This is Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk.
Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci,
educated educators talking education.
Oh, it's Friday, Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk,
educated educators talking education.
Johnny Jess Chad Jimmy full house today on this Friday, Johnny.
Look around, man.
I love I love it, man.
We've throws and face offs.
You know, it's been a heck of a winter season of essentials.
That's what we call them here, Busted Pencils, not extra curriculars,
but essentials to public education, all that extra programming.
Sometimes we call it athletics or sports, but it's so many more things
to our favorite guys here from civic media, you know,
and Wisconsin sports and school things.
So I'm excited about this episode, Tim.
Yeah, absolutely.
Just how you doing?
I'm doing pretty good.
I got a little bit of the allergy sniffles going on,
but that means that spring is here because the pollen is out,
which means that flowers are coming along with it.
And I will deal with those sneezes in order to see the flowers.
Tim, how you doing?
I'm doing better.
It's people may or may not know.
It's been a rough week.
The, uh, what do they call it?
The Neurovirus N-O-R-O.
Neuro, Neuro.
I don't know.
Jess, you're going to be the medical doctor.
I mean, no, Neurovirus.
Okay.
It whatever.
You know what?
Here's the thing.
You've been getting your butt kicked.
Oh, okay.
Let's not go there anymore.
Yeah.
It's been, but I was thinking about the allergy season.
You know, and you made me think of this.
And I saw Jimmy pull, hold up the, uh, look like the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the vial of a legra there or something like that.
You see these allergy commercials right now where they, where they turn flowers into these marauding beasts that are coming to get you and, and, and how dreadful allergy season is.
And I know they've been out there before, but for some reason I've just paid more attention to them thinking, wow.
What a horrible way to introduce spring coming as if it's this big monster coming to get you instead of, you know, some daylight, some sunshine, some life reoccurring.
No, it's just a monster coming to make your life miserable again.
But thank goodness, you know, for, uh, yeah, those allergy medicines that are out there, whatever it is, your, your choice, the legra, Ben and drill.
Yeah, we don't even want to go into it.
But Jimmy and Chad, welcome to, to this Friday.
Chad, I know you're sitting there going to got to get through this Friday.
So I can get to the weekend.
Isn't Friday the beginning of the weekend, Chad?
I'm thinking that work.
It's not the end.
I was looking around doing my myth.
I don't know.
It's, it is not the weekend until, uh, until, well, four o'clock for me.
I'm trying to get out here on board.
So, uh, no, it's a work day.
How can it be a weekend if it's a work day?
It's right.
Isn't it like casual Friday, dress down day, do it.
You know, you, you kind of people show up for work on Friday.
You know, bosses don't assume anybody's really working.
It's, and Johnny's like, what are you talking about, Tim?
Yeah, Tim.
Come on, man.
It's a work day.
We're not on furlough yet.
I'll be 100% honest in the other screen.
I've got the NCAA tournament going and it's right.
That's been my day for two days.
Oh, the weekend arrived for me yesterday.
And all I know is the bosses may be watching this.
And I'm not going to say so again.
It's not the weekend.
But you guys are always working Jimmy and Chad, man.
We are so glad to have you guys back together.
I'm thinking, is this the first time we've had you guys together on a Friday?
I believe it is.
I believe it is.
Not goodness.
How are we going to get a word and enjoy?
It's okay.
Sports, winter sports, ending spring sports beginning.
Talk to us, Jimmy.
I'm going to throw it to you first.
Let you go.
You handed it off the Chad.
What's happening in the world of, you know, spring or.
Swinter ending spring beginning.
So I'll just say this.
The winter sports season this year.
I think it was largely what a drama.
We didn't have any big controversies with teams getting into the state tournament.
We didn't have any wrestlers having to appeal their way into a spot in the playoff field.
We didn't have any drama really with any of the board or control meetings or anything like that.
A lot of it's setting the table for what's coming in April.
So what's coming next month about a month from now.
When the membership will vote on things like NIL and looser restrictions on summer contact,
which are big topics coming up next month for the WIA membership.
But in terms of the winter sports, I really feel like this season was very strong.
But it also highlighted a couple of the issues that that kind of exist within winter sports.
One being the domination of co-ops and things like that in hockey as well as a state venue that.
For whatever reason, we just can't find the right spot for hockey.
In Wisconsin, we just keep finding ourselves either it was too big of a venue with bad ice or now too small of a venue to hold
everybody in. Chad actually could speak more to that as he was covering state hockey this year for WXCO.
But that was one and obviously the other one.
The other thing to kind of rear to set was just the lack of a shot clock in Wisconsin.
A lot of our neighboring states have gone to it.
Wisconsin did briefly go to it, then rescinded.
And it didn't make the table for the membership this year coming out of advisory.
So it'll be something that's on the table I think in the next year or two.
It's in the NFHS handbooks now as kind of a standard and there's rules for it.
There's things set up for a lot of schools that have built new gyms, including in my district,
have a shot clock installed and ready to go just sort of assuming that it's going to happen one way or another here in Wisconsin.
So those are kind of the same recurring issues we have in winter sports.
But I think other than that, just in the terms of the play and just the tournaments,
everything has been about as good as you can expect.
The state tournaments are still a lot of fun to be at as a fan or as a broadcaster.
And that's been a great part of it.
Chad can speak more to it on the hockey side as he was actually at state hockey this year.
Yeah, and I think the location is still a question.
And one of the things that is interesting is nobody really knows that I can find, you know,
coaches and other people involved that have really any idea even what the contractual obligations are towards Bob Souther's legacy 20 arena in Middleton.
This week I actually I was talking to a young lady who had been a part of the storm program over the years.
And I actually asked her what do you think about the difference because she actually played in the state tournament.
The final year they had it at a lion energy center and then played at it as well at the new rank,
the new location in Middleton.
And she said that, you know, for everybody who complains about a lion,
it was more of a state field there than it is at the new smaller rank that in a sense what we have now is another weekend of sectional like hockey.
And I do think that ultimately when I hear something like that from one of the kids, I listened to that and I do think that and I feel kind of the same way that,
you know, you look at last week with the girl state basketball tournament the week before with the wrestlers.
This week with the boy state tournament at Cole Center, the hockey is very much, I think, left behind.
And I think a lot of work has to be done in terms of really building it outside the groups that love it already.
And I do think we're missing something right now in terms of finding that right location for state hockey because I do think right now that is just hanging out there has been hanging out there for a long time and that's one of the big issues.
John, I see you nodding there like like arena venue matters is what I'm hearing.
Oh, yeah, especially for those big championships. I mean, you you live for those traditions. And so it's hard when it bounces around and it changes venues.
And certainly there's a different energy when you're playing in the right place that's like, you know, a mutual, but still kind of like home feel, you know, packs it in.
It's good, good facilities. You get really sort of amped up for the honor of it. And then and then when it's consistently that it builds those traditions right when you're young and you're coming up and you go into those games as a fan.
You know, hoping to play for those teams when you're in high school or you're of that age, you know, you build those traditions and that's a big part of those things.
So hopefully they can find a home, you know, and get it to stick and and provide the best experience because it really is about that again, like it's part of the whole process.
It's that's I know it sounds funny to say, but that's like that's the educational value of it.
It's like having those traditions, having those rituals that you teach to be part of a team to be part of a leadership to celebrate those benchmarks.
So love when it's when it delivers for the kids. I'm sure they'll find it and figure it out.
It's actually funny because today a story came out that here in Washington, we've had great success in hockey for many, many years.
In this year, we had two teams at the state tournament, but a story came out that right now, there's a question mark unless, unless the county spends $940,000 that the Marathon County ice arena, where both was less and the central Wisconsin storm play games.
It will not it's going to fall apart. It may not be operational for the coming year.
These ranks are very old. They have two ranks there and the one that the rank that that they play the varsity hockey games at is 50 years old.
It's not supposed to last that long, but there's been talk over the years and getting a new rank and I've said for years, if you get the right size rank, you could have state here.
Right in the center part of the state and it would be wonderful for the community and for business and everything else, but it's just another example that I mean, it's just been the can has been kicked down the road for as long as I can remember.
But I just saw this story this whole like holy cow. If you don't put in nearly a million dollars just to lift it up to be operational for this coming year.
I mean, that says that you got to stop kicking this can and I think it's sort of a microcosm of the need to find places for especially hockey right now in Wisconsin.
And Chad, I'll just to follow up on that when Oh Claire built its beautiful new son and take center part of that renovation initially included renovating the Hobbes ice arena with the idea that that venue would be a potential host site for state hockey and for championships.
And that never came to fruition and said they just sort of connected the campus and Hobbes exist as it is.
But if you look around, especially here in my part of the state in Western Wisconsin or even Southern Wisconsin, there are at least two venues I've done games at where you can see the outside from the inside.
That's all these buildings are literally a sheet of ice and well, look, it's 10 below outside.
Well, it's eight below it's so, you know, there's there's definitely there's definitely something to just the need for facilities, you know, good facilities.
And, you know, the problem is too in Wisconsin, it's not like Minnesota where every town has one in Wisconsin, you know, like where I live it's 45 minutes to the nearest ring and that's an Iowa.
So there's there's definitely a lack of facilities and venues, which is also I think limiting the opportunities for the sport to really grow, which is also feeding into having all these major these huge coops of smaller towns having to congregate one spot.
I think of like Monroe, for example, they're bringing in four towns from across the Illinois border to play hockey just as part of that call up. They have 11 schools in their co up, you know, there's there's things like that happening in Wisconsin with the sport.
And I think that's one of many challenges that face it and I think the state venue is is definitely part of it, but the facility issue is definitely there.
And unfortunately, the hockey needs don't usually rise to the top of list for people because not everybody, you know, uses an ice rank.
And right now, County budget city budget school budgets are really, really strained across the board, you know, for whatever reason.
And it's amazing how many different groups use these ice sheets. I mean, here in wasa, I mean, they had the figure skating groups.
The wasa youth hockey is there. The junior team, the wasa cyclones is there. I mean, it doesn't getting the ice time then is is very difficult. And as you said, Jimmy, that some of these places don't even have the ice sheets in their community.
They have to go half an hour, 45 minutes just to find it. So again, it's really interesting. And again, I've seen it over the years. It feels like the renovations you're right.
And they tend to go more towards places you play football or basketball and often hockey brings up and up in 50 years old. I mean, I went to, I went to school here in central Wisconsin at DC Everest.
I went to marathon park because my school played hockey there. And basically it's the same as it was back in the 1980s, except they used to have wooden bleachers enough. They have metal bleachers, but everything else is pretty much the same.
And they've really milked this facility for a long time.
Sample two, Tim, we talk about it here about the partnership between, you know, these essential activities and our local economies, you know, hockey is unique too. And the in the sense that, you know, the sport itself and athletic directors can probably speak to this more.
I'm just a coach. So I experience like, you know, hearing it kicked down to me, what arena we're practicing at, where our games are going to be and such.
But you know, all that's like a partnership between local businesses, these ranks and our public schools, right. So it's, it's really not like a lot of the other sports where we can have those facilities in our district.
Or as part of our school, they're really, you know, out there partnering with local businesses. And so it's part of strengthening the local economy.
So we'd love to see things, you know, things things boosted up for hockey, especially for all these young players in a growing sport.
You know, I'm a big storm fan, so I've been following them and you know, they had a good run this year, great hockey.
But we see like the growth of women's hockey, especially in Wisconsin at the collegiate level all the way down, you know, to to the youth levels.
It's probably I'm speaking out of, you know, context here with any facts, but it's one of the faster growing sports across the country.
So, you know, it's exciting to hear these things and just remind our listeners, like these are really important ways these essential activities are part of our local economies, public schools play, you know, a real partnership in that process.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Man, we keep talking about this too. I just say that, you know, the resources, Jimmy, you pointed out to, you know, if we're going to grow this sport and we're going to get those kids that are interested, they got to have access.
And so how do we create that access to allow more people to grow in that sport, you know, as we're developing it that any surprises, though, Jimmy Chad for finals in the winter sports.
Just as a quick follow up to the hockey thing to Wisconsin prep hockey at a great article about small town hockey and how they approach all this.
I mean, he's speaking specifically of Medford, which is a small town in North Central Wisconsin. So if you need more on that, it's there.
I would say there's not really any surprises to me. You have your usual upsets every year, but to be honest, it's high school kids, so you don't look at this like you would say the NCAA bracket where, you know, one goes down to a 16 and it's earth shattering, right?
You know, in Wisconsin, you might have a one seed or two seed fall along the way, but again, you're talking about kids playing sports and that's going to happen, you know, like that's just part of it.
I think I said, I'll just stick with what I said earlier. I really felt like this winter sports season was was pretty solid overall. I feel like we had a, I think we've had a good run of state championships this winter Chad.
And I last time I was with you guys, I mentioned again, the huge ups. That was Steven's point, the number one ranked team in the state the entire year going down in their first playoff game after going 24 and all on the year.
That was, that was a massive upset. I mean, that again, I think that may have been the biggest upset in the years. I've been following high school sports here in central Wisconsin. So that was absolutely huge and that open things up and then at the state hockey tournament.
The number four seed at state, Madison, Andrew would actually won the tournament. Very tight games, but it really did open things up on the basketball side.
I think I have not seen anything that would be up to that level in terms of any upsets. I think that has been a little bit more calm in that respect.
So, so yeah, but that's Steven's point loss. It will be one that people around here will talk about for a long time.
And then hey, transition to it is as we said, it's sprinter has just said it's time for spring preview though that we're going on.
Jimmy and Chad, you know, what is civic media going to be up to is the spring sports kick on Chad jumping there first.
Well, in two two weeks and counting it down will knock on wood because you know, I look outside and there's snow out there right now.
But scheduled to have our first baseball broadcast coming up in two weeks and we'll be doing baseball. I have softball coming up here in the spring sports season.
It's always it's always fun after being in those arenas all winter long to be out there and feel the sunshine and have a 70 degree afternoon and enjoy that because that really is one of the fun parts of doing spring sports.
But yeah, we're starting the baseball softball coverage in two weeks. In fact, spring sports actually is underway. I was talking to somebody just this morning.
There was a track meet an indoor track meet yesterday and start things off. So they started spring sports already this week with the indoor track season.
You will be hopeful hosted an indoor track meet here in southwestern Wisconsin on Wednesday. So Chad is right. We are underway.
WXCO is one of three stations. I consider kind of the crown jewel and civic media of high school sports coverage. And that's because they offer kind of the year round package. You got every sport. You got football. You have volleyball hockey basketball baseball softball and soccer in some cases and wrestling and everything else.
So Chad has one of those stations, Richland centers and other and then Park Falls is the third will also have some home baseball coverage in baribu on WRPQ. So we have four stations in the company that'll be covering spring sports.
You talked about fast growing sports and another sport that's sort of at the club level in Wisconsin, but is sanctioned and nearby states is girls flag football. And in fact, in my community, we actually just started a youth league for it sort of anticipating the sport growing even more.
It's just for girls, but for boys too. But it's now a college sport at two different universities in Wisconsin. And I'm sure more will follow Rippen was the first one on the board with that.
Man, that's cool. Okay. I know the big question out there though. What about pickleball.
I'm not broadcasting any pickleball. I don't know about Chad, but I'm going to take a pass on that.
Well, I just I'm thinking about that. It's just like, whoa, you know, it's like, okay, when I when I join a pick a pickleball league, what does that say about me? Hopefully that's not an upcoming sport with the with the youth Chad.
And Jimmy, though, is we, you know, continue to to move into spring and Chad, you made me think though about, you know, sitting out there covering a nice spring baseball game 70 degrees sunny.
But the reality is you might also be out there 41 degrees with snowflaries in the air covering that game too, right?
I'm trying to be optimistic because you're exactly right. I mean, there's a better chance of light rain and wind that blows and and the thing that's really interesting around here for whatever reason where the baseball and softball diamond is at was OS is must is the windiest part of town.
And I mean, literally every time I go there, the wind is hauling. It's okay when it's warm, but it can make for a very chilly afternoon, because we actually I set up the table outside.
And I've had more than one time where my computer has been knocked right off because of Augusto win.
Chad, you got to do what they do remind me of what I made deal with in a couple of weeks.
Chad, you got to do what they do in Richland Center and that would fill in Henry or I'll call in games. They actually bring a UTV up to games. They call it for the UTV. So that's what you do.
I've seen people do that year exactly right where they say, I'm not going outside. I'm going to, I'm going to get a top of the hill, look down and call it right for my vehicle that has the heat turned up all the way.
Oh, I, it just made me remember, you know, that for the years that I lived there in the Madison area of Arona, both of my kids ran track.
And I remember track meets, you say, you know, being out there and going like, this is miserable, you know, because it's, it's windy. There's snowflaries in the air. There's a bit of rain.
And, you know, I could look over at my daughter and she's got this look like, Dad, why did you make me run track?
Yeah.
And I was almost thinking to myself, why did I make her run track?
Because you're right, Johnny, you got thoughts.
Spring sports in the Midwest, I mean, you know, I played and coach lacrosse and it was the same thing. It could be snowing, it could be 80 degrees.
You know, you got to just adjust and go with it, at least for a few months.
Yeah, there it is. Well, Chad, Jimmy, always love Boston pencils with you guys can't wait to see you again soon.
Keep it going out there. And hey, everybody, you know what?
Now is time for your moment of zin.
The future is an infinite succession of presents.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Boston pencils, free throws and face offs with civic media's very own Jimmy K and Chad Holmes.
And remember to grab great podcasts, packed full with more Boston pencils content, an Apple podcasts, Spotify.
And of course on the civic media website or you can catch us at busted pencils.com where you can follow, like, review, do you, however you do.
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Be sure to grab next week's class and session on Wednesday.
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Tim and Johnny and keep Boston pencils.
Yeah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Oh, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Still don't stop complaining.