Hartford’s Ratajczyk way works

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Nov. 2, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

West Bend’s Chris Ratajczyk is too meticulous with his car. While it’s frustrating sometimes, it is a trait he inherited from his late father, Bob.

It’s what Bob Ratajczyk was known for throughout his racing career. He prided himself on how the car looked at the race track. After all, it had to look good in victory lane.

“He was my hero growing up as a kid,” Chris Ratajczyk said.

Bob Ratajczyk of Hartford won the 1954 track championship at Hales Corners Speedway and won two big races in 1970 as the highlights of an eventual Hall of Fame career.

Ratajczyk will be inducted into the Southeastern Wisconsin Short Track Hall of Fame tonight in a ceremony at the Wisconsin Auto Museum in Hartford.

More than 500 tickets have been sold for the event, which, according to the event organizers, is a sellout.

Joining Ratajczyk in the Class of 2013, the seventh induction class in the Hall of Fame’s history, is West Bend’s Frank Heimerl, as well as Conrad Morgan, Charlie Weddle, Jack Aschenbrenner, Darrell Dodd, Tom and Jerry Mueller, George Scheffler, Gary Laack, and Joe Shear.

“It’s a real big honor because you’re in a class with the best drivers in the state,” Chris Ratajczyk said.

Bob Ratajczyk died in 2007 at the age of 74.

“He would think it’s great,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “He’d be really honored.”

Bob Ratajczyk began racing in 1950 and raced for more than 25 years, competing in Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada.

He won 18 features in his career and was often near the top of the speed chart during qualifying. Not to mention his car was always looking in tip-top shape.

If it wasn’t ready to go to the race track, he wouldn’t go, which wasn’t very often as he competed six nights a week throughout his career. In 1959, he finished in the modified stock car points standings at Waukegan Speedway in Illinois.

“Too much,” Chris Ratajczyk said when asked how much of his dad’s personality and attention to detail he inherited. “He turned me into being way too meticulous.”

That wasn’t a bad thing, he added.

“He took care of his equipment,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “He was more of a finisher than a hard charger. He never drove over his head.”

At Ratajczyk’s race shop in West Bend, some tools can be found sitting on the shelf, unorganized. Bob Ratajczyk would get angry if he could see it today. It’s just the way he was, on and off the race track.

He made sure his son Chris understood it. It’s what worked for him.

“Take care of your equipment,” Chris Ratajczyk said on his father’s greatest lesson to him. “He was a stickler for that.”

Bob Ratajczyk won the award for the best appearing car three years in a row during a time where more than 100 cars could be spotted in a pit area at an area race track on any given night.

“It’s just the way he was,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “He was one of those guys where every wrench was measured out. He was a stickler for neatness and organization.”

Ratajczyk began his racing career in 1984 when he was 21. During his career, he’s competed in the Slinger Stinger division and eventually moved into a late model. In 1991, he was the Slinger Superspeedway Rookie of the Year in the super late division. In 2005, he won the limited late model track championship at Slinger.

How he prepares for a race is similar to his father.

One of Bob Ratajczyk’s proudest moments happened in 1970.

In that year, he won the state championship race at Slinger, a 100-lap dirt modified feature. Also that year, he won a feature in Canada, beating more than 100 cars to the checkered flag.

It was a victory Ratajczyk still had satisfaction for long after he accomplished it.

Chris Ratajczyk, one of Bob Ratajczyk’s four children, will give the acceptance speech and accept the honor on his father’s behalf.

“It’s a great honor,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “It’s a pretty neat deal.”

Area women fulfilling their fantasy

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Nov. 2, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

Don’t underestimate the power of women when it comes to football.

Some area women are proving they know just as much about football as men through fantasy football.

“I thought it was kind of foolish and a waste of time,” Heidi Grogan of Germantown said about the concept of fantasy football. “Now that I’m in it, I love it. It’s a lot of fun.”

She, along with Krysta Johannsen of Hubertus, are in first place in their respective leagues, while Laurie Schultz of Jackson and Ashley Weske of Hartford are right in the mix.

The guys in their league call it luck. With a smile, the women say they know what they’re doing.

“A lot of girls know a lot about football, but I didn’t,” Johannsen said. “This has taught me a lot about the sport.”

Johannsen is undefeated in her first time playing fantasy football. Last year in Johannsen’s league, a woman was in her first season of fantasy football and won.

For those unfamiliar, fantasy football allows people to set up leagues, mostly online through websites like Yahoo.com and ESPN.com. People in the leagues can draft any active player in the NFL to be on their team, essentially creating a dream team. Then, throughout the season, players monitor their roster, changing it for roster moves, player injuries, etc.

Teams earn points based on a player’s performance. The better the game, the more points a player will receive from an NFL player. The statistics are tabulated each week and the team with the most points in a matchup each week wins the week.

Since the Internet boom, fantasy football went right along with it, allowing fans to be more involved in the NFL.

For most people not involved in fantasy sports, including baseball, basketball, hockey, auto racing and even golf, they often perceive those who are in it as obsessed fanatics.

“Before I started in fantasy football, I had this idea of people who I thought were in an obsession,” Weske said. “Maybe that was an understanding of not knowing what it was.

“It’s just people who enjoy the game.”

Fantasy football has also done good things for spouses and work colleagues.

Grogan just started a new job with Graef Engineering in Milwaukee. It was a maledominated work environment. About a year after she started the job, she heard about a fantasy football league her colleagues took part in. She asked to join as a way to get to know more about the people she worked with.

“I was in it for the socialization factor,” she said. “I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I have.

“It was a way to build the relationships and be accepted in a male-dominated field.” Schultz has been married to her husband, Steve, for five years. The two have used fantasy football to build their relationship in a different way.

“We watch the games together,” Laurie Schultz said.

“I’ve learned a lot about football. I watched the Packers, but never watch any other games. My husband wants to watch every game he can.”

This week has been fun for their household, because the husband and wife are pitted against each other.

The wife is 2-1 all-time against her husband.

“I like to laugh in his face,” she said. “He knows better to laugh in my face because I’m a poor sport, but it’s all in good competition. We don’t take it too seriously.”

She promised they’ve never had a domestic problem when she beats him.

Schultz got into fantasy football while she was on 12 weeks of maternity leave. She needed something to pass the time.

It’s all fun for each of them, win or lose, but it’s sure fun to beat the boys.

“I get excited when I win,” Weske said. “It’s an exhilarating feeling, but I don’t get upset if I lose or let it overwhelm my life.”

They all promise it’s not luck, as each woman said they do the research online or through magazines to prepare for the draft and monitor the NFL on an almost daily basis.

“I love it,” Johannsen said. “I’m always checking my score.”

It’s just as sweet to win as it is when the ladies have a player the boys desperately want, weeks after criticizing them for the pick.

For Grogan, she drafted Green Bay Packers rookie running back Eddie Lacy. The guys thought she was being a homer. Lacy was just named the NFL’s Rookie of the Month for October. And last year, she drafted Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, who went on to be the NFL Rookie of the Year. She was made fun of for that pick too.

“You want to show them up,” Grogan said. “That’s a big part of it, but in a healthy and fun way.

“They like to say I’m lucky.”

Suns get fired up

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Oct. 29, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

West Bend East volleyball wasn’t playing its best.

Coach Colleen Hasse gave them a reality check about it.

In the midst of an early match battle with rival West Bend West in a WIAA Division 1 regional final Saturday in West Bend, Hasse had seen enough. She called a timeout and let her team know how unhappy she was.

Her yelling could be heard throughout the fieldhouse, her face a bright red.

“My heart rate probably went a little too high,” Hasse said. “I was so frustrated because these girls are really good, but they allow teams to get out on them. They were making the match harder than it needed to be.”

It was the only timeout Hasse used the rest of the match as East went on to sweep West in three sets, 25-20, 25-14, 25-17, to claim the regional title and advance to the sectional semifinal.

East (39-4) has advanced to the sectional each season since at least 2006.

West’s season ended with the loss and finished with a 22-22 record.

“Our motto was go big or go home,” West coach Alison Tanking said.

“They played really well,” she added. “They played really hard. They gave it all they got.”

The start of the match wasn’t anywhere near what East did against West on Oct. 15.

East started that match with leads of 3-0, 6-1 and 9-2. On Saturday, West got the jump, leading 4-2 early in the first set and led for most of it.

The last straw for Hasse was an attack by Lexie Uselding that went out of bounds to give the Spartans a 17-16 lead.

“She was trying to do something fancy,” Hasse said.

“From a coaching aspect, it’s the mental,” she added. “We’ve seen them twice; we beat them twice. How do we get kids fired up to play their game? Well, you make the coach mad.”

After the timeout, the Suns went on a 9-3 run and won the set. From there it was all East.

“I always tell the girls to keep it clean, keep it fundamental, I’m not looking for anything fancy,” Hasse said.

“Yeah, I got a little upset,” she added with a smile.

West got out to a 3-0 lead in the second set, but it didn’t last long as East scored five straight to take a 5-3 lead. The Suns never trailed the rest of the match, including taking a 9-1 lead to start the third set.

West challenged East early in the match because it played with a nothing-tolose attitude. The Spartans were coming off an upset Thursday at Oshkosh West.

In addition, West didn’t like how it played two weeks earlier against East, so it had something to prove.

“They were pumped,” Hasse said of West. “They had nothing to lose in this match. They came ready to play and it showed.

“It was the best I’ve seen them play all season.”

East will play Manitowoc Lincoln at 8 p.m. Friday at Neenah High School in the sectional semifinal.

Hartford Union will play Neenah at 6 p.m. in the other semifinal.

The Suns beat Manitowoc Lincoln last season in the sectional semifinal.

“I’m always happy when we get to the next step,” Hasse said.

As for West, the Spartans will say good-bye to five seniors (Lexi Wolf, Megan Kohlmann, Alason Koenig, Meghan Walters and Rachel Wilberg). The senior class played a big role in a transition year with a new coaching staff.

“It’s really hard,” Tanking said about the seniors having a new coach for their final season. “I had that happen to me my senior year of college where we had a new coach come in.

“It requires a lot of communication; a lot of trust, which is something that needs to be earned. I think they, for the most part, tried their best. I changed a lot of things than what their previous coach did and I think it was hard for the team to adjust.”

The Spartans had six juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen on the roster this season, which Tanking believes will bode well going into the offseason.

“That’s a positive for next season,” she said.

New coaches bring enthusiasm into the pool

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Oct. 30, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

West Bend East’s girls swimming and diving team is led by a duo that kind of stumbled into their jobs.

It’s worked out well this season.

As the Suns prepare for Saturday’s Wisconsin Little Ten Conference championship meet in West Bend, first-year coaches Leigh Ann Stern and Erika McConahy couldn’t help but think of how far they and their team have come in a year.

“In my first meeting with the girls, it seemed like they were lacking enthusiasm for the program,” Stern said. “I really wanted to build their enthusiasm back up.”

This year, the Suns won two WLT dual meets, which the team hasn’t done since 2004 when it went 4-0-1 and won the conference.

“I sat down and listened to what they were saying and tried to make this about them and more about them having a good time and working hard and seeing improvements in themselves as swimmers,” Stern said. “That was the most important thing.

“I think, hands down across the board, they’ve improved.”

McConahy said, “I just want them to enjoy swimming and get better and get to their personal goals so we can win more meets.”

Stern, 26, is originally from West Milford, N.J., which is about an hour northwest of New York City, while McConahy is from Lithuania. So how did they land in West Bend? The Suns have Stern’s now-fiance and McConahy’s husband to thank for that.

Stern’s longtime boyfriend of seven years, John Orsen, was hired in 2011 as an assistant coach for Marquette University’s men’s lacrosse team after a stellar collegiate career at Hofstra University. Orsen was hired by his former assistant coach at Hofstra, Joe Amplo, at Marquette.

“I wanted to go away from home; I was ready for a change,” Stern said. “When he got the call, he had just torn his Achilles tendon playing. It was kind of like all the stars were aligning.”

Stern was also struggling trying to find a teaching job in the tri-state area, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

“I was like, ‘Let’s make a change,’” she said.

After moving to Wisconsin with Orsen, she came across East after she was unable to land the West dance team job. She wanted to get a teaching job before she could take on the dance team job. That process took too long and she missed out on the opportunity. She eventually was able to get a job, teaching first grade at Decorah Elementary. Last year, she became the Suns’ coach while teaching as an in-house substitute at the University School of Milwaukee.

Then longtime swim coach Jim Sachse stepped down as the swim coach.

Stern was an avid dancer and swimmer growing up, starting at 5 years old. She and her family lived near a lake that had a swim club, the High Crest Lake Hurricanes, so she joined the program. Her high school didn’t have a swim team, so she stuck with the swim club where she and her team enjoyed some success. She was one of the top breaststroke swimmers in the league her club was in.

While in college at Hofstra, she started coaching the program and the program took off. She was an assistant coach from 2005-08, then she became the head coach for the next three years, winning conference in season.

As time grew thin for the Suns needing a swim coach, Stern was approached by East Athletic Director Jeff Rondorf about becoming the head swim coach. She hesitated. She then repeatedly said she couldn’t do it. “I’m coaching the dance team,” she recalled. “How am I supposed to be able to do both?”

She finally gave in and has been adjusting to the busy schedule, with a lot of help from her assistant coach on the dance team and the swim team. Stern goes from school to dance team practice to swim team practice.

Her assistant on the swim team is a former Lithuanian national team member (1976-94). In 1980, she practiced with the team leading up to the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow.

McConahy, 45, moved to the U.S. shortly after calling it quits for competitive swimming. She jumped around from state to state once she was stateside. She lived in Connecticut, Arizona and Kentucky before landing in Wisconsin in 2003.

Her husband works for BASF, a worldwide chemical company. At each stop, she thought she was finished with swimming, but somehow the sport came back and convinced her she wasn’t finished. She competed in some master’s swim events and helped out at local YMCAs.

In 2005, she began working with the YMCA in Saukville and worked with its swim program. Soon after, she saw an ad for the West Bend Swim Club looking for an assistant coach.

While the two grew up seemingly worlds apart, they’ve come together to re-energize the Suns swimming and diving program.

“I’m really enjoying it,” McConahy said.

“A lot of enthusiasm,” East’s Morgan Dommisse said when asked what her coaches brought to the team this year. “They work really well together. I think they’ve really bonded with the girls.”

Dommissee said the talent was there, they just needed something to give them another boost of confidence. Stern and McConahy have done that for them.

“They’re a lot more involved,” Dommissee said. “The girls have put in more effort this year than last year. There’s more to work for. They’re more excited for the season.”

Heimerl becomes one of them

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Oct. 30, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News Sports Editor

Every time West Bend’s Frank Heimerl walks through the Southeastern Wisconsin Short Track Hall of Fame, he remembers many nights of shooting the breeze until the wee hours of the morning with those already in the Hall of Fame.

The next time he walks through the museum, it’ll have a new meaning.

Heimerl is one of 11 people who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame during a ceremony Saturday at the Wisconsin Auto Museum in Hartford.

The Hall of Fame has been inducting new members each year since 2007. Last year, 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion and former Slinger Nationals winner and track champion Alan Kulwicki was among the inductees.

Heimerl is now part of a special group of racers at the short tracks of Wisconsin.

“It’s super great because it’s a place that you go to respect the veterans (of racing),” Heimerl said. “I’m glad I made it in there.

“It’s a nice place to go and see the history.”

Heimerl, 70, will be inducted with Hartford’s Robert Ratajczyk, plus Conrad Morgan, Charlie Weddle, Jack Aschenbrenner, Darrell Dodd, Tom and Jerry Mueller, George Scheffler, Gary Laack and Joe Shear to bring the total number of inductees to 90.

“I raced with a lot of the drivers that are in there,” Heimerl said. “A lot of great times; a lot of good times.”

One good time was after a late model race in Plover.

“We shot the breeze until the sun came up,” he said.

Then he realized something. He has to go to work in just a couple of hours and home was a couple of hours away.

He just barely made it.

“It was just a pile of fun,” Heimerl said.

Heimerl won three track championships in almost 30 years of racing Wisconsin’s short tracks. He won the Beaver Dam championship in a modified in 1981 and won two titles at Plymouth in a modified (1983 and 1990).

His racing career began in 1969 after he dabbled with drag racing. That was the year when former West Bend police officer Ken Johnson told him to stop doing that so-called racing in a straight line and try his luck making turns.

Heimerl bought a car from Bob Blank for about $1,000. For about 10 years, he dazzled area race fans with his no-fear style. As his career blossomed, he became known as “The West Bender.”

“I just went where there was a track,” Heimerl said.

In the late 1970s, he dreamed of racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

He started racing with the SCCA in a Corvette, hoping that was going to be his ticket to get to Indianapolis. What he discovered in just one season of racing with the SCCA was mind-blowing.

There was no monetary reward for a job well done. It was just a silver cup or trophy. It didn’t take long for him to realize it was just an empty cup. Thus it was easy to go back to doing what he knew he was good at ... and got paid for it.

Harry “Schmied” Blank and Etchie Biertzer were two of Heimerl’s biggest contributors to his racing career.

Blank, a 2010 Hall of Fame inductee, helped him learn the ropes of racing and was a mastermind with a race car.

“I wish I knew half of what he knew,” Heimerl said. “So many drivers learned from him. He was a wonderful guy that enjoyed racing, but never drove a car in his life.”

Biertzer, a 2007 Hall of Fame inductee, was Heimerl’s chief advisor on his pit crew, following his retirement as a driver in 1982. Biertzer died in 1984.

Seven years later, Heimerl won a race dedicated to Biertzer, the Etchie Biertzer Memorial.

“It was very special because Etchie was like King of the Hill in eastern Wisconsin,” Heimerl said. “He was my toughest competitor and just a great wonderful guy.”

Biertzer edged Heimerl for the Beaver Dam track championship in 1980.

Heimerl got into racing for the spirit of competition.

“The challenge of beating the next guy; I loved it,” he said when asked why he liked racing. “It’s a competitive challenge, but on the other hand, if I could help someone with something, I’d do it.

“You can’t race by yourself.”