Big High School Sports Show 1/28/26: Newman girls’ BB coach Kati Goetsch and Wausau West junior Julian Scalcucci

you

And good evening and welcome to another edition of the Big High School Sports Show on 98.9 WXCO, online at wxco.fm, mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the Civic Media app.

Also on YouTube at youtube.com and the 98.9 WXCO channel.

I am Chad Holmst joined once again by former Wausau West hockey coach and current athletic director, BJ Brandt.

BJ, good to see ya.

Yeah, good to be here, Chad.

Another week, another.

Busy week of high school athletics.

Last one of January.

Last show of January.

Some rescheduling in there a little bit.

Yeah.

We get it all rescheduled.

Well, you got it all rescheduled, apparently, because you're the one that had to work very, very hard on it.

But let's talk about, oh, actually, I should let you know what's happening tonight here on the program.

We will, of course, be talking about what's going on in high school basketball and hockey.

And we'll have our special guest.

coming up at 6.30 this evening.

We'll be joined in studio by our coach guest for this week, Newman Catholic first year girls basketball coach, Katie Gage.

I remember when she was playing actually my first year doing Newman Catholic sports back in the 2001-2002 school year.

She was a member of the first Newman Catholic girls basketball state championship team as a member of the Newman Catholic Athletic Hall of Fame and trying to take

her alma mater back to the top.

So we'll talk about setting the foundation and more with Katie Gage at 630.

Then our student athlete guest from Wausau West Hockey, Junior Goal Tender Julian Scalcucci at 706.

So that's all coming up here tonight on the program.

But with the coach being a basketball coach, we're going to start with basketball, and then in the second hour we'll talk about what's going on in hockey.

But start with the Wisconsin Valley Conference in Boyd's High School basketball.

Marshfield continues to roll.

They are undefeated in conference at 4-0, 13-2 overall.

Stevens Point and D.C.

Everest are both 3-1 in the conference.

Both those squads doing well overall.

Evergreen's 13-2.

Stevens Point 10-4.

Wasa East is 2-2 in the conference, 3-10 overall.

Rapids, 0-4 in league, 3-10 overall, and Wausau West is 0-4 in conference.

And 6-9, I believe, they are overall.

If I'm not mistaken, they're 6-8.

It

says 6-8 on the bounds

here.

I know it says so, but for some reason, I thought maybe there was... I shouldn't say that, but sometimes the numbers get caught up, but we'll go with 6-8 for the warriors.

6-8.

We like that.

There you go.

But again, last week was sort of blown up in terms of Wisconsin Valley Conference play because of Friday being the...

the cold weather day where school was canceled and all these games were postponed.

So basically late last week, nothing in terms of the Valley and boys Hoops and that conference night was wiped away and they'll have to be made up here in the next couple of weeks.

But here early this week, Monday Rapids got a win 66-49 against Lakeland.

And then last night, DC Everest continues to roll.

I mean, again, every time we look at the Evergreens recently, they're putting up a lot of points and they beat Eau Claire Memorial 92 to 71 last night.

And again, good balance.

Ransom Dickerson, 25 K. Thelts, 24 Xavier, Edward 16 for the Evergreens.

And again, I mean, you said it when you were coming in 13 and two, I mean, almost a little surprising.

They started with the, I remember they lost their first game, I think the superior.

And I think they may have been one and two in that, but they have a long winning streak right now and are just continuing to roll.

I mean, clearly offensively, I mean, when you look at the games, they've consistently scored, you know, upwards of 90.

And I think when you can put the ball in the hoop that many times, you're going to give yourself a chance to win, because then you just have to play defense.

So clearly, the offensive side of the court, they've figured that out, and have been able to be very successful with it by putting up 90 points again this week.

And Marshfield continues to roll as well.

And the number that stood out for them is they probably saw whatever it's been doing.

They said, hey, we can score some points, too, because they went up to Merrill last night and beat the Blue Jays, a 101 to 52.

I mean, that's a name right there.

It is.

I mean, that is the all-name team right there.

It certainly is.

He had, and he also was putting his foot forward for an all-conference position with 33 points.

Chris Pohl, 19.

Valen Ramberg, 16 for Marshfield.

Peyton Zimmerman, 16.

Eli Bertman, 13.

Cooper Wendorf, 12 for Merrill, but...

And I think we were talking because we saw them at West a couple of weeks ago.

It felt like even watching them, they always had that little extra in their side pocket.

I mean, that's a team that right now, it looked confident.

It felt like, it felt like they, when they knew, when they needed it, they kind of knew they were going to have

it.

Yeah, you almost felt like they could, they could.

put the foot on the gas and then take it off and then put it back on the gas and then just keep, like, whenever they needed a shot, they were making the shot.

I mean, it was really impressive to watch them because, I mean, to put up 101 points in two...

what is it, 18-minute halves?

That is a lot of points to put up in a short amount of time.

So I'd love to see their shooting percentage because they probably shot very well.

And the thing is, Merrill's not a bad basketball team.

I know that Coach Pieper always prides himself on having a solid team and to go on the road on a cold Tuesday night and do that again.

I think that was sort of a, hey.

Don't, uh, don't sleep on us kind of game.

Absolutely.

Uh, also last night, uh, going up North with wassa East, uh, they, uh, lost to Rhinelander 74, 63 miles case.

He had a big night for East, uh, 25 points.

Rabi, uh, Robbie and Julie had 15 for the jacks and Devin fact 30 for Rhinelander, uh, that Rhinelander team, a bouncing back from their loss to Mosany, a very good team so far this season.

And, and again, it's interesting to watch East develop because.

This year, they're playing a schedule that maybe, because a few years ago, they had this really good team.

They weren't playing quite the level schedule.

Then they finally were able to move the schedule around.

And maybe this year, they're kind of running into a very tough non-conference schedule.

But I do think they do have some pieces.

And it'll be interesting, I think, to watch as that group continues to develop.

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, when you look at the way they built the schedule, obviously, they struggled a little bit early.

But when you have to replace that many kids within your lineup, no matter how prepared you think you can get them,

them, there's nothing like the experience of playing basketball at the varsity level.

seeing the speed, seeing the decision-making, all of those things that happen there.

So you can kind of see they're starting to come into their own, because Rynland is a really good team, and to put up a fight against them probably bodes well for them.

It probably is a sectional game as they look towards to the playoffs, but certainly a decent performance for them, and they seem to be playing better.

Steven's point put up 83 against Chai High last night, winning 83 to 66 as they continue to be right there as well.

And Wasa Westa.

got a win against Antigo 63-37 last night over at the field house.

And I think for the Warriors, that was a much needed win.

I think they needed that W to get that feeling back because I thought it into a little bit of a tough rut in terms of the confidence.

And I think, again, you make a few shots, you get a W that goes such a long way.

It does.

And for them to get that in front of the home crowd, the band was there last night.

So for them to get that, I think it's good.

Hopefully they can build into that as they go into.

to DC Everest on Thursday.

And looking at the next week in the Wisconsin Valley Conference, you got a couple of conference games this Thursday, a West and Everest.

We'll have it for you here on 98.9 WXCO at seven o'clock.

Wassa East is at Stevens Point.

Then you have Marshfield at Rapids Friday.

Then the non-conference games also.

Wassa West plays back to back actually Thursday and Friday.

They'll be home against Ashland on Friday.

Stevens Point in Hortonville.

Again, we see Stevens Point tonight.

I don't know whether you talked

to the folks over at Stevens Point scheduling because with their hockey team and their boys basketball team and even their girls basketball team, it always feels like they're playing a lot of Saturday games.

And they tend to go on the road and they challenge themselves against teams either in the big rivers or in the...

Fox Valley Association and they have this game at Hortonville Saturday.

Yeah, I mean I think I think for them It's really easy to go to the valley down there.

It's a it's a pretty short trip for them So the Saturday games would be interesting to talk about that scheduling because it does balance out your midweek stuff because they get a lot of Friday conference games Obviously they play on Thursday here, so they get a day off in there before they go to Hortonville

and then a few games early next week Spash has another road trip on Monday down to want to keep

East is at Antigone Monday.

Holman is at Marshfield Tuesday Rapid at Rockinlander on Tuesday.

Where are the conference games like us old-timers who remember all these conference games?

We we wail for the past with all these conference games and now there's so many non-conference games

my guess is some of these Monday games as Typically as as I've learned over the last few months.

You don't typically schedule Monday games So my guess is that Monday game east of nana goes a makeup the the smash at Wanaki's a makeup and then you jump into Probably one more round of non-conference and then we've at some point we're gonna get to finishing up and

a Valley champ here.

I know it.

We want it.

We want some of conference games here coming down the stretch as we get closer and closer to the playoffs.

Marathon Conference South in High School Boys basketball.

Marathon continues to roll.

They are 7-0 in the, actually I should say 10-0 in the conference, 13-1 overall.

And you're talking about lapping the field.

They're lapping the field right now because second place is Auburndale at 5-5, 8-8 overall.

Edgar, 4-5 in the conference as his assumption.

Edgar six and eight overall, assumption seven and seven.

Newman Catholic three and seven, six and 11 overall, two and seven for Stratford five and 10 overall.

But in the Marrowwood South last week, I had a chance to see Newman Catholic against Rip Lake.

And I think we may have touched on the fact that the Marrowwood North is better this year.

And we're seeing a lot more of these Marrowwood North teams pull out wins against Marrowwood South and Rip Lake was a very impressive team.

I thought last Thursday beating Newman 75 to 55 Marathon.

put up one-on-one against Abbotsford.

Abbotsford's been playing in some high-scoring games, but when you face Marathon...

If you let them, again, run up and down the court and score, that doesn't mean Marathon is going to say we're going to let you score because Marathon prides themselves on defense and Marathon beat Abbotsford 101 to 33.

And that's hard to do because, of course, we get to 40 points.

The clock starts running.

It's crazy to me.

I mean, 101 points in that amount of time.

And then, like you said, you go running clock.

And I mean, it goes fast.

So for them to be able to do that, it's really impressive offensively.

Last night, there were conference.

games in the mirror itself.

Our Tom Weaver was on hand at Newman Catholic for the game.

We had a double header night of high school sports last evening, and Tom saw Marathon defeat Newman Catholic, 68 to 47.

Garrett Bracewell, 16, True Thirds, 15.

Again, they are so balanced all the time, Marathon.

They had that game against Mosini recently.

Didn't bother them one bit.

They've come right back and just

kept on

winning.

And again, Adam Jacobson runs such a solid program there at

Then he had Auburn Dale win in Edgar.

That was a significant game because that puts Auburn Dale five and five in the conference, drops Edgar to four and five, 39-36.

And Stratford upset assumption, 51-49.

That's only the second conference win of the season for Stratford.

But again, it's just, it's a little bit of a different year in the mirror itself because so many years, Jeff Gress was sitting across there.

We talk about it because he was always so proud of that.

His buddies who were coaching, getting 18-19, 20 wins over.

overall in having all these battles at the top.

Right now it's just marathon.

And marathon is just doing what marathon does.

And again, I find that to be so incredibly impressive because they are just consistent in how they play basketball.

Yeah, I mean, when you look at the two, Meriwood North and South, there's definitely the top in both of those.

When you're looking at Prentice at nine and one in the conference on the north side, sitting at 12 and two overall.

And on the south side, you've got

marathon.

I mean, that's when you look at those two two conferences, those are kind of the the two you're looking at marathon and 10 and 0.

So it's it's really interesting to see, you know,

It would be great to get a crossover, you know, something where you get that matchup to determine the real Merrowwood conference.

They did that for a few years, and it was kind of cool for a couple of years, and then it kind of just faded

away.

I'm sure it would be great this year,

because you've got two teams at the top

that are clearly above the rest of the conference.

So this year might be the way forward.

But you know, it's interesting.

You get Stratford.

Stratford to be an assumption.

That's a big win.

Yep, and when you look at the schedule coming up and they have another conference night coming up on Friday, Marathon will host Assumption.

Newman heads to Auburn Dale, Edgar at Stratford.

And then Monday, Marathon at Columbus Catholic.

And Columbus is always a really good team, always a very solid team, a team that's been to the state tournament, winning state in the last couple of years.

So that'll be a big test for Marathon on Monday at Columbus.

And actually Tuesday, the game I put on there because I saw the Northeast Wisconsin homeschool team against Newman earlier.

you think, oh, they probably aren't great.

They got some big kids and they played some good basketball.

They went into Newman and beat Newman earlier this year.

So those Averdell Eagles better watch out for the homeschoolers from Northeast Wisconsin because I was impressed with what I saw earlier this year.

Great Northern Conference.

You got a big battle at the top.

Mosini and Ryan Lander.

Mosini, rolling, now there's seven and oh in the conference, 12 and two overall.

Rhinelander, seven and one in the league, 13 and two overall.

Then Merrill is four and three, along with Pines at four and three in the conference.

Merrill, seven and nine overall.

Pines, 10 and five.

Medford, four and four in the conference, five and nine.

Lakeland, two and five, four and 10 overall.

Antigo, one and seven in the conference, three and 11 overall.

And Tomahawk still looking for their first win, they're oh and seven in the conference, two and 13 overall.

and game that.

kind of jumped out to me involving these schools, is Pines.

Last night, and I mentioned this to you, they played Witteburg-Burn, but Witteburn came in 12-2.

These are teams that are in the same sectional and regional, so they could play pretty early on in the playoffs, and Pines beat Witteburn 51-44.

We've been keeping an eye out last couple years on Witteburn because they've had some really good teams, haven't been able to really get past the sectional round, but I thought we saw Pines back Thanksgiving week.

Again, they put the ball in the hole.

Milo Albrecht had 18 points in that game.

And again, they've been a little inconsistent at times as well.

I mean, they're 4-3 in the conference, 10-5 overall.

But they got talent.

And I think when they put it together, they're capable of beating really good basketball

teams.

Yeah, clearly.

I mean, to beat a 12-2 Wittenberg team is going to be a great accomplishment for them.

Here's the part that'll drive me a little bit nuts, Chad, is when we go to the seeding process.

You know, Wittenberg will be seated higher than Northern Pines, even though Pines beat them.

And that's where I am old school when I say this.

I think the coaches get it right.

And for Northern Pines, what a huge win, probably from the rankings and ratings perspective for them when it comes to seating.

Absolutely.

And I mean...

Mosini has not played in the past week.

They've been enjoying the glow of that big win at Rhinelander a couple of weeks back.

They are back in action tomorrow night, hosting Lakeland.

And then Friday night, a big night of conference play, Merrill at Mosini.

Antigo at Rhinelander, Pines at Tomahawk, Medford at Lakeland.

I got to look it up here real fast because I believe if I'm not mistaken, the first time that Molesonny and Merrill played this season, they played a very close game.

I got to just double check that because at this point of the season, when you are seven at all, you have to look for those areas that maybe you can stub your toe just a little bit.

Yeah, it was an overtime game actually up in Merrill back in mid-December when Molesonny, Edge Merrill, 68-65, they played each other the postseason a couple of different

times in recent years, Merrill went to Mosnay and knocked off a number one seed a couple of years back.

This is one of those games for Mosnay that they have to be, I think, very focused on when Merrill comes in on Friday.

Yeah, especially when you look a little further ahead, Ryan Lander and Mosnay played the last regular season game of the season for the Ryan Lander schedule and probably also for Mosnay.

So if you can take care of this one, you set yourself up down the line when it comes to conference championship.

Absolutely.

And let's.

turn to the girls side and starting with the Wisconsin Valley Conference.

And again, we've been talking about this throughout the course of the season, where Stevens Point has been the team to beat in the WVC throughout the course of the campaign.

They are 6-0 in the league, 14-3 overall.

But then there's Everest at 4-2, 9-8 overall.

Wisconsin Rapids 4-3 in the conference, 10-7 overall.

Marshfield now 3-3 in the conference, 5-12 overall.

Wausau West 1-5, 5-13, and Wausau East.

0-5, 2-11.

Looking at the games that kind of jumped out to me, I think what Stevens Point did Saturday in their non-conference game against Hudson was one of those games that was important with sectional implications.

They beat Hudson 65-58, Jada-Cybert 31, Lea 18 for Stevens Point.

By the way, I was informed that Jada-Cybert is heading to Iowa.

Wow, that's a heck of a commitment.

Caitlin Clark's old school.

Absolutely.

That's a Central Wisconsin kid who's going to be going big time to the University of Iowa.

And also last night, Marshfield went to Rapids and won 64.57 because we saw Rapids on Monday when they went to Wausau West for a makeup game from last Friday.

Rapids looked really good.

beating West 62 to 24, but on the second half of the back-to-back, Marshfield able to get the W. And the thing about a team like Marshfield, they have struggled so far this season, as I said, five and 12, but they have won their last couple of conference games.

They beat West by double digits.

Now they beat the Rapids on the road.

I think a coach like Heidi Michaels, who's been around the block more than a couple of times and taken her team to the state tournament multiple times, is going to find a way to make that team better.

Yeah, I mean just the experience alone you get to the second half of the year You really hope that you can show your improvements You can show that that your youngsters aren't young anymore and and that you can get get them You know doing the things systematically that you want and then you hope they can just start to execute I mean that's what it comes down to you still have to shoot the shots and make them so obviously playing really well Right now and and certainly something she she hopes to have them do continuing here

And Monday night, I think a very important win for D.C.

Everest in terms of the building of the program back.

They beat Assumption.

Assumption team that's always near the top in Division V. You'd think, oh, Everest being a bigger school, but Assumption has been going to state on a regular basis.

They've been in the rankings this year.

I think maybe a little overranked this year.

I think after this game, they're going to drop out.

But at the same time, it's still a program that has a great tradition in Everest winning 47-39.

And again, I mean, when we saw Everest at the

field halls back earlier in the season.

It's like, ah, it was really a struggle.

It was not a pretty basketball game, but they've been able to turn it up a notch, win some important games, win sometimes ugly, but boy, I mean...

And I shouldn't say ugly, because if you win based on the back of your defense, that's not really ugly.

It's just winning in a different way than putting up 80 points in a game.

Yeah, I mean, there's lots of different ways to win.

And they've been finding ways to do it.

I mean, when you look at their overall, they're just above 500.

But obviously, in the conference, I feel like they've played really well.

And they get another test here on Friday against West.

West goes over there.

And that was a tight game.

last time we watched that one.

That was a really tight game.

West had a double-digit lead the second half.

Yeah, and you look at, there's such a slim margin when you want to earn these conference wins, regardless of what the conference is.

So that'll be a fun game to watch.

Marrow itself.

And again, we had a chance last week to talk to Jeff Schneider.

And boy, his team really had a good week.

There was no jinx by coming on this program, definitely, as they continue to battle right at the top.

You have Stratford at 9-1 in the conference.

conference, 14 and 2.

Marathon, 9 and 2 in the conference, 14 and 2.

Assumption, 8 and 2.

They're still right there.

11 and 6 overall.

Omerdale right there.

8 and 3, 12 and 6.

Then you have Edgar at 4 and 6, 7 and 9.

And New Macathic, 2 and 7, 5 and 11.

And this is basically what we, when I was saying earlier about the boys side, this is what we normally see in the mirror itself.

Yeah, when you look at it, I mean, the top four teams have double-digit wins already this season and very few losses in conference.

So you can see there's

going to be a battle down of the stretch there for that conference title.

And Marathon was just impressive.

They beat Abbotsford 82-41 on Thursday.

They beat Edgar 69-44 on Monday.

So they are winning and they're winning in impressive fashion.

And as I said to the coach last week, this version of the Marathon squad can score.

They

were having

struggles offensively putting the ball in the hole the last couple of years.

So they continue to be very impressive.

They have a big game against Auburn Dale coming up on Thursday.

day night.

Massive game in the conference.

Assumption is at Edgar and Stratford at Newman Catholic as well coming up.

Then Marathon is at Pines and a non-conference game Saturday.

And then an interesting game on Monday.

Neilsville always a very good.

girls basketball program will play assumption.

You have Whitburn, who's an outstanding girls basketball team at Auburndale.

And then Easton Newman get a chance to play each other on Monday, which is always fun.

And I should have mentioned in our Valley's discussion that East got a nice win against Tomahawk.

They had 11 three-pointers in their victory last night.

So again, you'd like to see where these programs are trying to build block by block to have some positivity.

And that was a good win for East.

Yeah, I feel like this time of year, I think regardless of where your team starts.

of the year is where you can start to see growth and you'll see that growth whether it's how you play in the first half and you start games or how you finish games.

I mean there's lots of ways for teams to grow that may not necessarily lead to wins and losses or to wins in the record but but as you start to build and you know you look at look at marathon.

They've done that.

They built over the last three years and coaches reaping those benefits of all the investment he's put into that group to have the season they're having.

And one more game that I think folks who follow girls basketball here in Central Wisconsin will keep an eye on for next Tuesday.

Marathon is at Columbus and Columbus right now is ranked fifth in the state in division five.

Jeff Schneider's team all have a very stiff test coming up next Tuesday at Columbus, Catholic, and I've done games there.

That can be loud at times in that gym over at Columbus.

And then finally, in the Great Northern Conference, and again, this year, it's just a different field because after all these years where Lakeland had that incredible run of talent that went through, right now it is Mozhani leading the way at 9-0 in the conference, 10-4 overall.

Medford is 6-1.

In the conference 10 and 5 overall Rhinelander 5 and 4 in the league and Pines 4 and 6 Lakeland and Merrill 3 and 5 Tomahawk 3 and 5 and Antigo is 1 and 7 Merrill got a nice win against Pines last night.

I should say not last night, but last Thursday night 60 to 45

based on the standings.

That was a bit of an upset, especially being played up in Eagle River.

And Medford beating Rhinelander by two last Thursday was a big game because that put Medford at six and one in the conference keeps them within one game of Moseley.

One of the tougher matchups you're going to have is against their place.

Rhinelander needed to find a way to win that game.

And then last night, Moseley all over Lakeland 64 to 32.

So again, we talked earlier about Moseley with their coach earlier this season and things are going.

I think, again, I shouldn't put words in anybody's mouth, but to plan.

They're challenging themselves in the non-conference, they're taking care of business in the conference, and in good shape to win a league title.

Yeah, I mean, when you look at their four losses, it's Wittenberg, Neilsville, Eau Claire Memorial, and Rice Lake.

So all programs that are having successful seasons, and then they've taken care of business at the conference level.

I mean, they've set themselves up well for a conference championship as well as, you know,

trying to make a run here throughout the playoffs.

And another game for folks to keep an eye on next Tuesday.

There's some big games all over the place on Tuesday.

Mohseny is at Pacelli.

Pacelli is ranked number two in the state in division five.

So that will be another intriguing non-conference matchup.

But you know me, I prefer intriguing conference matchups.

It's really hard to find a conference matchup in the valley here.

But you talked about, you know, all the, we go to the other conferences and you're talking about conference matchups.

Yep,

you're exactly right.

They have to look at what's going on in high school basketball, both on the boys and the girls' sides.

But coming up next, we'll have our coach guest for this week, an opportunity to talk to the first year head girls basketball coach at Newman Catholic High School, Katie Gage.

We'll talk about building the program over at Newman, something she knows a thing or two about during her playing day.

So we'll talk to the Newman Catholic head coach, Katie Gage, coming up next.

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And welcome back.

It is the Big High School Sports Show on 98.9 WXCO, online at wxco.fm, mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the Civic Media app.

With BJ Brandt, I am Chad Holmes and we're very happy to welcome in our coach guests for this week from Newman Catholic High School first year.

Katie Gage, and Katie, good to see you.

Yeah, thanks for having

me.

Absolutely.

And I was saying to BJ earlier that the first year I was doing games at Newman was the year that you won the state championship.

Yeah, that was a fun one.

You were

on the court.

It makes me feel old seeing you now being the

coach of the fighting cartels.

Same in your chat.

I guess the first question is, and I asked you this the first broadcast, and I'm going to ask you again here tonight.

what it feels like to come back to your alma mater where you've had so much success where you're honored, you know, on the wall as an athletic hall of famer.

What's it like to come back and be in the shoes of the head girls basketball coach at Newman Catholic?

It's a really cool experience.

You know, Newman Catholic basketball is such a wonderful history.

And, you know, my team for my playing years was definitely not the first team to meet with success.

There

were,

you know, generations before me who went to stay like 20 years before.

And it's...

you know it's a it's a long time coming and you know every school has its ups and downs and but the key is that we need to keep our school spirit throughout it all and make sure we stick together.

So coming back you know years later as a coach it's really I think it's important to keep those memories alive and keep the spirit carrying

through

the program and make sure we keep our eyes on the right things and yes we're playing basketball but it's really about you know coming together as a school and it's it's funded.

You know, be in a spot to be able to help the kids lift that out.

So thinking about your playing days, what do you take from that as a coach to instill in your current players knowing that you have so much pride in what happened while you were there as a player?

It's fun to see it from a different perspective.

And, you know, carrying through playing lessons into coaching lessons doesn't always translate one to one.

I was lucky as a player to be able to see some of the life lessons of sports while I was playing it.

And, you know, some people don't get to that point.

Some people are focused on, you know, just the stats or just, you know, what they're producing out there.

And they sort of don't get to the life lessons until later.

So I was lucky to have amazing coaches who were really good at.

Making sure that we knew the purpose of what we were doing while we were doing it like we all know that Tom Weinkoff and all of the assistants that I've you know had through him as as his helpers were

They're all wonderful at making sure that we not only were good basketball players, but we were good people when we were doing it.

So that's a key thing that I've brought forward as a coach.

I tell my girls, I really want to help you as a basketball player, but I really want to help you as a person too.

And so I try to keep things in perspective if they have interviews or classes or tests or college visits.

That's a huge part of their lives, too.

So I try to make sure that we keep it in perspective.

Well, I'm going to take it all perspective for a moment

and ask you

the fun questions when you do look back.

What do you take away from that experience?

You were at state a couple of times, right?

You went to the first year, you lost in the semis, and then that was the first trip, and then the next year, you went and beat the Boyceville, I think it was, right?

Yeah, the Boyceville in the finals by three points.

33 to 30.

Yeah.

One of those real thrillers there.

I'm not sure, but at the time, I think that was the record for the lowest cumulative score of a championship.

And it was actually in

the field house.

People will forget

that.

It was, yeah.

You actually

played in the field house back in those days.

What do you take away from that experience?

I mean, it's been a while now.

Yeah, it has been a while.

I have to dust off some of the memories.

Anything still

stand out about the whole idea of going down to State Day and winning that gold ball?

Going down to, there's a lot of work that goes into it before you get there.

And I think people sometimes forget that.

Like you look at it from the outside of either a building program or like a 500 team, there's a lot more that you need to put into it if you want to get to that level.

And this year with Newman-Kath.

Like, we've had a chance to play.

A variety of teams and you can you can tell who puts in what sort of work and like, you know When you made the road trip down to st.

Mary's

and

Appleton with us Chad like that was which is wonderful to see you down there by the way

Like that

program is like amazing

and

some teams you can see them play and you know exactly what they do in practice And so like remembering back 20 whatever years ago like I remember how many hours we practiced every single day I remember the camps we went to I remember like, you know the D1 teams that are coached

arranged for us to play to make sure that we were always playing against a tough competition.

Like there was no messing around in practice.

There was there was nothing like that.

So it's it's good to remember how hard you need to work to get where you want to go.

But it's also important to remember, you know, every team's goals are different.

And sometimes when you're starting at a certain point, you know, you're going for confidence or you're going for, you know, smaller wins that eventually build up to the bigger things.

I'm very thankful to have good, big memories of the past that we can keep working toward.

Well, when you look at your team, obviously.

you get together in November and here we are towards the end of January.

What have been your biggest growth areas?

What are you most proud of of what they've been able to do regardless of the results of the games?

Because obviously you're building something.

You're in year

one

here.

What are you most proud of so far?

the improvements in our defense, honestly.

So we've really gotten back to the basics and hammered on the fundamentals.

Like, hey, it's not just, man-to-man defense is not just, you know, one-on-one five times on the court.

This is a whole system that we need to put in place.

We need to make sure that we're helping in the right spots.

We get our timing down.

We get our talking.

And, you know, I wasn't there last year or the years past.

I don't know what their youth training was like.

I know that...

I'm still in touch with a lot of their youth coaches, so they know what they taught them.

But if they forgot something or are doing it differently, it's a matter of pulling together.

Who are we now as a team in making sure that our defensive system works together?

So definitely on the defensive side.

Um, you know, being a first year coach, it's, you know, it takes a while to get to know new people

and

the player combinations.

So it's been really rewarding to get to know everybody as individuals, but then figuring out how do we put that all together?

You know, you know, these three people are, you know, always willing to fire up threes.

These people are willing to learn post moves.

I mean, the game has changed a lot.

So it's, it's interesting for me to come from like an old school method, you know,

Even, you know, what we ran 20 years

ago was

probably more in style 50 years ago, but it works.

There's a reason it

was still working, but I mean, stuff is much more outside these days.

And so it's been fun to not only pick up our defense, but come together and figure out what is our combination this year?

How can we make things happen?

Something you said when you were talking about, again, how hard you worked to get to where you and your teammates got back in old one and old two.

How do you try to get it across to your team?

Because I think one of the challenges for our coaches, you got kids, whether it's boys or girls, whether it's football, basketball, hockey, whatever it may be, who think they're playing as hard as they can, or they're working as hard as they can.

They're doing the things in the off-season to the best of their ability, but they're not.

You know that they got more in them.

It's not a case of just trying to...

pound on them to do it, but you know that they got more in them.

How do you try to, what tools do you use in that way?

Cause obviously the best coaches have that ability to be able to say, yes, I know you are working, but you can work a little bit harder.

And because to get, as you said, to get to that level,

I

mean, there are no shortcuts are there.

There are absolutely no shortcuts.

Like hard work is going to be everything else all day.

And I think that the building process and trying to show people how hard to work is.

a process.

It's not just going from zero to 60 on day one.

It's trying to figure out what is their current tolerance for working hard?

How do we step

them up in

a way that doesn't feel like nitpicking or like we're being punitive?

Because you need to increase it.

They have to buy into it.

You have to make sure that they're having fun while they're working hard.

Otherwise, they're not going to want to do it.

Because, I mean, they're putting in their time and effort just like we are as coaches.

It's got to be something that they believe

within.

So it has to come from within.

And so a lot of it comes down to trying to find out what are the individual motivators that the people have within them, and how do you get them to tap into that for themselves?

It doesn't come from me.

Again, we're talking to Katie Gage, first year head girls basketball coach at Newman Catholic here on the Big High School Sports Show on 98.9 WXCO.

One more quick question based on, again, your back row, because you have been working with some of the

Younger levels at in the Newman schools, correct for folks who what had you bought coaching experience within Newman had you had that

Before you got this job.

Sure.

So I Before my my high school role here.

I was a youth coach for four years So I started with the the current eighth graders when they were in fourth grade We're a combined team of fourth and fifth sort of followed them through and one thing that struck me as I was Coaching the younger years was that they're needed to be more coordination among the youth Ages to make sure that we were building a program and you know

looking ahead when I was, you know, at the younger years to the high school coaches, I thought like, you know, you know, I'm asking for plays or what do you want us to do?

There wasn't necessarily, you know, a guidebook of what to do.

We sort

of

had to build it ourselves.

Not saying that was the wrong thing to do because, I mean, high school plays, you can't always run as fourth graders.

So no fault there at all.

But.

It's it's been interesting to really watch that group grow and you know coached You know the current you know fifth graders when they were younger as well helped with the sixth graders You know organized practices with the seventh graders So it's it's really been wonderful to work with the coaches like alongside the coaches of those ages and with the girls As they're growing up and I hope that they see the connection that the coaches

on the youth side have built over the years to make sure that they have a really positive building experience and they look forward to playing in high school.

Yeah, I mean, that's so important when you're when you're trying to build a program is the continuity that you have from the youth to the high school and the common language and just common expectations.

Like as you look at the schedule, so so the.

you've come up shorter than you've probably wanted to on the scoreboard.

What do you define as success or what are the measurements that you obviously mentioned defense and how you're playing defense, but what measurables are you looking at to show the progress so that there is that confidence that's building throughout the

year?

We set a lot of goals within each game.

So it might be points allowed, it might be points scored, it might be holding a certain person below her average, it might be out rebounding a team.

So we need to take each game as it comes and see where can we meet with success, where can we know that we are better than somebody, even if the points don't wind up that way.

So it comes into a lot of research from the coaches, identifying those areas, setting goals for the players, making sure we're prepared for the few days before in practice, so the kids know what our goals are and what we're working on and why.

So it really comes to breaking it down.

What are the building blocks?

And where can we find our own success?

And I imagine that I'll take Marathon, for example, because the first time around, you had a rough goal there when you were over there.

The second time around, a team that was 14 and two, and it was a two-point game.

I imagine as you go through the second round of the Maryland South, those are the kind of measureables you're going to want to see your girls improving.

It

gives these opponents, right?

Absolutely.

And Marathon was a great example of that.

And the first game was more points than I care to mention.

I'm sure other people remember.

But we took that as fuel for the fire to make sure that let's not let that happen again.

And we don't always get better the second time we play all of the teams.

And we had another example of that the other night.

But we have to come ready to play every time.

We know we play well at home.

We

really enjoy the support of our fans and making sure that we can get the stands as full as we can.

These girls really have great relationships with their families and their friends, and they appreciate that support.

So the second time around a lot of these games, yes, we do want to improve.

We always have plans to bring our best, but we know the other team is going to bring their best as well.

Real quickly, again, just based on

the consistency.

That's hard sometimes.

I think that's one of the things when you're trying to establish a culture and established a program that sometimes you're going to see a lot of things kind of come together pretty well.

And then other nights, it's just for whatever reason won't come together.

I mean, you talk about you'll play better at home, but I thought I remember watching on tape the game against Stratford on the road.

And that Stratford team is obviously a very good basketball team.

And you actually played.

toe-to-toe for much of the night against them.

So I imagine in a sense there's some frustration at times because you want to see it a little bit more consistently, but I imagine just the way you're talking that you understand that the consistency sometimes is one of the last things that comes.

Correct.

I mean you need to have the breadth of experience to be able to practice things in certain situations before you get comfortable with it and then after that is when you get good with it.

So it's sort of difficult in this high school environment where the team is changing.

every single year and you're constantly reinventing yourself or this person is sick or this person is hurt.

But you also need, you always need to be deep enough to make sure you're ready to go no matter what combination you need.

So yes, consistency can be difficult.

Talk about your roster a little bit.

Who's been some really good performers and great leaders for you throughout the year?

Sure.

Yeah, we have a total program in high school of 13 kids this year.

And so everybody has a chance to step up at any given time.

So we have 12 who are eligible for varsity and one JV player.

And everybody has shown on the court so far this season.

And it's been really wonderful to see.

We've had, you know, Mallory Razwodowski is fabulous at threes.

Maddie Jankowski is really stepping up in that area as well.

Aubrey Pent really, you know, controls the floor and is, you know, a calming force out there for us.

Lexi Klinecki has been doing a fabulous job with rebounding.

She hasn't played since she was a freshman.

And, you know, she's also balancing this with a really competitive swim career.

And she's going to go on to swim D1 at Marquette.

So.

You know, Brie Schultz has been, you know, really finding her groove with driving and making sure that we keep up the intensity in practice.

I mean, I could keep going down the list.

We have a lot of really fabulous people who contribute in various ways.

And again, with the consistency, like, people don't always score their average.

They

don't always rebound their average.

And, you know, sometimes, you know, somebody will surprise us with 23, 24 points, and some nights, not so much.

You got to celebrate the wins where you can get them and they're a great group of girls.

They really are.

We've got, you know, five seniors who've been playing together for a long time and you can tell they love it and they love spending time with each other.

Um, so it's really fun to see them.

Just, you know, be friends and enjoy doing something together.

It says a lot when you are able to get somebody like Lexie Glenecki who has so much.

Promise in another sport to say they want to be part of what you're doing.

I imagine that's something that For you as a first-year coach to have somebody say hey, I want to be part of that.

I want to be part of this team I want to be able to help in any way possible.

That's the kind of Message that you probably want to have sent out that this

is the kind of

program you want to be part

of yes, exactly and I mean Lexi is so organized about her time and so disciplined as you would imagine from a swimmer but I it definitely did

feel nice to have somebody want to join.

And I know that was probably in large part to her teammates and her friends talking her into it and saying, hey, this is a new time.

Maybe you want to join.

you know, come give it one more season.

And I don't pretend that it's about me, but it's about, you know, the good times that she has with her friends.

And that's the reason she gave me for wanting to come back.

But, you know, I hope other people see that into, you know, other small programs out there too.

Like, we value every single person who wants to come play, because, I mean, a good coach can turn a good athlete into a basketball player very quickly.

I mean, it's a complicated sport, but you teach somebody the basics when they're athletically gifted.

And they're going to be just fine.

Talk a little bit.

So you've coached youth and you jump into the high school game after having a super successful high school career.

What surprised you a little bit, jumping into the high school world?

You can be honest here.

We want to

hear the good stuff

here.

I'll say, I mean, as a former center, I've been surprised that nobody does post-moves anymore, except for Stratford, which I know we're gonna see tomorrow.

By the way, real

fast, let me jump in here.

Yeah.

Because back in the day...

I mean, and even on the boy side, we don't see tall kids anymore.

I know, it's over, they all

go.

Were you part of the three six footers at Newman, or is that?

We only had

two,

it was

the initials.

Yeah, you and Dana, and then I think after that, you had Newman.

There

was

Val

and

Richard.

I

know,

it was pretty tall.

But where have all the tall girls gone?

I don't know, I don't know.

But I'm sorry, but yeah, continue to give us all the juice.

Yeah, the lack of post, I will say, like for tomorrow with Stratford, they're very well trained in the post.

So I've

been able

to pull in my old memories

and be like, hey, here's a drop

step.

So we've had to get a little creative with how do we defend these things.

But they're picking up on the basics really well.

As I mentioned earlier, a much more outside heavy game.

People are popping threes all over the place.

But it's very fast.

I feel like it's more physical than it used to be.

Um, I don't know.

I was in the middle of like all the elbows and everything.

These girls are strong.

It's really great.

You mentioned again, going back to where you came from, but you know, the girls in the fourth, the fifth, the sixth,

the

seventh, eighth grade now.

Um, how has it been developing the relationships with the girls that you're coaching this year?

Is it how?

easy or difficult because you probably knew all the girls you were dealing with the

last few years.

You had

a great feeling around.

You knew what their idiosyncrasies might be.

Talk a little bit about, for a first year coach coming in where they weren't an assistant, they weren't right in the midst of it.

How difficult, how easy has it been in terms of developing the relationships with your girls?

I don't know.

I had to start it out.

Trying to feel you know, what is the temperature of the water?

Like what are their relationships first because I didn't want to come in and just be like this is my way This is my personality.

This is the new normal like I needed to fit in they were here before me and so I needed to figure out you know What is their personality first and where do I fit in and with my youth youth teams?

You can act differently with a nine-year-old than you can with an 18-year-old.

Like, you can do more silly stuff with

the

little kids.

Like, we're not going to do red light, green light with the high school.

So it's been an interesting process.

I feel like we've figured each other out pretty well by this time of the season.

But I didn't want to come in and assume everything was a certain way and I needed to fix something or I needed to be this sort of a coach instead of that.

I tried to give them space to tell me through their actions and their words what they needed.

So it might have taken, you know, like a few extra weeks compared to, you know, what I'm used to with my youth teams.

But I feel like we're on good footing now and we have a good basis for the future and for the rest of the season.

You talked about a lot of the life lessons that you get to learn as a player.

How have you incorporated that as a coach to be able to obviously teach life through basketball, teach life through sport, because it's always, you know, those are the things you talked about and things that you remembered.

How do you do that now as a coach?

And we've had several examples where life lessons have come into play.

Some of them are through winning, some of them are through losing, and some of them are through injuries.

So with...

Winning it's I mean, it's always fun.

It's an easy lesson to teach.

You know hard work pays off But I mean sometimes a win comes from what you're doing.

Well, sometimes it comes from what other people aren't doing well, but You know, it's a it's an again an easy one to be like hey, you guys were working hard You executed well when you're focused and all you know, everything comes together.

That's gonna lead to success The lessons about the come from losing, you know are harder, but they're those are the ones frankly that

are more not about the sport of basketball.

Those are the more direct life lessons.

Because sometimes you can do your best and still wind up on the losing side.

And that's a hard thing to swallow, especially for younger kids, that your best isn't necessarily enough to get you where you need to go sometimes.

Sometimes somebody's best is better than yours.

And I mean, that's going to happen throughout life.

With injuries, that's been sort of the hardest source of lessons that we've had to deal with on the team this year.

We've had two concussions, a knee injury, we've had a broken rib, a lot of sprained ankles.

I don't know, like I said, they're tough.

It's a much more physical game.

It is

a much more physical game,

but I mean, you know, the public doesn't see all of that, but that's stuff we're working through in the background.

Like there's the disappointment, there's the shifting of roles within the team.

There's, you know, somebody being asked to step up when they might not necessarily feel 100% ready.

There might be somebody who is injured who really doesn't want to, you know, give up their time and might be pushing through something that they're not

you know, supposed to push through and you know, it's my job to make sure that they stay safe.

But like, again, winning is easy, losing is harder, but you know, the injury, that's, that's the longer lasting lesson.

It's really important to take care of yourself, important to take care of each other and be open to different roles as the season goes

on.

As an avid fan of sports, like I tend to like in basketball and in the sport of hockey that I know really well, I don't watch the

ball.

And you know as a coach that you're always doing something, you're always involved.

How do you teach the kids to be great without the ball in your sport?

Ooh, that's a great question.

That's a very difficult thing to do.

I don't watch the ball either, honestly.

I stare at the middle of the lane, I look out the sides of my eyes to see what's going on, because that's where the action is.

Because the three point, as soon as it goes up, they were ready for it 20 feet away.

They just hadn't moved to it yet.

It's a difficult thing to teach.

You really have to break things down and slow it down to show them step by step what's going on.

And it has to be like, hey, we're going to run it this way.

And if the helper doesn't come in at the right time, this is going to happen here.

Here's why moving backwards at this timing is so important to make sure we're cutting off the baseline or whatever it is.

But that's one of the.

the things that I had to get used to the most about transitioning from, you know, former player back in the day to a coach.

And as I've talked with other, you know, new coaches on the sidelines, it's really difficult to break down something that you know innately, how to do and how to time and look at as a player.

How do you break it down and explain it in a way that doesn't make you, you know, just sound like a textbook to these kids?