Full Show - 3/1/2025

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, March 1st, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, Welcome to the Varsity Blacks High School Sports Show,
presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market
stores on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app
coming live from the Donovan and Jordanson Heating and Cooling Studios.
Any issues you're having with your furnace, your HVAC, you
want to get your your air conditioner ready as I

(00:21):
think springs kind of closed, go to Donovan Jordanson dot com.
They will take really good care of you. So what
a great time a year to be talking high school basketball, right?
Girls basketball tournament has started. Boys basketball tournament will start
next week, and a great time to be talking about
playoffs and seedings and stuff like that. At nine to twenty,

(00:43):
Rob Rushell from Conley Media is going to join us.
We'll continue to talk girls playoffs. At nine forty Mark
Miller is going to join us. At ten o'clock. Ben Wooznowski,
who is the he's the head coach for DME Academy
at Saint John's Northwestern is going to come in and
I asked him bring his dad in. I've known his
dad a long time, so we'll talk to those guys.

(01:04):
The second part of the show first segment today, I
want to reach out to Gary Whipperman, who is the
owner of W seven Productions, for a couple of reasons.
One they do they do a ton of girls basketball.
I want to thank them. But I wanted to check
in out Gary and see how he's feeling. Had a
little bit of a healthcare a couple of weeks ago,
and I wanted him to know that we're thinking about him,

(01:25):
praying for him. Gary. How you doing, Hi.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Mike, good morning, Thank you so much. Glad to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Hey, brother, I'm glad you're here too. Man. A couple
of weeks ago, and I just wanted to check in
and let you know that a lot of people out
in the stuff that we do, which is covering high
school athletics, have been praying for you and your family.
Talk to me a little bit about what happened a
couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, So, first of all, I really appreciate it. And
you've been in high school sports a long time, Mike,
and you know this. I mean, you know, when the
ships are down, the family kind of circle the wagons
right support each other. I can't tell you how much
support I've gotten from the girls sports community from the media.
It's really been just almost overwhelming, but it really it

(02:12):
really helps. And the prayers, I'm telling you, they carried
me through. I actually went in for a stress test
on my heart and when when I went through it,
they said, hey, you got to stay, we got to
check and see what's going on. Well, they found out
I needed triple bypass surgery. So three days later I'm
on the operating table and they did a great job.

(02:33):
I went to Waukeshaw Memorial Hospital. They were absolutely phenomenal.
I couldn't recommend anybody more than those guys. The surgeons
were great, the nurses were great, the icy you care
was great. And I came out with they took a
skin graft out of it. They took a vein out
of my leg and put it in my heart in
my chest and so everything is working great. I feel

(02:56):
better than I have in the last three years. So
I'm doing and just fantastic and going to be back
doing girls basketball.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Hey, Gary, when you went in for the stress test,
was there a reason you went in where you're not
feeling good or was it just something that you guys
had planned And let's do a stress tests and see
where things are at.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
No good question. I actually went in. I was short
of breath a lot, especially after I ate for some reason,
so I wish I thought it was a digestive issue.
But once they got me on the treadmill and did
all the numbers, and then once then they took a
and it took a took some fixtures and said, hey,
this is this is serious stuff. And so I would

(03:35):
encourage anybody if you feel, you know, any pains in
your chest, if you if you feel short of breath,
don't dismiss it. The surgeon told me I was on
a runway. I had ninety five percent blockage. Wow, So
anybody that's that's going through that, I just I can't,
I can't stress strongly enough. Go and see a cardiologist
right away and get it checked out. Because this stuff

(03:57):
is very very common, especially I mean, I'm fifty three.
They thought I was you know, I thought I was
pretty young, but they said, you know what, We're getting
a lot of especially men in their forties and fifties
going through this. So a lot of his genetics too.
So I would encourage anybody to bring any pain at all,
go see a doctor immediately and get a checkedout.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Well, Gary, I tell you what, what I can't imagine
you get done with the stress test and for them
to say, hey, you're not going anywhere, boy, you know,
we're going to keep you here for a little bit.
The dynamic of that in your family had to be like,
hold on a second, what like I'm not going home?
And you know, look, you and I are Facebook friends,

(04:37):
We've been friends a long time, and I think I
have the cutest grandkids of all time. You might be second, man,
you might. These girls are darling And I would assume
that that a little bit of wrench in the family
life as that happened. But man, thank god that you
went for that stress test.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, I have an amazing wife, and Christy, you know,
just went into this mode of you know, it's all
about Gary right now and whatever he needs. My kids
were the same way, and she's now to the point
where she can kind of take a breath, and I
think I think she started the process. Everything happened because
she was just in that mode of I got to
take care of my husband the whole time, which she
was amazing. And of course my granddaughters are my heart

(05:19):
as I call them, and getting back to them was
super important to me. And we're back with them during
the week again. So everything is great, and I'm just
very thankful to God, thankful to the girl sports community,
obviously my family as well, and you, Mike, I know
you reached out. I appreciate that, and I just thank

(05:40):
everybody for all their support. It's been it's been a journey,
but you know what, you come out the other side
really really grateful to feel really really blessed.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Look, it had to be a little bit of a
scary time, right for you guys. And oh Gary, my
wife is a nurse, and so I'm telling you that
I told her the other day we need to get
a puppy or something. She's like, no, why, I said,
you need something else to take care of. You know,
I sneeze and all of a sudden, she's got vitamin

(06:08):
see sitting here, She's it's like, come on, man, I
just sneezed and it's okay, I'm fine, And but she's
you know what, she's wonderful. I can tell you that
when you know everybody's gone through COVID and stuff like that,
her bedside manner is not great. It's not She's like, hey,
it's eleven o five. I told you to take this

(06:30):
medication at eleven o'clock. I go, it's eleven o five. Relaxed,
Nur's cratching. Just relax. But boy, I love the fact
that they go similar to your wife. They go into
that mode of I got to take care of my
husband and I look, I rip on it for that,
but I truly appreciate it a lot.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
You and I both all kicked our coverage.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Mike, Oh, trust me, trust me. I look, I'm the president.
You could be the vice president.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Hey, let's talk.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
What a great time a year for W seven Productions. Man,
you guys have had a really good year. Obviously, you know,
the health scare put a little bit of the timing on.
It wasn't so bad, Gary, better then than now?

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Right, Well, yeah, you know I went in January twenty seventh,
and you know, my goal was to get back to
regionals and again the staff at Walkershaw Memorials do a
commercial for them. That's such a great job that I
was actually back again in two weeks, which is just unbelievable,
and just the care was a fantastic. But yeah, you know,

(07:32):
it worked out great and we're in full playoff mode
now with the regionals, and like you said, I mean
it's it's the first of March. This it's the best
time of year. By the way, I'm really honored to
be in the same in the same time slot, same
hour as Mark Miller and Rob Russell. Those those are
two great guys that know way more about basketball than

(07:52):
I ever do. So great you have great guest, Mike,
and I'll be listening to those guys after I get done. Well.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
I appreciate that. And Rob and and and Mark and
there there's a number of guys that that you know,
go to as many games as you and I do.
And I'm a big fan of both of theirs, and
they look forward to having those guys on. Hey when
when the when the seedings we were set. Look, I
know a Rob at least has been fairly vocal in

(08:21):
a couple of the things, and and and I agree
with him on a lot of them. I as a
basketball coach, I never understood why in August I already
knew who was in our regional and sectional. I don't
know if you need to do it like that. And
when you take a look at at some of the scenes,
there wasn't there didn't seem to be as much complaining
this year as there were last year. Let's talk about

(08:44):
Division one on the girls side. You know, Pewaukee got
moved up because of the success they've had, and there's
still a one seed. They played german Town today at
four o'clock. Are you guys doing games today?

Speaker 2 (08:55):
By the way, we are. I'm actually going to be
in Winneconi for the three regional final Winnaconie versus Chilton,
and will also be at Kimberly tonight for Notre Dame
versus Kimberly. That's also a D one regional final as well.
And you know, to Rob's point, and Rob hit the
nail right on the head on this. In Sectional two,

(09:16):
I call it a sectional of death. In Division and one,
there are six of the top ten teams according to
the latest WIST Sports Net Coaches poll, six of them
are in Sectional two. And I get the whole geography argument,
but you know, Rob had a great point and it was,
if you move I believe it. We moved Kimberly out,

(09:38):
and if you move Hartford out into different sectionals you
would have super balanced sectionals. But you know, for whatever reason,
WIA goes by this formula and that's what it is.
I get it right. I mean, because they're doing both
girls and boys, and you're gonna have years when stuff
like this is going to happen. It's just I would
rather see more of an intention approach. As we get

(10:01):
to November December, maybe that's when you start seeding them.
And the other thing that I would love to see
would be a reseed at sectionals where you do one
through sixteen for each of the each each of the
five divisions, and you do that kind of a playoff
as opposed to again, it's the same old geographic matchups.
I'll give you an example. New Berlin West and Nemberlin

(10:22):
Eisenhower play like every single year in the in the regionals.
I mean, wouldn't it be great see them play somebody else?
You talk geography again, I get it. I just think
they could be it could be spiced up a little
bit and be a little more balanced. But that's Sectional
two in Division one is absolutely brutal. You have Pewaukee

(10:43):
versus German Town. You mentioned that to peer the number
five seeds they're really good and they're going to take
on Brickfield East the number four and then really The
matchup of the day in my book is the number
six se Homestead and the number three hard for I
get Mike. You would see that typically as a sectional
semifinal or even a sectional final, and for it to

(11:04):
be a regional final is crazy. What I worry about
is we're going to play through all of these really
great teams in the regionals and sectionals when the state
matchup may not be the stellar ones that we would
hope for. But you know, that's the way that the
ball bounces this year.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Well, and you know when you look on the boy
side and and if they say, hey, listen, it's all
because of geography and and we don't want people traveling, well,
they put Brookfield Central in sectional three, and it's in
sectional three on the boy side, it's Brookfield Central, de
forest Reedsburg, Beaver Dam, Sock Prairie. You know, Mount Horror

(11:46):
is down on the other side. It's it's kind of like, look,
you didn't do that for them, So they're they're going
to be look Deforested Reedsburg play and then the winner
that's going to have to travel to Brookfield Central. And
it's like, so you you're making brook feel Central and
I'm happy that they're, you know, going to be playing
some different teams. But it don't tell me it's strictly

(12:09):
because we put circles on the map, because you didn't
do that on the boys side. You know, you've got
Sock Prairie and Brook Central and Reedsburg in DeForest all
in the same regional. So I maybe.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Coach Laundry can open up a room in his house
and host the Sockcurry coach.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
You know what he knowing Wandry and his wife baby,
they would do that if they are at some of
the nicest people you've ever met in your life. So
hey with with on the girl's side, is there, especially
in Division one, in your mind, who would be the favorite?

Speaker 2 (12:48):
They? They are so talented. They also got Kylie Peeper
back last night and she played, And the talent they
have is almost embarrassingly rich. I mean, the Terry and
girls are both phenomenal. Vanessa Johnson is great, Tyley Peeper
is great, the Hopie Kid is great.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
They until somebody beats them, they're the team to beat
in Division one with with no question, and I think
I think everybody would agree it's Pewaukee versus the Field
for the Gold involve this here.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Wow, that's interesting because you know they had gone through
a couple of like every season, we go these ups
and downs, and and uh, I'm a big fan of
the Terry on Twinsday Ben in the studio a couple
of times, and they that servant leadership hard and kind
of understand giving back. And I just really enjoy the

(13:46):
time that I've spent with them, and I'm glad to
hear that. How about in Division two? What are you
thinking who would be the odds on for Division two?

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Well, I think for Division two, I'm really looking at
Wabato's the East to make a another run back to state.
But I'll tell you they want to watch out tonight
because they're going to play Wisconsin Lutheran tonight at Tosa Eaves. Now,
we did the Toasta East Wisco game back in November

(14:15):
and Tosta East one by thirty. Now, you and I
both know, Mike, November is way different from March different,
and Wisco played really well left I know they played
Milwaukee go to my ear, so not necessarily the competition
level they're going to see tonight with Waba to the East.
But again, that Tosa East team Makayah Lissa is such
a great player. Emma Close. Also, Mary murg does a

(14:38):
great job at TOSTA East and Randy Strupp does a
great job that with contin Lutheran, that could be the
game to really watch out for in Division two is
the other one to watch would be Pious and white
Fish Bay. Whitefish Bay, it's had a phenomenal year. The
Council kid is Let's the Craig Council's daughter has really
really played well. You'll want to watch out. That'll be

(14:59):
a get us A two versus three. And then lastly
Greenfield and Wittnell. Wittnall coach pair for Wittnall won a
fiftieth career game last night. Wittnell the number twesdays. They've
had a really magical year. I expect them to move
on to I into the sectionals against Greenfield. I love
coach Barandi at Greenfield, but I really like this Witnell team.

Speaker 4 (15:18):
Well.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
And look, we are planning and I was over at
Milwaukee South Division with Time Osler yesterday and Hunter from
the game here doing a sound check over at Milwaukee
South because next Thursday it's at seven o'clock. We're planning
on doing that game live from Milwaukee South here on
on Fox Sports nine twenty and looking at at whatever

(15:41):
matchup that is. If toci's gets past Wisconsin Lutheran and
they play either Piles or Whitefish Bade, that game is
going to be one that that could be a state final.
It could be you know, you agree East and Wisconsin
Lutheran and the winner playing piece in Whitefish Bay. All well,
you know, three of those four teams in the top ten,

(16:03):
and we're planning on doing that if we can make
sure that Ethernet court is already for us to go.
And you know all this man, it's not and Ty
Mosler is the best. He's just such a good man.
And we met their IT people yesterday. It's all about
trying to get that Ethernet thing all locked up ready
for Billy Schmid and I for the call of that game.

(16:26):
So we're hoping to do it. Hey, Gary, thank you
so much for a couple of minutes your time. W
seven Productions. They these guys do just as good a
job anybody in the stake maybe in the Midwest covering
girls high school basketball guide. Aline of respect for this
company and I'm just happy that Gary sound great and
I'm glad that the timing on that health scare is

(16:47):
what it was. And you tell your wife that I said,
she's got to keep taking good care of you.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
You got it. Mike, Thanks for your friendship. I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me on, and I encourage everybody to
really plug into the girls postseason this year. It's really
gonna be a fun ride.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
It's gonna be a great ride. He is Gary Whipperman
again W seven Productions. He's gonna be Winna Connie. They're
doing the Win a Connie Game and the Kimberly Game.
So go to W seven Productions and you can you
can watch them go to work. On the other side
of the other side of that break, Rob Reischel from
Conley Media is going to join us. This is the
Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your local

(17:25):
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores on Fox Sports
nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to the
Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented by your local
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores, coming live from
the die of in the Jordans and HETI and Cooling Studio.
I love this time of year. We can go back
and forth talk some girls playoff basketball, boys playoff basketball.

(17:46):
We're now joined by Rob Reischel. He is with Conley Media. Rob.
How you been.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
I've been great, man.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
It's good to talk to you. It's good to see
over at Brookfield least a couple of weeks ago. And
you know it wasn't great. How you instead of just
saying hello, how you caught my attention? But you said
you only do that to people you love. So I appreciate.
I appreciate that a lot. Hey, following you on Twitter,
I got to tell you, man, there are some there

(18:16):
are some things about this year's playoffs where you took
the WI a little bit to task, and I agree
with you. I don't know as a basketball coach why
I needed to know who's in my regional like in August.
You know, I don't. Let's wait until January and then
let's start putting this thing together, because boy, there's some
there's some sectional regional sectionals that there are five six

(18:41):
teams that are all in the top ten in the
state and only one team can get out of that sectional.
And I think that we're onto something. I'm hoping the
WIA and maybe the Wisconsin Basketball Coach Association will take
a list and approach the WIA to change how they've
been doing this.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Well. I've been lobbying for that for years, Mike. I've
written it feels like the same column over and over
about it. We've had little change. I had a long
talk last week with Stephanie Hauser, who's of course the
head of the WIA, about this topic. I think she's open.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
To some changes, you know.

Speaker 4 (19:18):
So for the you know, for the novice fan, you
know back at home, Mike, here's what's going to happen.
They're going to tell you already in June who's going
to be in your sectional in March of twenty twenty six, right,
and and my and my point is that there's just
no logic to that, Mike, whatsoever. If you want to
have fair and equal and balanced sectionals across the state

(19:42):
that you know, we've We've got the one sectional MIC
where Pewaukee is the number one team in the state,
Kimberly's number three, Hartford's number four, Brookfield pieces number five,
to Pier is number six in the Homestead is number eight. Mike,
We've got five of the top six girls teams in
D one and six to the top eight in the
exact same sectional. We've got a regional final, mic not

(20:05):
even a sectional final. We've got a regional final tonight
between the number five and number six teams in the state,
with Brookville East in the peer. I mean, how fair
is that? I mean, it's obviously not think of it
this way right thincause the NCAA tournament this summer is
going to tell all the teams who's going to be
in their sectional already the following march, or who's going

(20:26):
to be in their bracket or quadrants, however you want
to phrase it. That's what we've got going on right now, Mike.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
And if you remember.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
Back to that twenty twenty twenty one season, the COVID year,
when not when the tournament was canceled the following year, Mike,
when we actually played it, we had a number of
teams around the state that played eight games, ten games,
fourteen games. It wasn't balanced because it took Dame County
a while to get going. Other schools didn't play whatsoever.

(20:54):
The WIA that year, Mike had to wait until February
to start putting the pairings and the brackets together because
they just really didn't know who was going to play
that year in the tournament, and far and away, Mike,
it wound up being the most fair and equal balanced
sectionals we've ever seen. And my point is Stephanie and
she and I are going to have more discussions on this,
I know, moving forward, and it's got to get you know,

(21:16):
got to get some steam rolling from the Coaches Association
as well. Is wait until New Year's wait until the
twentieth of January, February one, whatever it is, and balance
these things out because right now, you know, and the
problem Mike, and you know this as well as anybody
the WIA, their number one concern is to get geographical

(21:38):
representation at state. They want the North, they want the South,
they want the East, they want the West. They don't
necessarily want the best four teams. We're not getting the
best four teams at state like that that Hartford Sectional,
which again, like I mentioned, you know, contains six in
the top eight in the state. That's virtually a state tournament.
Some of these teams are going to get over to
Green Bay and no disrestis might probably don't belong there.

(22:02):
So the casual fan going to pay fifteen bucks to
watch these games, they're not going to get the same
quality as say, what if we balance these things out.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, and when they talk about geographic and they talk about,
look we put a circle around Well, okay, if you're
going to stay with that, then why is it on
the boys side? Why is Brookfield Central over in sectional
three with the forest Reedsburg you know, beaver damn stock Prairie.
You know, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense

(22:31):
to me. If you're going to stay with that we
put circles around the map, Well, you don't always do that.
Because you've got the number one seed brook Central. They're
going to play the winner of the DeForest Reiedsberg game,
So the winner of that game's going to have to
travel to Brookfield Central and then Sock Prairie. You know again,

(22:51):
beaver damn sock Prairie. Bearable. You're looking at teams from
not this area. You certainly, I don't know how big
that circle was, But there's always going to be issues
for guys, I guess to complain about. But if you waited,
if you waited a little bit until January and did
this and then took a look and take a look
to see Okay, the top ten. We can't have six, seven,

(23:14):
eight teams in the same regional sectional.

Speaker 4 (23:19):
No, and Mike, it's really really easy to balance. And
I wrote this in a column and all our papers
a couple of weeks ago when the seeds first came out.
Let's just go back because this is the easy one.
It's the low hanging through. It's at Hartford Sectional with
six of the top eight. Okay, you've got Kimberly to Peer,
Green Bay, Notre Dame, which was you know, Kimberly is

(23:40):
twenty four and one. They won the FBA Right to
Peer at eighteen and all. They won the Fox River Classic,
Green Bay Order Dame. Mike has had eleven trips to
state since they since they came this way from the WISSA.
They're all over obviously, and you know in the Fox
Valley Brown County area, they're about ninety miles over to
the Marshfield Sectional, they're about ninety miles down to Hartford.

(24:01):
They're all coming down to Hartford. You've got number one Pewaukee,
which one d two last year, is the number one
team in the state over by you know, over in
Waukeshaw County. Same with Brookfield, East, a power of the
last five years tied for the GMC title. They're ranked
fifth in the state. You've got Hartford, who was in
the final four last year at State, who's obviously hosting

(24:23):
that sectional. You've got Homestead there. You take one or
two of those teams, Mike, and ship them down into
that into that Kenosha Tremper Sectional. It's about forty minutes
no matter where you are in circle Pelwaukee, Brookfield, Homestead
and send them south. You're going to balance that out
right now, Mike. That Hartford sectional has a six thirty

(24:43):
winning percentage. Nobody else has a higher one than five fifteen,
and a couple are right around five hundred or below.
So you're talking a dramatic difference in terms of of
of not just at the top, Mice, but even you know,
even the middle of like that that Hartford Sectional where
you've got a really good monomine ball team that that

(25:04):
kind of gets hosed as an eleven seed. You've got
a good Preble team at a ten, you've got a
good Germantown team, and a nine. You put those teams
and a lot of other sectionals might there four and five.
You and I could balance this thing in an hour
and a half. I mean, it wouldn't take long. I'd
go get you a cheeseburger and and and we'd have
this done in no time. But again, this this is

(25:25):
not rocket science. And and I don't know that there's
not a great explanation as to why we need to
know who is where nine months ahead of time before
we're ever going to play it.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Did did did howser Chefanie give you an answer for that?
It's just or is it this is the way we've
always done it?

Speaker 4 (25:44):
Well, it's always this is the way we've done it.
And I and I had an old boss at the
paper in Madison who used that line all the time,
and the staff would kind of laugh and roll their
eyes and say, you know, times do change. We probably should,
we probably should advance things from time to time. Stephanie
certainly use that line.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
The w I A.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
Mike always likes to put a lot of things back
on on the Basketball Coaches Association and say, hey, if
this is going to change, it's got to start from them,
which is true. The problem with a lot of these things,
Mike is is it's almost like government. There's so many channels,
there's so many you know, so many ways, so many,
so many meetings and boards you have to pass you know,

(26:22):
on the way. Oh, it's got to go through this committee,
and then it's got to go through this channel to
get from here to here to hear. Stephanie and I were
talking about that last week, Mike. There's there's about five,
you know committees these things actually have to once they're proposed,
that they have to pass before they even get to
final approval by the WA board. So I hope the
Basketball Coaches Association, you know, start some type of you know,

(26:46):
active attack on this because it should change, and it's
easy to change.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
Mike.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
I still think you can get geographical representation and the
best teams going to state with just tinkering this them
a little bit. Again, we see it year in and
year out, and it's not just in D one, Mic,
I believe it's a D three to one where we've
got you know, three of the top four in the

(27:13):
state in the same sectional.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
I'm just looking here kettl Maray and Luther Oustberg and
Catholic Memorial three of the top four there. I think
even in D two, Mic, we've got that with the
with the Tosa East one, and Tius is in that one. Yeah,
there we go, Tosa East two in the state, mic Whitefish,
base three in the state, Union drove four in the states,
highest five in the states. They're all in the same

(27:36):
sectional and Division two. Again, you move a piece here
or there along the chessboard along the map of Wisconsin
and we can balance this thing pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Mich Rob. It's not like we're going to send Category
and Luther and you know it's a Seano. I mean,
that's not what we're talking about, do you know what
I'm saying. However, when when you look at that if
if on the girls side, if fide there is a
game that would be at managed walk the division there, Yeah,

(28:09):
between brook two teams from here are going to have
to travel.

Speaker 4 (28:12):
Now.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
I think they'll change that right.

Speaker 4 (28:16):
And and again, Mike, that's my point to to the
w A A lot of these times they change these
gym locations in the blank of an eye. Because to
your to your point, the way that shapes up right
now is it's probably gonna be a Pewaukee Brookfield East
Sectional semi final schedule for next Thursday at Manitouac Lincoln

(28:37):
And like you said, they will move that, and they'll
put it in the middle somewhere that'll be a Catholic
memorial or something Hamilton or wherever they decide to decide
to play that.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Right, you're not going to.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
Make those travel two hours to Lincoln and Mike, they'll
change that tomorrow morning by nine am, so you don't
need to lock in. These gyms either are nine months
ahead of the ahead of time. Because the tournament is
also fluid, they go ahead and they make these changes
you the next morning.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Right, and if you look, if to Peer beats Brookfield East,
then they'll keep it at Manituauc Lincoln because it's kind
of in the middle. But if Brookville East beats to
Peer and it doesn't matter Pewaukee or Germantown, then they'll
move that, and like you said, they'll do it within
twenty four hours. They'll have a gym closer to this area.
So it's not like everything is locked in and nothing changes.

(29:23):
So it just doesn't make any sense to any of us.
And I would assume that Stephanie is sick and tired
of getting asked that question, why do we have to
know this in June when we could wait till January
and then do a better job of setting this thing up.

Speaker 4 (29:41):
A thousand percent, and she and I are going to
sit down we talked about it at the end of
the at the end of the high school basketball season,
and do a long Q and A on this that
I think we'll put the number of papers around the
state just so, just so readers are a little more
informed and people are a little bit more informed of
where some of these changes could come from, where the
WI stands on some things, and Mike, what needs to

(30:03):
kind of happen for these changes to eventually come about.
I mean, I you know, I do think they've made
strides in some of this, you know, throughout the years.
I don't like the fact that this is completely done
one hundred percent now by a computer. I still think
there needs to be a human element. Some of the
seeds in some of these sectionals again this year, especially

(30:26):
on the boy's side, with like a number eight Catholic
memorial who's actually ranked eighth in the state in there
and Eath a number eight seed.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
This is a boy's side.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
There the ANSH rank team in the state MIC there's
their number eight and their own sectional. There needs to
be a human element. My suggestion would be you let
the computer do what it does, and then you bring
the coaches back in. And you remember, Mike, back in
the day, there was always an appeal process. If you're
at number nine and you think you should be number eight,
you say, this is why I think I should jump

(30:56):
up a spot, and then the coaches vote and you move.
You kind of move up the board. That way, you
bring the human element back into things. I think that
would be a terrific step for the Wii to take. Mike,
let the computer still do what it does. I know
they love that computer, even though sometimes it doesn't make
a whole lot of sense, and then bring the coaches
in for a one hour zoom call that that's not

(31:16):
going to take much of their time. I would guess, Mike,
three quarters of the coaches don't even appeal, and you
can probably get off that phone call in forty five
minutes and move teams up and down. Probably what in
terms of you know, a logic based system is going
to make a whole lot more sense.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
Well, Rob, can you imagine having you and Mark Miller
sitting in a room as this thing is coming out
and just saying, look, if we just move this one
team to this area, move this. You could do that
like a chessboard, like you said, in thirty minutes and
make it all. I don't think there'd be anybody complaining
it at that point, I really don't. I was one

(31:54):
of the few coaches that like going into those meetings,
by the way that sharitay morning, where you had a
look people in the eye and say, look, I don't
know why you have me at a five. I beat
you twice, and the guy that you put down at
a four I beat by thirty and so let's have
that conversation and then you could look at me in
the eye and just question their thought process. I enjoyed that,

(32:16):
but I'm one hundred percent Irish. I like that kind
of stuff. There are a lot of coaches that said, look,
I don't too much politics going on. I don't like
having to look somebody in the eye. And I thought, man,
that was my favorite part to find out, like why
would you do? Why would you put me there? And
I think that that that you're right if they either
did it with some people that are really knowledgeable throughout

(32:38):
the state that could just make a couple of easy
tweaks before they ever release it. I think that that
would be the first step to get this thing done. Hey, Rob,
before I let you go, how many games do you
think you've been to this year?

Speaker 4 (32:54):
Oh? Probably, you know, between boys and girls, Mike, probably
eighty at least maybe hundred, and probably another one or
more I've watched on live stream.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Just about it.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
I'm a high school basketball dor.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah, every gym I go into your sitting there normally
have a better seat than I do, which I got
to figure out how you get the best seat in
the house. He is Rob ruischeld Coley Media, and uh yeah.
What I love most about him is you don't have
to worry about or think about what Rob is thinking.
Ask him because he'll tell you. He's not afraid to

(33:27):
tell you. And if he's going against the grain, he's
okay because he's always got receipts to back up what
he's thinking. Hey, Rob, I'm going to reach out again
here probably next week in the following week to talk
about some of the games on the girls side and
the boys side. Thanks a lot for a couple of
minutes of your time.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
Yeah, that's awesome, Mike. I'll just tell people the best
the best ticket they can find tonight. Go see a
regional final for five, six, eight bucks. Whatever it is
at the door, You're you're not gonna get You're not
gonna get better efforts and overall, you know, paying for
your bucks than you are go see a regional girl
final somewhere tonight.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
I agree. If you see Rob there, ask him if
he needs a bag of popcorner or anything. He is.
He spends a lot of times in in gym's and
we really appreciate the amount of time he gives us
in the conversations that him and I have had over
the years. Again Conley Media, he is Rob Reischall have
a great weekend, Robs the ton you got it. We're

(34:23):
gonna get to a break. Other side of the break Mark
Mark Miller will join us. We'll talk a little boys
basketball and then that ten o'clock hour. Ben Wiznowski, he
is the head basketball coach and director of the d
m EP Academy at Saint John's Northwestern. Him and his
dad are going to be joining us in studio. Looking
forward to seeing Ben. It's been a while and one

(34:45):
of the really up and rising coaches I think in
our area. This is the varsity, It's high school sports show.
Presented by your local Pick and Save in Metro market stores,
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app.
Welcome back to the Varsity. It's high school sports show
is always presented by your local Pick and Save in
metro market stores. Coming from the Donovan and Jorgenson Heating

(35:08):
and Cooling Studios. Well, I love this time of year
talking high school basketball. It's playoff time. We're now joined
by Mark Miller. Hey, Mark, how you doing good?

Speaker 5 (35:19):
Mike?

Speaker 2 (35:19):
How are you?

Speaker 3 (35:20):
Man?

Speaker 1 (35:20):
I'm doing good? What a what a fun time a
year for guys like us?

Speaker 5 (35:24):
Right, Oh, yeah, that's awesome. You're getting underway this week
with regionals and or next week, I guess. But Tuesday
just a few days away. So, uh, it's going to
be fun, it's going to be interesting, it's going to
be fascinating, it's going to be exciting all the above.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
Hey, when you look at at at let's start with
uh with division one. If we can't when you look
at sectionals one, two, three, and four, which one is
the toughest, the toughest to get out of it? In
your mind?

Speaker 5 (35:55):
Well, we all have challenges, of course, you know, I
look at Kettlem obviously is the is the only unbeaten
team in the state and do you want and and
they're looking at a pretty heavy trail of going through
the Big Eight conference likely so they're gonna they're gonna
encounter different style of play than what they're they're used to.

(36:15):
You know, in the Classic gate the Big Eight. Over
here in the Madison areas, there is is definitely UH
a league that for the most part, doesn't need a
shot clock, a lot of points, put up a lot
of possessions. You know, the pace the game is going
to be really quick. But you know, Kettle Moraine has
a I think they can play that way if they
need to. But they also have a way of dictating tempo,

(36:40):
so you know, I think they're going to be okay.
You know, Wisconsin Lutheran being in D one this year
is very interesting and you know, I think when you
look at that that sectional four, UH, they you know,
they have an interesting treck. You know, they're they're they're
likely going to play Marquette High and you know in
the regional fine know, and of course that's a rematch

(37:03):
of two state champions from last year, though obviously this
year is a little bit rebuilding. They're eleven and thirteen
in wiscos twenty two and two. But they're looking at,
you know, some tough games along the way, I think,
particularly the sectional final perhaps when they're looking at you know,
playing quite possibly West l Central for the excuse me,

(37:24):
for the third time this year, and they split during
the regular season, so in West l Central is playing
some pretty good basketball right now, so I think that
that could be a tough road to state. And then
Sectional one I think is very good as well, with
all the teams from from the Fox Valley area playing
against you know, the teams from the Big Rivers in

(37:44):
the Wisconsin Valley Conference, and you look at Kakana, which
got the number one overall seed in that sectional, and
they're looking at reg regional and sectional semi final games
against teams from their own conference, and that's always a challenge,
especially when it's teams from the at Fox Value Association.
And then you know, possibly Marshfield or oak Corn Memorial

(38:08):
in the Sectional final and you know, the team that
I think UH potentially could be a state champion this year.
To peer in Sectional two, you know they're going to
have to go through some Walkee area schools UH to
get to Medicine, including their potential regional final matchup against Arrowhead,

(38:28):
the team that knocked them out last year. I think
all four sectionals are, you know, are littered with really
good teams. I think if I had to pick one
that was maybe the hardest, I would probably sectional, say
Sectional one.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, I was looking at Section one as well, and
boy there's some really good basketball being played, hey in
Sectional two. When when you look at at Sectional three
in Division two, you know, we talk about where people
are going and the travel part. And you know when
you if you talk to the WA, they say we

(39:02):
put a circle around, but they moved to Brookfield Central
and the winner of the DeForest Reedsburg game is going
to have to travel to Brookfield Central. And when you
look at Sock Prairie and some of the teams that
are in their Bearaboo and portage, that's not exactly you
didn't put a circle around you know those cities and say, look,

(39:22):
it's just a twenty minute drive down the street. So
I would would you? Rob Reischel talked a little bit
prior to you coming on about trying to get the
WA not to get everybody's regional and sectional. In April
let's wait until January, would you before that?

Speaker 5 (39:43):
Well, you know that would take a philosophical change from
the WA in terms of what they want out of
the state tournament, and of course that would have to
come from the four hundred and eighty eight schools that
are members. So having regional representation, you know, you you
think what you're saying is, hey, let's let's wait a

(40:05):
little bit and see where the really good teams are
and try to divvy those teams up a little bit
in different sectionals. You know, there's some there's some merit
to that, particularly when you're talking about the Fox Valley, Milwaukee,
Madison areas, because you know, the circles can be drawn,
because we're just saying, but you can draw them in
different ways. You know, hey, let's include Brooks Central in

(40:27):
this circle and exclude uh, you know, I don't know,
in Pewaukee from that schedule from that area. You know
what I'm saying. So, you know, the teams that are
really close, the circle's got to end somewhere, and so
some teams that are really closer in different sectionals. You know.
So sometimes I remember when Sam Decker was playing at

(40:50):
Sheboygan Lutheran in D five h Shoygan Lutheran and shoboy
and Christian were actually in different sectionals despite being both
Division fives. So yeah, I mean there's some merit to that,
you know.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
It's just.

Speaker 5 (41:06):
You know, what's the state tournament for? Is it for
the best teams in the state. I mean we I
think we generally feel that that's the case, or is
it for Hey, we want a team from this section
of the state, that section from the state, and so forth.
And when you have five divisions, you know, I think
it leads to imbalance. So you're going to have the

(41:29):
Superior in the same sectional as Appleton North. I mean,
Superior's first regional game is next Friday at Appleton North,
you know, and that of course Superior is the furthest
North team in D one.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
But it's just.

Speaker 5 (41:47):
I think when when you have divisions and you only
have four sections per state, per division, it's going to
be some travel involved. And you know, obviously in the
metro areas are going to have many more schools, so
you know, school A that's only twenty minutes from school
by that doesn't mean they're going to be in the

(42:08):
same section because of the number of so I don't
know if I'd be in favor or not. I'm not
my to answer your question. I think if there was
enough uproar from the WIA membership to do that, I
think they would listen. But you know, I think for
all the schools up north, you know, they don't want
that opportunity taken away.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Hey, question for you, and I was asked this, and
we're going to talk about it the last segment. A
team like Cohler, if Coler gets to the sectional semis
and right now they're to host that. If they were
to get there, is that game going to be at Cohler?
Can they get a home game on something like that?

Speaker 5 (42:45):
No, No, that would be moved. No, section We're going
to play on their home floor. So it's there right now. Tentatively.
All the selectional sites are tentative, you know, and as
you know, sometimes teams that qualify for sectionals the site
is you know, two hours away from one school and

(43:07):
ten minutes away from another. Sometimes they move it in
that situation, and then of course they're always gonna move
it if if the Whost school is a school involved,
so Coler would not host that.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Okay, Well, that's good to know because I've been asked that,
and I look, I've been out of coaching now a
couple of years. You forget stuff when you get my
age pal. You know how that goes. You definitely forget. Hey,
there's a couple of teams real quick, We've only got
a couple of minutes. A couple of teams that I
think are playing the best basketball of the year. And
I'll go right to Martin luther for that. I think

(43:41):
coach Wallersheim. I've seen them play now a couple of
times here. Recently they beat a really good Dominican team,
followed up with beating a really good Lake Country Lutheran team,
and I think he's got his boys playing about as
well as they played all year. There's a couple of
teams that I think are playing their best basketball this
time time a year. Give us a couple that you

(44:02):
think are playing pretty well right now.

Speaker 5 (44:05):
Well, I think west Ell Central is one of those,
for sure. It's struggled a little bit with Whitnell in
the crossover game the other night in Woodland, but they
did win the game, and it was at Whitnell. And
then of course they have those wins recently over Wisconsin
Lutheran and Milwaukee, and I think they're playing very well.
I would agree with you on Martin Luther. You know,
it's interesting because they have a potential regional game on

(44:30):
next Friday at home against Greendale, and it's been a
while since Greendale and Martin Luther have played. Of course,
they're located in the same city, so that would be
a very interesting game, to say the least. And you know,
then they're looking at potentially playing either Milwaukee Tech or

(44:50):
were Seine Park in a regional final should they get
past that game against Greendale. And I think they match
up pretty well with both those teams actually, although Park
has a big man that that's going to provide some
issues for them. But I think those two teams come
to mind immediately, you know. And then I always think that,

(45:10):
you know, the teams that have had postseason success in
the past, like Wisconsin Lutheran, like Pewaukee. You know, I
think I think they're you know, maybe the scores the
last two weeks haven't been as dominating as they were earlier,
but they just have a way of turning it up
a notch, and all teams do to some degree. But

(45:31):
I keep an eye on teams that have had success
in the in the past because the coaches of those programs,
you know, just know what buttons to push to get
their teams to play at their full potential.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
Hey Mark, last question, if in in Division one in
sectional three with Kedam Morain being the one and want
to keep being the two, if that, if that were
to come to fruition where those two teams get a
chance to play, does want to Key have a chance
and there's that's a really good team, Do they have
a chance has to play with a team like kend

(46:01):
of Moraine.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
I think they would.

Speaker 5 (46:05):
Yes. You know, I've seen one of Key I think
four times this year, you know, and they were won
three of those four. You know, they they sometimes go
through some scoring droughts and that's their one downfall. They're
also not real big, but either is Kettle Moraine, and
both teams are kind of big across the way in

(46:25):
the sense that their guards are you know, six two,
six three their Fords or six four and could play
inside outside. They both have pretty good depth. They're both
well coached teams, so I think they could certainly play
with them. But you know, there's there's some hurdles that
both teams are going to have to get over uh,

(46:46):
you know, particularly Kill the Moraine, you know, looking at
possibly playing uh you know Middleton or then either some
Prairie East or won the Big Eight or Madison Memorial.
Uh to get that far right in that section. What's
playing really well, I think is Marona. So you know,
I think all those teams are close. You know, I

(47:09):
know that Kettle Moraine has the unbeaten record, but you
know it's not it's it's not a German Town type
team under Steve Showalter where they're just steam rolling people.
They certainly have won by decisive margins, but uh, you
know it's not a team loaded with Division one players.

(47:30):
So and you know, March is a weird time, Mike,
as you know, I mean, you get behind and then
you start to press a little bit. And I'm not
saying this is gonna happen to Kettle Moraine, but it
can happen to any favorite team. And that's what makes
Mark so exciting that the underdog always has a chance
because of the the pressure that's involved.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Honestly, Winter Winner Go Home makes Yeah, they're there. When
you're sixteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old, you know you
feel that kind of pressure and this time of year,
I love it. I just do you and you get
to watch some of these kids that you know, they
may have not shot the ball very well all year,
and all of a sudden they're hitting threes all over
the place. And you know there are times where kids

(48:12):
just step up to the lights being on a little
bit brighter, and uh, that's what I enjoy. Mark Miller,
thank you so much. You can follow Mark on Twitter
like I do. Prep Prep hoops dot com is where
you're gonna want to go to read all his stuff,
and he is He's always very gracious with his time. Mark,
thank you so much for a couple of minutes, and

(48:32):
have a good weekend. Not getting much sleep here in
the next few weeks, so get a little sleep this weekend.

Speaker 5 (48:38):
Okay, thanks for having me on Mike. We get it.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
You got it. That's Mark Biller. Get to a break
the other side of the break. Well, Ben was Newski
just sent me text. He's gonna be a couple of
minutes late. But his his dad who's a referee, and
I've known his dad, Vinnie for a long time, and
we'll have him in studio and then Ben will be
here He is the head coach and the director of
the dm Academy program at St. John's Northwestern and we'll

(49:02):
get to him when he when he arrives. This is
the Varsity Plix High School Sports Show presented by your
local Pick and Safe and Metro Market Stores on Fox
Sports Sign twenty year iHeart Radio app Welcome back to
the Varsity Plix High School Sports Show presented by your
local Pick and Safe and Metro Market Stores. Coming from
the Donovan Jordanston Heating and Cooling Studios. So, the new

(49:25):
head coach at DMME academy's been there a year now.
Saint John's Northwestern is on his way, and I understand
why he's a little late. No worries. But his dad
is in studio and I've known his dad for I
don't know, twenty five years, a long time. It's been
a long time, long time, and he is he has
retired from the world of radio. I guess he worked

(49:47):
over at the WKLAH for a long time. We competed
against each other in sales. We competed against each other
in softball, we competed against each other in basketball. And
now you're a referee.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
You have it.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
You've never teed me up and I appreciate. Well that
could happen not anymore, can Uk you can if you
give me the walk of shame. You got to handle
the rest of the show. Vinny, how you've been I'm
doing great, Mike, you look great. Thank you great. Yeah,
you're still working out like crazy. And hey, been a
varsity referee for a while, and how are things going

(50:22):
in that space for you? It's great.

Speaker 6 (50:24):
I love to officiate and I'm a member of the
Wisconsin Basketball Officials Association, one of the best officials association
in America actually, and I love it.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
How many games did you this year? Did?

Speaker 6 (50:37):
Thirty varsity games? And then numerous youth basketball Because members
of the w BA, we always give back and officiate
on the youth level to help those programs as well.
But yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
How long you've been reughing?

Speaker 6 (50:52):
This will be my probably twenty sixth year.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Have things changed for you? I know as a basketball coach,
things were changed. Things changed throughout the years, right, and
and look with social media and with parents, every parent
things their kids going to the NBA, and there are
some issues. I think my grandkids play at the youth
level and I sit and I literally I know a

(51:16):
lot of the refs, don't. I don't say anything, you know,
I'm too old to question any of those calls. But
I hear the stands, and when I'm coaching, I got
really good at not hearing anything from behind. Right, I
couldn't hear anybody behind yelling at me, yelling at refs,
yelling at players. But now that I'm now that i'm
a grandfather just watching games, I hear all that. And

(51:38):
I don't think I could be a referee, Vinnie, I
don't think I could.

Speaker 6 (51:43):
You asked have things changed? They have changed significantly, and
unfortunately it is because of the parents. The kids are
great on the coaches for the most part. I mean,
they're competitive sportsmen really rarely ever have a issue with
a coach. But it's the parents who become kind of

(52:05):
uncivil right in the in the stands. And it's hard
to explain, but they are much more vocal. They're much
more sarcastic and negative, and it has hurt the high
school basketball game.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
It has, and it's hard to get young guys to
rep You know, Andy Gallian I actually not only a
great guy, but he gets it and he understands it.
And he's one of the best referees in the state.
And I'll have that conversation with anybody. We had coffee
about two weeks ago and we had this conversation and

(52:44):
he had his daughter who wanted to try this, and
he said, nope, she you know, parents are so just
like yelling. And he said, she would prefer to have
a job where she doesn't have somebody yelling at her
all the time. And he said, and the problem is
at their early stages, she was probably would have been
a really good referee, and because she's female, she could

(53:07):
have gone up the chain and she could have gone
a long way in this thing, made a lot of
money doing something that she really wanted to do, and
found out early on that she just that wasn't for her.

Speaker 6 (53:20):
Yeah, well, that's very common. My there's a severe shortage
of basketball officials in every sport, particularly football and basketball.
We have a very strong recruitment campaign with a WBOA
that we've run for four or five six years, and
it's difficult to retain young officials. We can get them in,

(53:42):
get them trained, build their confidence, but it's difficult to
deal with irrational, sarcastic parents from the stands right.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
And when you're thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years look, when you
are our age, you just go whatever. Man. If you
don't yeah, if you don't like it, put on, put
a whistle on, and you go try it. I couldn't
do it like I And I've been asked to speak
at some referee banquets and stuff, and I talk a
lot about as a basketball coach, if a referee's in

(54:14):
the right position and sells the call, I never questioned it.
Where I struggle If the guys in the wrong position
blows the whistle, hesitates for a couple of seconds, and
then goes block, I would go crazy, like a block. Really,
where did you see that? But if a guy is
in the right position and he sells the call, he
saw something I didn't see, good for you. Let's move on.

Speaker 6 (54:37):
It's let's put it this way. It's very difficult to
be an official because you're gonna blow your whistle seventy
eighty nine one hundred times per game, and it's all.
Even the best officials are not correct one percent of
the time, but they're correct about ninety eight or ninety
nine percent of the time. And the parents just to

(55:00):
have to deal with the coaches do understand it's a
very emotional game.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
Hey, can I ask you this, Do you communicate with
coaches because there are some refs that I do not
talk to me I don't want and the guys that go, look,
you know what I may have missed that. I don't
worry about it. I'm sorry, but I may have met
or at least communicate with a coach. I know when
I was on Coach Wallersheim's staff, he made it clear
I am the only one that talks with officials. I

(55:25):
don't want my staff and I can go to a
game right now and I can see if that coach
has made that rule that Coach Wallersheim had, which is
I'm a coach. I'm the only one that's going to
question official talk to an official. If you know these guys,
you want to say hello to them, great, but not
during the game. That's on me. And what happens with
that is then the players understand they can't, and then

(55:48):
the parents understand it, and then I go to games
where that's not a rule, and then every official, era,
every assistant coach is yelling about every call. Then players
start yelling, and then the fans start yelling. And that's
that part of it I think has changed over the years.

Speaker 6 (56:05):
It starts from the top. That is so great to
hear about Coach Wallersheim. I know he's a very classy,
successful coach. Gosh, I lost my train of thought.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
But do you see you can see when if assistant
coaches start yelling, then the players feel like they can yell,
and then the parents feel like, well, my son's yelling,
so I'm gonna yell and it gets out of hand.

Speaker 5 (56:28):
Well.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Coach Wallersheim, like early in the season, we have a
parent meeting and he talks about that like look, and
as his assistant coach, there are times that he would
go like, point, you got to go have that in
the middle of a game, sir, and I'd walk off
the bench. I'd go in the stand and go knock
it up. That's not how we act here. And that
was at Dominican, that was at Greendell, Martin Luther and

(56:51):
that look. As an assistant coach for him, you would
get frustrated with the calls, but you know what your
rule is and what the role is and he will
handle that.

Speaker 6 (57:01):
Mike, you asked, do you communicate with coaches? Absolutely, we
do coaches want to be heard and if they ask
a question in respectful manner, all officials, the really good,
qualified experience officials will absolutely speak to a coach. I
just did done Thursday night at a ball games. So

(57:22):
coaches want to be heard and it's up to an
official to be respectful of the coaches and communicate with them.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Hey, if Anny and I don't hear a lot from officials,
I'll see him a lot and we waive and stuff.
But if they're if you when you guys are doing
your recruiting, if you were somebody from the organization wants
to come in on this show, that door is always
open for you guys, and please I just get in
touch with me and if it's you or if it's
somebody from from from there. Look, I've had a couple

(57:50):
of guys that have said, look, I'll come in and
and you know, I need to do a better job
of reaching out to those guys because every time I
have an official in. I think this platform could do
it could do a pretty good job of at least
highlighted promu celebrating the idea of keep it in shape,
keeping your your your foot in the door, and being

(58:10):
part of part of basketball on the boys and girls
side and being official, it's a really good part time job.
You can make a lot of dome.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Man.

Speaker 6 (58:19):
Oh it's a great avocation. I mean you you get
paid to exercise and you give back to the game.
And we'll accept your invitation. I will speak with our
leadership group of the WBOA, justin Marion ken Shamp and
one of them, great guy, and they would love to
be on your show. Because recruitment is so critical in

(58:40):
the world of basketball official.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
How much training do you guys do a ton? I
would think we do.

Speaker 6 (58:45):
We have a six week in classroom session in late
September and October. We go over video plays and watching
video is critical. But we have an extensive recruitment and
education campaign and that's why the WBOA officials are the
best officials in the state.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
Well, and what I love is when you get a
young official that's starting to move up. What I see
from all the games I go to is you'll take
two guys that have been around for a bit and
add that guy in so that you can help protect
and then you know at halftime during time out, I
see a lot of teaching going on. When guys have

(59:26):
made it. They've gone through the youth programs. Now they're
doing freshmen in JV or JV one, JV two. I
don't know what any of that means. But once they
get to the varsity level, and when guys who have
been doing it a while take them under their wing,
and then during the time out of a break are
over talking to them and coaching them up. I think
that's a great way of doing it.

Speaker 6 (59:47):
We have an outstanding mentorship program. And our officials are
young officials. Let's start on the third fourth fifth grade level.
They'll do a ton of youth games and then they
will eventually and gradually move on to the high school level,
starting at the freshman level, and our senior officials guide
him along very very well.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
Hey, we're going to get to an early break because
our guests just showed up, and you know what, I
was going to yell at him, but then you told
me walking in, why he's a couple of minutes late.
I'd still be out there just telling you that. Right now.
Ben was Newski. He is the head coach and the
director of the DM Academy at Saint John's Northwestern Academy,

(01:00:25):
and we're going to get to a break and we'll
talk to him. You and I have had a lot
of conversations about both your boys, but matt really proud
of this young man. I told a story about him.
And when my son, Matthew was a senior in high school,
he got done. He was going to Marinatha Baptist Bible
College and he was going to play basketball, and he
got asked to plan a preseason tournament with college basketball players.

(01:00:48):
And your son was through his freshman year at Madison
Edgewood and they played together and Matthew was trying to
figure out if he could play at that level. And
after they played, he took Matthews I put his arm
around him, and they walked in the hallway and they
talked for like ten minutes, and Matthew got in the
car with a big smile. Look. It makes me emotional

(01:01:09):
because what he said to my son, all of a
suden Matthews said, you know what, that kid, who's like
one of the best players in that conference, said that
I'm gonna be just fine and he's looking forward to
playing against me. That gave him just a sense of relief, like, Okay,
maybe I can't play at that level and we're gonna
thank Ben for that. On the other side of the break.
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented

(01:01:31):
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores
on Fox Sports ninety twenty and year iHeart Radio app.
Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show
presented by your local Pickingsave and Metro Market stores. Coming
live from the Donovan and Jorganson he COOLID Studios. Any
issues you have with your HVAC system? Donovan Jorgenson dot

(01:01:52):
Com the largest employee owned HVAC company in the state
of Wisconsin. We're now joined in studio. He's late, but
I'm gonna give him a pass. It's good to see in.
Ben Wuzouski. How you been.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
I'm doing well. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Yeah, you bet man. I can tell you that I
didn't always enjoy when you played against my son. I
did a couple of times, and I'll tell you this
story real quick. Matthew's freshman year, your sophomore year at
Edgewood Maranatha didn't win a lot of games. They were
playing at the Dome or playing at Madison. Edgewood and
our oldest grandson who was born a couple months prior.

(01:02:27):
We were babysitting for the first time, so I was
not going to the game, but it was online and
they had a ten minute pregame show, and the guys
that were doing the show from Madison Edgewood never mentioned Maranatha.
They showed him warming up, but they talked about Concordion.
If we beat Concordion on Friday, we got a chance
to win the conference. And I kept going, I think
they're playing Maranantha the night, and then they did, here's

(01:02:48):
the starters from Maranatha, and Matthew hit a couple of
free throws down the stretch to win it. And after
the game, I saw you go up and give him
a little hug and walk off, and I called him
while he was on the bus. I said, man, nothing
but that he goes Dad. My knees were knocked. I
was so nervous. So it was really it was interesting
to watch you guys play against each other. And I

(01:03:09):
appreciate all the kind words that you had for him.
And you won't remember that conversation that you had with him.
It was a summer tournament for college kids, and you
put your arm around and said you're going to be fine.
You can play in this conference, and that meant the
world to him, and all of a sudden he kind
of like stuck his chest out. In fact, tomorrow I

(01:03:29):
am picking him up at eight point thirty. We're driving
to Pure Illinois so we can play in an old
guy basketball So we'll get three hours in the car
there and three hours tomorrow night on the way back.
So he's still playing and I love it. Hey, talk
to me a little bit about DMME Academy at Saint
John's Northwestern. Tell me the kind of the mission statement

(01:03:49):
behind dm ME and what you guys are trying to accomplish.

Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
Well, it's a preparatory school, so our goal is to
get our players mentally and physically ready for the college.
And they are allowed to train all year round, so
it's not part of the WIAA, so we don't have
the restrictions. So when they arrive on campus August twenty fifth,
we can get in the gym, we can start coaching them,
and we treat it like a Division I college basketball program,

(01:04:16):
and we train at a high level. We are able
to get in the gym multiple times a day. But
it's very simple. Our number one goal is to make
our players better, and then of course we want to
win some games along the way, but we want to
prepare them for the college level.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
So boy can't come home, right, and we're happy that
you're back in this market. Talk to me a little
bit about the journey getting back here. You played college ball,
you played a little professional basketball, got into coaching. Where
did you like You were outside of the country for
a while.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Right, Yeah, My most recent stint was in Prague, Czech Republic,
at an international basketball academy and wonderful experience. I was
able to travel recruit to work with European players and
all those players their goal is to play college basketball.
So the model is similar to what we're doing. You
know at DM. It's happening all over the world. So
help develop players and help them achieve their dreams of

(01:05:07):
playing college basketball in the US.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
The difference between a European player and the skill set
that they have compared to a skill set of a
player here, is there a big difference? Are they taught differently?
You talk about euro step and you're talking about some
of the things that maybe they teach at an earlier
age in different parts of the world than they do here.

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
Yeah, it's a great question, and I was able to
experience it firsthand. And I don't know if it's universal,
but at the academy I was at, skill development was
a big point of emphasis and much different than the US.
And the US it's more competition, and in Europe, our
practices were focused around skill. Every day there was the
first thirty minutes or there was a skill session for

(01:05:49):
an hour that was focused on footwork, balance one on zero,
and we drill and we drill and we drill. And
as an American, I'm going, well, why aren't we gonna
get some live action here?

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
What were gonna play it?

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
But it's kind of flip where it's like seventy five
percent of the practice is focused on skill and making
reads and decision making and then there might be a
little live action at the end. So it's just a
little different philosophy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
So, now, as the head coach at TM here at
Saint John's, do you feel like like, as coaches, we
don't invent anything. We steal all of it, right, and
then we take a piece from this kind a piece
from this guy, and then we make it our own.
Do you feel like the practices that you have now
are more skilled development or more competition.

Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
I'd like to say it's a balance of both. And
I've been very fortunate to be in great situations where
not only was I in Europe learning from very high
level coaches, but I was also down at Montfort Academy
or learning from the greatest high school coach and basically
the history of high school basketball and Coach Boyle. So
I've been able to be in different spots around the
world that I've taken a little bit from everybody and
now molded it in to my own program, which has

(01:06:51):
been great.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
First year, Is this the first year you've been been
a head coach. No.

Speaker 3 (01:06:57):
I was fortunate where in Europe I assisted our pro
team with the men's team, but then I was the
head coach of our under nineteen teams. I had my
own team that I coached, and that's the model in
Europe where you head coach well maybe a development team
or an under nineteen team, and then you assist a
top team. And then I was also a head coach
down in Florida. I ran the post grad program down
there in Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
So you've been so this is not new for you,
but but for DM it's new and it's interesting doing
some prep work and trying to find out a little
bit about the you know, the foundation, the mission statement
of DM. I see that Dan Panaggio is the guy
who is ahead of this, and he was here in
Milwaukee for a year under Coach Korean, And when I

(01:07:40):
was at Dominican, his son Michael, who's part of this,
was a freshman guard for US at Dominican. And all
of a sudden, I went, boy, I've known Dan for
a while, I haven't talked to him in a long time,
and went online and saw that his son Michael is
part of this as well, the idea of of And
we talked to about this on the phone. Look, it's

(01:08:02):
it's it's important for you to be able to get
kids from not only all over the country, but maybe
all over the world. Would that want to have what
you guys offer. But we talked about, Look, you don't
recruit here in the state of Wisconsin so much, and
it's not something that you don't aren't looking to upset
any of the high school kids high school coaches here,

(01:08:24):
but if somebody calls you, you'll certainly have the conversation.
But when you have a kid from Illinois or from
New York or from California that is looking to be
able to play at the next level. That that's perfect
for you.

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
Correct, Yes, And we're very diverse, as you said. We
have thirty three players on our campus, and we have
sixteen different countries. And actually we just had a new
family from Israel arrived today and that's why I was
ten minutes la.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
That's okay, ten minutes late, No worry, your dad and
I could do an hour really easily, So worried about that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:57):
So that actually will be our seventeenth country and our
thirty fourth player in our program. So it's really a
unique experience. It's something I value as a coach, being
able to coach players from all over the world and
learn from them. Just like we're teaching them how to
play the game or how to mature into young men,
I'm learning about their culture, their background, how they grew
up in a country, you know all you know, five

(01:09:18):
thousand miles away from here.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
So I heard a story. I used to work for
a guy over at enter Camara Odyssey who was from
North Carolina and when he came in, Chuck Sullivan was
his name. His first meeting at the radio station, Full
full station meeting, and he walked in with that southern
draw and he said, y'all, there's only one four letter
word that you cannot say in this building. Don't say duke.

(01:09:40):
If your dog's names duke, get rid of the dog.
If your boyfriend or husband's names duke, you want might
want to leave him because I don't want to hear
the word duke. Well, he told me a story about
they had a young man. He was from I believe
it was from Africa, and he was struggling with some
of the things that were going on here, and he

(01:10:01):
was homesick, and all of a sudden he got into
an argument with a couple of the assistant coaches and
he kind of walked off the floor. Well, the next
day one of the assistant coaches wasn't there, and they
were like, where is he? And Dean Smith sent him
to Africa to spend a week there to learn about
his culture. Then he to understand why he was saying

(01:10:22):
some of the things and doing some of the things.
And when he got back, everything changed for this young
man because he had enough smarts to go, Look, this
kid is very important to us. He's part of our
family and we don't know anything about his culture, so
I can't imagine with doing what you're doing. You have
to understand these kids' culture and where they're coming from,

(01:10:44):
for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:10:45):
And I've been fortunate to have traveled and lived in
different places, so I can relate a little bit, having
been to you know, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen different European countries
and I've been there, and I can, you know, relate
to the guys. But then you're just learning him. They're
missed home, just like any sixteen or seventeen year old would,
and you know where their family away from their family.
So all of our most of our coaches live on
campus and spend a ton of time with our guys

(01:11:07):
that are working almost twenty four to seven and are
with our players.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
Do you stay on campus as well?

Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
I do ye. I have an apartment right on campus,
so I walk thirty steps to the gym every day.

Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
It's so beautiful there that that campus, Benny, it is
when I go there. I went there this year. My
grandson's a freshman at LCL Lake Country Luthor and played
against the freshman team, and I just forgot. I got
there early so I could just drive around and it's boy,
when you walk on that campus, and I hope that
you never take for granted. It's just you get very

(01:11:38):
patriotic very quickly to do and you and it's so beautiful.
The gym is aest It really is one of the
nicer places to go to.

Speaker 3 (01:11:47):
And they treat you really well there. Yeah, we're very fortunate.
And I've seen, you know, hundreds, if not thousands, of
different prep schools haven't been at Montford and traveled and
been in Europe, and we're very fortunate to have a
college campus feel to it. And our buildings are beautiful.
We have dorms, we have a big cafeteria, so there's
a lot to offer, you know, our student athletes that

(01:12:08):
come play for us.

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
A couple other questions. Can you still hit a jump shot? Well,
you look like you're a great shape. You can still
shoot it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:14):
Yeah, My lateral defense is no good. You can't trust
it anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
I never worry about just passing the ball. I can
still shoot it, but might be in a horse game.
I'm not playing like five on five anymore. You can
take your dad off the dribble now, yeah, right, hope,
So at least I could do that. Yeah, trust me.
I don't know how much you know, but your dad
cheated a lot, cheated immediately, softball cheated. And why I'm
seeing fast? You know what he used to do. Craig

(01:12:40):
Buttram is, yeah, you still buddies?

Speaker 6 (01:12:43):
Yes, seven feet tall from New Berlin.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
From New Berlin and Mark show up and then he'd
stash him in some some hallway until hey, and he
would you know, he'd get the whoever walks in next
is on my team and then you go on and
get Craig. He walk in and he'd play.

Speaker 6 (01:12:59):
They would lose, for that was strictly coincidence. Yeah, and
Mike McGivern is extremely competitive, So.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
I am competitive. I don't win it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:13:09):
I've taken up golf. You want to tell about something
that I can't win? That? That is for sure. Hey,
how is the team doing this year?

Speaker 3 (01:13:15):
By the way, we've had ups and downs, but year
one it's been good. I would say we're seventeen and
seven and we were on a six game winning streak.
But we went to Ohio this past weekend and we
dropped too. We played Western Reserve Inspire Academy, which are
nationally known and are both very good, and we had
our opportunities, but we've we fell a little short, so

(01:13:36):
we had a disappointing weekend, but overall, guys are getting
better and we're at our home stretch here. We play Thursday,
March sixth that home in our last regular season game,
and then we head to what we call the Grind
Session National Championship, which is in Utah, and that is
a one and done tournament with the best teams in
our league. It would be highly highly competed.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
Is it get seated.

Speaker 3 (01:13:57):
It does get seated, So it's a sixteen team like
a March Madness bracket. And we have aj Debantska, the
number one player in the country, and Darren Peterson, the
number two player in the country, are both in our league.
So every team walks on the court with essentially five
Division one players, so it is tough to win games.

Speaker 1 (01:14:14):
How much should you guys travel? A lot? Looking at
your schedule, a lot of travel you don't get. Do
you get a lot of home games?

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
We would like to get more and we will get
more moving forward. I don't know exactly if we've had
seven or eight home games. I counted seven, does that
sound right? And our goal is to get to ten
or eleven or twelve every year, and we'll do that.
As we build our program and we start to have
a little more success, teams will want to come play us.
So we're working on growing it and having more home games.

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
What is the closest school. It's similar to trying to
accomplish what you guys are accomplishing to Delafield Saint John's.

Speaker 3 (01:14:52):
There's a Chicago Prep that's similar to us in our league,
and then there's a Minnesota prep that's in our league.
So really it's tough for us to have a road trip.
The Chicago Preps the shortest road trip and that's you know,
an hour forty five to get to Chicago Prep. So
we go weekend tournaments World Warriors. We go play two
or three games in a weekend and then we travel back.

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
It's a little bit like AAU it is. It's a
little bit right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:13):
It has an AAU feel nine months so little maybe
a level above in an organizational standpoint, but yeah, it
has that AA you feel to it where you're traveling
and playing games.

Speaker 1 (01:15:24):
And you played this summer, you play, you get into
some summer leagues here, correct or no.

Speaker 3 (01:15:30):
We do not, because we have a nine month season,
and most of ours are international, and so when school
ends at the end of May, our guys go home.
So summertime is our time to regroup and kind of
rebuild the roster year to year, and then they go
play AAU. So all of our guys will find an
AAU team, and our season ends at the end of March,
and then they'll go play AAU and then we'll primarily

(01:15:51):
focus in April and May on strength and conditioning and
skill development getting them ready for their AAU games.

Speaker 1 (01:15:56):
Vinnie, how did when when Benny called you and said, hey,
look someone who I'm interviewing for a job that I
might get back into the neighborhood a little bit. I
know that when you and I have had coffee and
we're proud of our kids, but you were like, you know,
it's hard, man, and look on phone and FaceTime and
all that stuff, it's still not the same. You had
to feel pretty good when he called you and said, hey,

(01:16:19):
I'm coming home.

Speaker 6 (01:16:21):
Yes, Prague in the Czech Republic is a long long
way from New Berlin. Man, it's been wonderful. It's the
first time in almost fifteen years that Ben has lived
anywhere near New Berlin. So it's been great to kind
of reconnect and become a part of the program out
of dme.

Speaker 1 (01:16:39):
Well, similar to me, you didn't miss a game when
he played at Edgewood. I'd see you and gym's all
over the place. In fact, I was up north this
last summer at my sister's cabin and no TV. So
I'm online and I'm sending your table of bety hitting
jumpers off my kid going he traveled. Why didn't they
call that little that little shuffle stuff? And these referees

(01:17:01):
are ridiculous and we had some fun with that. We're
going to get to a break. Other side of the break,
I get a number of questions for you on what kids.
What I want to talk to you a little bit
about is kids that are juniors and senior in high
school if they want to play at your level, Like
what is the biggest step? Is Is it being away
from home? Is it academics? Is it the kind of

(01:17:21):
quality of basketball that they have to get ready to play?
And I'm going to ask you some questions about that.
I really appreciate you coming in, both of you, guys.
Vinie's good to see you, Bennie. It's great to see you.
Ben Wiznowski, he is the He's the head coach and
the director of the DM Academy at Saint John's Northwestern.
If you have not been on that campus, or you

(01:17:43):
haven't been there in a while, man, go out and
watch these guys play. Go out and walk into that gym,
and I can tell you there's a different feeling I
get when I walk on that campus. It's kind of
it's me being proud of of, you know, being an
American and watching these kids and how look they're really kind.
I told these guys a story about a kid walk.

(01:18:03):
Two kids walked in front of my car. There's no
big deal. I'd slowed down. They're gonna walk And a
couple of the cadets said, no, no, we don't do
that here. They made them go apologized to me and
so that I can go in front of them, and
I think they made him do some push ups and
I kind of I thought, well, I'm glad I don't
go to school here. I'll tell you that this is
the Varsity Blitz. High school sports show is always presented

(01:18:24):
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores.
I'm Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app.
Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High school sports show,
presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores.
Coming from the Donovan to Jordans and Heat and Coolian
Studios in studio with me. Man, this has been fun.
We could do three days. I'm telling you, we take

(01:18:44):
a break, I'll buy lunch and come on back. Ben
Wuznowski and his father, Vinnie, who I've known for a
really long time, and I'm just really look, Vinnie's always
he's proud of both his boys. One musician, big time right.

Speaker 6 (01:18:57):
Brett Newski, profess touring musician, travels all over the world.

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
And man, you guys did well. Y'all kicked your coverage.
But and Ben Wazouski, who is the he's the head
coach and the director of the DME Academy at Saint
John's Northwestern. And and look, when you talk to kids
that want if they're a junior or senior high school
and might think that this is the perfect spot for them,

(01:19:25):
when you're sitting in the kitchen table, and what do
you tell them what it takes to play at your level?

Speaker 3 (01:19:31):
It's difficult. And you had mentioned it before break, But
it's all three phases where they adjust being away from home,
they adjust academically on their own, and then they adjust
on the court. And something that we're constantly preaching every
day to our boys is how do we face adversity?
What is our response? Because it is a college season,
it's long. Our guys, you know, hit certain walls. Is

(01:19:52):
the first time they've been training since August twenty fifth,
and now it's we're approaching March here, so it's almost
longer than a college season. So again, it's preparation for
what they want to accomplish. And a lot of our guys,
all of them want to play college obviously, some of
them dream to play in the NBA. I was very
fortunate down at Montver that I got to coach a
lot of players that are in the NBA and are
having success in the NBA. So I know what it

(01:20:15):
looks like when you're sixteen. They have to act like
professionals at sixteen. They have to mature early, both on
and off the court, and so that's where we're here
to guide them both on the court and off the course.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
When you're having that conversation with the parents or the
grandparents with the kid, at the kitchen table. I think
that that's got to be almost the lead in this thing. Look,
I've been I've coached, had places where people get to
the goal that they have, but that journey is there's
a lot of steps along the journey. And because I've

(01:20:46):
been there and I've seen it, here's how I'm going
to handle your son, because there's going to be some
times that they're going to be their room, their dorm
room cry and saying look, I really miss home. And
you have to be able to put your arm on him.
I mean, you wear a lot of hats, right, you
got to teach, you gotta you've got to put you
got to be almost a father figure. You've got to

(01:21:06):
be a coach that can get on them to get
the most from them. And I think that man wearing
all those hats. Yeah, you don't sleep much.

Speaker 3 (01:21:14):
I bet not during the season. No, you sleep a
little bit better in the off season when you're not
thinking about your next opponent.

Speaker 1 (01:21:19):
But then you got to go find some shit.

Speaker 3 (01:21:21):
Yeah, yeah, it never truly stops. But yeah, you're always
thinking about your guys.

Speaker 1 (01:21:24):
Who are you competing with? When when you're talking to
kids about playing at the next level. You know, who
are are there other academies or other military academies or
other places where they get to come live. I think
there's a lot of them, and they've grown. They this
formulas has gotten to be pretty big.

Speaker 3 (01:21:43):
It's huge. It's grown exponentially. Even in my two years
from Europe coming back, there's twenty thirty more academies that
didn't exist three years ago. So there's a lot of
options for kids now. They need to really do their
research and visit campuses and see what they have to offer.
Talk to coaches because some do a great job, some

(01:22:04):
not as much. But there's just so many different options,
and it's new. It's becoming like the new college basketball.
You go to a prep school, it's treated like college,
and then you go to college and now college is
professional right at the highest level. So it's changed very quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
And the dynamic of what you guys are trying to accomplish. Look,
our kids, when I was coaching at the high school level,
could get mad at somebody and then they go home, right,
they go to their house, they watch TV, they have
dinner with their parents, they get up the next day
and now things are changed. These kids are living together
and if so, if there's an issue as the coaching staff,

(01:22:37):
you've got to make sure that you know what's going on.
All of a sudden, why are you not passing the
ball to him? You got a little argument, yes here,
let it go like, that's that's what college basketball is.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:22:48):
You're living together and you've got to be mature enough
to work through any issues you have personality wise. Right,
for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:22:55):
We a lot of individual meetings, we have team meetings.
Wheneverthing's we feel like coaches something's going wrong, we have
an open forum. We did that in Ohio. We lost
twice and we ordered pizza, stayed at the hotel conference
room and had an open form on what's going on.
We didn't play with the energy, the effort, the toughness
that we expect in our program, and we went around
the table and everybody gave their feedback. So it as

(01:23:17):
a coach, that's the biggest part of it, you know,
big part of it is the mental side of things
and helping them grow mentally and maturity wise.

Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
Benny, how much have you learned this year and how
do you think you will be different in this this position? Look,
you you have to be a coach and a manager
and all of that because you have a number of
coaches on staff that you will oversee and you're worried
about winning winning basketball games. How much have you learned

(01:23:46):
and the template that you have figured out this year
will you carry over? And how many changes and how
much different do you think you'll be as a manager
and a coach next year?

Speaker 3 (01:23:57):
Without question, After every season, I sit down with my
coaching staff wherever I've been, and we jot down knows.
We go grab a coffee, and we make multiple pages
of how do we improve the program? What did we
see this year? What needs improvement? Usually there's twenty five
thirty forty items on the list, and then we try to,
you know, implement those the next year. So we'll have
a big coaches meeting and we'll figure out where do

(01:24:17):
we need to get better both operationally, you know, development
wise for our players, how do we help them adjust
going down the line?

Speaker 1 (01:24:24):
Phinny, it doesn't surprise me he's a coach. When I
watched him play in high school and when I watched
him play in college, he was the guy, right, He
was the guy whether he's the best player or not,
but he was the guy getting guys in the right position,
you know, talking guys through. And I watched him as
a player, and it doesn't surprise me that he is

(01:24:44):
a coach as his father. Does it surprise you that
this is the direction he went in his life.

Speaker 6 (01:24:51):
Not at all. No, we're a big basketball family. And
actually when Ben was still like late grade school in
high school, he said, Dad, I think I'd like to
be a basketball coach. And he's always had a great
dedication of the game in a very high basketball iq,
great student, high intellect. And as he went into college

(01:25:11):
and was departing his college career, he said, hey, I
really want to try to play professional basketball. That didn't
work out here.

Speaker 1 (01:25:22):
You know what, in my world he's a former professional
basketball player and not there's not a lot of people
that can can say that he did what he did.

Speaker 6 (01:25:31):
And he did and he is extremely dedicated to his
craft and to the kids that he coaches.

Speaker 1 (01:25:37):
So when I coached high school, especially early on, we
went to a lot of coaching clinics, right and again
that whole idea of stealing, like why are you trapping
your You're teaching this one three one and what's the
trigger to not trap the quarter? But to trap here
and so you get to learn a lot of things,
and here coaches at a high level. Coaching clinics been

(01:25:57):
part of your.

Speaker 3 (01:25:58):
Background, it has not as consistently as I would like.
And when you're in this prep world, the off seasons
are so busy with replenishing your roster that I think
that's something that as coaches in general, we need to
focus more on and have more coaching gatherings, right and clinics.
And I do go to the Final Four every year,

(01:26:19):
and I'm able to sit into some different conferences, and
I find it that I probably don't do enough of
that because we're so caught up in the fast pace
of the twelve months a year college. You know, coaching
a lifestyle, but that's really important to continue to grow into.

Speaker 1 (01:26:34):
The the the recruitment side, and I asked you, you have
one one kid from the state of Wisconsin. You have two,
but ones in the postgraduate part of it. Do you
get calls from people? How do you find players that
have interest in playing at your school and at your level.

Speaker 3 (01:26:54):
Yeah, big market is internationally and we have d M
is really established a and internationally and we actually have
people in different countries that are recommending players to our program.
So we have a lot of people reaching out to
us and then we engage with them and we determine
if it's the right fit or not. And then also
part of it is we go to AAU events and

(01:27:14):
we're evaluating players, you know, throughout the spring and the
summer and traveling to the Nike and Adidas and under
Armour events.

Speaker 1 (01:27:21):
And so when you said you get a little sleep
in the off season, that's not true that you lied
to be because I can't imagine that you get much
at all. Do you enjoy the off season part of it?

Speaker 3 (01:27:33):
I really do. Actually, I look forward to it. I
enjoy both. Obviously, in season, you love being part of
the team and this is the exciting time of year
to be playing in March and playing in the playoffs.
But then once the season ends, I shift gears and
it's a different type of fast pace. But you're connecting
with different people, and I enjoy meeting families and talking
to them about DM Saint John's So I really enjoy

(01:27:54):
all twelve months.

Speaker 1 (01:27:55):
Hey, you haven't had the opportunity to ref one of
your son's games, have you?

Speaker 6 (01:28:00):
I have not. I would hate to throw out my son.

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
I would look if that ever happens, I would sell
ticket and one word if he even said are you kidding?
Thank god, that would be a quick technical fin That
walk of shame would not look good, you know what,
you know, it would be the maddest His mom Oh yeah,
she would be like, don't you do that to me?
My little boy, my little boy? Hey really quickly? Your

(01:28:25):
your style as a coach, you like getting the ball
up and down the floor. Are you more coaching to
the talent level that you have or are you trying
to get them to play in the system that that
that you have.

Speaker 3 (01:28:36):
Combination of both being in Europe was great. We ran
the five out at pro style spread offense that's becoming
more and more popular in college basketball. And prior to that,
I always at montverd Or played We always ran a
four out one end. We still played through the post.
So I've brought the European kind of pro offense to
dm E and we run it, but we also adjust.
We have a big six eleven kid who's two forty

(01:28:57):
five and he can score on the block, so we
playing the five out, but then we also cut into
the block, and then we can morph it into a
high row, and yeah, we adjust in there. We have
some sets that we go to there.

Speaker 1 (01:29:06):
The old day of me running the flex just would
not be right.

Speaker 3 (01:29:10):
We play in our league, we put the twenty four
second shot clock. So that's the other big benefit for
these high school players. They're playing a cow well they're
actually playing a pro game. But then they adjust. You
have to get into offense. You can't slow things down.
You have to make reads. That also helps with development.
That might be a part of the reason why you know,
European players at the age of thirteen are playing with
the shock clock, so they're forced to make reads. They

(01:29:31):
can't slow the ball down and run. You know bo
Ryan's swing offense for a longer, longer possessions. We got
to get an offense and we got to make reads,
and players have to understand how to play.

Speaker 1 (01:29:39):
Twenty five questions. I didn't have time to ask you.
I'm going to ask you maybe in the off season
to come back spend an hour with me if you would.
And I know you're traveling a lot, but boy, the
idea of do you know things like do you think
the high school game should have a shot clock? I do.
Some people do not I'd love to have those conversations
with you. We just don't have enough time, and I'm

(01:30:00):
telling you I could twenty five questions I have for you,
just about the recruitment side of it, the idea of
getting kids to come over from from different parts of
the world to hear in the state of Wisconsin. I
love the fact that you're home, and I think that, look,
with somebody like you and our market, there's a place
now for somebody if that's what they're looking to do.

(01:30:21):
I would be so comfortable sending my son or my
grandson to you, knowing that you're going to be the
one kind of overlooking this part of his life. And man,
it's good to see you. Huge fan of yours.

Speaker 6 (01:30:35):
If I just might add one final thought, I'd like
to urge all your listeners to attend the final home
game on the season for DMME at Saint John's March
sixth It's next Thursday, March six, six pm, a beautiful
Farren Hall on the beautiful campus of Saint John's in Delafield,
and I urge youth coaches to bring their teams out

(01:30:58):
next Thursday night to see these high Division one players.
There's a lot of high flying dunkers.

Speaker 3 (01:31:03):
Who do you play that day? We play Minnesota Prep.
So coming from Good today, Good. Yeah, they're in our league.
It'll be a fast paced, competitive game.

Speaker 6 (01:31:12):
Admission is free for everyone. Next Thursday, six pm.

Speaker 1 (01:31:16):
You're picking up the cost man. You're a nice man.

Speaker 6 (01:31:19):
I've got every popcorn for everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:31:21):
There you go. It's really good to see you. Great, Benny,
Thank you, welcome back to the mark and I'm really
happy that you're here. Thanks for taking the time to
come in. And please, if there's a Saturday in the
off season that I can get you and maybe somebody
from your staff to come in, let's have that conversation.
Ben Wazanouski again, he is the head coach and the
head of the program dm E Academy. You can go

(01:31:42):
to their website dmmeacademy dot com to kind of get
more information on what their path is success, athletics, leadership
and academics. Really good three pillars that he is trying
to accomplish here in Delafield again. March six, six pm.
Tip get out there and and and support this group
of uh of kids and and this coaching staff that

(01:32:05):
spends a lot of time and work with these kids. Guys,
have a good weekend. It's good to see you.

Speaker 6 (01:32:10):
Great and thank you for the invitation.

Speaker 3 (01:32:11):
Mike, you bet a lot of fun than it's good
to say.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
For me.

Speaker 1 (01:32:15):
I will spend a lot of time with him. Tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (01:32:17):
We remember Matt the ball.

Speaker 1 (01:32:21):
You'll hear from me on the way back. This is
the Varsity Blitz high school sports show presented by your
local Pick and Safe stores and Metro Market stores on
Fox Sports Side twenty and your iHeartRadio app.