Full Show - 5/24/2025

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, May 24th, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the Varsity Blitz high school sports show, presented
as always by your local Pick and Save and Metro
Market stores on Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeartRadio
app coming live from the Donovan and Jorganson Heating and
Cooling Studios. Any issues you have, like I did, our
dryer stopped working and had them come out and clean
the events and it works really, really well. I want

(00:22):
to thank the people over at Donovan Jorgenson Heating and
Cooling for sponsoring all my shows. They love being part
of this show, the Home Improvement Show, and certainly Faith
in the Zone, and I want to thank those guys,
the largest employee owned HVAC company in the state of Wisconsin.
At ten o'clock today, we're going to talk to Michelle Hardman.
She works with my wife. She lives down in Florida.

(00:44):
Her son, Cody, is a big time baseball player going
to play baseball at a small private Christian college in Florida.
He's a pitcher, and the difference between how much baseball
they play at the high school level down in Florida
compared to what they play here is huge, and we're
going to talk to her about her son Cody and

(01:04):
that year of last for her. At ten twenty, Brock
Johnson is coming in and Brock is his dad is
a baseball coach over at Greendale, and he was in
studio a couple a couple of months ago and did
a great job as a young kid. We're gonna talk
some youth baseball with him and his mom at ten twenty.
For the entire first hour, though, we're talking some Witne
baseball and any chance I get to see the head

(01:27):
baseball coach at Witnell. Jim Fisher, has been a friend
of mine for a long time. We've known each other
a long time. And the Witnow boys are playing a
little bit better than I predicted. I can tell you
that I just thought that they'd be under coached, is
what I was thinking. Jim Fisher, you know, I got
to bust you up a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
That's okay, bringing on how you've been coach. I've been good.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
How about you?

Speaker 1 (01:48):
I've been good? So far, so good? This team's playing.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Well, yep, so far we've executed a lot better than
I think the coaching staff anticipated season, so we're proud
of it.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Don't want to talk about the Eisenhower game, do we
or did. Hold on, that's last year's hold on.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Hold on, Yeah, we can talk about it.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Hold On, I gotta tee. I better get to this
year's schedule. Tell me about did you know going in
that you guys had a chance to be pretty good.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
We knew we were going to have a tough schedule
when we put it together. The purpose was to challenge them.
We figured we had the guys to play against the
better competition. And did I think our record would be
seventeen and four?

Speaker 5 (02:31):
No?

Speaker 4 (02:32):
I thought it would be more in that fourteen win range. Okay,
but credit to these guys. They really don't care who
we play. They bring it every day and they're ready
to go.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, we've got four of their captains in their four
captains are in studio and night. I've already ripped the
Lutch kit because his daddy will not return my call,
won't do it. He runs a big time base I
get asked all the time, Hey, let's what's the name
of that baseball club by the way, Milwaukee Angels. Yeah.
I reached out to him probably four or five times. Hey,

(03:03):
all I want to do is just kind of highlight promote, celebrate.
The Angels got nothing can't. And then then I left
a message saying, hey, I you know I blessed Sacrament.
I went to Saint Peter and Paul. We always played
the LUTs family and nothing still can't get the boy.
But here's Jack, and I'll I don't need to talk
about the Angels because he can't get his daddy to
come in and talk about him. But we'll talk Whitnell baseball,

(03:24):
for sure. He is. I watched. Let's play some basketball.
He's a pretty good athlete.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Oh yeah, i'd say so.

Speaker 5 (03:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
What does he play for you? A position?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Shortstop?

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, he can pick it and throw it a little bit.
A long line of pretty good baseball players there. Yeah,
we'll get to him in the second segment. Hey, when
somebody asked you about this team? It strength of the team?
Is it? Is it? Defense?

Speaker 5 (03:46):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Pitching? Is it you guys go first to third, aggressive
on the base pass? Do you go station and station?
Talk about this team.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
One of the things we kind of changed this year
from years past, especially at the start of the year
when we were only rolling and building up wins and
building up confidence, was how we played the schools of playoffs.
Would know, I don't want to say too much. That's
all right, but we kind of adjusted to the strengths.
We can definitely hit, as you can see by the

(04:15):
box scores. But I would say the pitching has been
the thing that's carried us this this season.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Defense has been really solid.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
I think that starts too with these guys that are
in studio right now.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Got our catcher over.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Here, makes a huge difference in every game that we play.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
You let him, well, I'll ask him, but do you
let him call the game or are you calling it?

Speaker 4 (04:35):
You've called the game since your freshman year.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, there's a.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
J A is a senior. Yep, he started as a freshman. Yeah,
we'll get to him. Man, I got a bunch of
questions for that board, for sure. And you and he's
been calling the game since his freshman year. Correct, that
means he you trust him completely absolutely. Pitchers don't shake
him off much anymore.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
RECs like, yeah, we'll get him too.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah he's new. I didn't know he was coming until
this morning, but you said, Hey, he's more of the
talkative one, so you're gonna want to get to him early,
and I will. Definitely he shakes him off a.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
Little bit Jake's a very smart pitcher. He knows what
he wants to do and he executed.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
I'm hoping Aje, Hey, if he's gonna shake me off,
I'll tell the battery. It comes fastball. You know what.
Yeah in Bull Durham, remember that here comes to fastball.
Get ready for it. We'll find out if these guys
do that. It's kind of cool to have seven seniors
on this team and we have nine nine seniors. You
don't hear that much anymore, coach, and what I look,

(05:41):
I give you credit for that because I coached a
long time and and in the basketball world you don't.
You don't see that baseball either. If I'm not going
to be starting shortstep, I'm not leading off, I'm not
playing a big time role. I'm not giving that much time.
Because baseball you got to give a lot of time
to be a good player. And if to have nine seniors,

(06:02):
that tells me a lot about the program and the
direction the program's going. You gotta love that. Talk about
these nine seniors and what it means to this to
this program, and if they've been good leaders for the underclassman.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
One hundred percent.

Speaker 4 (06:18):
First, I want to point out some of the guys
that maybe don't get as much playing time, So that
would be Nolan Miller, Steve Switlowski, Carter Buss, Aiden Coles.
These are the guys that keep us going on the bench.
Nolan is a very good vocal leader, keeps the bench
into games. He's come in, pitched some innings for us,
come in and gotten some good hits for us as well.

(06:40):
Steve's I think Steve's batting seven hundred in the opportunities
he's had. Carter's gotten more playing time coming in on
the mound some innings at third base. Coles is kind
of a do it all type guy for us. He
can play second, he can play the outfield. He courtesy
runs for this guy over here every game. Just outstanding

(07:01):
kids too. That's to me the big thing, because, like
you said, it's not easy when you go playing your
whole life where you're starting, you're hitting in the middle
of the order, you're hitting in the top of the order,
and then you get to what's kind of the last
step in your journey, and they've all taken I'm sure,
I'm sure they all would like to play more, definitely,

(07:22):
but their team guys, and I respect that and I
couldn't be more proud of them.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Man I I that that tells me a ton when
playoffs you got, you got some games left on the
schedule before playoffs.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Correct, some big games, some big.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Games coming up. And we don't as coaches, we don't
look ahead, but we work ahead. And I know you've
looked at that bracket. You there are some teams in
that in up and down from in that bracket that
you know are going to scare you a little bit,
especially when you have to make that decision who we
pitch it right. And at the high school level now

(07:58):
it's you have to have that you can throw on
them ound to eat up some innings. I think it's
it's because you play so many games. There's the season
isn't very long now in the spring, and there are
times that you're playing what four or five games a week.

Speaker 6 (08:14):
Right.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
We've had a stretch where I think we had three
weeks with four games, one week with five. Five was
picking up a game that was suspended due to it
got too dark.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, so you know, and that's I.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
Think that attributes to our team that we can do
that we're deep enough to be able.

Speaker 7 (08:33):
To do that.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
How do you get better because in basketball, you know,
you play Tuesday and Friday, but you get you can
get better on Monday, and get better on Wednesday, get
better on Thursday. And then there are weeks where you
only have one game, so you can really as a
coach kind of do breakdown drills and change stuff. How
do you get better during the season. It's hard, right.

Speaker 4 (08:53):
I think one of the biggest things is it is
just being confident, you know, keeping your head up. You know, hey,
maybe we had a rough week and we don't have
a game until Thursday this week. One of the things
coach Tillyan, coach Riquet and I talked about before the
season was how we wanted to really just stick to fundamentals,
especially with guys that we knew had to develop a
little more for next year. And they've all taken that

(09:17):
with stride. It's baseball. It can be boring, it can
be monotonous when it comes to practice, and these guys
come every day and give us the effort that you know,
I wouldn't question anything with it.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Hey do you know right now, and we don't need
to make any news or anything, but do you know
who's getting on the bump on the twenty eighth for
that first green Field, because you guys are tied with
green Field right in conference.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
We are both seven and one.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Right, and you got two games left with them, the
first one at your placed on the twenty eight, and
then you am I looking at this right? Do you
got Pewaukee that day as well?

Speaker 4 (09:57):
We did because of all the rain last week, we
do not anymore?

Speaker 1 (10:02):
I think that. So you'll get Greenfield back to backface well,
first one at home, next one at their place, and
that's going to talk a lot about who wins this conference.
And as coaches, and I would think that you'll agree
the first your first goal as a team is to
win conference. Right, Let's win conference and then we'll worry
about the playoffs down the stretch. You guys have set

(10:23):
yourself up pretty nicely to have a chance to win conference.
Do you know who's going to be on the bump
on the twenty eighth?

Speaker 2 (10:31):
One of two guys sitting in here, that's all. That's
all all you're going to say.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
And the other guy's probably going to get out of
above the twenty ninth, that's for sure. How is it? Look?
This is always interesting me in your mind when you
look at the twenty eighth, Are you going to go
full out to win that game? For you because now
we've got at least to share of the conference, and
we'll worry about the twenty ninth. Or in your mind
when you could have been on the twenty seventh and

(10:57):
you're thinking this, you should be thinking about how much
you love your wife, how your kids, your work stuff.
But you know you're gonna be thinking about this Greenfield team.
And do you go full bore on the twenty eighth
or do you go okay, look, we'll figure it out
when we get there. My thought is there's there's some
coaches that are gonna do whatever they they have to
do to the win that first one to at least

(11:19):
have a share depending on who we got to throw,
and then worry about the twenty ninth the next day,
or do you do you what's your mind, thought, mind
set on that.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
We're in a good situation with that when it comes
to pitching because of the other guys behind our starters,
they compliment the starters very well.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Okay, you know where I'm going. I do man, Yeah,
I get a lot of coach speak right now. I
love that. And you have one game. Do you have
one game in between that or you guys are all
setting out. You don't play against Wednesday? Correct, So you
got a couple of days to practice and you're not
just giving these guys three four days off. I know
you you're getting out hitting a little bit them infield,

(12:00):
and we're.

Speaker 4 (12:02):
They're going to have a captain's practice. We are giving
him off Memorial Day weekend.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, there you go, and the captain's practice. You know,
I are you going to be there or no?

Speaker 2 (12:14):
We trust them, They've done it before and they've you
trust the Lutch kid.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Oh yeah, yeah, there you go. I would trust him too,
because a long line of very good coach as people
that understand the game. Uh, that's for sure. The conference
has the conference and looking at your non conference schedule,
you did you didn't shy away from anybody. I see that.
How is the Does the conference get you ready for
the playoffs? It seems like it's a little bit top heavy.

(12:42):
Little my daughter, by the way, a week ago, won
the Teacher of the Year award at Milwaukee Lutheran. You
really should be nicer to that baseball team. They haven't
not a big baseball powerhouse anymore. But hopefully they'll get back.
But when you look at at Milwaukee Lutheran, you look
at cut A Hay and Milwaukee been struggled a little
bit broadier, Shorewood a little bit better, but but it's

(13:05):
certainly top heavy with you and and and Greenfield. A
lot of respect for that Greenfield program.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
Absolutely. They actually have a new coach. That's year Lee Kleshinsky,
coach there forever, a great mentor great person. Great coach,
retired from coaching last year, so it's good to see
that tradition continue South Milwaukee. That's the team we've been
battling with the last two years for conference.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
You know, we took it two years ago.

Speaker 4 (13:31):
Last year retired with them. They were kind of in
the boat that we're in right now. They had ten
seniors last year, so they're rebuilding a little bit too.
Coach parlier, great coach. He'll have them right back next
year without a doubt.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
You know, it's interesting some of the games that you've
won are some live stided scores and the ones that
you haven't, the ones that you've come out short, like
Sussex Hamilton five to four, Arrowhead six five, everything has
been the one you haven't. One have been really close
and and I would think when you talk about some
of the better programs in this area, when you talk

(14:07):
about Arrowhead and you talk about Sussex Hamilton, really good
baseball programs, you got to feel good that you guys
have been extremely competitive with them. How good is that?
By the way, how good do you feel like the conference?
Is it getting you ready for the playoffs? Or did
you do you have to go outside of conference to
get this team as good as as they can be.

Speaker 4 (14:27):
We definitely go outside of the conference to get them there.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
I mean Thomas Moore Marquette, Waterford, Yeah, there's no you
have one. Some close games you have you know you have.
The impressive part other than the Waksha North one to
me is you guys are in every single game getting
back to your style. Are you a let's uh, let's

(14:52):
wait for a three run shot or are you guys
going you know, aggressive on the base pass and trying
to create runs.

Speaker 4 (14:57):
I think that's where we changed a lot this year.
We kind of went to more how do we manufacture
runs as opposed to I mean we lost some big
bats last year that graduated the guys that could do
that and put the ball in the gap, put the
ball off the fence, over the fence, and we've kind
of adjusted to, Hey, let's play a little small ball here.
Let's get the guys in position to move him over
first to third, pick up that extra base.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, AJ's got a dinger. I see Nate's gott a dinger.
The Let's kid doesn't have a dinger. I know, I
don't see that. We got to talk to him about
getting you know, we got to get three. Oh, let's
you said something about warning track power that let's have.
I don't know what that means. I don't talk baseball, does.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
That Jackson smart?

Speaker 1 (15:42):
Look, I'm sorry, mutch kid. He didn't come in when
I had the basketball. I could have ripped him at
that point. But now I've got him sitting over here,
and so I can rip him that his daddy doesn't
call me back. That that that warning track power that
we talked about. He does get around the bases a
little bit.

Speaker 7 (16:00):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Hey, we're gonna get to these guys, and I look
forward to talking to for the four captains for Witno baseball.
Look playoffs coming up, but they we can't even talk playoffs.
We can't. I thought we could, but we're not going
to because of the games that they have coming up
this week, and and I know Jim Fisher, he's concentrated
on winning this conference. That's their goal. We'll worry about

(16:22):
the playoffs when we're done with with Greenfield. And if
you're looking to get out and watch a good baseball game,
there's two of them. One at Witnel on Wednesday, one
at at Greenfield on Thursday. And it's good. You're gonna
find out who wins this conference and or if it's
going to be a tie. But these are the two
best teams in the conference going at it right at
the end of the year. I couldn't have planned that

(16:44):
any better, right, I mean, you want to talk about
getting a feel for what playoff baseball is going to
be like, play for a for a conference championship. And
these guys know it. They they've been around.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
It, and it is your rival.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
It's gonna be fun, for sure. He is Jim Shure,
the head baseball coach over at Whitnell. We're gonna get
to a break. On this side of the break, we'll
talk to two of these players. We're gonna ask them
about this year. We'll ask them their favorite memory of
being part of Whitno Baseball, and we'll get to get
a chance to talk to all these guys, Jack and Nate,
AJ and Jake. It's good to see it. Jake, I'm

(17:18):
glad you could come in and quick quit shaken off.
AJ's he knows what you should be throwing. That's all
I can tell. You might be on the bump one
of these two days, right, I could predict that. Yeah,
I got I got a nod from the head baseball coach.
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented
by your local Picket, Save and Metro Market stores on

(17:38):
Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app. Welcome
back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show is
always presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro
Market stores. Coming live from the Donovan and Jorgansen Heating
and Cooling Studios. We're talking Whitno Baseball this first hour,
and we got two of their captains to the microphone. Now,

(17:59):
Jack Lutz, and I'm that I was ripping you so much.
You know, big fan of your family you grew up in.
Would you consider it a baseball family or just a
sports fan?

Speaker 8 (18:08):
All sports but baseball mostly.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Baseball mostly, Yeah, for sure? What's your favorite? Are you
more of a basketball kid more of a baseball kid?

Speaker 8 (18:16):
I like baseball now, but growing up it was either or.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, whatever the season was. You're going to University South
Florida next year. The decision to go there and play baseball.
My brother graduated from there, my cousin graduate had been
on that campus number of times. I love the area.
What made you pick usf.

Speaker 8 (18:36):
The decision was more of the coaching staff.

Speaker 9 (18:38):
So I was actually committed to Indiana State previously, and
the coaching staff went left, the head coach and the
recruiting cordinator left to go to South Florida. So the
warm weather in the campus is just a bonus.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah. And there's no pretty girls on that campus, you know,
definitely not, absolutely none. The Brandon Bulls, the Mighty Bulls.
That's good baseball, man. You're gonna get a chance to
play in a really man baseball down there. And we're
going to talk at ten o'clock to a woman whose
son is a senior at Golf Breeze High School and

(19:10):
going to John Melvin Christian College in Pace, Florida to
play baseball. We talked last night and she said, our
kids are playing one hundred games, and you guys up
there in your in your you know, high school, played
twenty And the difference is our kids have played so much.
When we get Northern kids down here, they haven't even
come close to being as good as they're going to be.
And I love that. When do you leave to go

(19:30):
to school?

Speaker 8 (19:31):
I leave in June sixteenth.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Man, coming up, you got some business take care of
before that summer class Yep, well, yeah, you don't worry
about that. I'm talking in Greenfield. Take care of that, right. Yeah,
you don't like that much, do you? No, No, not
a boy. Let's get the pot stirred a little bit.
Let's get it stirred a little bit. Hey had a
great career in basketball. You guys were awfully fun to watch.

(19:53):
I've done it. Did a couple of your games on
the sidelines on nine twenty and we called a couple
of them. One you was not a great finish for you.
It was against Thomas Moore where they came out. It
was a year ago and they came out here. Boy,
they were good. Weren't they really good? All right? We
were also joined Jake, I pronounce your last names Recklas.

(20:14):
How you doing, I'm doing fantastic. Yeah, you want to
get up on the bump on Wednesday, don't you. You
don't have to tell us who it is.

Speaker 10 (20:19):
But absolutely, honestly, it could go either me or Nate
and it's a great pitcher.

Speaker 11 (20:24):
But I think I think we'll show up do good
no matter what.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
That'd be a fun game to come to. Absolutely, I
can tell you that have you had success over the
years against Greenfield?

Speaker 10 (20:38):
I have personally and as a team we've also had
great success. Honestly, I just love showing up and being
able to pitch my best of my ability.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
And why do you shake off aj so much? Only
every once in a while you know what you want.

Speaker 10 (20:55):
Since freshman year, I've shaken them off and I've definitely
learned from it. I think I should trust my catcher
more because some of my mistakes are from shaking them.
But at the end of the day, I like to
do what I like to do and it's worked out.
What's going on with you next year?

Speaker 1 (21:15):
Do you know yet?

Speaker 10 (21:16):
I'm attending the University of Lacrosse for academics. Okay, you
get a play base I think I would love to
play baseball I'm gonna try to walk on for the team.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Does the coach know you're coming?

Speaker 11 (21:27):
The coach does know I'm coming?

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Good, Yeah, yeah, he will be calling. Trust me, what
a beautiful campus. What are you going to go to
school for? Do you know?

Speaker 10 (21:36):
I'm going to be studying finance? Okay, but at University Lacrosse,
and I love the area. I've been up there a
whole lot. Beautiful, very nice campus.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, I agree with that. Why finance.

Speaker 10 (21:49):
I have some relatives that are in business finance industry,
and I like what they do. I like to talk.
So hopefully one day I can get into sales and.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
There you go, sell some stuff, make some money. I
would love to Jack, do you know what you're gonna
go into business? Yeah, you're gonna take over the Angel
program and maybe I can have your dad come in
and talk about that part of the transition. I'm just kidding.

Speaker 8 (22:11):
That is certainly an option.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Hey, the the they've come to every game you've played
since Little League, I'm sure right, and now it's gonna be.
There's gonna be. They'll get down. There's some games, but
they're not going to be. You're gonna be on your
own a little bit. You're okay with that, as has
Witnell and your family got you prepared for that next
step in your journey.

Speaker 9 (22:31):
Yeah, I think they have. I think I'm ready for it.
And there's they're certainly going to get find a way
to get down to a lot of them.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
So yeah, they they won't mind coming down there, right,
And that's pretty nice. Got a brother in Sarasota another
one interpreted Springs. In fact, the one interpret Springs is
seventy one and still catching. He's still catching all over
the country, playing in tournaments, and he just sent me
a video. They were in Asheville, North Carolina. They played

(22:57):
against a thirteen fourteen year old also our team, all
these seventy year old guys, and they miked up my brother,
who was having some fun with this thing. I said,
how'd you guys do? He goes, We got smoked, man,
but but we held our own. We got some hits
and they couldn't hit our guy, and there was a
lot of respect on both sides. So you're gonna you're
gonna absolutely love it. Hey, your your favorite memory so

(23:20):
far being part of Witnell baseball. You've been on versity
since your freshman year, No junior year junior year, So
you played did you play JV or you didn't play
on that?

Speaker 8 (23:29):
I didn't play my first two years?

Speaker 1 (23:31):
You played just travel ball?

Speaker 8 (23:32):
Yeah, just travel ball.

Speaker 9 (23:33):
I chose to play AU basketball in the Springs.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
You did. Good decision for you to come in and
play for the winnow Falcon baseball team. Yeah, if you
had to, if you had to make that decision all
over again, would you play four years for him?

Speaker 8 (23:48):
I'd say so.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah. You had fun in AAU though.

Speaker 8 (23:51):
Yeah, AU was good experience.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Who'd you play for in basketball team? Hero? Okay? Yeah,
of course?

Speaker 5 (23:56):
What it?

Speaker 1 (23:57):
What a stupid question? Hey, your your favorite memory being
part of this baseball program so far? You got a
lot of baseball will be played. What so far? What's
your favorite memory?

Speaker 9 (24:07):
You guys are talking about warning track power in the
last segment. Yeah, I had a home run to a
lead off the game in the regional final last year.

Speaker 8 (24:14):
So that was a pretty good.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Moment when you hit. When you got it, did you
know I.

Speaker 9 (24:18):
Knew at the fence in the corner is short, three
or five short, ports wind is blown out.

Speaker 8 (24:23):
I know if I just put in the air would.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Go so and you hit it and to lead off
the game to lead off the game. That's not a
bad way to lead off. If you've been a lead
off hitter both years you've been on a virtually a Witno.

Speaker 9 (24:34):
Yeah, I've moved around a little bit one, two or three,
but most, most of the time have been.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Your favorite being a leadoff Yes, yeah, you don't mind
that at all. Man, that's awesome, Jake. How about you
your favorite memory being part of this, this Witnoll program?
What would it be?

Speaker 11 (24:49):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (24:50):
I think it comes this year against a green To
High school. In the past couple of years we've battled,
haven't won, But this year we finally got the job
done and uh, after a great performance by Luke Parkinson,
I came in and shut the door out, shut the
door on them, and.

Speaker 11 (25:08):
It was it was really good.

Speaker 10 (25:09):
I got a lot of buddies on that team and
finally got to rub it in their face.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
That's awesome. Do you play travel ball? You played?

Speaker 3 (25:16):
Yeah? I did so.

Speaker 10 (25:18):
The past couple of years they've been playing for the
Milwaukee Pipe Man.

Speaker 11 (25:21):
Uh, sponsored by Legion Post.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
For I'm sorry, Legion Post for. Oh yeah, yeah, I'm
gonna send them an invoice for that. Okay, you can't
be thrown out. I'm just kidding. Good for them. You're
not gonna play this summer.

Speaker 10 (25:36):
Oh yeah, So with this summer playing Legion ball, you
can play up to you you nineteen, So, uh, we're
gonna have a lot of talent and uh just playing locally.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
Do you know what's interesting? Throughout the state? Legion baseball
is huge. It's it's huge. I was up in Varka
doing a TV show called Around the Corner talking to
the high school coaching Are you sure you want to
talk about high school you're talking about Legion baseball? And
I said, is that a big deal? He goes, it's
unbelievable out here Milwaukee area not as big, growing a

(26:10):
little bit when you talk about playing Legion baseball. Did
you agree with me that you've got to go kind
of north to really get the field for that?

Speaker 10 (26:19):
Absolutely, as more as you go up north, even much
so as an hour, it really starts to get good.

Speaker 11 (26:27):
And there's a lot of teams.

Speaker 10 (26:28):
That have been around together and played for a long
time and very solid baseball. And even we're the first
Milwaukee team to make the state final tournament last year.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
Man, I wish I would have known that I would
have promoted that. Good for you guys who coaches that.

Speaker 11 (26:45):
Joel Recklets my father good.

Speaker 10 (26:47):
He's been coaching me my whole life and took a
little break while I played for the Halos and we
decided to run this team up and it's been one
of the best decisions.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Would do you be a favorite and would you pass
along my number to him? Because I'd love to do
a show on Legion baseball because I don't I've not
done that, and I don't know a ton about Legion baseball,
but I'm telling you, when you talk to people up
and when I talked to this coach, his high school
team was really good. Yeah, he didn't want to talk
about it. He wanted to talk about this Legion team

(27:20):
that did really, really well the year before. They're running back.
They had all the same guys coming and he just
was so excited about that part. And I said, why
do you love it so much? And he said, because
you get guys that are playing still high school ball,
guys that graduated, guys in our area that might have
not went to our high school that all get to
play and we all come together. And he said, look,

(27:41):
when you play Legion baseball, middle of summer on this field.
He goes, you can't see You've got to sit up
on the hill to be able to see the game,
and the crowds just come out like crazy.

Speaker 10 (27:51):
Absolutely, I can agree moreth that we played teams like
the Pier and they had a bunch of and I
mean they won state, yeah, and a lot of they're
saying team from that played on the Legion ball team,
and even they had graduated players from the years past
that played there in great crowds. We were up at
Wisconsin Rapids this year and I mean the first game

(28:14):
we had Nick cast and pitch, it was just lights out.
I mean, great crowd, a lot of energy, and it
was it was a great experience.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
I go up there with my family and grandkids early June,
and last year I ran into into the Walmart. I
ran into guys with their peer uniforms and I go, guys,
what are you guys doing. They They're like, yeah, we
won state like last night or something, and we still
we haven't been to we haven't been to sleep yet.

(28:43):
We haven't even taken our uniforms off. And I'm like,
that's awesome. These guys were so fired up the fact
that they they wanted. Hey Jack, when I ask you
about about baseball and the best part of your game,
what do you think the best part is? Defensively offensively
knowing the game high baseball, I what do you think
you bring to the table?

Speaker 9 (29:02):
I think I can really do it all. I'm well rounded,
but I'd say it comes down to IQ and base running, defense,
all of that.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Yeah, defensively, will you play short at the next level?

Speaker 9 (29:14):
You think I'm planning to, But I can move around
the outfield or second outfield or second third.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
Ye Can you pitch?

Speaker 8 (29:21):
No?

Speaker 1 (29:22):
No, you know have you tried it and you're just
it's not something for you.

Speaker 9 (29:27):
I've pitched all the years up to this year, but
this year I've had a little bit of the arm problem,
so I haven't gotten the mountain.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
And you can still pick it and throw a little
bit though I can still pick it. Had a boy.
I love that. Hey, Jake, if you're not pitching, what
else do you play?

Speaker 11 (29:42):
I'd be playing first base?

Speaker 1 (29:44):
Okay, what do you hitting the lineup? By the way, I'm.

Speaker 11 (29:46):
Hitting for right now in the lineup.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
So you're you're the cleanup, boy?

Speaker 10 (29:51):
Hey, I am the clean How many home runs career
Wiser or career.

Speaker 11 (29:56):
Oh, I got three on the career.

Speaker 10 (29:58):
But okay, you know, this year it's been a little cold,
a little bit indy.

Speaker 11 (30:01):
You know, hasn't flown for this guy.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
But I'm thinking Greenfield, I'm thinking we get one Outeah,
you know what, don't look, don't don't. Fisher's going shaking
his head, going, don't tell them to swing hard on
everyone if you get if they hang one, if they
hang one, are you better fastball hitter or a junk
ball hit.

Speaker 10 (30:22):
I'm going to hit that fastball. I'm swinging that first
pitch and drive it.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
All right, Well, let's be quiet on that, don't because
they may come hide and inside on you this first
time you get on the mound. Are you better fastball
breaking stuff? And how early can you pick up what? What?
What they're throwing?

Speaker 9 (30:39):
Oh well, I'm always looking for the first pitch heater
and then okay, off of that fastball adjusts.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
But you guys are is up and down the line
of pretty aggressive and first pitch is looking to get
on base and drive the ball.

Speaker 8 (30:51):
Most I think it's just being ready to hit. In general.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
Hey, you guys are the captains this year. How much
did you learn a year ago from whoever the captains
are the seniors on that team. And have you learned
how to lead from from guys in the school or
from family members? Or and I'll ask you Jack first,
where did you learn how to be a leader on
this team? Are you vocal or are you more on
the quiet side.

Speaker 9 (31:15):
I'm more of a quiet, lead by example kind of leader.
But my dad has coached me his entire life, and
you know, he's taught me how to coach a team
what needs to be done.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Did do you hear him when you're on the field,
when you're batter's boxing in the field? Who do you
hear in the Lutch family? Who is well, you know,
letting you know what's going on, or who talks to
the ump a little bit?

Speaker 8 (31:36):
My dad is is quiet, down throat.

Speaker 9 (31:40):
As I've gotten older, but I still hear my mom chilled.
She'll hold me accountable, even though she does.

Speaker 8 (31:47):
Never played baseball, but that's all right. She knows her boy.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
She's been a trust me. She's part of the Lutch family.
She's been to a few baseball games in her life,
and she, yeah, she knows quite a bit of about it.
Learning how to to lead. And you would consider your
family giving you the most. And and you said, look,
I'm more of a quiet leader. Jake. What about you?
You you a little bit louder and vocal.

Speaker 11 (32:11):
I tend to talk a little bit more. I like
doing it.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah, you're good at it.

Speaker 11 (32:16):
I like to think I'm fair at talking.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Best part of your game.

Speaker 11 (32:20):
Best part of my.

Speaker 10 (32:20):
Game is being able to throw a baseball where I
want it. Okay, pitch for contact and maybe get a
swing a miss every now and then.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
So what are you throwing nowadays? Do you throw more fastball?
Is more junker to you? Do you mix them up?

Speaker 11 (32:36):
I'm a I mix a lot of mixing.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
What's your best breaking pitch?

Speaker 5 (32:40):
Well?

Speaker 11 (32:40):
I like to think my slider okast breaking pitch. I can.

Speaker 10 (32:44):
I feel like I'm good because I can locate any
pitch I want to in any count.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
You'll throw a three and oh slider.

Speaker 11 (32:50):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Okay, man, that's good stuff. Boys. We're gonna get to
a break. The other side of the break. We have
got two other captives and we're going to ask them
some of the similar questions that we had for Jack
and Jake. Talk to your dad's make sure your dad
talks to me about American Legion. And I'm not getting
a call from your dad, but I'll maybe I'll have
your mom come back. May I'll get your mom come in.

(33:13):
Maybe missus LUTs will come in and talk some baseball.
And if she comes in, that'll make your dad maybe
come in because he's gonna go. She never played. I
gotta talk about it. Big fan of your families, and
I think that they do a great job in our
community of supporting sports and and and look when you
talk about the Lutz family, I always thought of them
as a as a baseball family, but they're not. They're

(33:35):
much more than that. They're they're a sports family and
I really enjoy that. So say hi to them for me.
We'll get to a break. Other side of the break,
we'll continue talking Witne baseball. They got the one seat,
but we're not talking much playoff stuff because they got
two big games against Greenfield to find out who's going
to win this conference Wednesday and Thursday of next week.
You want to watch really good high school baseball, it's

(33:57):
gonna be pretty pretty nice out looking at the weather.
Got a game at Witnell on Wednesday, a game at
Greenfield on Thursday. That Wednesday game is the big one.
Let's find out who's got a chance to win this
conference outright and on Wednesday of the twenty eighth, at
four forty five at Witnell High School, go out and
support this team. If you're a Witnel fan or live

(34:17):
in the area, get out. This team deserves your support.
They are I think if I saw the rankings last week,
they've moved up. They've moved up in the coaches poll.
And I don't know if anybody knows that, but they're
ranked number one right now in the coaches poll. And
that tells you a lot about how Jim Fisher and
his staff have done with this team and these four

(34:38):
captains and nine seniors. Get out and support this team.
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented
by your local Pickets Save and Metro Market stores only
on Fox Sports ninety twenty and your iHeart Radio app.
Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show,
presented as always by our friends at your local Picket

(34:58):
Save and Metro Market stores. Coming from the Dive in
at Jorgenson Heating Cooleen Studio Witnow, baseball is good hands.
Coach Jim Fisher is in studio. We've got two more
senior captains on this team. They call him Big cast him.
I'm starting with Big Casting just because of the nickname
Nate Caston. How you doing good, good Man? Brighton Stratton Kid,

(35:20):
you hit a bomb against South Milwaukee, and now maybe
you're going to be hitting and pitching over there.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
We'll see. That's the goal. That's the goal. How's the
arm feeling, Oh, the arm feels great. Yeah, wonderful.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Hey how long you have you played varsity baseball at Witneo?
Three years? Yeah? Have you always been a pitcher?

Speaker 12 (35:36):
Yeah, well not early in my career. I was up
until like thirteen. I started pitching when I was about thirteen.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Yeah, if you don't pitch, what do you play?

Speaker 3 (35:45):
I played first?

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Yeah? What would you prefer?

Speaker 3 (35:48):
I mean, I personally I like to pitch, but I
also like to hit.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
So did you ever see the pitcher from LSU and
if you go on YouTube, he hit a bomb to
win a game?

Speaker 5 (36:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (36:03):
Man, I always hit bombs, and he had to hit
since like grade school. And he gets up and hits
a bomb in the college playoff And what are the
chances of that?

Speaker 5 (36:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (36:12):
You could do that?

Speaker 3 (36:12):
Oh, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Why Brighton Stratton By the way.

Speaker 12 (36:16):
I thought for me personally, they reached out to me,
and I really wasn't looking for anything. Yes, I wasn't
too looking into my college career. I was thinking more
of the trades are out. But they reached out to me,
and I thought that it was a good fit, and
I thought that they really wanted me, So I thought
it would be a good fit for me.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
Get you know what, play as much baseball as you can.
What trade? Were you looking at?

Speaker 3 (36:37):
Carpentry?

Speaker 1 (36:38):
All right? So you know I do a home improvement
show before this, so I got a ton of people
looking for you.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
If you need my name out there, you know what.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Honestly, if if you have any interest this summer and
looking into that, please let me know every every everybody
that comes on that show, every company. Just can we
talk about we're looking you bet looking for as your
age that want to get in the trade. So we will,
we will talk. I'll tell you, I'll make you a deal.
I'll get you a job if you get the let's

(37:07):
dad to come in and talk talk some baseball, because
that's not gonna happen. But I will do my best
if if you want me to introduce you to some
people a j How you doing good?

Speaker 9 (37:17):
Good?

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Good? You having a good year?

Speaker 3 (37:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (37:19):
Very good?

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Hitting the ball? Okay, yep. You know catchers are different, man,
You guys see the game different. You guys are Have
you always been a catcher? Yeah?

Speaker 13 (37:27):
I think since I've started playing, I always want to
do it because you would get the ball every single pitch,
and I always wanted to be involved a hundred.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
And you're kind of the captain, right You're you're you're
telling that, You're telling let's to move over a little bit,
telling your center fielder to adjust, and and uh does
drive you nuts when any of these pictures shake you off?

Speaker 5 (37:47):
No?

Speaker 13 (37:47):
Sorry, I also want them to be able to call
the game too, because they know themselves better than I
know them.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
So, Nathan big Casting, you don't shake him off as
much as the other boy.

Speaker 12 (37:58):
No, No, I don't shake him off as much. I
trust agent. He's been my catcher for a while.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah, since since freshman year before.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
That, since yeah, probably before that. You guys played together.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Okay did you play You played youth baseball together? Yeah?
We did, man, that's awesome. You also played football.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
Yeah, I did.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
How was that experience for you. Oh it was.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
It was wonderful.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah, And you liked being on the defensive vent more
than the offensive end because you don't mind you don't
mind hitting people, right, you know.

Speaker 12 (38:25):
I don't want to shout myself out or anything, but
you know I did lead the conference.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Sat there you go. Man, that's awesome because I didn't
know that. I appreciate that Brian Strand didn't have a
football team.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
They got a flaying football team.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
And they do they do, and the boys and the
men's show.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
I believe it's girls, I believe.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Yeah, and the girls shot. Yeah. I played golf with
their athletic I've been there. I have been friends with
Ryan for a long time. And we played with the
basketball coach, one of his assistants, and the assistant coach
or the head coach had hit the ball two miles,
but he watched a bunch of them until the last
hole when we had money on it. Three hundred and
forty five forty hit it to fifteen feet. Yeah. Yeah,

(39:06):
So I ended up having to pay him some cash.
But I'm on that campus a lot, and and you
know what, I like the feel. I love the stuff
that Brian Strtt's doing. Bobcats that. That's awesome. AJ your
favorite memory being part of the Witne baseball program? What
do you think it would be?

Speaker 13 (39:23):
I would say in my freshman year, we went to
the sectional finals game and we got the day off
of school and there were still just so many people there.
It was about an hour away from our school, and
the amount of people just showed up in that atmosphere
was great.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Man, that's awesome. That's a really good memory. I can
tell you that, And hopefully this year we're going to
duplicate that and maybe go a little bit a little
bit further. I think that'd be great, big casting. That's
what I'm just going to call you from here on out. Nate,
you're a favorite memory of being part of the Witne
baseball program. What would it be?

Speaker 12 (39:55):
I'm a big vibes guy, so I'd say for me,
it's it's definitely on the bus on the after a
good wine.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
You know, we got the speaker buffing, we're playing some music.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
It's good.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
Yeah, it's definitely a good vibe.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
You're going to miss being part of this program.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
Huh oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
When is graduation, by the way, the eighth coming up?
Oh yeah, coming up? You're you're still in class.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
Though, right, Yeah, our last day is the sixth.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Guys. I didn't say this to the other two captains,
but they're in studio and they're gonna hear me and I
and I have a tendency from my old basketball coaching
days coach thirty six years and for a long time,
and I would have these conversations with seniors and our team.
Don't don't screw this thing up. Right. You can go
to all the parties you guys want to go to
after the season is over. Don't let any anybody any

(40:39):
nine seniors on this team. You guys are the captains, though,
have the conversation. What you don't want is two kids
to do anything ridiculous here, right, and there's stuff that
goes on, and we all know that. Don't let anything
get screwed up because you guys have a chance to
do some really great things that at the end of
the year here win a conference champ being chip, get

(41:01):
to State, do all the things that you guys had
hoped for, and do me a favor, and just make
sure you're vocal enough and talking about Hey, look, let's
just go home tonight, get a good night sleep, we
got a big game tomorrow, let's not let's not mess around.
So that that's me getting on the soapbox as an
old guy and a grandfather, an old basketball coach. If
I hear that, you guys, let some of that happen,

(41:23):
I'm gonna come over and and trust me, I'm gonna
light you up. I'm gonna light you up. Hey, you
got family members that come to all your games?

Speaker 12 (41:31):
Yeah, my my mom and dad and then my aunts
love to come to the games.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Yeah, who does my aunts? Yeah? Did you hear them?

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Do I hear them?

Speaker 13 (41:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Who do you hear you?

Speaker 1 (41:41):
When you're on the mount? Who might who might say
something to the yump that that was a strike? Oh?

Speaker 3 (41:46):
Definitely my dad?

Speaker 1 (41:46):
Yeah, Nick, Nick, well done, well done. I look he
they're gonna be able to come watch you play with
Brian Stratton. But it's a different animal. It is. My
son went to Marinatha Baptist Bible College Division III and
Watertown to play basketball, and I coached him in high school.
The difference between now, I kind of like how to

(42:09):
be a little bit quiet. Right it's now college sports
and I gotta be a little bit a little bit quiet.
AJ do you have family members that come a lot.

Speaker 13 (42:18):
Yeah, my mom, dad, sister, my grandfather.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Who do you hear the most?

Speaker 13 (42:21):
I don't really hear any of them. They are more
of the people that just kind of sit on the
sidelines and just let me do my thing.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
What's your grandfather's name, Mike, Mike, you got to start.
I want to hear you, Mike. If I come into
that Wednesday game, I'm gonna I'm gonna meet your grandfather
and I'll start yelling and getting him in involved a
little bit, for sure. AJ, did you know coming into
this year that you guys had a chance. If I
said you'd be in the beginning of the year, before
you play the game, near the end of the year,

(42:46):
you're gonna have a chance to win a conference and
you're gonna be ranked number one in the state in
the coaches poll. Would you go, yeah, I can see
that happening, or would you have said no, I don't
know if we're going to be that good.

Speaker 13 (42:59):
I know we definitely had to of winning conference because
we've won the last two years, but maybe in the
coaches pull the type of deal. We had a hard schedule,
so it was definitely tough. So I knew we had
a good chance, but I knew it was gonna be
very hard.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
Wait, hey, AJ, when when you get your schedule, who's
the team that you know? Everybody's got a team, right,
And sometimes it's the same team the whole team has,
but a lot of times it's individual. Like I a
bunch of my buddies play on that team.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (43:23):
Was it Greendale for you?

Speaker 5 (43:25):
Uh?

Speaker 13 (43:25):
No, I'm I have a bunch of buddies from all
the teams, so I kind of circle just a few,
and it's just good to play against a bunch.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
Of my guys. Yeah, Greenfield have a couple, Yeah, they
do it. You know, a couple of those boys. You
know exactly what they like to hit and what you're
gonna call when they get in.

Speaker 13 (43:40):
That's why it's good being a catcher and playing summer
ball with a lot of these guys.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yeah, you know who you're gonna throw high end in
and loan away and and all of that. Man, I
love that big cast. And who's the team for you?

Speaker 3 (43:53):
The team for me?

Speaker 12 (43:54):
When I first saw the schedule, it was definitely a
squigo because they were a preseason ranked number one.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
Yes, and we went out there and.

Speaker 12 (44:01):
I believe it was our third second, second game of
the year, and we definitely took it to him.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
You did you beat him nine to three? Did you
did you get on the mountain that one?

Speaker 3 (44:12):
No, I have reckless is on the mountain for that.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Did you get any hits that game?

Speaker 3 (44:16):
Oh? Yeah, I started the game off with the single first, and.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
You led the conference in sacks and football. Let's make
sure that we throw that one out again. Were any
interest in in playing football at the next level? Anybody
contacted you to come play?

Speaker 3 (44:31):
No? No, nobody contacted me.

Speaker 12 (44:33):
But uh, I mean, I don't think I could ever
play football at the next level.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
No, it was definitely a good thing in high school
to play baseball. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Did you play four years in football?

Speaker 5 (44:42):
No?

Speaker 3 (44:42):
I actually only played three years.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
Yeah, and you didn't play youth football? What made you
go players? So now I'm interested in this.

Speaker 12 (44:50):
Well, our coach is kind of you know, he's a
different guy, and he's special for sure, and he definitely
recruits kids like to play just at the school.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Yeah, you walk through the hallway and and you see
some kids and you go come play. Did you know
early on that you might fall in love a little
bit with football.

Speaker 12 (45:07):
No, I really didn't know until I'd say about my
junior my senior year summer.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
Yeah, like the summer before.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
You couldn't talk AJ to come play football because catchers
are a little bit crazy. Matt. You wouldn't mind hitting people.
That's how catchers are.

Speaker 12 (45:21):
You could talking about I could have talked a did
you play youth football or anything?

Speaker 1 (45:27):
No, I just played basketball.

Speaker 13 (45:28):
And then once I got to high school, I realized
I was a little bit better at baseball than anything else.
So I just kind of decided to stick with that.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
And who do you play for in this summer?

Speaker 13 (45:35):
I played for PTA, but I'm gonna be playing Legion.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
Ball with Jake.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
You are, how about you as well?

Speaker 12 (45:39):
I played for PTA with AJ for two years and
but we played I played Window youth before that, and
then when I playing Legion Ball again this year, I
played last year with Jake's team as well.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
Look, I know very little about Legion ball, so I'm
hoping that his dad will call me and I would
do like last year we did during the baseball season.
I'll t go baseball one week and then talk about
other sports. We did golf for an hour, we did
we did ice fishing, high school ice fishing. We talked
about underwater hockey for an hour last year. Underwater hockey.

(46:13):
It's a college club sportow and didn't even know it existed.
But so I'd love to talk collegiate baseball because I don't.
I really don't know much about it. Hey, when when
you look at what's coming up this week, with these
two games against Greenfield, you couldn't have scripted it any better.
Before you get to the playoffs, let's take care of
this business with with winning a conference. Feel pretty good

(46:36):
about your chances for these two games this week?

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Oh yeah, I think we should easily handle this.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
Not easily, Oh Jim Fisher's were Oh no, he shaking
his head. If the Greenfield boys are listening, we do not.
We don't want Greenfield. We don't want them putting anything
up on their locker. I can tell you that Fish
is like, ah, well, we'll just give it a shot.
We'll do We'll do our best. Nate aj, thank you
so much, Jim Fisher, come on back up to the

(47:02):
microal quick. When we talked off the air, you told
me how special this team is and how you've really
enjoyed it. You don't want this here to end. I
get it now, I get it. These guys are good
ambassadors for you in your school and program. Good good
luck on Wednesday, Thank you Wednesday and Thursday.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
See you're around this guy all yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Look, he's given me more. I've got eighteen more questions
for this boy because he's just willing to say what's
going on. And I love that. I do, and I
understand now. I look, let's families not going to like
me at all for ripping them a little bit. But
I've heard nothing good but good things about all of
these guys. But but Jack, because when you're involved in

(47:45):
the stuff I do, people ask you about you know,
a family like that who has done really a lot
for this community and to further baseball at all different
age groups. And I like that. But I get it.
Meeting Nate, I'm sorry, Big cast Iff, tell me that's
what I got call him. So that's what I'm gonna do.
AJ and Jake. It's a good group and I get
it now, I get it. Take care of the business.

(48:06):
You don't mind me talking about don't let anybody screw
this thing up? Right? Absolutely? Yeah, I'm sure you've had
those conversations with him and then the guys this age
normally don't listen to old grandfathers like me, but hopefully
they will on this. It's good to see you, Good
to see you. Yeah, I'm gonna try to get out
there on Wednesday. Awesome.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Hey, we'll be waiting for you to get your a
chair right up from now.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
I'm thinking of Coach third. I'm just sending everybody, and
I'm hoping I can get the lunch kid thrown out
at home and I can point out to the family
and go, she'd have came on my show. It's just
really good to see you. Hey, have a good one.
Good luck. Good luck this week and certainly the following
week is well. Be nice to my voice from Greendo
Martin Luther. If that game comes, I can't tell you

(48:48):
Milwaukee Luthor anymore because that's not gonna happen. He is
Jim Fisher and the captains from the Witnew Falcons. We're
gonna get to a break the other side of the break.
We're gonna reach out to Michelle Hartman. Her Son Cody
is a senior golf Freeze High School down at Florida,
going to be playing at John Melvin Christian College. And
the difference between playing high school baseball and Florida playing
high school baseball here in the state of Wisconsin. A

(49:11):
big difference with the amount of games and the kind
of things that they go through down there. And we'll
talk to Michelle on the other side of the break.
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores
only 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

(49:33):
stores only on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
As always, coming live from the Donovan to Jorgensen Heating
and Cooling Studios. You get to turn your area or
AC on soon and when you do, make sure it's working.
Any issues you have go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com,
the largest employee owned HVAC company in the state of Wisconsin.

(49:56):
Celebrating forty years of giving back to our community and
helping people. And I just can't tell you what a
big fan I am. Want to thank the guys from
Witnell Baseball, number one ranked team in the state, right
down the coaches, Poll and Jim Fisher in the four
seniors they had a studio. I want to thank them
for their time and going to try to get over

(50:17):
to their game on Wednesday if I can't Wednesday or Thursday,
maybe more Thursday now that I think about it, when
they play at Greenfield at ten twenty, we're going to
be joined in studio Brock Johnson and his mom and
this going to join a coming studio. Brock's dad is
to head baseball coach at Greendale and he was in
I know a couple of months ago, did a great

(50:38):
job on the mic, and we're going to talk youth
baseball with him and his mom this segment. Michelle Hardman,
she is the mom Cody Hardman, who is a senior
at Golf Bree's High School down in Florida, and she
works with my wife and Michelle and I had a
chance last night spent some time on the phone and
talk about this journey she's been on with Cody, and

(51:00):
I asked you to come on for a couple of
minutes to talk a little bit about Florida high school baseball.
Her son going to John Melvin Christian College in paste Florida.
To continue to play baseball, and we are now joined
by Michelle Hardman. Michelle, thank you so much for a
couple of minutes of your time. How you doing today, Good,
good morning, good morning. What's the weather like in Florida today?

Speaker 5 (51:23):
Sonny and beautiful as always, no commidity so far, but
that's there.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
Well.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
I got a brother in Tarpin Springs and a brother
in Sarasota. And the brother in Sarasota by right about
now is when he goes to his home in Michigan
because he said, Matt can't stand the heat. It's too
much for me. Are you have you always been a
Florida girl.

Speaker 5 (51:44):
No. I actually lived in Virginia on the East Coast
near Norfolk in Chesapeake for about twenty two years before
I moved here in the December of twenty twelve.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
I think it was boy, big difference. Do you miss
the winter and all?

Speaker 5 (52:00):
No? No, you.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Didn't even have to think about that one, did you. Man.
That's that's awesome. Hey, can we.

Speaker 5 (52:10):
Talk with our unusual season? Because we got nine inches
of snow in January, which we don't get snow in Florida,
not in the Panhandle. And to get nine inches in
one day, that was like that, I knew I made
my correct decision moving to Florida when we dealt with
that snow.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
Man, that's awesome. Hey, let's talk a little bit about Cody,
and he is a baseball player through and through, a
single sport athlete. And when we talked, we talked last night.
These guys that I just had in studio for their
high school team, they're going to get about twenty five,
maybe twenty five games in the season. And I know

(52:50):
down in Florida, man, you've got a couple of seasons.
And when we talk about Cody and the amount of
baseball that he plays much different than what we do
up here in the North.

Speaker 5 (53:00):
Correct, Well, we start earlier. It's unfortunate that they said
a limit on the number of games they can play
per season in the Florida high school teams. However, outside
of the teams with the travel balls and the side teams,
if you will, they play a lot more. And we
start earlier. We started our season January thirteenth was our tryout. Wow,

(53:24):
and then we started two weeks after that. Because in
the weather season, when you don't get ninetes of snow for.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
That season, right right, and here you know, once it melts,
they get outside and played a lot of times, especially
in the beginning of the season. You know, not great
fields up here because it's still April and we could
get snow and we do and that makes it a
little bit difficult. Hey, growing up, did you know that
baseball was going to be Cody's sport?

Speaker 5 (53:53):
No, because he liked wrestling when he was young, and
that's what he did when we were in Virginia, even
at age five. And when we moved here to Florida,
it was kind of one of those little, you know,
rec center teams that says, hey, come out. We were
attending church and some of the other boys that he
was in class with at church said, you know, we're

(54:16):
going to be playing baseball. Why don't you sign them up?
And so we did and that's how he got started.
And some of the boys he you know, still plays
with today and others. One of his best friends moved
to Texas three years ago and he's still in contact
with him. So there's something to be said about baseball
and that brotherhood that it brings in, just the friendship.

(54:36):
You know, some of my very best friends I've I've
got from Cody's baseball. So I am. I'm ever so
grateful that he got into that sport.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
Hey, can we talk a little bit about the travel
team that he had played for a number of years,
East Coast Socks. I'm not familiar with them, but where
are they located and how much travel was involved with that.

Speaker 5 (54:58):
Oh, they're out of missis Sai And it's a pretty
large organization. Again, it's a Christian based organization and they
have different age age requirements for that. But he started
playing his freshman year and again some of his teammates
from his school were on that team. They bring players together.

(55:21):
They start off the season with a camp every year
and a kind of a bonding team in Mississippi and
its usually this this weekend is usually when it occurs,
and they spend three or four days together and then
they start their season. And we started playing off like
almost every single weekend. It would go Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

(55:42):
just depending on where we went and the travel time
we would travel, you know, from Mississippi. He pitched at
Mississippi State. He was very forced to be able to
get to play at some of these you know, major fields.
That was such an opportunity for him, and I have
to say Mississippi, Data Think was a favorite place to

(56:03):
pitch at.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
Do you know, I I love the dynamic between a
mom and a son, and and and when they're involved
in sports, and and whether the mom is a big
baseball fan or a big basketball fan. The amount of
time that you get to spend with your son in
the car traveling to to some of these different games.
I don't know if that old commercial, Michelle, it's it's priceless.

(56:28):
And and Terry, you know you you and my wife
worked together, and I'm sure that you have these conversations,
but the amount that we traveled through AU basketball. We
we very seldom talk about games or talk about tournaments
we won throughout the Midwest, but we talk about the
travel part of when we're in this hotel and these
kids through Matthew Apool and how mad I was at them,

(56:51):
and you know, just kind of fun stuff like that.
How much did when you look back so far of
of Cody's baseball career, how much did you think about
that part of the journey that you guys have been
on together.

Speaker 5 (57:06):
To me, that was the best part, because it's time
that you never get back. When you spend five six
hours in a car, which is a lot of the
times we traveled up towards Memphis for tournaments that were
up there. So that's good six hours, six and a
half hours and we were in the car. Now, my
son is a professional sleeper when we get in the car,

(57:27):
so I have to wait till he's good and awake.
I have so many pictures of him with his head
propped back and his mouth open, and I'm going to
have to put a collage with that one together from
when he was small all the way up until now.
But that time in the car, I can't even put
a price tag on it, because having that one on
one time with your child and watching them grow and

(57:50):
develop and learn what's on their mind. Sometimes we would sit,
you know, for a couple of hours and not say
a word, and then other times it would be non
stop talking, you know, about life in general, you know,
not even about baseball, but just about life.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
Man. I love that, I really do. Hey, he's committed
to John Melvin Christian College and past Florida. The decision
for him to decide to stay in the state of Florida,
and I think forty five minutes or so for you
to go watch him play. Was it a tough decision
for him to choose to play at John Melvin Christian College.

Speaker 5 (58:29):
Not really. He was a procrastinator in trying to figure
out what he wanted to be when he grew up,
and so he knew he wanted to play baseball, but
he wasn't for sure like where, And that was the thing.
I don't know of his poll because I've been a
single mom with him since he was a year old,

(58:50):
and I'm not sure if the poll of wanting to
stay local to keep an eye on mom, but influenced that.
He also has a sister has two small babies that
he is a great uncle too, so they live close
to there also that might have been a factor. But
I totally let him make the decision, and he reached

(59:12):
out to the coach, talked with the coach, arranged the meeting,
and when we went to meet him, I liked the
coach Radolf as well, and just kind of was drawn
to the overall mission of the school. And then they
had a degree program that was for business that he
could you know, branch out into another school if he
decided to go somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
Boy, that's awesome. Good for him and the fact that
you know, I I like the fact that he's gonna
he's gonna be far enough away. Is he going to
live on campus by the way, No, he's.

Speaker 5 (59:45):
He's going to live with me at least for the
first year. Okay, But then I'm going to push him
out because I'd like for him to get that experience
of you know, being the college, the full college experience.
My daughter is thirty. He graduated from Virginia Tech and
graduate from high school in twenty ten, so she got

(01:00:07):
that full experience, you know, going five hours away her
freshman year, and I think it helped develop her even more,
you know, into a better human. And I want him
to have that same experience.

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
Hey, this journey that you've been on, it's interesting because
when I talk to moms and dads of seniors and
I say, look, the year of last for you, how
has that been? And last night when we talked to
you said, you know, knowing that he's going to be
playing college baseball, that I can get to their home
games because they'll travel to some places that I won't

(01:00:41):
go to but just because of distance. But he'll play
close enough for you to continue to support him. But look,
You've gotten fully invested in golf, frees High School, the
head of the Booster club and doing all the things
that I think are really important for parents to be
involved and what their their kids are involved in. It's

(01:01:03):
it's been a good journey for you. Has this been
a difficult year for you? To know that this is
a year of last and looking at their their team
this year, they said they had a really good good
year going and then they got into a little funk
down down the stretch and didn't end the year the
way that I know that you guys had hoped. But
but they had a really good overall year as far

(01:01:24):
as their record. Has it been a good year for you?
And have you kind of taken snapshots in your mind
on some of the the away games and some of
the things that that you have witnessed with this team overall?

Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
You know, it's baseball, so anytime you're playing baseball is good.
But being you know, the leader of the Booster, I
had to adjust a little bit this year so I
could make sure to be able to watch when Cody
was out there playing, and you know it, it kept
me busy so I didn't have to think about the
emotional aspect of it of just being his last you know,

(01:02:02):
time on the field or you know, his last time
on the mount. So that one, I think my headspace
was a little too busy to be wrapped up in emotion.
But you know, it was a good year, and we
talked about culture and setting our team's culture in the beginning,
and knowing that these teams had to care about one another,

(01:02:25):
you know, the individual players, which they did. Some of
them have been playing ball, you know, since seventh eighth grade,
some of them longer than that. And we have seven
seniors that are graduating. Six of them are playing at
the next level. The seventh one decided he just didn't
want to play baseball. He's going to Florida for academics,

(01:02:46):
which he's very intelligent, and he's probably the smarter out
of all of them. But we have one going into
the Naval Academy, which he's a phenomenal player. So these
boys together that they had such a dynam going into
the season, and our coaches two years into this was
the second season coaching coming from Texas, and he's trying

(01:03:10):
to get the lay of the land and learn all
the players and what their strings are. And then you know,
and I think he was trying to develop some of
the younger players, which kind of I think hurt us
at the end because our team dynamic was really really
strong going in. We beat one of the fourteenth ring

(01:03:31):
national teams this year that you know, we haven't been
able to beat in a few years. And then we
swept our rival that that one going into I think
we were two nine maybe against them, but we swept
this season and it was just it was great. We
had a transfer player that came from a school that

(01:03:53):
is another one of our rivals that we ended up
beating them on their on their field, which was great
for Zero and the kid that transferred over. He's a
junior and phenomenal. He pitched for us and to shut
them out.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Oh that's fun. Oh, you got to love that. You
got to love that. Hey, where do you think and
where does Cody think that he'll play at the next
level when he gets to John Melvin Christian College. Will
he play outfield? Will you get on the mound and pitch?
Will he play first base? What is it? What is
your thought? And what do you think he's thinking?

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
I think he's going to continue to pitch. He worked
on a couple of pitches even this year, some newer pictures,
a cutter and his slider. He works on a lot,
so I think he'll continue to pitch. I don't know
that the team, you know, dynamic yet, if they kind
of seclude them into just a picture pitcher only kind

(01:04:52):
of position, or if they allowed him to you know,
hit or play positions. I'm not sure yet.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
Yeah, I think yeah, I think that as well. We
had a young man from from Witnell Baseball that was
in studio with us, Jack Lutch, who's going to South
Florida to play baseball, and and he h, I said,
do you pitch? He's and normally up here you got
to have a ton of guys that pitch because they play.
You know, you'll play four games a week because you'll

(01:05:21):
have to not play in the beginning because of weather,
and there are times they get four or five games
in a week. So you got to have a lot
of guys that can throw. And Jack Lett said, no,
I don't, uhh. I pitched a little bit, but I'm
a short stop. I'm a leadoff hitter and and hopefully
that's what I'll do when I get down to South
Florida and It'll be interesting when Cody gets on campus.

(01:05:43):
What what they decide and you never know is in
coming freshmen. Are they going to trust him enough to
get up on the mound. Are they gonna, you know,
maybe have him come in off the bench or get
to the bullpen stuff like that. You gotta love the
fact that that he's hoping to be able to pitch
at the next level. How nervous do you, yeah, when
he gets up by the mound? Is that something that
that you've seen enough that you don't get nervous anymore?

(01:06:05):
Or do you still get nervous?

Speaker 5 (01:06:09):
I would be lying. I say I didn't get that
all nervous, But I do you know, I feel comfortable
when it's when he goes in. He's been put in
tough situations. Uh, And I'm I even sure how that
ends up happening, where you know, bases will be loaded,
will be two hours and the other team will be
up or tied and still throw Cody in. And I'm like, oh,
dear lord, why did they do this to this child

(01:06:31):
every time? And somehow this kid manages to pull off.
It's it's like it I can't even explain it. We
were at the Wallhoo's and the picture had pitched. They
even put with with foot put Cody in in the
sixth inning to release, and they ended up bringing the
same picture back and you know on the sixth inning,

(01:06:52):
and we saw him kind of almost struggle at the
end of the fifth and I'm like, why why are
we doing this to this kid? First of all? And
then he hits the first two batters, you know, and
walk I think the third one, so it's space is
loaded already, no outs and then Cody has here it
comes yea, oh my gosh, e we won.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
But it's just that kind of pressure, Michelle Hardman. They're
just trying to get your your blood pressure up a
little bet, That's what they were trying to do. Get
to get your blood pressure. Hey, when you go and
watch Cody play, do you sit or you you move
back and forth and be the booster club president? You
might have to do some work, but if you get
your your your preference. Are you one that goes in

(01:07:35):
the crowd and and sits and watches the game or
you do you move around?

Speaker 5 (01:07:41):
I move around a lot, but I do like to
sit and watch and I do try to get away
where people can't say hey, we need this, or come
trying to tell me that the Tolas are stopped up,
those kind of scenarios like no, no, no, no, the game
is go away, but it is. I root for all
of our boys, you know, and try to encourage them

(01:08:01):
as much as possible and keep the crowd going, and
you know, it's so much fun being at the ballfield.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
Are you gonna miss being the Booster Club president? You're
not going to do that after Cody graduates, are you?

Speaker 7 (01:08:15):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:08:15):
No, I've done it for four years in the Booster Club.
That's enough.

Speaker 10 (01:08:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:08:20):
I've got good people that's coming behind me. I've got
lots of documents for them to take over, and I
will be here as a resource for them. But nope,
I'm done with that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
That's a really smart move on your part. She is
Michelle Hardman again, her son Cody. We're going to try
to get him on here in the next few weeks
as we continue to talk about baseball and different parts
of baseball. Look, playing baseball and Florida is different than
playing baseball in Wiscott's the same game, but there are
different aspects to it where they get to play a
little bit more. They get to play more games. There's

(01:08:53):
I think more opportunities to be able to play in
different times of the year, obviously in Florida than there is.
What I want to thank Michelle Hardman for a couple
of minutes of her time. Good luck to Cody. When
is graduation by the way next.

Speaker 5 (01:09:08):
Friday, May thirtieth, And then he starts his summer league
with a Pensacola league that goes the month of June
and he'll play like twelve games and then the championship
for them. But it's all local, so that's such a
nice nice thing.

Speaker 1 (01:09:24):
Also, now, y'all, that's fun. He gets to play with
a bunch of his friends.

Speaker 5 (01:09:28):
Then jesf and boys from out of state they come
down and sign up to play ball at this league
and they just have a good time. It's all about
really having fun, you know, and going out there, which
is a lot of these boys need after the pressure
of high school ball and trying to perform, and now
they're not trying to impress anybody because they're already playing

(01:09:49):
ball at the next level and they just want to
have fun.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
Is that a wood bad league?

Speaker 5 (01:09:56):
It is a wood bad league. There you go and
there's about thirteen fourteen teams that make up the league.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
I gotta love that she is. Michelle Hardman. Michelle, thank
you so much. I really appreciate the time that you've
given us. I look forward to meeting Cody having him
on the show. Good luck graduation wise, and obviously you've
done a great job with these kids and certainly with
this young man, and I congratulate you on that and

(01:10:21):
hopefully his the transition to John Melvin Christian College down
to Pace, Florida is a good transition for him.

Speaker 5 (01:10:30):
Thank you, mach, I appreciate it, you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
Bet, Michelle, thank you. We're going to get to a break.
Other side of the break, Brock Johnson and his mom
and this are going to come in and we're going
to talk a little Greendale baseball. We're gonna talk some
youth baseball, and we'll talk about being a coach's wife
and what that looks like. As I say a lot
of the show, there's a special place in heaven for
coaches wives, and we have one joining us in the

(01:10:54):
next segment. This is the Varsity Blitz High School sports show,
presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores,
only on Fox Sports ninety twenty and your iHeart Radio app.
Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show,
presented as always by our friends at your local Pick
and Saban Metro Market stores. Coming from the Donovan and
Jorgansen Heating and Coolian Studio. Want to thank the boys

(01:11:17):
from Whitnell coming in Coach Jim Fisher, four of his
senior captains. Want to thank Michelle Hartman. Her son, Cody
plays at golf Freeze High School down in Florida. He's
going to John Melvin Christian College and this is the
year of last for her. And I love the fact
that she talked a little bit about Cody and what

(01:11:37):
she will remember most is the trips to away games
and traveling outside of the state of Florida hanging out
with her son. And I love that. Number of months ago,
maybe a month and a half ago. I think Brian Johnson,
the head of a baseball coach, he's always been very
kind with his time to come in studio and talk

(01:11:58):
Greendale Baseball came in and a couple of days before
he came in, he said, hey, do you mind if
I bring my son Brock. He wants to take your job.
I go absolutely bring that for you to me, and
Brock came in and we had him record a commercial.
I did a great job and very comfortable on the mic,
and I said, look, come back anytime. We'll do a
couple of segments. And Brian had had sent me a

(01:12:21):
text a week ago or two weeks ago and said, hey,
do you still want to do that? I go, absolutely,
what works for him? And today's the day it worked.
And I text Brian I said, hey, when you guys
come in, can you come a little early? And he goes, oh,
I'm not coming in. My wife's coming in, but she's
not going to want to talk. I go, oh, yeah, yeah.
If anybody knows me, I lie. I completely lie to them.

(01:12:42):
I go, no, no, you don't have to talk. But
you're going to sit right there with a microphone in
front of you and we are going to talk to
in this. I'm telling you, Brock, how you been.

Speaker 7 (01:12:50):
I've been doing good?

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
Yeah, doing all right? Basketball and football. You're a basketball
and football guy. Do you have a favorite sport?

Speaker 6 (01:12:58):
I've been leaning basketball lately, but I like both of
them equally pretty much.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
What position do you play in football?

Speaker 7 (01:13:04):
It's much surprise you, but offensive line?

Speaker 1 (01:13:07):
Yeah, you're not the biggest kid I've ever seen it.
And what grade again?

Speaker 7 (01:13:11):
Eighth?

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
So next year you'll be a freshman at Witnall. Yeah,
I just had all those witnow boys in and you'd
right away talked about the lunch kid, And yeah, I
ripped him the whole time it was here. Because I've
tried to get his dad to call me and talk
angel baseball, but he hasn't done it. But we'll see
if I maybe I could shame him enough to do that.
Your dad's been a baseball coach a long time. You

(01:13:33):
tried baseball and it's just not for you.

Speaker 6 (01:13:35):
Yeah, I was just I wasn't very good at it,
and I just didn't really see the connection I had
with it.

Speaker 7 (01:13:42):
Like football and basketball.

Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
Yeah, what position you're playing basketball?

Speaker 5 (01:13:47):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (01:13:48):
It varies a lot from anywhere from shooting guards, small
forward or power forward.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
You're a power forward. Yeah, you're not going to be
your power forward at the next level, young man. I
watched to know that. Lets you grow a bunch and
who knows are you playing? Are you playing basketball at
all this summer? Do you play any travel ball?

Speaker 7 (01:14:09):
No?

Speaker 6 (01:14:09):
But the high school has like a summer league kind
of thing for freshmen.

Speaker 7 (01:14:14):
Yes, so I'm doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:15):
Good for you. Have you guys started that yet?

Speaker 7 (01:14:19):
I think it's probably.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
After you graduate from grade school. I don't think you.

Speaker 7 (01:14:22):
Get that well.

Speaker 6 (01:14:23):
I think the summer league starts in like a couple
of weeks, but we've been doing open gyms and like
basketball workouts for like two to three weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:14:31):
Now, do you know most of the kids in that?

Speaker 5 (01:14:34):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (01:14:34):
Not as well as I'm not the football kids, but
a lot of them are from my grade.

Speaker 7 (01:14:38):
There's a lot of freshmen there.

Speaker 1 (01:14:40):
So how do you think. Were you surprised at the
talent level or are you gonna be okay?

Speaker 6 (01:14:46):
I was definitely surprised because like the first open gym
i was there, they did just like everyone mixed together,
and then they'll separate you into like grade level. So
I'm playing against like seniors.

Speaker 1 (01:14:57):
I'm just like shock, Yeah these are men, right, yeah? Yeah.
You go from eighth grade to playing an eighteen year old.
Big difference, big, big difference the freshmen that are coming in.
Where you're surprised at the town level on the incoming
freshman the eighth graders, or are you're gonna be okay there?

Speaker 6 (01:15:15):
I think I'll be Okay, I've been playing with a
lot of these guys for many years, so I'm familiar
with it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:21):
Hey, this time we do I know what a squirrely kid.
I was in eighth grade when I had ten days
left of school. I was not the greatest kid to
be around because I just wanted school to end. How
are you on this last couple of weeks of your
grade school life?

Speaker 6 (01:15:38):
Uh, you know, just trying to push to you in
because most of the teachers still giving them assignments.

Speaker 1 (01:15:43):
So my daughter, my daughter is a freshman teacher Walkie Lutheran,
and I had this conversation with her and she said,
you know, my kids, now it's getting a little nice
out and she said, they're still learning to do. I
still have teaching to do. So let's just come on, guys,
let's get let's get through this ANNESSA. How are you?

Speaker 14 (01:16:02):
I'm good.

Speaker 10 (01:16:03):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
You know there's a special place in heaven for coaches wives.
How many kids do you have? I have four? Okay, boys, girls.

Speaker 14 (01:16:12):
Brock's a twin. He has a twin sister, and we
have a ten year old girl and a six year
old girl.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
You are busy, You're busy. All sports kids Yep.

Speaker 14 (01:16:21):
Everybody's double sporting as we speak, with the Brian's high
school season going on.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
Do you know my daughter who we talked about during
the break has four boys. She's got a freshman who
just finished yesterday is the last day at LCL eighth grade,
fifth grade in a three year old and the three
older ones all play multiple sports, so basketball, lacrosse, one
runs across country. Football not a baseball player in the bunch.

(01:16:47):
Lacrosse seems to catch their attention a little bit. And
we live ten minutes from them, so it's like, hey, dad,
can you pick up Key and get him this basketball
tournament and then maybe you can get can Logan's playing
lacrosse them right if you want to. But Beckett's in
Port Washington, And I'm telling you, I don't know how
they do with Johnny Katie. I don't. Oh, they're running

(01:17:09):
these kids all over the place. But I think it's good, right,
don't you that these kids are being competitive, they get
a chance how to learn. They learned how to win gracefully,
how to lose gracefully, what it means to be part
of a team. You're a big fan of.

Speaker 14 (01:17:25):
That, yeah, I mean we are come a little closer
if you can't.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
Yes, okay, we are.

Speaker 14 (01:17:29):
Very blessed that we have our kids under the care
of some wonderful coaches. The team cultures are wonderful, you know,
you speak about how the kids are overlapping in their schedules,
and especially when you're a coach's wife, you rely. You know,
my mom helps out a lot with the driving. She
lives very close to us. Brian's parents too, and I

(01:17:50):
just have a great community of mom friends.

Speaker 1 (01:17:53):
And it's funny because my daughter says the same thing,
like they have the community of people that my son
in law is the since a Prince Me nominee falls
high school and but last year he was a teacher
in Hartford, and so they had these summers and they
would all go together and they would camp out in
you know, they would say to you, this year, we're

(01:18:15):
going to South Dakota, and they would do all that.
But when it comes time for school, they're picking up
kids and that it does take a village.

Speaker 14 (01:18:22):
Right, Yeah, And we're very lucky that, you know, the
families that we've been surrounded by on our local and
our travel sports teams just accept our kids like their
own and we can rely on them and they're very
supportive and it makes life a lot easier when you
have those people in your corner.

Speaker 1 (01:18:38):
Where did you go to high school?

Speaker 5 (01:18:40):
So?

Speaker 14 (01:18:40):
I grew up in Illinois. I went to a private
school called Carmel Catholic School. Sure now, so I'm not
from around here.

Speaker 1 (01:18:46):
But are you more of a Bears fan or no?

Speaker 14 (01:18:50):
No, Brian would never allig.

Speaker 1 (01:18:55):
You're a chief head through and through.

Speaker 14 (01:18:57):
And I actually went to college undergrad at Saint Norbert,
so I have gone to quite a few Packer games.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
Okay in my life. What did you go to school for?

Speaker 14 (01:19:04):
I'm actually a social worker?

Speaker 1 (01:19:06):
Well, okay for who?

Speaker 14 (01:19:07):
I work for Freighter at the cancer Center.

Speaker 1 (01:19:09):
Good for you? How is work? You're busy? I bet yes, yep.

Speaker 14 (01:19:13):
I work with a great team of ladies and we
do our best to help patients, you know, stay out
of the financial toxicity and the stress of cancer care
and just be a resource to them.

Speaker 1 (01:19:23):
Yeah. A good good for you, hey, Brock. When you
get a chance to to to to look at what
you the sports that you've played up through eighth grade
when it comes to basketball and football, is youre a
favorite team? You know what? Let me do this now,
we're going to get to a break. I'm going to
ask you a question that I always asked at the

(01:19:44):
end of Faith in the Zone, that that let's hold
off on that because I'm going to tell you during
the during the break and give you a chance to
give that some thought. When you when you look at
your football and your basketball career, is there what what
team was the best team that you played at? Was
it a football team or a basketball team? Was it

(01:20:04):
a maybe a travel team? But what team do you
look back at finally and go, man, that was the
best team I played on?

Speaker 6 (01:20:14):
It's probably either this year basketball or last year basketball,
because mostly because my dad was a coach in like
I actually might have to be last year's because like
we were in the same league for I don't even
know how long, but as long as I was playing basketball,
we were in the exact same league. And then like

(01:20:36):
once my dad started coaching, like we were all been
playing together for like two to three years.

Speaker 7 (01:20:42):
Yeah, and then it just.

Speaker 6 (01:20:44):
All started to click and we went sixteen and one
in a league.

Speaker 1 (01:20:49):
Play man, Yeah, good. Did you enjoy playing for your father?

Speaker 11 (01:20:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:20:55):
It was It's cool.

Speaker 1 (01:20:56):
Yeah, it's look, I coached my son and I had
to make changes because I coached him in aau. His
mom and my wife were always mad at me because
I thought we had a better point guard than him,
and so he came off the bench. But at the
high school level, I need to make changes because I
wasn't his coach twenty four to seven. I was his father,

(01:21:17):
and his sophomore year in high school was not a
great and it was my fault. I'm the one who
had to make the changes. If you ask him now,
he would say I loved playing for my dad. I'm
not sure at the time he did, so, you know,
it gets a little bit hard, and as a coach's wife,
you've got to be the buffer right between the player

(01:21:38):
and the coach and the son and the father. Difficult
spots sometimes.

Speaker 14 (01:21:43):
Yeah, and his parents, you know, Brian and I And
I'm sure this happens for a lot of coaches and
their spouses, where you're talking openly about is this the
best thing for my child to coach them in another
season and have open discussions between what it means to
be pushed and what it means for our kids to
step up as good examples and good leaders on the team.

(01:22:04):
Knowing that people are watching their example because they are
the coaches.

Speaker 8 (01:22:07):
Child.

Speaker 1 (01:22:08):
Were you an athlete, Corona? I was, What did you play?

Speaker 14 (01:22:11):
I did volleyball, basketball, and track?

Speaker 1 (01:22:14):
Wow, multi sport athletes, A big time.

Speaker 14 (01:22:16):
Track in college?

Speaker 7 (01:22:17):
You round?

Speaker 1 (01:22:18):
What did you run?

Speaker 14 (01:22:19):
I did two hundreds, three hundred hurdles and four hundreds.

Speaker 1 (01:22:23):
So you going to see your son playing a game?
Are you a quiet parent? Are you? Are you? Hold on?
Let me ask him? Let me because you guys are
both giggling. Can you hear her during your games?

Speaker 6 (01:22:36):
Not during the games a lot, but after the games,
especially because she's always like trying me to get to
shoot the wall more because.

Speaker 7 (01:22:44):
I like passing too much.

Speaker 1 (01:22:45):
I guess, shoot the ball, shoot to get hot, shoot
to stay. Had you understand girls like guys that can
shoot the ball a little bit? Right?

Speaker 14 (01:22:52):
We were at a it was a travel tournament and
he had spent an entire game passing. You know, he's
wonderful on defense, wonderful efforts. He's very scrappy and was
it at the end of the game or halftime end
of the game, he came up to me to like
get a water refill, and I said, if you don't
shoot the ball, this next game. We are going home.

(01:23:13):
I said, we are not here, and I was gonna,
you know, absolutely hold true to that because it's you know,
I know he's a good shooter, and I know he can.

Speaker 1 (01:23:21):
Do it, so it's shoot the ball.

Speaker 7 (01:23:23):
Oh he sure did that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
Next game, anybody hit? Do you know? Thirty six years
I coached and my grandkids now just roll their eyes
when when I go, look, you can't. In order to
be a better basketball player, You've got to work on
your handles. You've got to be able to drill the ball,
get in the gap. And they look at me and
they're like, okay, okay, old guy, whatever whatever I'm telling

(01:23:48):
you that I can talk to these kids till I'm
blue in the face. My son, when I coached him,
he had to do what I'm saying. But now I'm
just a nice grandfather. Let's make your recommendations and and
and look, the only tip I would give you is
when you go to get better in your game in basketball,
don't walk in the gym start shooting threes. You know what,

(01:24:08):
do Mike and drill, do a superman drill, get to
the free throw line, do your dribbling drills, and then
go shoot a little bit. All right, you'll do that.
You guys were gonna stick around. I get a number
of questions for you. I love the fact. Look, Brock Johnson,
he used to look out his dad told me he
wants my job. Let's just wait a while. I still
got a couple of a couple of years left in

(01:24:29):
this old body of mine. But I love the fact
that you enjoyed doing this radio and you're so comfortable
at it for a young man your age, I love it.
I'm gonna ask you pacers or next, what do you think.
I'm going to talk some NBA after it and get
your feelings since you're wearing your your buck shirt. And
this is Johnson, who is Brian's wife. He used to
head baseball coach at Greendale along side Brock Johnson, who

(01:24:53):
I love the fact that he wants to come in
and hang out and do this show. And we're gonna
talk a little bit about that. And I've got a
question that I always asked at the end of Faith
in the Zone that I'll give him heads up on
and let him make the decision. I'm where he wants
to go with that. On the other side of the break,
this is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores,

(01:25:15):
only on Fox Sports ninety twenty and 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 and Jorganson Heat and Cooling Studios. Look,
there are shows that we do on Saturday that I
get done and I'm like, Wow, that took forever. And
then there's shows like today's show that has gone by

(01:25:39):
and the Home improvement show that went by extremely quickly,
which means I'm having a ton of fun and I'm
hoping that it's a really good show. And I think
today's show is in studio Brock Johnson. His dad had
baseball coach at Greendale And again, his father's been so
kind for his time for me throughout the years of
that I've been doing this show, and now I finally
got a chance to be it's better half. And I

(01:26:02):
get it now. Brian. I know you have kicked your coverage.
Told me that a few times, and I agree with you.
We are doing something today that we've never done. And
I've done this show for sixteen years. I think we've
always named our Pick and Save student athlete of the
week as a junior or senior in high school. I
didn't know that, Rock, You're a four point zero student,
a big time student athlete, and we're gonna name you

(01:26:25):
this week's Pick and Save Student athlete of the week.
And what that means is we will meet your family
and you'll pick an evening that might work. I know
you guys are really busy, so we'll pick an afternoon
or an evening in the future that will work for
you and your family. We'll meet at the local Pick
and Save closest to your heights, your house, and I've
got a beautiful plaque. We'll get a bunch of pictures

(01:26:47):
of you, your sisters, your I don't know your twin sister.
She talks a lot, you said, But well that's okay.
What is her first name? Reese? Maybe next time we'll
have Reese come in. She can do the show for
all of us. How's that? Hey, Your motivation for being
such a bit, such a good student athlete, where does
that come from? Do you think?

Speaker 6 (01:27:08):
Probably just like following what I want to do, because
I know, like sports are a lot of stuff because
I want to, like, you know, even take your job
maybe one day, maybe be an announcer some sort of
sports petition.

Speaker 7 (01:27:21):
And I just know that.

Speaker 6 (01:27:23):
I mean, obviously I have to know the sports games,
so that drives me, and is well, I got to
get good grades in school and that's kind.

Speaker 7 (01:27:29):
Of what drives me because I want to follow.

Speaker 1 (01:27:31):
That and the fact that you're a big time student athlete.
The analytics side of sports is crazy. One day, I'll
tell you a little bit about this AI program that
I'm kind of involved in with sports that that I'm
telling you a kid with a brain like yours that
love sports would be very interested in this in this program.

(01:27:52):
And when we get done today, I'll just kind of
talk a little bit about it with you and let
you know what it is. Hey, this question that we
had talked about that I ask at the end of
Faith in the Zone. Faith in the Zone is the
show I do that air Sunday mornings here on this
on nine to twenty and been doing that show a
long time. We talked to men and women all over
the country involved in sports that will come out and

(01:28:13):
share their testimony, and we we this last question that
we ask every week is a really interesting one to me.
All the uniforms you as an eighth grader have put on, right,
we put all the uniforms into closet. You get to
pick one uniform out to get one more game with
that team. What uniform is it? Who do you play against?

(01:28:34):
And why?

Speaker 7 (01:28:36):
Now?

Speaker 6 (01:28:37):
Football is a close second, because I really like the
football team this year. Yeah, like just a quick backstory
that we were to put it to the least. We
were terrible for as many years I was in there,
and that year it clicked.

Speaker 7 (01:28:51):
I mean we were like four and five.

Speaker 6 (01:28:54):
Yeah, freak for you, but we finally put it to
again and we put more.

Speaker 7 (01:28:58):
Like than a one win season on the wall.

Speaker 6 (01:29:00):
But I would have to probably go with this year
basketball and I would want to play one of.

Speaker 7 (01:29:08):
The Franklin teams.

Speaker 6 (01:29:09):
Okay, I played them in my first tournament and they
were really good, but we stuck with.

Speaker 7 (01:29:15):
Them for most of the game. We lost, but I
still think we could have beat.

Speaker 6 (01:29:18):
Him, and it would have been nice to get one
of the big schools.

Speaker 7 (01:29:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:29:22):
Well, I gotta tell you brought some of the answers
that I get from that question. For some of these guys.
I had on a guy that was an All Pro
safety for the Indianapolis Colts. He's now a pastor in
San Diego. And think about all of the three sport
athlete in growing up and in high school and then college.
You played football, got drafted, played for the Colts. And

(01:29:45):
I asked him that. He said my junior year in
high school and I said really. He said, I was
the best player probably in the state. And I fumbled
twice on the one yard line in the state finals
and we lost by six. He said, I can't go
to a class reunion and looked these guys in the eye.
To this day, I would beg you to please let
me play that game on one more time. And and

(01:30:06):
some of the answers have been just incredible, and I
find it really interesting. Hell and this are your all
kids are athletes?

Speaker 14 (01:30:15):
Correct, Yes, even our youngest is doing t ball and
soccer right now.

Speaker 1 (01:30:19):
Oh what is going back to watching t ball like
for you?

Speaker 14 (01:30:23):
Oh my gosh, from you know, watching the Twins play,
you know, as fourteen year olds to watching t ball.
You kind of just got to sit back. It's very
strange for me because during her games I have nobody
to watch. So what I'm looking you know, to find
where are the kids and eating where are they going?
And there's nobody to watch but her. So it's very
a different experience, kind.

Speaker 1 (01:30:44):
Of more relaxing for sure. Hey, and I ask parents
that have kids that are seniors the year of lasts
for them. He's in eighth grade. So the last time
that you watched him play in grade school football, the
last time in grade school basketball. How was that for you?

Speaker 14 (01:31:02):
It was emotional because his football team there were, you know,
some tiers from the players because this was the culmination
of you know, kids that have been playing from you know,
third and fourth grade.

Speaker 1 (01:31:13):
He's pointing at himself.

Speaker 5 (01:31:15):
Good.

Speaker 1 (01:31:15):
Do you know what that tells me? It meant a
lot to you.

Speaker 7 (01:31:18):
Yeah, it really liked that team too.

Speaker 1 (01:31:20):
Yeah. I love that and the fact that it was emotional,
and it's just now another step because now you get
to go. I went to more freshman basketball games this year.
And I retired from coaching a couple of years ago,
and it opened the door for me to go watch
my grandson play at Lake Country Lutheran watch the two
grandsons playing grade school basketball. And I enjoyed it a lot.

(01:31:45):
I really did. And the fact that I was I
had time to be able to come and see him.
How hard is it being a coach's wife because he
coaches more than just at Greendale Baseball. He's a year round,
year round. And it's a family that has a lot
of coaches, right, Yep, cousins.

Speaker 14 (01:32:05):
And yep, my brother in law Brandon has done basketball
and golf.

Speaker 1 (01:32:10):
You know.

Speaker 14 (01:32:10):
It's just there's a lot going on, but the kids
are doing what they love and so we make it
work with our family and friends helping out with the
driving and the coordinating. And we've met a lot of
wonderful people, you know, through the coaching families.

Speaker 1 (01:32:24):
So I have an eighth grade grandson who played football
at Perk Phil East. By the way, I don't know
if you guys played them at all.

Speaker 6 (01:32:31):
We're in like different whole other league that's not even
close to the teams we play in the Woodland Country.

Speaker 1 (01:32:38):
So the eighth grade grandson is like six feet of
buck ninety. He eat a big fella, and he a
good basketball player, wants he loves lacrosse and loves football
because he gets to hit people. And I know what
it was like for him to end his eighth grade
and with my daughter and it was. It was emotional

(01:32:58):
because these kids hang out. These are kids that you
know that have been on this team for a while,
probably hang at your house a little bit, and you
get to feed them. It's just gonna be obviously, and
you know this another step in all this the the
idea of your husband coaching so much. When I retired
from coaching basketball, my wife said, I thought you'd be

(01:33:19):
home more so. No, that's coming one. It's a long
time from now. He's got a lot of years to coach.
But it's fun. Were you listening when we had when
we call the girl to for the kid that from
Greendale to ask if if she wanted to go to
homecoming with him?

Speaker 14 (01:33:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:33:35):
Yeah. Do you know they're like getting married or something.
I feel like I did that. I set that up.
I can't believe they haven't called for me to officiate
that wedding. Wouldn't wouldn't that be something? How are you
during his games compared to watching your son play.

Speaker 14 (01:33:49):
During Brian's game at Greendale? Yeah, because you know, as
time has gone on and we've gotten, you know, busier,
We've had more kids, the kids have more activities. I
don't get to his many is I would have liked.
It seems a little less and less. But with the
playoffs coming up, we're gonna get the whole five of
us are getting in the minivan and we're going to
make as many games as we can.

Speaker 1 (01:34:10):
You know, it's interesting when you look at their their
overall record this year is not what Greendal a lot
of times is. But boy, that conference is so good.
When you when you have to play Peewaukee in New Berlin,
nine an hour in Wisconsin, Lutheran and Piece the conference
really tests you and and come playoff time, that's going
to be good. But I can't believe that he's been

(01:34:31):
in that grade of a mood this year compared to
other years.

Speaker 14 (01:34:34):
Yeah, I mean, he's really just been soaking it in
and enjoying the kids and enjoying the staff. You know,
we're very lucky that throughout all of these what twenty
six years he's been coaching, he's had wonderful assistant coaches
who are our lifelong friends, and it's great.

Speaker 1 (01:34:51):
Hey, how did this happen? By the way, how did
this student athlete our pick and save student apthleter the week?
I mean, how did when when you look back and
look where my kids have kids, and I'm a grandfather
and we're still parenting, right, We're still and it just
the problems just get bigger the bigger they get. But
I'm wondering, if if you think back on how this

(01:35:12):
kid happened, what do you what do you say?

Speaker 14 (01:35:14):
Yeah? I think Brian and I, you know, just by
our natures are very organized and driven and focus people.
So we have very high expectations for our kids. And
obviously we don't let them experience Brock raises eyebrows. We
don't let them experience, you know, excess stress. But they're
always able to meet the expectations that we have.

Speaker 1 (01:35:33):
And you just keep setting the bar a little bit,
Brock real quick. Anybody but the Pacers, right, that's what
you're thinking. Anybody but the Pacers. You're a huge Bucks fan? Yeah, yeah,
I see the shirt. Hey, thank you for coming in.
We'll continue to do this kind of stuff and anything
that I can do for you. I'm a huge fan
of your fathers and now your mom and I get it.

(01:35:56):
Now I have to tell you, I get it. I
understand the two of you together, and look, this is
a really good kid, and you guys did really well.
I always want to know what my kids were like
when they couldn't smell my cologne. This kid, look, you're
right in the eye, Shake my hands, say thank you.
Whatever he can do. You guys did good. We'll figure

(01:36:16):
out what evening works for you. Guys best next week,
and I've got a beautiful plaque for you. He is
Brock Johnson. He's our Pick and Save student after the Week.
The first time we've ever done Now, I expect when
you're a senior at witnow that we do it again.
All right, he's gonna.

Speaker 14 (01:36:30):
Promise classes we're going to keep pushing them.

Speaker 1 (01:36:33):
Oh man, you.

Speaker 7 (01:36:33):
Trying to force an ap closs on me this year? Freshman.

Speaker 1 (01:36:38):
All right, we gotta go. You know what, This is
the Doctor Phil Show. We're doing mom and son problem.
That's awesome, Spencer, great job today. This is the Varsity
Blitz High school sports show, as always presented by your
local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores, only on
Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app.