make sure you have certain privacy settings in place,” Schicker said. “If you have a qualified recruiter or a human resources department, you’re going to look for the right things.”

She added that public posting “is not wise” because “once it’s posted, it’s there. It’s available and there for someone to retrieve; it never goes away.”

Schools districts are doing what they can to educate the dangers of social media to students.

Nancy Kunkler, communications manager for the West Bend School District, said “we promote digital citizenship to our students. This covers both social media practices, including bullying, and cyber safety” Students are reminded frequently about it. Kunkler said an image is posted on the background for all of the district’s Chromebooks that kids see every time they login to “help remind them of these important lessons.”

The image says, “Before you post online, THINK!”

T — Is it true?

H — Is it hurtful?

I — Is it illegal?

N — Is it necessary?

K — Is it kind?

“There are lessons that teachers, technology coaches, counselors and the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework implement at various grade levels,” Kunkler said. “Two of the messages they convey is ‘think’ before you do something and remember that what you put ‘out there’ is public knowledge.”

Also, with today’s technology allowing for screen shots, social media posts may not go away even if users delete them.

The Slinger School District requires every freshman to take a seminar class, which goes over several topics — health, suicide prevention, drugs, alcohol, career planning and, most recently added, social media.

Slinger Superintendent Daren Sievers said the class is conducted so students “understand everything that can trip them up. That class is a real nice vehicle that covers all the topics.”

Slinger has considered offering the class to seventh- and/or eighth-grade students as well. So far, the decision has been made to keep it for freshmen at this point.

“There is something to be said to get critical information early enough,” Sievers said. “The middle school has done a great job about the powers of social media.”