Full Show - 6/14/2025

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, June 14th, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome 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 Jorgenson Heating
and Cooling Studios. One of our guests in studio, this
microphone keeps moving. You're gonna have to hold that, Coach,
I'm just telling you sorry about that. Coming live again

(00:20):
from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating Cooling Studios. Any issues
you have with your HVAC system, largest employee owned HVAC
company in the state of Wisconsin, go to Donovan Jorgensen
dot com. So I had a number of things to
talk about on the Today's show, and last Saturday, in
a sport that I love and I spent a lot

(00:42):
of time in, we lost the goat he Look, I'll
have this. I'll have this argument or conversation with anybody
that wants to have it. The greatest of all time
in the state of Wisconsin. The all time winning is
coach by far in the state, Coach Jerry Pettigue. Cuba

(01:02):
City passed away and kind of changed up what we're
doing today, and so I started making some calls. Coach
Paul Wallersheidman's studio and we're gonna be able to keep
him for the first segment. Lance Marifka head coach now
Saint Francis, Him and Jerry very tight. And we've got

(01:23):
Mark Miller joining us. Ryan Pettigu is going to join
us in a little while, and we're going to spend
a number of segments on today's show telling stories about
Coach Pettigue, and I'm gonna I'm gonna lead it off
with mine. I've got I've got a couple that I'll
use throughout the show, but the first one for me,

(01:43):
I put Coach Wallersheim and I put our stuff in
to be put in the Hall of Fame, and I
was hoping to go in the same year that Coach Wallershem.
First of all, I was hoping to go in, and
I did not get voted in, and Coach didn't. I
was so excited for him, and I got a chance
to go up resent him. It was awesome. And the
next year I thought, I'm just not going to put

(02:04):
the stuff in. That's fine, no worries, right, And all
of a sudden, one day I'm in my car and
phone rings and it's Coach Pettigue and I'm like, hey, coach,
how you doing? And then that graspy voice is, hey, Mike,
how you doing. I said good. How's the family? I said, Coach,
they're great. What can I do for you? He said,
you're sitting down. I said, Coach, I'm driving, so yeah,

(02:25):
I better be sitting down. And he laughed a little
bit and he said, call and say congratulations. And I said,
what do you congratulating me for? Jerry? He said, you're
going in the Hall of Fame. And I pulled over
and I said, Coach, I didn't put my stuff in.
He said, I know, I know you didn't. I did.
You should have gotten in last year with you and

(02:46):
Coach Wallersham could have went in together. And when they
told me you didn't put your stuff in, I put
it in. And you're going in and it's a year late,
but you know what you're going in and well deserved.
And I can tell you that I had tears flowing
down my face that this man who is again more
wins by far than anybody in the state of Wisconsin,

(03:08):
and the respect that I have for him as a
man and his coach, and for him to do that
for me was incredible, and I thanked him about one
hundred times. And man, we lost We lost the guy
that every high school basketball coach in the state of
Wisconsin knows the name. Hey, do you know Jerry PETTIGU

(03:29):
have you talked to Jerry Pettig? You called me and
asked me about this Jerry Pettig. You called And it
was such a big deal for guys like us that
a guy like Jerry Pettig you would take the time
to talk to us. And we lost the We lost him,
We lost the goat. And I'm gonna start with Coach Wallesham.
Coach you let me read the text message that he

(03:52):
sent to you when you decided to retire, and done
surprised me the kind words that he had for you.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, he's he's he was always and I know I'm
one of hundreds that he makes you feel like your
you know, special. That's the kind of person personality he has.
He's he's the winningest coach in the state. He's the
president of our Coaches Association. But he always seemed to

(04:22):
have time to send uh good luck, congratulations. It's just
a kind, kind man. And on top of it, you know,
he can He was a great coach. I mean competitive,
as competitive as they come.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
And you know that's both sides to him.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
People will ask me every once in a while, Hey,
what's the best People ask me the worst watch you've
ever had? And you know what, that one was a
fine dutchment from Woodsburg. Don't ever want to talk about
that game? What's the best win you've ever been a
part of? And I go back to the Cuba City one.
I do because the year before, you know, we didn't
get the state and that team was really good and

(05:06):
Jerry's team was unbelievable and we snuck by we got one.
And when you think about it, he had come from
Cuba City to West Bend for a one o'clock and
you know, they they hate the.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
Game went back.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
That's back when the sectionals were Friday Saturday. Yeah, so
he had a Friday night I know exactly what you're
talking about. They had a Friday night game against Saint Joe's. Yes,
and then they had to get up and drive all
the way to West Bend. And we had a really,
really good team and it was a battle right down
to the end. Yes, and Rob Perry made a couple

(05:41):
of shots against her one three one, and but it
was It was a great game and always I mean
a competitive as heck. And I know I remember our
guys were like, ah, these guys in Cuba City were
gonna intimidate.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
They were not intimidated at all.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Now, evehetitive this much and tough and then after the
game as great, just as any coach could be.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
He was. I remember that. Yeah, I remember going through
the line and him wishing us luck. Great game, guys,
you know what, go get one. You know he was
so kind and look, he was a better man than me.
I can tell you that. Because the Usburg game, I
didn't want to slap anybody's hand. I just wanted to
get in the locker room. We were also joined in

(06:22):
studio Lance Marika. Lance, you were like one of the
first people I called and asked and said listen, I know,
because you know you were mad at me at one point,
and we kind of giggled about it. Now, but I
took on the bear. I said some things about Jerry,
his son was living here. His son called him and
said mcgivern's talking about you on the radio. And I

(06:42):
was with Gary Ellison and Leroy Butler at that point,
and he called in. We had Ron Dane on Holden.
We caught Ron Dane loose for Jerry because Jerry's like,
I don't know why you're saying this, Mike. I thought
you were a good guy. I had nothing to do
with us going to five and as a coach, I'm
just telling you. They asked me my opinion. This is
my opinion, and I told you this, Lance, I was

(07:04):
He was mad at me and my phone was blown up.
You're poking the bear. Don't poke the bear. And I thought, okay,
that relationship with him is gone. And about two months later,
out of know where, he called to ask me how
my family was doing. And he didn't want to know
what my family is doing. He wanted me to know
that we're good. Don't worry about it, Coach, we're good.

(07:24):
And we talked for a few minutes and I hung
up and I went right to my wife and said,
you'll never guess who just call me, Jerry Petty go
to ask how my family was. And I think the
real reason he called, and that's the reason he called
to say, coach, we're good. You don't have to worry
about that. Lance is good to see how you been.

Speaker 5 (07:40):
I'm doing good, Mike, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Man, big loss for you. He when we talked him.
We've talked a number of times. The respect and love,
pure love that you had for Jerry is so it
runs so deep.

Speaker 6 (07:55):
You know.

Speaker 7 (07:55):
He was a very integral part of my life, my
coaching career. I can I wouldn't be in the spot
where I am right now without him.

Speaker 5 (08:06):
I mean, uh, there's his imprint.

Speaker 7 (08:08):
Every step and every step I was able to take,
and every job I was able to take, he was
right there and support, you know, on a phone call,
some suggestions, different things like that. He was always there
for me and I'm eternally grateful for him.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
He lands how many conversations and maybe it's too many
to even think about, did you and Jerry ever have?
I'm just pure basketball. Oh like a ton.

Speaker 5 (08:36):
I'll tell you what, Mike, we would have a lot.

Speaker 7 (08:38):
In fact, I worked camp for coach for for for
a number of years and the breakfast was always he
always had something he wanted to talk about. One of
the best things about Coach was he was always looking
at the next thing, or Hey, this.

Speaker 5 (08:54):
This new hot offense, or this you know.

Speaker 7 (08:57):
These guys are doing this now and or hey, this
is a new way we're playing the one three one,
And he was always on the cutting edge of that,
and he was always willing to share that with you
on top of it.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
That's the part. Do you know how many coaches I've
had sitting where you're sitting that would say I didn't know.
All of a sudden, I thought, well, boy, maybe I'll
reach out. I could reach out to coach Petty Hue
and ask him something in the summer about something, and
he'd say, you want to meet me for coffee, will
come halfway and I'll spend I'll even buy. And the

(09:28):
coach are like, no, i'll buy. I'll buy the coffee
if you'd be willing to drive two an hour and
a half to spend a little time. And they would
take out bring out notes and he would say, okay,
this is what I'm thinking. This wote the drills we run.
If you're going to run this. I would try this
young coaches that he always had time for to say, hey, listen,

(09:50):
I can't talk today, but maybe next Thursday, I'm open
if you want to call me at this time, I'm available.
He was so willing to just have those conversations with
coaches from all different levels.

Speaker 7 (10:02):
I can't tell you the number of times Mike I
would get a phone call and he'd be like, at Lance,
I just put something into your email.

Speaker 5 (10:09):
I think you really want to look at this. I
think it's something that you know your team might do
real well with.

Speaker 7 (10:16):
And you know, he he was amazing that way it
was he was. He would go to practices, whether it
was Marquette, whether it was Wisconsin, Iowa. He was always
looking to improve his craft.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
One of my favorite things coach Wallersheim. So he steps
down in Cuba City, right that's Saturday. I have him
on the show and we talked for a little while.
Like two days later he called. He goes, hey, thank
you for that. That was great. By the way, I
think I'm gonna go I'm going to be an assistant
coach on the other side of the border. I go, no,
I just went in an hour on the celebration and

(10:52):
you're and he goes, yeah, I'm not done coaching. Do
you think I'm too old? I go, no, I don't
think you're to old. He goes, yeah, me neither. I'm
gonna I'm gonna do this. I can't wait. And so
then I had him on like a month into the
season because he said, oh, it's just part time, I'll
pop over there and once a while. He never missed
a practice. He never missed a practice. And then they

(11:13):
came up to play Cuba City. He said, look, I'm
not I'm not gonna. I don't know if he went
to the game, but he didn't coach in the game.

Speaker 5 (11:20):
I don't think he even went to that.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
I don't think. Yeah, at that point, he's making decisions.
He said, Jones, gonna let me know if I can
go to the game or not, because I'm not quite
sure if I can't. And you know what, Joan has
been right by his side, and she's she was incredible
with all the stuff with the WBCA and all the
stuff that behind the scenes stuff that Jerry would always

(11:42):
thank her and he would say, special place in Heaven
for coaches wives. And I know Joan's gonna be there
one day, and I said, yeah, my wife is.

Speaker 6 (11:50):
Well.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
I gotta be honest with you. I love the fact
that it was the whole family, right, The whole family
loved basketball and and supported supported him as a basketball coach.
Cuba City man, they love Jerry pettigw He's gotten a
ton of Awards when it's surprised the gym is named

(12:10):
after him. Correct, it wouldn't surprise me if there's a
street named after him.

Speaker 7 (12:15):
Uh, I think that. I think that could be. I
think that could be something that that happens there.

Speaker 5 (12:20):
It really is.

Speaker 6 (12:21):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (12:22):
I got a chance, and I was lucky enough to
get a chance to spend quite a bit of time
in Cuba City when I was not coaching in high school,
when I was kind of working with coaches guys, and
I coached summer league for him, and I was doing
some training for him. So I would go up to
games and I would drive to Cuba City and on
a Friday night with that that team that played against you,

(12:44):
Paul Juwe Moore was was was the young man that
I trained, And a lot of nights, you know, after games,
sitting at sitting at the kitchen table coach Missus Petty,
you would have coaches pizza ready to go.

Speaker 5 (12:57):
And and we just sit there and talk basketball at
it was. It was an amazing experience.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah, you know the thing that I always thought about
Coach pettigew watching him from coaching to running the WBCA
and the amazing success.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
It wouldn't have mattered what he did.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
He chose coaching, you know, but if he was the
CEO of a company, that company would have been a
fortune five hundred company.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
If he was the head of sales for.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
A company, he would have been he would have been
the best sales agent for that company every year he was.
He was a super talented man. Well who was smart
and and I mean he he was a businessman on
top of it.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, he graduated from Galina High School nineteen fifty eight
and then in nineteen fifty nine graduate from Midwest Broadcasting,
so he could have taken done. I mean saw what
he did. He was great on TV, great on TV.
He was really really good on TV. And then he
you know, he ended up going to the University of
Dubuque and he's in you know, fourteen different hall of

(14:05):
Fames and you know, all over the place. The fact
that that he started at Cuba City and then stayed
there for like fifty two years, Like, I don't know, Lance,
I don't know if that's ever going to happen again,
where somebody gets to a school that when he was,
you know, relatively young, stayed there, not only taught there,

(14:29):
coach there in a community like Cuba City and he
went out on his own. Well, he made that decision.
And I don't know in today's world if we can
get to that where somebody can stay in a small
community like that. If well, he averaged twenty wins a season,
so they're not going to run him out of town.
But I love the fact that he stayed for that

(14:50):
long and the loyalty that he had to the school
and the community ran really deep.

Speaker 5 (14:56):
You know.

Speaker 7 (14:56):
You you would watch and there's there's a hundred names,
I mean, from Matt Schultz to the Timmermans, to Julius
Moore to.

Speaker 5 (15:09):
The Jackson, Nole and Brady and.

Speaker 7 (15:12):
And there there's Yeah, it just goes on, and all
those kids grew up wanting to be Cuba City basketball players.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
It was it was amazing.

Speaker 7 (15:21):
I would go up there and work as camps and
he would get three hundred kids at his camp in
Cuba City.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
I mean that's he.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
I was covering the state tournament as a media guy
and they lost either the semi finals or the finals,
and at the press conference, he wanted to talk about
a kid who didn't get a lot of playing time,
who was a really good tennis player. And he was like,
look the kid. The kid's a great tennis player, and
that made him a really good basketball player. And I

(15:53):
can tell you how. And I'm thinking he's talking about
the number eight or nine kid in his team and
how much respect he had, and how hard this kid
work to make the team and continue to come to
every practice, never let up knowing he wasn't getting a
lot of time. But he goes, I just got to
mention this kid because I'm gonna miss him. I'm gonna
miss what he brought to our team. He didn't get

(16:15):
if you look in the scorecard, he didn't get a
lot of points, he didn't get a lot of playing time,
but if you came to practice, he made these guys better.
And I thought, that's unbelievable. Five minutes after a loss
like this, this is the kid that you want us
to highlight. Is a kid that we don't even know
his name, but he's a big time tennis player. And
I thought, man, this is a much better man than me.

(16:37):
I can't. I can tell you that when when he
changed as far as he changed with the times, as
far as how he coached, would you agree with that Lance.

Speaker 5 (16:46):
I would agree with that.

Speaker 7 (16:47):
And also there's one guy you were just talking about
that he had one guy that was a professional bass
fisherman or something like that, and.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
The young man twelve team.

Speaker 7 (17:01):
Yeah, and his name, his name escapes me, but you know,
coach was the great thing about him was he was
really invested in his players. He knew them, he knew
what they liked to do. He was always engaging with them,
he was always mentoring that. I mean, that was the
amazing part was for me, was his relationship with his players.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
Paul, he was I was watching a game that they
were at the Wby shootout, and he took a time
out and he, uh, he was snapping on one of
the players for something and snapping pretty good. And then
he kind of went off and he did talk to
his assistant, and then he went and addressed the team.
And when these players got up, he hugged this kid
and slapped him on the backside and just kind of

(17:44):
gave him a little point like, Hey, it's all right,
you're gonna be okay. Just go do what I asked
you to do and work a little harder. And I
sat and watched it. I was sitting at that media
table by myself and I went, okay, I get it.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Well, I mean, think of the way he makes other
adults feel it's important for him to that's that's that's
who he is. He makes people feel good, and so
he's he's demanding, but he knows when to paddle kid
on the back, he knows when to kick a kid
in the butt, and he knows how to get the
most out of his teams.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
Obviously, over the years.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Lance as far as an excellent coach. When you said,
look he was, I was looking for that next. He
he wasn't shy. A lot of guys get into their
set ways. Right, we're gonna run the swing, we're gonna
run this defense. This is where we run a twelve press,
and we're gonna trap here. He changed with he added
stuff that it would surprise me a little bit because

(18:43):
he would change with the times. He was not a
guy that said, well, we want to stay tournament running
this and this is what we're running depending on how
would the talent he had. He wasn't afraid to change
and he wasn't afraid to adjust things and game. I
just thought that was pretty cool for a guy that
had coached for as many years as he did. He

(19:04):
was always looking for things to change and get better with.

Speaker 7 (19:07):
I think one of the one of the most amazing
things about him was he was always looking and evaluating
by his personnel. On top of it, he was always
trying to find the scheme that was going to best
fit his teams. And they would and they would turn over.
One year, he would have a number of bigs and
then he'd have four. He'd be playing with four guards
in a big and he just found a way to

(19:28):
maximize what he had and and and that that was
incredible in its own because because you have people, especially
from his era, that get real set in the ways
and this is how I'm going to do things, and
you've got to fit in. And he was always trying
to find a way to, you know, add more, get
another kid playing time because of the scheme he was
going to run or find an opportunity for that kid.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
You know, later in the show, we're going to talk
to Ryan Petty g And I don't know if if
if Jerry had a lot of hobbies other than because
because Ryan said, look he was breaking down film all
he said, there'd be games that we knew. There's a
couple of games the teams in our conference that we're down,
you're gonna win by forty. And he'd watched ten game

(20:11):
tapes of that team just to make sure that he
felt like they were ready to go. And it's not
like he was, you know, out on the golf course
a ton or bowling or snowmore whatever. Right, he was
a basketball guy through and through, Paul, before we cut
you loose, We're gonna miss him. And look, I still
talk to him. I'm not coaching anymore, but I call him,

(20:33):
all can you come on my show? Now that I
know he has a degree broadcasting, you know, I didn't
know that at that point, But I'm gonna miss talking
to him and asking him to come on the show.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, it's not having him there as part of you know,
he was always a familiar face if you go to
the Hall of Fame banquet, right, if you go to
the coaching clinic, to go up and have a word
with it, and he always stayed tournamented to always have
a kind word and a hand on your shoulder, and

(21:03):
you always knew you had somebody who you knew right
and would spend some time with you and make you
feel comfortable from You know, I coached a long time
and he was there when I started, and he was there.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
When I finished. I mean, you know, he just sent
me the nicest email you thank.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
You for sharing that. Yeah, yeah, that doesn't surprise me.
Just a good man. We're going to get to a
break later in the show. Mark Miller's going to join us,
and if somebody's got some stories about coach pettigu Mark
Miller will have them. We'll talk to Ryan Pettige, and
then near the end of the show, Rocky Waganhurst from
my twenty four here in Milwaukee, the vice president general manager.

(21:45):
The softball state tournament being played there, going to be
on my twenty four Baseball and then we'll talk a
little bit about the schedule we've put together for Friday
night rivals with Rocky. Paul. Thank you so much for coming.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
In my pleasure.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Hey, by the way, being retired, now, where are you going?
Oh you're going to coach another youths. Nolan's still knocking
down jumpers.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
Yeah, he's so.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
I'm going to going to the Greenfield gym for a
little practice.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
You had so much for retirement, That's all I'm saying.
When you get to a break. Other side of the break,
I'm going to have one segment with just Lance Marifica
because Jerry was such an influence with him, and then
we'll be joined by Mark Miller and then later in
the show, Ryan Pettigu. This is the Varsity Blitz High
School Sports Show, presented by your local Pick and Save

(22:32):
and Metro Market stores on Fox Sports nine twenty in
your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High
School Sports Show, presented as I was, by your local
Pick and Save and Metro Market stores. Coming live from
the Donovan and Jorganson Heating and Cooling studios. Again, go
to Donovan Jorgenson dot com for any issues you have

(22:52):
with your HVAC system. We had to cut to coach
Wallersheim Lous Lance Maifka, the head boys basketball coach at
Saint Francis. Yes, getting sit on the staff man. I
love that. One of my favorite people in the world.

Speaker 5 (23:05):
Yeah. He's a he's a real basketball junkie.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, and you know what's strong in his faith and
just a good dude. And he look if you if
you cut his vein, he's Saint Francis man. Oh, yes,
he is a Mariner through and through. Hey, when when
you were thinking about making a change going to Saint Francis,
would you would you call Jerry to have the conversation,

(23:28):
Jerry pettigew I did.

Speaker 7 (23:30):
I did, and and and and every time I did
make a change, you know, coach was there.

Speaker 8 (23:36):
You know.

Speaker 7 (23:36):
I I felt like, you know, he would give me
a good viewpoint on things. So, uh, I gave him
a call and we talked about it because I, you know,
at South Milwaukee, that's home for me and and uh
a place that's near and dear to me. But uh,
the JV basketball coach was one of the one of

(23:56):
my former players at the Prairie School, Matt sjost And
and I always felt like when Matt or somebody behind
me was ready, I was going to be ready to
move on at that point.

Speaker 5 (24:08):
And uh, so I really.

Speaker 7 (24:10):
Felt like Matt was ready, and I honestly was gonna.
I've spent a little bit of time out by Sean
Cassidy out at Concordia University, and I was going to
go volunteer out there and help out out there. And uh,
the opportunity for Saint Francis came back to me. I
was there for nine years. I hold coach Sarver in
high regard. The principal, michae Lewandowski said, and uh, it

(24:34):
just fit together this time for me.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
You know, there's I saw there a freshman team because
my grandson plays at l CL. There there's some there's
some there's some players, there's some athletes there. Yeah, good
luck with that. Hey, when when when you and Jerry
would would talk about basketball, he knew this area probably
better than I did. Right when I would talk to him,

(24:57):
he would say, Hey, this kid at Nikola and he
would name the kid and say he's really good. Right,
And I'm thinking, Jerry, how do you know this stuff?
But he he he handled the state of Wisconsin. He
would you know, there's a kid at wild Rose mcgiver.
Do you know about this kid? I'd be like, no, Like,
I don't know my niece and nephew's names. Who's the
kid in wild Rose? And I was just shocked at

(25:21):
how in tune all the time that I've known Jerry Petty,
you how in tune with the state of Wisconsin he was,
from coaches to players year after year after year.

Speaker 7 (25:33):
Yeah, he uh you know, and and and you'd have
to know, you'd have to know Ryan his son, and
Marcus others, because they're all they're all basketball junkies. I
mean a lot of the conversations are about this guy
and that guy. And you know, I remember, not not
too long ago, having a conversation about the kid from Oregon,
Vaughn and and and Jerry and I are.

Speaker 5 (25:56):
Having a conversation about that.

Speaker 7 (25:58):
He really you know, we talked earlier about him being
on top of the latest trends and everything. He always
he also knew his real estate, He knew who was here,
who was here, who was playing there, who the coach
was there, and he changes all the rest that he was.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
It was.

Speaker 5 (26:14):
It was a life long it was a life long
love for him.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
And I don't I can't tell you what I was
talking about on one of these shows. But he called
me about fifteen minutes later to say, hey, if you
talk about it again, just so you know, here's the backstory.
And I go, how do you know that? And he goes,
what do you mean? I go, how do you know
what I was talking about? He goes, I listen. I go.
He goes on the iHeart radio app and I go, Coach,

(26:39):
you got the iHeart Radio app. He goes, yeah, I
think Joan put it on my phone and I get
to listening all the time, and I said, oh, I
better watch what I say. He goes, no, you just
keep doing what you're doing. And there's a little backstory
to this, and here's what happened. And if you bring
it up again, just so you know, this is why
that happened. And I go, Coach, first of all, thanks
for listening. Don't listen all the time, and he goes

(27:01):
a home McGivern, whatever you say, I'm okay with it.
We but I thought, here's a guy in Cuba City
listening to my show on the iHeartRadio app. And when
at fifteen minutes after I got done, he just said, look,
just to you know, this is how this happened. Like
you said you didn't know what happened, here's how it happened.
And there you go. I said, all right, coach, thanks
a lot. And I'm telling you it affected me for

(27:24):
about a month because I'd be like, okay, Petty Hughes, listen,
then I better let's say this. Let's talk about this
at this point. And that's how much respect I had
for him. And I didn't want to get I'd been on.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
I got it.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Like I said in a little bit of spat with
him once. I never wanted that to happen again ever,
because of that. Hey, when when you would go up,
would you go to a lot of their Cuba City
games if you were coaching.

Speaker 7 (27:52):
I would try and make it up when it came
to playoffs. I would try and make it to their
playoff games after you know, we were elimiting it. And
actually coach would call me all the time and say, hey, Lance,
I need you to go out and film this game.
And this was kind of before all the huddle and
the sharing and all the rest of that stuff. So
there was a lot of times when I was you know,

(28:13):
we would lose on a on a Thursday night and
I'd be on the road on Friday going up to
Bear a Boo to see a team that that that
he might be playing at that point.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
So is there anything he could have asked of you
that you said, No, I can't do that. I just
can't imagine.

Speaker 7 (28:31):
I you know what, I I hold him in such regard.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
I never really wanted to disappoint him, So.

Speaker 7 (28:38):
I I tried to be as available as I possibly
could and answer on the first couple of rings. And
you know, when when it came to the Hall of
Fame time coach would be they'd be looking for certain
guys who they were putting in the Hall of Fame,
and they couldn't find somebody to contact me, like Lance,
you know, do you know anybody at Messmer Why don't
you can you get over there and find me?

Speaker 5 (28:58):
Find me so and so?

Speaker 7 (28:59):
And that's awesome and and you know that was always
I really enjoyed that part of it because I knew
he needed to be at that point.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
So I got to finish the story about the time
that you're a little mad at me. And as I'm
looking at the boys all time winning coaches, right, coach
Petty you Ony twenty seven, number four on the list,
Bob Letch from Sis Saint Catherine's was the problem when
so I'm coaching at Heritage Christian. It was a day

(29:29):
or two after we had Jerry on on the air,
and there was you know, he was mad and and
you were mad, and I get it now. But we
go down to the seat meeting and Chuck Freeman's doing
my show and I got to just go to get
this done. And then Aaron Womack is with is coaching
at Martin Luther at the time. He's there, Coach Latch,

(29:49):
you're there, and we get it done and I'm ready
to go and lets stir the potty. Goes, hey, hey mcgiver,
before we leave, what were you thinking taking on Pettig
like that? And I looked at him and he went
and sat down and pretended he had popcorn and he
started eating it. Because you lit me up pretty good.
The ad at Machine, who was a big fan of

(30:11):
Coach Pettiger as well, started to light me up a
little bit. And we're going back and forth and I'm
just like guys, and then one other coaches lighted me up.
And then Aaron Womack put his arm around me and said, hey, man,
I might have to walk you to your car. And
I go, no, no, these guys know they're good. He goes, no, no, man,
I'll be your I'll be your secret service. I'll walk
you to your car. I said, all right, And look,

(30:34):
we've talked a million times since then, and I apologize
to you and anybody else that I have said at
that point, But it was Letch just was going to
stir the pot and then sit off in the corner
and laugh at me as I got lit up by
you guys, and I, let's let's know, he said, oh,
I knew what I was doing. Yeah, I thought that
would be really entertaining for me. I said, come on, coach,

(30:56):
So Bob letch one of the greatest six hundred and
sixty one wins at Saint Catherine's.

Speaker 5 (31:02):
Yeah, and you know what, I hope Bob in very
high regard.

Speaker 7 (31:06):
I played at Thomas More for Norboshowski and uh, you
know the famous, the famous Bob led story is I
was a senior and we're playing at the pit and
I went sliding into the to the bench at Saint
Catherine's and Bob kind of picked me up by my
shorts and threw me back in, threw me out into
the game, and and uh, you know, afterwards, we're going

(31:29):
through the handshake line and I think it was Jeff
pol to stop me, and he said, he said, kid,
he must like you. He goes normally when somebody slides
into the bench, he starts stomping on him.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
So yeah, that, yeah, coach led to something six hundred
sixty one wins and Jerry Pettick, you ends up with
one thousand and twenty seven and twenty and two hundred
and seventy losses coach in the say Wisconsin one thousand,
two hundred and ninety seven games, that the coach Wallasheim

(32:01):
and I had this conversation, we feel like we have
to be the adults in the room now because Jerry's gone.
Jerry was always the adult in the room, right. He
was always the guy you could get an argument about
something with high school basketball and go, well, let's go
ask Jerry. He'll know. Let's go ask him and he'll
tell us the truth about it. The thing about coach
Petty You that I don't know if everybody knows Lance,

(32:24):
is that he had a servant leadership heart beyond belief.
That he did a lot of things behind the scenes
that he never told guys like me. So I could
go on this microphone and say, hey, Petty, you just
donated to this cause because these kids don't get a
chance to play. Went out and bought shoes for these
kids because they didn't have shoes. He never I would

(32:46):
ask me to go, I don't know what it's tan about,
and then we'd move on. And he did that because
he knew that I would say, look, I want to
commend him for that, and he'd be like, Mike, I
don't know. I don't know what's Sean about. I didn't
do that, And then he would say, just changed the subject.
That part of him. I don't know. People know how
many wins, people know what a competitor he was, and

(33:07):
what a graceful winner and loser he was. He's so
much grace. But what they didn't know about the managed
with that, that servant leadership part. Really strong in his
faith I think he's coaching up in heaven right now.

Speaker 7 (33:19):
Well, I will tell you this, uh to Jerry Pettig,
you uh, you know, the lawyer. You know, it was
the lord, his his family, his players in basketball, and
and he he loved all of them. And uh, you
know we were just Mark and I just had dinner
the other day and he was talking about some kind

(33:40):
of scholarship and I and I don't know enough to
really speak eloquently about this, but he was talking about
a scholarship fund that Joan and he had done for
all the student or all the student athletes at Cuba City.
And yeah, he was a very a very very giving man,
a very very giving man.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah, incredible given and I wish I wish he would
have allowed guys like me, and I get why I do.
But people just know him as a basketball man in
this area. You know him much different. A lot of
people know him and that heart that he had. But
I can tell you that people would tell me all

(34:21):
the time. Do you know that he he went here
and he spoke, and he gave the feedback to the
athletic director and said, buy some new basketball as those
basketballs are horrible, and like really, he drove four hours,
two hours or two hours back and he took the
fee and handed it back and said get new hoops
or to get new nets or whatever. And he would

(34:42):
do that constantly, and he would say, I don't remember that, Mike,
you did it two weeks ago. Coach. You can tell
me everything about the second half of the game we
played against you in West Bend. You know that, And
he goes, no, I don't think I did that, And
then he just wanted to change the subject, And that
for me, shows his character and he was just a kind,

(35:04):
kind man. We're gonna get to a break other side
of break, Mark Miller is gonna join us. And then
after that We're gonna reach out to Ryan pettigew and
talk to Ryan about the loss of his son. And
Ryan basketball guy. They're all just basketball guys. I did
not And by the way, thank you for setting me
up with Ryan, because we talked for a long time

(35:27):
the other night and really good dude. I look forward
to having him on in studio with me. Lance Marifka
the new head, well not new, back of that a
boy can't come home kind of. He left home South
Wakee back to Saint Francis. And I would tell people
in that league be careful. I think there's some talent

(35:47):
and this coaching staff coach said and and Lance, it's
gonna be I think they're gonna turn some heads. I
believe that we will get to Mark Miller on the
other side of the break as we do a celebration
of Jerry Pettig Hugh's life. And if you listen to
this show, you know what I think of this man.
He's the goat the greatest of all time in this

(36:07):
state of Wisconsin in high school basketball. This is the
Varsity Blitz high school sports show presented by your local
Pike and Save and Metro Market stores, only on Fox
Sports ninet twenty in your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to
the Varsity Blitz High School sports show, presented by your
local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores, coming from
the Donovan and Jorgenson Heating and Cooling Studios. So we've

(36:31):
been talking about Jerry Pettig, you and the loss of
what I know that I consider and Lands considers, and
I think Mark Miller considers the goat right, greatest of
all time in the state of Wisconsin in a sport
that I love. And when you finish your your Wisconsin
career with one twenty seven wins, two hundred and seventy losses,

(36:53):
and the next leading next to leading from Seymour and
Kimberly John Murphy's got six sixty eight, I don't think
thatenty twenty seven is going away anytime soon. We're now
joined by Mark Miller. Hey, Mark, I know that you
had a chance to spend a lot of time talking
and hang it out with Jerry Pettig you, and I'm

(37:14):
wondering how you're feeling today. And when I say he's
the goat, I think you probably would agree with that, right.

Speaker 8 (37:22):
Well, certainly, yeah, yeah, I mean not only his wins
on the basketball court and his state championships, but just
everything he meant to basketball in our state. You know,
I said it Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association for so long,
and you know all the things that they've added over
the years to enhance basketball and to contribute to the
MAC Fund, and you know, just an endless list of

(37:44):
positive attributes for Jerry. And you know, the thing with
Jerry is he always wanted to.

Speaker 6 (37:51):
Make the game better.

Speaker 8 (37:53):
You know, whether that was you know, maybe potentially adding
a shot clock in the future, to you know, getting
more teams state tournament, to opening up the summer a
little bit more. You know, all the things that he
stood for over the years. And remember he started coaching
back in the eighties, you know, before we even had
a three point line, and you know the addition we had,

(38:16):
I think we had eighteen game limit during the regular
season when he first started and that's up to twenty
four now. So a lot of changes over the years.
Injury was a big part of making those advancements. And
you know, he he passed away at eighty four, and
he stopped coaching, you know, at eighty two in terms
of being a head coach at Cuba City. So and

(38:36):
then these last couple of years, you know, he's continued
down with basketball in terms of being you know, the
executive director of the WVCA and you know, making an
impact in that way. So he lived he lived his
life doing what he loved until the very end. So
there's a lot to be said for that.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
You know, we had the last segment, Lance and I
were talking about people up to me a lot and say, hey,
do you know that coach pettigu did this? And he
did this? And he he went out and bought some
shoes for some kids that couldn't afford shoes, or he
gave a speech where there was a fiend he gave
it right back to the athletic director and said buy

(39:17):
some new basketballs for these guys. Stuff like that, And
then I would hear about it and I'd call him
and I'd say, Coach, can I talk about this and go,
I don't know which tomba, I don't remember that. I
go it happened a week ago. And he would start
laughing and say, yeah, yeah, I don't know. Maybe Joan
did that. I don't know. Chimba, no, no, don't talk
about that. And then we talk about you know some

(39:38):
kid from from wild Rose or you know, Wahpaka, and
I'd be like, I don't know who that is, Coach, Yeah, yeah,
he's he's a freshman. He's gonna be a good to Mike.
Better keep your eye on that kid.

Speaker 9 (39:48):
And I'd be like, you switch pitched me, Coach, I
wanted to talk about this thing that you did, so
I could just you know, say thank you, and he'd
be like, no, no, I don't talk about that because
I don't really remember how notes talking about and then
we'd move on.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
The One thing that both Lance and I like marveled
at is that a guy that coached as long as
he did was always looking for ways to be a
better coach. He did. He wasn't afraid of new things
that were coming in. Right, everybody ran the swing, everybody's
running five out, everybody's running, and he would dig into
it and to find out if it could help his

(40:23):
team in Cuba City and then how he's going to
have to defend it. And I loved that about him,
that he was not setting his ways. It was not like, Okay,
I want to State championship running this one three one.
That's the only way we're going to run it because
it worked once, it's going to work again. He was
always looking at different ways to get better as a coach.

Speaker 8 (40:44):
Yeah he was, and you know he leaned on a
lot of different people over the years to tap into
their expertise. You mentioned the one three one, and remember
when Jerry kind.

Speaker 6 (40:53):
Of went to that.

Speaker 8 (40:54):
Lancey probably remember too. You know, Steve Klauss was the
kind of the the architect behind them at in our
state in terms of you know, being uh highly respected
for running that one one on having tremendous success with that.
And I remember Steve going and working with Jerry's kids
for a couple of years, you know, on a you know,
come in a couple of times a year and you
know watch his own and you know, teach the kids

(41:16):
and and you know he did that late in his career.
So yeah, he certainly adapted, and he certainly didn't carry
himself like he knew everything there was to know about basketball.
He was constantly, like you mentioned Mike, you know, trying
to find better ways and pick the brains and other
coaches to see how they do things. So that's probably

(41:37):
in a large part what made him so good. You know,
he stayed with the times he you know, you know,
he ran the swing for a while and then you know,
maybe got to the dribble drive and you know, then
you know, played man demand then maybe you know, went
to that one three one, which is always hard to
you know, to beat. So yeah, he certainly, he certainly did,

(41:57):
you know, respected and and miired a lot of coaches
in the state, and he would tell you that right away.
You know, Hey, you know, Mike Shall has done such
a great job. What makes him successful or you know, uh,
you can go right down the list from all parts
of the state and even out of the state. And
with his role as a WBC executive director of course,
with his Fall Clinic coaching clinic, you know, you would

(42:19):
bring in some guys that that from out of state
that you know, have some different ideas that they could
pass along to the state coaches.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Hey, Mark, he he loved coming to the w By Shootout.
He and and he he likes coming down and playing
against teams that that he you know, wasn't going to
get a chance to play the regular season, maybe play
in the playoffs, but he he loves bringing his boys
down to the w By Shootout. And and I don't

(42:47):
know if he ever said no to you. But he came.
He came to that thing quite a bit, did he not.

Speaker 6 (42:52):
Yes, he did, he did.

Speaker 8 (42:54):
And you know we had always even you know, even
this year, prior to his concerns, you know, we'd always
kind of marble and laugh and reminisce and put a
smile on our face when we talk about the game
that he played. H and Mike you were probably there
for it. It was against Shewegan Lutheran and Sam Decker

(43:14):
and it was you know, early afternoon game, uh, right
after Christmas between at Tuba City and Sheweygan Lutheran. And
yet here we are at Concorded University in Mechlon, you know,
in front of a pack crowd, and uh, you know,
he loved to celebrate the game of basketball in our state.
And that was That's a small example of course. He
he you know, got his teams to the state tournament.

(43:37):
He obviously did a great job on color commentary for
years and years on the state television network.

Speaker 6 (43:43):
You know.

Speaker 8 (43:43):
And he and then his work with with with the
Hall of Fame and with the w b C a
All Star game, with the All State Committee. I mean,
it goes on and on and on and uh, you know,
I worked with him closely on some of those on
some of those committees, and he's always a joy to
be around. You know. He was always more than willing
to listen to your opinion and uh, you know, respected

(44:04):
your opinion and uh, you know, never never like look
down upon you or anything like that. And I always
enjoyed having him come to the shootout because I knew
his teams to be well prepared. He was a great
at breaking down opponents. There were no secrets, uh, you know,
especially with the age of with huddle and you know
YouTube and everything, the games are pretty riddled and available

(44:27):
for the coaches to scout, and you know, it was
always a pleasure to have to have not not only
Jerry come down, but you know, his son Ryan coached
with them, you know, towards the end there in the
last I don't know, five seven years something like that,
And it was always fun to talk with Ryan too,
because you know, Ryan kind of got his love for
basketball obviously from his father. And you know, his other son, Mark,

(44:50):
also was a coach in the Milwaukee area as assistant
coach I believe at Greendale and a couple other places.
So maybe even with Lance. I'm trying to remember I've
seen for instance, perhaps so yeah, you know, great family.
His wife Joan is a pillar of that family. She's
been very, very very involved with.

Speaker 6 (45:12):
The w b c A.

Speaker 8 (45:13):
And uh, boy, I know they're going to have the
way at at Tuba City High School in the gym
and then you know the sting of Mass at Saint
Rose uh this weekend, and I you know, I can't
imagine how many people will be there because Jerry impacted
so many people for so many years, and uh, you know,
they all got positive things to say about the guy.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
You know, Lance, When when when Mark Miller said he,
Jerry Patty you consistently wanted to celebrate basketball, celebrate high
school basketball in the state of Wisconsin. I know he
liked college basketball, I know he liked but but high
school basketball, he thought, is where it should be right,
that that should be at everybody's top of the their

(45:55):
their their mantle, right and and and I think what
a great quote by Mark Miller. That's what he that's
what he'll be known for, is to celebrate the game
of basketball.

Speaker 7 (46:06):
Yeah you know, he he he really he loved the game.
And uh, you know, when you just started talking basketball
with him, he would light up. I remember just doing
basketball camps at the Tri State camps with with coach,
and you know, I've done a number of camps for
some other people and some guys would just come in

(46:28):
and they'd do the the picture and then they kind
of disappear.

Speaker 5 (46:32):
Coach was on.

Speaker 7 (46:34):
He was walking court by court watching uh Fonelac, Saint
Mary Springs, watching Wisconsin Rapids, Assumption, watching Cuba, watching Franklin,
and he was, you know, he wouldn't you know, he'd
see something he'd like and he'd walk right up to
the coach and go, hey, I'd really like this. You know,
let's sit down at breakfast and figure out how you
how you did that?

Speaker 5 (46:55):
So he he was.

Speaker 7 (46:56):
He was always present and always looking for the next
thing in the next edge.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
The fact that he that he didn't take look with
that amount of wins, he could have said, look, I
don't need to ask the guy from Franklin or the
guy from you know wherever Assumption, because you know I'm
supposed to be I should know all this. He was
never afraid to go can I ask how you did that?

(47:23):
Like what drills you run? I can tell you quick
story there's nothing to do with with with coach Petty you.
But as I'm looking at all time wins Paul Noack
from Marquette. When I was first at Dominican, I was
assistant coach with a rich fanning years ago and Noack
I only knew him as a coach at Marquette and

(47:44):
they would breath, they beat our brains in back then.
And Noack was not the nicest guy I'd ever met.
Right well, I met his daughter and grandson and I
was working for a sports marketing company. We're doing a
packer kids clinic and I invited Michael, his grandson to come,
thinking that, oh, his daughter would bring Michael up. Michael
called and said, hey, do you mind if my grandfather

(48:04):
brings me up instead? And I thought, oh great. And
then I got a chance to talk to Paul Noack
away from a court, and I asked him, how do
you run this this this press? Because what I don't understand.
Why can't anybody beat you long? Because you don't leave
any belong. He said, what are you doing Saturday? I
got nothing. He goes, come on over to my house,
here's my address. I'll put a cup of coffee on

(48:25):
He moved furniture in his living room and he taught
me what everything they did. I said, Coach, I'm going
to coach against you. He goes, I don't care. You're
not beating it. Go ahead, try to beat it. And
we laughed. And that's the same thing that I would
think if I called coach Pettig and Sai, would you
teach me this? One three one, he'd say, come to
Cuba City. I'll spend time with you.

Speaker 5 (48:44):
Yeah. He was. He was always willing to share.

Speaker 7 (48:47):
And you know, he would call me after, you know,
on a Sunday after we played on Friday night and
he found the game either live stream did or on
huddle and he said, you know, Lance, I think I
think your team's doing a really nice job with this,
but you might want to look at this here. And
he was he was forever present and and and you know,

(49:10):
I'm always gonna be grateful for that.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Amen to that. Mark, thank you. We I'm glad you
brought up Brian because he's going to be our next guest.
Ryan Petty is going to join us. Mark Miller, thank
you so much. You can follow Mark Miller, and if
you don't, you should prep hoops Wisconsin. You go prephoops
dot com, backslash Wisconsin, follow him on Twitter. Uh, nobody's better.

(49:33):
Nobody's better than Mark Miller when it comes to high
school basketball in the state of Wisconsin. And I appreciate
he's so kind with his time. Whenever I need him,
He's like, yep, let me know what you want to
want me on Mark, thank you so much for a
couple of minutes, just as we celebrate the life of
Jerry Pettig. Thank you so much for a couple of stories.

Speaker 8 (49:53):
Absolutely, and you know, just say, there's no better. I
have to differ with you there because obviously Jerry was
much better, you know, and it goes way beyond any
So he'll be missed. He'll be sorely mess He.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
Definitely will be. That is Mark Miller again. You can
follow him on Twitter or go to prep prephoops at
Wisconsin dot com and he can Uh yeah, you will
learn everything you need to know about high school basketball
from him. We'll get We're gonna get to a break
and Ryan Pettig, you will join us as we continue
to talk about the life of his father. Uh, the goat,

(50:29):
the greatest high school basketball coach the state of Wisconsin
has ever seen. And I think that's gonna that's gonna
last a long time. His legacy will go on for
an extremely long time here in the state of Wisconsin.
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores
on Fox Sports nine in your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back

(50:52):
to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, as always
presented by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores.
We'll start naming our Pick and Save Student Athlete of
the Week again in September and I look forward to that,
and I thank you everybody over at Pick and Save
and our local Metro Market stores for allowing me to
do that for I don't know fifteen sixteen years, and

(51:14):
I thank those guys for that. We're coming from the
Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and Cooling Studios. Any problems you
have with your HVAC system, I cannot recommend those guys
at Donovan Jorganson enough three locations West Dallas, New Berlin,
and out in mcgwanago and they will take really, really
good care of you. We spent the first hour with

(51:35):
Paul Wallershed and Mark Miller and Lancewarifka talking about the
life of Jerry pettig You and I said it a
bunch of times that first hour. He's the goat the
greatest of all time when it comes to high school
basketball coaches, and not just because of theenty twenty seven wins.
If you missed the first hour this servant leadership heart

(51:55):
that Jerry pettigu had. If you knew half of the
stuff he did behind the scenes that he's just went
and did, because again it was it helped the game
of basketball, or it helped some kids that were in need,
you would be shocked. We're now joined by Ryan Pettigue
and Ryan, I am so sorry for your loss and

(52:16):
the impact that your father and you know this has
had on guys like me and people like me all
over the state of Wisconsin is incredible, and I just
want to say thank you for that.

Speaker 6 (52:29):
I appreciate it, Mike, and I know he's looking down
on heaven and he appreciates you. Guys. Everybody's thinking about
him at this time.

Speaker 10 (52:38):
Hey, can I ask a little bit about give us
give to take the drape and move it. Let's talk
a little bit about behind the scenes with coach Pettigu.
I look, I had the opportunity to coach against him
in a big game, and we won, and he was
so gracious and lost. I'm wondering what he was like

(52:59):
when he got home, either after a really big win,
a state championship or a tough loss. Was was he
the same or would would he let his hair down
a little bit and and talk a little bit about
how much that hurt out, how great the win was?

Speaker 6 (53:15):
Sure, you know if we lost. He was the type where,
you know, with the program, kids just knew at that
bus was silent. You know, just from the perspective. As
soon as you got on that bus, you knew it
was silent. You either put on headphones or you slipped
you and you didn't. It was it was a time
to you know, reflect and what just took place. As

(53:38):
far as when he would get home, truthfully, he would
he would start watching tape. He would start watching tape
and try to figure out what took place, you know,
where where his team and program could get better. And
I remember my mom saying a lot of times, you know,
the Pedigu house was silent and stuff. When when he

(54:00):
would get beat, you know where the Cubans would get
beaten stuff. So that was kind of the way it was.
When we would win, you know, it would be a
typical where we'd be sitting around the table, maybe the pizza,
talking basketball. You know, So it was always a situation
like that. I always, I always tell people, coach, there

(54:22):
was two sides to my dad. The basketball side when
you compete against him. He was a fierce competitor and intense,
and you get him off the basketball court. I firmly
believe his main objective in life was to help people.
He believed that he was put on this earth to
help people to the best of their ability.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Do you know I watched the video that I saw
that you guys put together to the song. I can
only imagine, and I can tell you it brought tears
to my eyes. And I believe, you know, having a
few conversations about his faith. I believe that your dad
right now is in heaven and probably coaching a basketball

(55:05):
game or running a drill or a camp or a clinic.
And and I loved that video because it showed a
lot of different sides of him. You know, guys like
me always think of your dad on the sidelines, coaching
a game, but there are so many other parts of him.
I'm wondering what it was like growing up in Cuba
City with the last name pettigew You could not you

(55:28):
could get caught steel in a candy bar pel because
once they found out the last name, you had to
be spot on. You grew up with that last name
in a town like Cuba City, man, there was a
lot on your shoulders to keep up that last name
one there.

Speaker 6 (55:45):
Sure, you know, obviously in a small town, you know,
news travels fast and stuff. But you know, I was fortunate,
you know, I grew up with with with parents that
are obviously like you said he was. He had him
and my mother had a strong belief in their faith,
and you know, they taught us a lot of life lessons.

(56:07):
You know. They always taught us to be respectful to people,
to be kind and the courteous. And I think my
dad's model that he always wanted to go by treat
people the way that you know, you would want to
be treated, or the way that he wouldn't want to
be treated and stuff. So you know, I think a
lot of times you get caught up in the coaching
and stuff like that when you really got to know him, Mike,

(56:28):
he was He was the exact opposite of somebody who
you would assume is one a thousand games. He acted
like he never won a game in his life. He
was very humble, you know, and he was He could
sit down with a seventh grade girls coach and he
could make that coach believe that they know more than him.
You know, he had a gift to do that. And

(56:48):
I think one of his main gifts that he that
he really had is so many times in coaching people
don't adapt. He was able to adapt. And you've got
a guy who's eighty years old and he's working with
sixteen and seventeen year old kids, and he was always
able to adapt to his team, not just from the
you know, from a basketball standpoint, but just from away.

(57:08):
He was always able to communicate great to kids. You know,
it was almost like he was their age. So he
had a gift in that, you know. Obviously, you know, he.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
Was never lost for words, Nope.

Speaker 6 (57:19):
You know, he loved to speak. He loved to whether
it was speaking at a Hall of Fame banquet or
in front of a group you know, at you know,
working a camp or a clinic. He had he had
a gift a gap. He loved to speak, and he
loved to you know, like I said, he loved to
help people.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
Well, he was at nineteen fifty nine graduate of the
Midwest Broadcasting School. So yeah, yeah, I read the bio
and I just started laughing when I read that, because
I didn't know that about him. When Coach Wallersheim was
and he said, look, if he didn't go into coaching,
whatever he went into, he would make the company a
fortune five hundred company. And after I read that, I

(57:56):
just thought, Man, I'm glad he didn't want to get
into broadcas casting here in Milwaukee and talk high school
sports because I'd be on a job. You would have
taken my job in thirty seconds and and and rightfully. So, Hey, Ryan,
how is how is your mom doing? And and understand
a lot of people have been praying for you and
and her and your family. How is she holding up?

Speaker 6 (58:20):
She's doing pretty good, Coach, she's doing She's doing pretty good.
My mom, you know, she's uh, she's a pretty strong
old lady and stuff. Obviously, you know, like the rest
of our family's hurting inside right now, but she's she's
keeping it together pretty good. And she's being strong and
we're all trying to be strong for her because that's
what That's what our dad would want, one.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
Hundred percent that that's exactly what he would have have wanted.
You know, Lancey, you talked about going to his house
earlier and uh and jon't having a pizza ready, and
then Ryan talks about going and being at the kitchen
table and having the pizza. When Ry, Ryan, would you
hear the story about a couple of days prior to

(59:04):
your dad's passing, you said, look, we need to probably
go to the hospital. Dad and you guys, you guys
were gonna go have brunch and he was not feeling great,
but your son was there, his grandson. He wanted to
get his son, his grandson fed, and he said, yeah, yeah,
we'll go, but let's go let's do that brunch first, right.

Speaker 6 (59:23):
Yeah, you know it was it was Sunday. He woke
up and he wasn't feeling good. And I looked at
him and I said, Dad, you know we should go
to go to the hospital, go to the emergency room.
And sometimes he would he would agree, but he say like,
I'm okay today, we'll put it off. He looked at me,
and he's like, yeah, we should go. But he's like,
I promised your mom and you and and Logan, that's

(59:44):
my son. E were going to go to brunch, in
which we ended up going to brunch and then he
went to the hospital. And my mom and I laugh
about that, and I talked to Lance about it too. Mike,
I would say that was one of his biggest strengths
is he was such a selfless individual. He always thought
of always thought about everybody else, you know what I mean,

(01:00:06):
before himself. He always wanted to make everybody happy. He
was very generous like that. And he just like I said,
it all goes back to he thought. He thought he
was put on this earth to, you know, to make
a difference by helping people. I think that obviously. I
think he accomplished that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Hey, Ryan did And I don't know about about your
dad's mom and dad did. Did you know your grandparents?

Speaker 6 (01:00:35):
I didn't know my grandma. Yes, I didn't know my grandparents. Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Do you think that's where it came from? I I
this servant leadership hard thing is not something we're born with.
It's a learned behavior and and your dad had that
through and through and I'm wondering if if if you
do you believe that he learned it growing up in
the house he grew up in, or do you think
he learned it as he he moved into the college time.

(01:01:00):
Where do you think he got that from?

Speaker 6 (01:01:03):
Sure? I you know, I would say that his mom,
my grandmother, She was a very hard working and driven
woman that had a pretty pretty intense work ethic. So
I think he got a lot of those traits from her.
And Lance and I talk about it all the time.

(01:01:24):
I think he carried it into the end of the
classroom and teaching and coaching. I think he was so
driven to get better every day. He was never satisfied,
Mike with you know, Lance and I have had many
talks where he could be playing a team that's won
two games and my dad's watching ten fifteen tapes on

(01:01:46):
that team, and you're like, well, yeah, he would never
take anything for granted, You would never take anything for
a chance. He would prepare for a team like that
as if he was preparing to play wifeish Bete Dominican.
He prepared the same for everybody. He was always well prepared.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Hey, Lance, do you do you think that people that
never didn't have the opportunity to talk to Jerry much.
One thing that I don't know if he gets enough
credit for. He was really funny to me, like his
sense of humor. He would come on the show and
I would say something foolish and he would rip me
for it, and he'd laugh, and he would say, just

(01:02:25):
out of the blue, we'd be talking about a basketball
team and he would make a funny comment about something
totally away from basketball and then get back to basketball.
And I said to him one time, Coach, like, you're
really funny. And I surround myself with really funny people
and you just, out of the blue say this stuff.
And he's like, oh, Mike, it just kind of popped
in my head. I don't think he gets enough credit.

(01:02:47):
He was funny on the broadcast too.

Speaker 7 (01:02:49):
You know what he was Mark Mike and I will
say this, how coach, just how a community we would
be a king up and he he he was never
you know, he always watched his language.

Speaker 5 (01:03:05):
He was holy heck and and.

Speaker 7 (01:03:07):
Something and and you just he really knew how to
engage people and and uh, you know, one of the
one of the things I think that was the most
special about him is how he brought people together. I
remember just from spending the times at the camps and
stuff like that, how we bring the high school coaches together.
And I have a lot of really great relationships with

(01:03:29):
Gary Wisenbeck at who used to be a Wisconsin Rapids
Assumption and and I met Kyle Krueger from Saint Mary
Springs through the camps and and have have been able
to continue a lot of those friendships. And it was
coach that brought those people, that brought us all together
and would make the introductions, and and and he he
had a he had an unbelievable knack of of making

(01:03:53):
you feel very special when you were, when you were sitting, you.

Speaker 5 (01:03:56):
Were, you were the most important when he was talking
to you.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
Hey, Ryan, who is the disc one llarian in your house?
Was it? Well? I want to think it was Joan,
but I don't know that because I watched your discipline
some boys on the sidelines. Who who was that in
your home?

Speaker 6 (01:04:12):
It's funny you say that. I guess I would say both.
You know, my mom might be more vocal about it.
But you're always You're always you never want to disappoint
your parents. I think as a as a kid, But
sometimes it was easier to go to her with things
and stuff because I was, you know, since I played
for him and stuff, and I saw every side of

(01:04:35):
him and stuff. Sometimes I was afraid to afraid maybe
a little bit more afraid to disappoint him and stuff.
I should say, hey, did.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
You enjoy playing for him? Because somebody and the reason
I asked why I coached my son for three years
and not great his sophomore year. It wasn't look and
I had to make the adjustments because I was the
adult in room, right, and I read coaching our son's
coach Tank up in Dodgeville wrote this book and what

(01:05:06):
I got from it. Once we got to the kitchen table,
I had to take the coach he had off and
put my father hat on. And junior senior year worked
out really well. But I'm wondering what it was like
playing as his son. And did he treat you any
different than he did the other boys?

Speaker 6 (01:05:24):
He did not? He I mean, I knew going in
I was going to be treated the same way as
everybody else. He was as hard as me as to
everybody else. And obviously, you know, he instilled that in
me and my siblings and stuff. You know, I wouldn't
have wanted it any other way. But no, he was.
He never showed any favoritism or anything like that. He was,
you know, he was dad at home, and he was

(01:05:47):
coach Pettigue and you know from three to five or
five to seven whenever we had practice and games. So
we always approached it like that. I would say, you know,
after I got done playing, I played college back after
I got done. I was saying the Lance last week
when he was in the hospital. I'd give anything to
watch another basketball game with him. And it was Mike.

(01:06:10):
It was a treat well you know what I mean,
whether he would be going to a Badger game or
Marketuech game or just watching a college game on TV.
The the conversations that we would have, and we wouldn't
always agree on everything, you know, who who's the best player,
or this or that, but it was it was like
it was kind of like a one on one lecture
sitting watching a basketball game with him. It was very insightful.

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
Guys. I can't thank you enough. I can't Lance, thank
you so much for coming in studio and spending you know,
a number of segments talking about the life and celebrating
the life of Jerry pettigew again the goat. He's the
greatest of all time in the state of Wisconsin. And
and I don't I couldn't even come up with who's

(01:06:54):
number two, to be honest with you. You look at the numbers.
Throw the numbers out. He was the great us of
all time. Thank you so much for coming in and
allowing me to do this show. And thank you for that. Ryan,
Thank you as well. I really appreciate your willingness to
let me do this and just be able to tell

(01:07:14):
people about behind the scenes some of the things that
Jerry Petty you did for me and did for my family,
and I just thank him and I pray for you
and your mom and your whole family here in the
next week. It's going to be a difficult week for you, guys, Ryan,
and know that a lot of prayers from the basketball
community are coming your way.

Speaker 6 (01:07:36):
Mike, you're a class act, and I appreciate my family
and I appreciate you having us on, and obviously my dad,
like I said, from Heaven, really appreciate your friendship and
everything else, and thank you for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
You got it, guys, Thank you very much. Lance. It's
good to see you.

Speaker 5 (01:07:52):
Thanks Mike, I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
You got it, brother, Well, get to a break. Other
side of the break, Rocky A. Wagonhurst from my twenty four.
It's going to join us in student. Got a lot
of high school sports coming up on my twenty four.
We'll talk to Rocky about that on the other side.
This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented
by your local Pick and Save in Metro Market stores
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app. Welcome

(01:08:16):
back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show, presented
by your local Pick and Save and Metro Market stores.
As always, coming live from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating
and Cooling Studios. Go to Donovan Jorgensen dot com for
any issues you have with your HVAC system. Before we
get to Rocky Wagenhurst. He is the VP and general

(01:08:36):
manager of my twenty four. I want to thank coach
Paul Wallersheim and Lance Marika, Mark Miller and Ryan Pettigue
for just talking about the life of Jerry Pettigue and
I said it one hundred times and he's the goat
greatest of all time in a sport that I love
that I spent a lot of time and a lot
of sweat equity in and Jerry is is the guy

(01:09:00):
that everybody wanted to be like. And I can tell
you that that number is never going to be caught.
And don't say never, I guess, but in my lifetime,
nobody's ever going to catch onenty twenty seven wins. And
to do it all at Cuba City, to stay in
that in that market. I know that I know that
he had gotten offers to go elsewhere a lot throughout

(01:09:22):
the years and said, no, my home, my love is
Cuba City, is this community, this school, in this district,
and my family loves living in Cuba City. And I'm
not going anywhere. And I just want to thank those
guys for spending some time with me to be able
to just say some great things about coach pettigew And

(01:09:42):
I don't know why I feel like this, but all
of a sudden, we have to be the adults in
the room. He was always the adult in the room.
He was the guy, and any questions you had, he
was always willing to help out. You get in a
spat with another coach, would he would get in the
middle of it and say no, no, no, guys, no
or not. You guys are too good a friends, too
good a coaches. Don't worry about that. Get over it

(01:10:04):
and move on and start helping these kids not only
play better basketball, but be student athletes. And I will
miss I will miss Jerry Pettig, you, I'll miss talking
to him. I'll miss some of the great things that
he has done for me, for this show, for me
as a coach, for me as a as a husband
and a father, and just a guy that is in

(01:10:25):
a lot of gyms and praying for for their family,
praying for Joan that you know, Ryan said, she's she's tough,
She's gonna be fine, but I know there's going to
be a moment that the prayers are going to help her.
And I want to thank those guys for spending some
time with me to be able to celebrate the life

(01:10:46):
of Jerry Pettig. You sorry, Rocky, you're following that, And no,
it's I love it, you know, only being here for
two years now in Milwaukee, and and you know, especially
being involved in sports, I have all my life and
you know, I don't care where you live.

Speaker 4 (01:11:02):
You understand it, and that's why we do what we're doing.
Over at the station. But at the same time, you know,
a guy like that, I understand that because what fifty
five years coaching, I mean, think about that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
More yeah, more than that?

Speaker 4 (01:11:13):
How many five?

Speaker 1 (01:11:14):
Cuba City? And what's really funny is he retired two
years ago. So I did an hour on Jerry's retirement
and I thanked him, and like two days later he called.
He goes, hey, thanks for that. But just so you know,
I just took an assistant coaching job on the other
side of the border. I'm going to Illinois where I
went to high school, and I'm just gonna I'm gonna
help out a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:11:33):
Well, you know, you can't, you can't retire, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Two months, no, no, six weeks into the season, I
called him, had him on the show. I go, hey,
you know you said you're gonna pop over there once
in a while. He goes, I've never I haven't missed
one practice. I can't. I got to get in the
gym the only time. The only thing he missed is
that team was playing at Cuba City, the gym named
after Jerry pettigew And he said, I'm talking to Jones.

(01:11:59):
She doesn't think guy should go. So I'm not gonna
go because I'm gonna miss that game and I don't
want to root against Cuba City. But this is the
team I'm coaching right now, and my wife thinks it's
best we just go to dinner and forget about it.
And that's what I'm gonna do. I said, coach, you're
not going. He goes, Oh, Mike, it's hard, but I
Jones never led me down wrong, the wrong path, and

(01:12:20):
I think that I need to do that. And man,
he was just such a good man, such a good man.
What I didn't know until I read his oh bit
is he also got a degree from Wisconsin School to
broadcast or something, and he would do the games when
his team wasn't in. He would be up at the
Cold Center doing the games and speaking of doing games.

Speaker 4 (01:12:41):
But before it went one thing, I want to relay
this to the audience because you know, when I came
in do my segment, Mike had a couple of minutes
we were talking, and you know, he was Mike, you know,
as somebody who's coached a long time and been in
high school in this in this in Milwaukee area for
a long long time, and you know everybody, you know,
I I laugh. When I go to things, you know,

(01:13:01):
everybody either the grandkids know him, the kids who he
went to school with, their kids, grandparent, everybody knows Mike.
And and he was, you know, so vi visibly kind
of moved by this happening, and I could really tell
how much it meant to him. And so I you
can talk about Jerry all you want, you know, we'll
throw a little bit about me. But the one thing,

(01:13:22):
you know, after that, many times it's like, well, who
we all like in any any kind of situation, who
who gets Who gets that mantle passed on to? I
don't know, because it's got to be somebody at some point,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:34):
I hope that Joan continues to be part of the
Wisconsin Basketball Coach Association because she works really hard at it.
I don't know who that that they're they're going to
pass the mantle too. You know who who followed I know,
but you know who followed Vincelin Party, Phil Bankston. Nobody
knows that right people here might know it. I'm telling

(01:13:57):
you I wouldn't want to follow Jerry Pettig because he
has to go.

Speaker 4 (01:14:02):
And it's not so much you can't replace him. That
can't be done, but somebody has to fill that void
of somebody well who can play the referee and do
all the things that they need to do when things
get crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
And I talked about this, Rocky, and you'll love this
because you and I have had these conversations. The stuff
he did behind the scenes that he didn't want anybody
to talk about is incredible. The servant leadership heart that
he had to give back. When he found out there
are a couple of kids on his school team that
couldn't afford new basketball shoes, he went out and bottom

(01:14:33):
went to the school, found the kids, handed it to
him and said, now go play, Go play. That kind
of stuff that he did that I found out about,
and I'd call him and it was three days ago
he did it, and he said, I don't remember. I
don't know what's talking about. Let's talk about the one
three one, Mike, are you gonna play that? Are you
going to trap in the corner? I go, coach, I
don't care about the one through?

Speaker 5 (01:14:53):
What about this?

Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
And he'd say, maybe Joan did it. You got to
call her. I don't even know what it's talking about.
And he would do that old over and over and
over and then at the end of the conversation, he
would say, don't talk about that. I don't want people
to think I'm soft. And I go, you're not sof coach,
toughest dude, I know, like, what are you talking about
like this? And he'd say, Mike, I don't do that

(01:15:14):
because I don't want anybody to know. He would go
and speak at different he would be asked to come
speak and he would drive two hours. It'd be a
two hundred and fifty dollars speaking fee, and he'd handed
back to the athletic director and say, buy new basketballs
for those kids, but make sure you buy the girl's
size and the boys size so the girls get some
new ones as well. And it just amazed me all

(01:15:36):
the time that this is the kind of stuff that
he did. And look the reason that you do what
you do at MY twenty four. And we got to
get to that because you know, pretty soon turn on
MY twenty four to watch to watch the Division four
softball state championship coming up ten thirty one o'clock, four o'clock,
six thirty. Turn on Channel twenty four all day to day.

(01:15:58):
You can see some of the best high school girls
softball in the state of Wisconsin and maybe in the
Midwest because there's some really good players here. And then
next week you got the boys basketball or the boys baseball.
I'm sorry. On the nineteenth, my goodness, look at me.
Although I talk, it was about his basketball.

Speaker 4 (01:16:17):
I understand.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
On the nineteenth, the boys Division four three two and
one baseball state championships. And on the twenty first, from
Eli Soccer Park, you guys are doing girls stage soccer.
Thank you for that. I love soccer.

Speaker 4 (01:16:32):
I believe it well, and I you know, my girls
all grew up planes.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:16:35):
Everybody starts off with soccer, you know, because you three,
everybody kicks the ball and they look like chickens running
after everything, you know, and then you realized that maybe
I want to use my hands, so you go into
another sport, that kind of thing. So yeah, well, and
the other thing, it has nothing to do with the
high school. But we're running the Lake Country Doc Counts
game on that Friday in between that Friday night, So

(01:16:57):
you got baseball on Thursday, you got the Doc Counts
on Friday night at six thirty, and then we're gonna
do all day girls soccer wrestling.

Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
Don't you have some wrestlings.

Speaker 4 (01:17:08):
No, that's not till February. You got to wait all
that way, know that?

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
Can you tell them a huge wrestling fan? When I
had interviewed those guys, they were great, by the way,
but wrestling and racing. Spencer's a big NASCAR Indye, Car
my producer him and we do that the Home improvement
showing him and Bingo are talking, Hey did you see
what happened? And I'm like, I know, I didn't. I
was watching the paint try on the wall that I painted,

(01:17:33):
and they're.

Speaker 4 (01:17:33):
Like those NASCAR do you watch You watch any of
the c w's on Saturday. Yeah, so you got Saturday
on c W on our sister station at c W eighteen,
and then you can watch it on Fox on Sunday.
So it's you know, c W is picking up all
the sports, college and professional all side, and we're doing
all high school local.

Speaker 1 (01:17:52):
On the time. I know just when I get home,
I am watching Division I'm gonna I'll be home in
time to watch part of the Division four and I
watch Division three, two and one softball. I'm my twenty
four today state championships and then baseball in the nineteen.
That's all day Thursday, Fox City Stadium. I love that

(01:18:14):
and I've been to state championship games up there. It's
a great place to watch baseball.

Speaker 4 (01:18:18):
And you know this time of the year, you know,
everything's in playoffs. That's what I love. You know, hockey
is going, Basketball's you know in the conference finals. You
know you got on the professional side. The Brewers are playing,
and then we have all these high school sports, you know, championships.
You know they're getting the end of school. It's it's
really fun in June and hopefully the weather kind of
stays where it's been. You know, we get a little

(01:18:39):
rain here and there, but they'll play through it. No
play get it going.

Speaker 1 (01:18:43):
The soccer girls were the twenty first because they you know,
they're tougher than some of the boys. They well, any
soccer they'll play, ye, rain, sleet, they'll play. As long
as they're not lightning. They will definitely play Rocky. Two
years ago, you came to the market and what I love.
And we've told this story when you've been in the

(01:19:04):
studio before, but you but you you came into the market.
I think we're in week one or two.

Speaker 4 (01:19:10):
It was the last week of August, so the second
week of FNR, and.

Speaker 1 (01:19:14):
You stood off and watched this thing and talk to us.
Sure it was great, but I watched you as you
looked at the crowd, and you watched how this thing happened.
And I remember about week five, you and I talking
and the first time that we really had much of
a conversation, right, And you said, I love this. We
have to do more stuff like this, and I go,

(01:19:36):
come here, give me a hot boy. You were like,
get away from me, you creepy old man.

Speaker 8 (01:19:39):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:19:40):
And I was like, and you said, I love this,
and I want to do more of this and give
this back to the city because I think it's really
lacking in this market. Yep. And boy did you not
only did you say it, but you've done it. And
I thank you for that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:55):
Oh, you know, it's it's really the it's the support
of everybody too. I mean, we can put the things
on the air, but if nobody watches them, you know,
we you know, we get the sponsors that have helped
us with this. You know, Mike, you've done the pregame
shows you're which, by the way, congratulate this is the
fifteenth year of you doing Friday Night Rivals.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
Unbelievable. I keep telling people every football game I watch,
they have some young, attractive female on the sidelines, and
I keep asking, why do you guys, I'll find somebody.
You're like, no, no, you're a guy. In fact, you
showed me the contract today and uh, but I'm not happy.
He's a huge race.

Speaker 4 (01:20:32):
Did I not tell you about your assistant? I'm adding
an intern? Yeah, Mike you are, you are. I'll take Spencer.
You're a good looking person on the sideline. Sorry, man,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:43):
How many times I've been told I have a face
for radio. Don't you do you wear glasses? Here are
my glasses. Take a look, because I gotta be honest.

Speaker 4 (01:20:50):
Nobody does a better job on the sideline interviews than
you do. I'm sorry, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
I have to tell you though. Even my wife thinks
too much for me at halftime. But you know what,
I I love talking to you know, the service people,
thanking them for their service, talking to trades people in
the unions. And did you know that I went out
of the US Marine food camp a few weeks ago
with those.

Speaker 4 (01:21:12):
Guys we oh your kid, how'd you do?

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
I didn't end up in the hospital, so that's good.

Speaker 4 (01:21:18):
That's a plus.

Speaker 1 (01:21:19):
That is a plus. That is a plus. I'll tell
you about it. One day. It was great. I was
there with UH, with Collecte and Major Blackwell, who was
un Captain America. Man, I'd like to see him do that. Man,
he's more believable unbelievable. I got a chance to shoot
a weapon for the first time. Whoa one hundred yards away?
And I hit the target seventeen out of twenty And

(01:21:41):
I got a little cocky and I go, how would
you do with this? And he said, come on, man,
I said, really, He goes, I'm a sniper. I go,
what does that mean? He goes with that weapon six
hundred yards, I'm twenty for twenty center mass And I go,
are you a kidding? He goes, we have a weapon
from a mile I'm eighteen for twenty center mass. And
I go, well, have you ever used that skill set?

(01:22:03):
He goes, I've been deployed three times. This guy, he's
the dude. Man, he is Captain America for sure. Hey,
talk to me a little bit about when you get
when you came to the market and decided to do
all this girl softball was not you know, you could
maybe find it somewhere online, but it was baseball, same thing.

Speaker 4 (01:22:23):
Everything was streaming. It was all find it online.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
Somewhere somehow, and you guys took it over and said, look,
we're gonna we're gonna give this as a gift. We
get some sponsors with it. Not a big money maker
for you, but you understand the importance of these communities.
And it doesn't matter. I don't have a dog in
the fight. And I will today watch girl softball like
the rest of the day on my twenty four because

(01:22:47):
there are some really good players and I love that. Hey,
winner is a state champion. Loser, you're the runner up.
But guess what the cutting down the net and basketball
they're getting that gold ball and saw off ball or
in baseball, big deal. And the numbers as far as
people watching has been great. Just keep sponsors keep you

(01:23:10):
know what, they keep coming. And I know because I
have some through the mcgivering agencies that are like absolutely
we're involved with that. And it's kind of feel pretty
good that you've had this vision. It's worked out really
well well.

Speaker 4 (01:23:21):
You know, you know when you come to a news
station and I've lived in different markets, you know, we've
talked to them originally as Southern California kid growing up,
And you know, I went to U s LA. And
you know, I was old enough to be there for
John Wooden for the very last year that he was there.
And actually in my orientation for freshmen, I got to
hear the pyramid of success from John Wooden. That's what

(01:23:42):
he talked about.

Speaker 1 (01:23:42):
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:23:43):
Showed me how to tie my shoes correctly, too, by
the way, Well that's awesome, which is a big thing
for him. But you know, when you go to every market,
you come to station, you know, I've always found people
are the same all over the place. They really are,
and you got to learn from what's where you go there.
You don't bring your ideas from somewhere else. You find
out what you do and what works and what people like,

(01:24:04):
and you give them that. That's what stations are about,
local stations. You ever thought about running for politics, I'd
vote for you. That'd be a great campaign speech track.
I don't think I'm far enough left or right they'll
run for anything anymore. You know, I much have in
common sense too much in the close Well, you know,
it's it's funny. I've always wanted to but it's just
a it's that that kind of world's a little bit crazy,

(01:24:25):
and I think, you know it's you know, you worry
about how everything's working these days. I just hope someday,
regardless of what party you're in, we can figure out
a way to sit down and be together again. Man,
I know this is crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:24:37):
I know this that all the stuff that's been happening
in Los Angeles, it's not nearly as bad as what
one side's saying, and that nearly is not bad on
the other side. I had a buddy that was there
and I go, hey, he goes, I didn't see anything.
I didn't see anything, And I think that, you know,
I think you're right when you come to a market,
find out what people want and give them what they want. Hey,

(01:25:00):
let's get you a break. Rocky Waganhurst, he's the VP
and general manager of my twenty four. Other side of
the break, we're going to talk a little bit about
the schedule for Friday Night Rivals. I was at the
Meschigo earlier in the week Muskego Walkshat North baseball game.
Six people came up and said, have you put the
schedule together yet? And I go, wait, listen, to the

(01:25:21):
end of the show on Saturday, we're going to start
to announce it, and they're like, is my team? And
I go, I don't know. I listen it out. You
got to listen, and we will start talking about Friday
night rivals and give you an idea on some of
the teams and some of the games. And I always
think that, oh, this is the best schedule ever. I
think this year might be.

Speaker 4 (01:25:39):
And we also have a surprise in the schedule too.

Speaker 1 (01:25:42):
Yes, we do ye and we'll get to that.

Speaker 4 (01:25:44):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (01:25:44):
Look at you radio man keeping people over. Don't go
on the grocery store, don't go to pick and say wait,
don't make a prize. On the other side, he is
Rocky wagan Hurst again, VP and General manager of My
twenty four. This is the Varsity Blitz High School Sports
Show presented by a local Pick and Save and Metro
Market stores on Fox Sports ninety twenty in your iHeartRadio app.

(01:26:05):
Welcome back to the Varsity Blitz High School Sports Show,
as always, presented by your local Pick and Save and
Metro Market stores. Coming from the Donovan to Jorgenson Heating
and Cooling Studios. Want to thank all of our sponsors right,
Citizens Bank and Jeanie Wagoner're Plumbing and Kernel Electric ideal
logos Downovan Jorganson heating and cooling, Pick and Save Stores,

(01:26:27):
Calming Restoration. We got a lot of them rockets. I
love these guys.

Speaker 4 (01:26:31):
That's great.

Speaker 1 (01:26:31):
They've been with me a long time.

Speaker 4 (01:26:34):
Sponsors are the best.

Speaker 1 (01:26:35):
They offer to do stuff like this. So Friday Night
Rivals before we get to that. Guys, if you're driving
in your car, which you're at home listening to us,
make sure you turn on Channel twenty four today. High
school state girls fast pitch softball. You ever tell you
my fast pitch story?

Speaker 4 (01:26:53):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:26:54):
I was doing a segment from Around the Corner with
John mcgiffern and we went to Fort Atkinson and I
had to do segment on a sport in each market
we went to. And they were like a big time
girls fast pitched team and they had a first team
all stayed pitcher. And I did this segment and the
girls says, oh, thank you mister Vigear, thank you mister gever.
I go who's the big time pitcher? By the way,

(01:27:15):
girl raised her hand and I said, wyant you warm
up because I'm gonna get in the batter's box. You
better bring a lot of balls. I'm gonna take you deep.
And her whole attitude change. Oh boy, I never die.
I thought I played enough baseball and softball in my life.
I'm certainly gonna hit this girl. She warms up, and
the catcher was the sweetest young girl until I got
in the batter's box. She yelled the outfield, outfield, come in,

(01:27:36):
No hit her, No hit her? And I thought, man whatever.
She looked at her coach and he put two fingers
up on his cheek. She threw a fastball. I never
saw it, and I went, well, that was a ball
that was outside. The catcher was, what are you talking about?
Is right down the middle? One pitch? I hit one
pitch round ball of the second basement. The pitcher got mad.
I so what are you mad at? She said, I

(01:27:57):
don't want you to touching my stuff. I said, I'm
gonna go lefty you. She goes, can you hit lefty?
I said, I can certainly hit you lefty. I bunted
the third basement, picked it up and burst out laughing.
I go, what are you laughing about? She goes, I
would have thrown you out by a mile. I go
what happened to all these nice girls? This catcher goes
you started it, old man, and I laughed all the

(01:28:17):
way home. I thought, good for you. You know what, busts
me up. It was really fun. So they listen. What
a great way to say turn on my twenty four.

Speaker 4 (01:28:26):
Yeah, I'm telling you these these young women who are
playing these days at the high school level, are they
They're the best of the best. You know, they've never
been better than they are. I mean, everybody comes before,
and these guys are at that level.

Speaker 1 (01:28:39):
Division one. It's the first pitch at six thirty to night,
Division two, four o'clock, Division three one o'clock on my
twenty four, and then on the nineteenth you can nine am.
It starts with high school baseball and you can watch
till six pm. Division one first pitch and then on

(01:28:59):
the twenty first from Elie Soccer Park Girls Soccer Division
four three two to one and Rocky, thank you for
doing this. August is right around the corner Brother and
Friday Night Rivals. I was at the Muskeigo Walkshow North
game earlier in the week baseball game Muskigo one, sorry
about that North Stars, and I had six people seven.

(01:29:21):
People come up and ask me about Friday night rivals. Hey, well,
have you get the schedule yet? I go, yeah, are
we on it? I can't tell you because we're gonna
announce it on Saturday. You gotta listen when Rocky comes in.
So let me start running it down. First game Friday, Well,
hold on, do we want to do the surprise? What
do we want to do? We'll wait, We'll wait. Friday,

(01:29:41):
August twenty second, Arrowhead at Marquette. Great way to kick
that thing off. August twenty ninth, Oh Creek at Muskego
Friday September fifth, hard for that Slinger. We always do
that game. Always very competitive game. Friday the thirteenth. We're
gonna head down to were Sins Lake Country. Lutheran takes

(01:30:03):
on the Angels from We're Sine Saint Catharines. The nineteenth
of September, Whitefish Bay at Cedarburgh. New coach in Cedarburgh.
He left Keta Raine, did a great job at Ketam
Rain now over at Cedarburgh Friday, September twenty sixth. The
closest game to my house. I can tell you that
mcgwanago at Milwaukee, which I love. Uh Friday October third,

(01:30:27):
Brooks Central at Brookfield East, Friday October tenth, Catholic Memorial
at Hard Park against Tosa East Coach Swittle Tosa East.
And then Friday October seventeenth.

Speaker 4 (01:30:41):
That is the surprise TVD we learned, you know, you
as NBC gets you know, towards the end of the
season those flex games, so they get to decide what
teams and what's going on and what makes sense. So
we thought, listen, we got a great lineup first eight games,
beautiful and all over the Milwaukee area. We really like
to do that to make sure that everybody gets gets

(01:31:03):
a part of us. But that game when we will
probably decide maybe about the second, maybe third week of
the season, maybe fourth, maybe fourth maybe fourth. Yeah, And
we haven't really decided if we're going to decide that
or maybe people who are not on that schedule may
want to let us know that. Would they want their station.

Speaker 1 (01:31:22):
And why I like that and we had conversations about
doing it this way is it gives us an opportunity
to make sure that that last game is going to
be for something, right, It's going to be competitive, and
it could be for a conference championship. It could be
to get in the playoffs. Yep, there's a lot of
things and to be able to just wait a little
bit and look, there might be a team or two.

(01:31:44):
There might be a team that we get twice that year. Right,
that's okay, that's all right. Let's let's just make sure
that that game is competitive and something that people want.
And I like the idea. I would vote for it
if you give me a vote on letting letting our
audience of letting fans tell us what game they want
to see.

Speaker 4 (01:32:03):
You know, that's let's see how that that that kind
of plays out. I mean, this is the first time
we've ever done it. I always like to have I mean,
that's what sports is. It's all about what's going to happen, right,
who's gonna win? And this just gives us a little
bit more at the end of the season.

Speaker 1 (01:32:16):
And a lot of storylines in this thing, right Marquette
Marquette High's got a new football coach, right, oh Creek,
Brian Calhoun's the new football coach. That'll be week two
in Brian's tenure. Hartford Slinger. Right, Slinger wins the state championship.
Billy Jacqueline, do they get any better than this guy.

(01:32:36):
He's just the best. Loved the coach staff at Hartford
and then they do the you know, they they they
raise money for for for cancer research because coaching staffs
both have lost people to cancer. And though the players
very competitive, I mean they're two miles apart. People at
Hartford they want to beat Slinger. Slinger wants to beat Hartford,

(01:32:58):
and the coaching staff they're really good friends. They come
together and they put on this event and they raise
a lot of money for doing for cancer research, and
they talk all week. You don't hear that much and
they're like, look, this is bigger than the game. It's
bigger than the game.

Speaker 6 (01:33:14):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:33:14):
The coaching staff from Hartford was rooting once they got
knocked out of the players rooting for Slinger like crazy.
And Billy Jacqueline got a state championship and it's so fun.

Speaker 4 (01:33:25):
One of my favorite games last year.

Speaker 1 (01:33:27):
And his son one that the student athlete yep right, yep.

Speaker 4 (01:33:30):
He got the scholarship from us and we went to
the school gave it to him. Great kid, great athletic director,
great coach that I mean, it was a great, great script,
you know, to be able to give it to him,
and he just checked off every box. We loved him.

Speaker 1 (01:33:46):
So Week four is going to be interesting for me.
Lake Country Lutheran at Saint Catherine's. I have a grandson
that's going to Lake Country Lutheran's going to play football. Now,
he's a freshman, but they suit him all up. He's
going to be on the other sidelines from more LB
and he's like, well, Papa, and I go, no, it's
not going to be a home game. I'm gonna be
on Saint catherine sidelines, is how. But don't worry about it.

(01:34:07):
I'm quick, I'm nimble. I can get over there. May
I may grab him, sneak him over to you. There
you go. You know I know this that the other
the whole family will be there. I'll get him on
the sidelines. I'm afraid that Callum the three year old,
he's punching me in bad spots. I don't want that
on live TV. Protect Yeah you're oh, good luck with that. Yeah,
good luck with that.

Speaker 4 (01:34:27):
I got a five year old and one and a
half year old grandson, so I saw them a couple
of weeks ago. I'm all prepared.

Speaker 1 (01:34:32):
You know the other part that we're gonna do again
this year is I'm going to get a chance to
do the pregame show and record it. And it looks
like we're gonna have one coach the first segment, have
the other coach the second segment, and then the current
electrics behind the scenes, Superhero of the Week. I got it.
I got a lot of response from those that we
did last year.

Speaker 4 (01:34:53):
Love that part, love that best that we had.

Speaker 1 (01:34:55):
The first week. The the the woman who does the
marching band, she's the the marching band of Franklin. I
had to call her four times and she was like, look,
I'm not buying anything. I said, I'm not selling anything.
Here's what I want. We're gonna do this interview. She goes,
you want to interview me? I go yeah. She goes,
nobody ever wants to interview me. I said, exactly, and

(01:35:15):
you run one of the best marching bands in the
state of Wisconsin. Let's talk about it. She goes, that
would be great. I'm in And she was really good.
She called me ten minutes before and she goes, I'm
too nervous. I'm out. I go, no, you're not. I
got nothing left. No you're not. I promise you it'll
go fine. And then the guy from from Hartford who

(01:35:35):
has been a stat guy there forever, and he said, look,
I can't wait for football this. I stay active so
that when football is here, I can stand for three
hours and do stats. And I love it so much.
And it just was a really cool thing for that
you guys allow me to do, so thank you. I mean,
they really you.

Speaker 4 (01:35:55):
Know, these are the folks that are here every every game,
every year. They do it because they love it. They
know it supports the school and that's what makes a
school work. And the football team. There's the coaches, there's
the kids, but there's a lot that goes around and
to make that work.

Speaker 1 (01:36:10):
We got one minute left. Are we going to do
anything to celebrate fifteen years of Friday Night Rival?

Speaker 4 (01:36:16):
Yeah, we're talking about that right now. I'm pushing that
really hard. You know, we may have a little thing
going on each in your show before each game, maybe
some remembrances, maybe some players loopers, yep, whatever we can find.

Speaker 1 (01:36:30):
I have a lot of loopers if you need them.

Speaker 4 (01:36:32):
Well, just the fact that you and and you know,
John and Terry have been there since day one and
my crew and it just it's so exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:36:41):
Terry Kelly's getting brought back again. Wow, I didn't vote. No,
I voted for that.

Speaker 4 (01:36:45):
Are you kidded? I told them we don't deal without them, No,
Terry Kelly, John Wiser to know they are good.

Speaker 1 (01:36:51):
Rocky, thank you so much for coming in studio. Hey, guys,
turn on my twenty four today Girls softball State championships.
On the nineteenth from Fox City Stadium, Division four, three,
two and one high School Baseball State Championships, and then
on the twenty first from Eli Soccer Park. Girls soccer
started at eleven o'clock going through seven o'clock. That night

(01:37:15):
is kickoff for Division one and again my twenty four.
He is Rocky Waganhurst. Thank you so much. Spencer did
a great job today, a lot of movie parts. Thanks
for listening. 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
iHeart Radio app.