Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHRs Playmakers.
Welcome to the show. Good afternoon, everybody. You have your host, James J. Mailov here
behind the microphone. Thank you so much for joining us. I am joined by our good friend,
Randy Paul, two weeks in a row, James. That's awesome. That's great.
Yeah, absolutely. I can't get enough of it. We want to start off the show by
thinking our great friends over at Quality Plus printing, getting your words out
here in Wisconsin Rapids. Head on over to A Street South for all your printing
needs. Head on over there and let them know how much we appreciate and buy
local support, local everybody. And we are going to get into some local today.
Randy's got some high school stats for us. We'll talk a little Packers, Badgers,
Get into some River Kings conversation as well. And we have the phone lines
open for you as well. 715-424-2600. Randy, let's go ahead and introduce our
friend here, our guest. We got coming in today talking a little bit about the
sports commission. Yeah, I don't think you could have said any better, our friend
and our guest. Kenny Porter with us today, well known throughout the community.
And we're so happy to have you here, Kenny, today. Thank you for coming.
Gentlemen, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the sports
commission and our upcoming MVP night. Yeah, maybe you can start off by telling us a
little bit about when that's going to occur in some of the details. You bet. The
MVP night for this year, 2024, will be happening this coming Thursday,
November 7th. It'll be held at Bullseye Country Club. And it'll basically be
from 6 to 9. That's a PM. That is right. And for those of you who don't know where
Bullseye Country Club is, of course, it's just off of Pepper down the street
there at the end of the road. Correct. One of our well-known golf courses in the
area, which we are blessed with, of course. Yes. They along with Tri-City, they kind of share
the area out there. And so as you take a look at the MVP night, can you tell us a
little bit of the details how that's going to start off and what it's
going to progress from there? You bet. Normally, we've had simply an MVP night
in past years. Over the more recent years, we've allowed the nominees to also speak.
And that became a really cool thing. You get to know a lot more about the people,
you get to know a lot more about sports in the area. And so our current committee
got to think, well, let's let's add on to this. So this year, for the first year,
not only will we have it have the MVP award, but we will have a rookie of the year
award, which is an award for a group, a person, something that's happening in the area that's
relatively new. And we're also adding a lifetime achievement award. And along with the lifetime
achievement award, it's come up a couple of different ways recently. I've had a friend say that
he had visited his marshal to watch his uncle be put into the marshal area sports hall of fame.
We got to thank you. Golly G, we should have one of those around here too.
So we are going to establish, this will be the first night of it. We'll be establishing
Wisconsin Rapids area sports hall of fame on that same night.
Oh, exciting is that. And, you know, as you say that, what comes to mind are the multitude
of people that would be just perfect fits for such a thing. Absolutely. And a wide variety.
Let's, you know, I'll tell you who the winners are for this year before we leave,
you know, the microphones here. But just think of one as near and dear to us. Our friend here at
the station, Terry Stake, you know, what Terry did for sports in the area promoting it. And,
and he was one of the charter members of our sports commission. So what many names like that,
John Bingham comes to mind, soccer coach extraordinaire, also part of the sports commission, and just
a number of people like that. The friend I was talking to was, I can't mention names, right?
Yeah. Was Tim Uttermark. Tim's dad, Jack, ran the Wisconsin Rapids men's softball for many,
many years. And that's near and dear to the sports commission because not only was that good for
the quality of life in our community, which many of the sports organizations are, but and the
events are, but also the tourism dollars that that brought in for a number of years. So a lot of
people like that that we have to think. You know, it's interesting too. I was just having to
think about that because we live very close to the high school now and the ridges is just down
the road and I was just thinking what we had cars just parked all over the streets and the areas
down there and I was thinking just think what that cross country does for this community.
That's a hidden treasure. I hope the community realizes that one thing that I do
profess that both the gymnastics event that we hold here and the and the cross country meet
are held at a high school venue. Most of the state events are not held at high school venues.
So that's a definite benefit to our community, both in tourism dollars, quality of life,
opportunity for our kids and families. It's pretty cool. Yeah, and you know, there's been
several times we've had sectional games being held over at Lincoln Heights School as well.
And they also have the eight man state championships there. So that's just another one of those
revenue that brings into revenue that people don't always think about. And we haven't even mentioned
the largest water ski show tournament in the world happens here. We have quite a history of
bringing sports to this area, being in central Wisconsin. And this is before even having
these sports complex that we have now, which is only going to increase that. And I think about
too, how we've often talked about just the fact that we're blessed to have the rafters and the
river kings both in a community, our size basically. Yeah, yeah. Unbelievable. And that that brings
up a little bit of a story. The origin of the MVP award basically was our organization, the sports
commission saying, how can we thank Liz Kern, the original, the first manager of the rafters
for all she's doing for our community. And for being here as part of our sports sports events
and sports community. So that was that was our original MVP award winner. And when we realized
how well it was received by her and the community, it just took off from there. And we've been,
you know, kind of given out the award for a number of years. One of the things that you mentioned
a little bit to me and James off of air off air was the fact that when you sit in these meetings and
listen to people talk about sports, you think you know a lot about sports. And then you sit in
the meetings. Exactly. Randy, you could have said it better. People like Lynn and Lynn Swanson
and her husband Tri City Curling. I mean, I wasn't a Curler, but the tournaments they brought to
town, the people that were involved in that, just wonderful people. They were big promoters of the
sports commission. But mostly they just brought a lot of stuff, you know, that I wasn't aware of.
One of the years, one of the nominees was Ken Hilgers, you know, who runs the boxing here in
town. I mean, I wasn't a boxer, so I didn't realize that much about it. But when I listened to his
life and his career, I mean, those stories are precious. And you know, which is why I'm glad we're
expanding our awards so that we can get more people involved. And I know boxing is near and near to
your heart, James, because of your family involvement. Yeah, it was great to see some necker. It's
great to hear you mention that as well. And it covers another area of this where the sports we've
all mentioned and there's so many other sports that we don't get a chance to cover that have such
a glorious history around here too. The sports commission does such a nice job of being able to
not only highlight these things that we don't always get a chance to, but also I think give us an
understanding of them. And in only increasing the, you know, especially you mentioned something like
Curling, we just had the Curling Club in last week on Midday Magazine talking about keeping that sport
alive with younger generations. So much as this is that too. And I think the sports commission in
many ways as well gives us a reminder of what this is all about. We get kind of caught up in
winning. We get caught up in stats and some of these other things. While the economic impact that
sports has is certainly known and felt and noteworthy, sports is always going to be about the people.
Sports is always going to come down to community, to people, to us getting together, to oftentimes
stranger sitting next to each other and cheering for the same thing, you know, and so much of that.
It brings us back to that sometimes. It's part of what I'm so proud of with the sports commission
that we have. You know, I think of that so often if we're at a Patrick game, you think how
you have these communities going against each other, whether it's like I call Connor Kimberly
or if it's a rapids and splash, right? But then you're all at the Patrick game and suddenly you're
all the same team, right? Yep. And it's the same thing with this, right? You got all these
variety of sports in it. We're all the same team here in rapids. Well said gentlemen. One of the
other things that the sports commission takes pride is that we are a place to go a meeting to come
to where we can lend some comfort. People starting out a new event, you know, where do I go? How do I
do this? Or a gentleman like Bob Atkinson from the Kusa who ran a great golf tournament and was
very big in sports in the Kusa, softball, baseball, football, even basketball, I think he coached
too. But even though he ran such great tournaments and was so good at it, he still would come to us
because we could do things like help write an RFP or request for proposal for a certain tournament
or just share ideas with him. Some of the organizations need bleachers. Well, we'd go to Maggie
Molesky with the water ski show and she would share some bleachers for perhaps BMX or whatever,
which is another BMX is another great thing in our community that kind of sort of came out of
nowhere. And I will touch on one other thing. James, you mentioned it. We are central here.
And that's one thing that we hear from all the people I want to come to this area. Boy,
you're central. This is a great place to have it. But the other thing we've always had is just a
sound, fantastic base of volunteers. We could invite these people in and our volunteers were
always here to put on a good show. But isn't that funny though? You mentioned all the variety of
sports and that come into this area. You mentioned the water ski show. What a huge event that isn't
never even, you know, there's so many things that we take for granted, right? So I was just
going to build off of that and ask you, you know, talk about the event on Thursday. Yes.
Could you talk a little bit about, you know, it's going to kick off at six o'clock and then just follow
through a little bit with the program will follow. Absolutely. We're going to have a bit of a
cocktail hour, you know, starting at six o'clock. That'll run for about an hour. We're doing
heavier derves. We thought it's better for networking rather than a sit-down meal where you're
kind of confined to a table. Let's all meal around and network a little bit. I want to thank
the Wisconsin Rapids rafters for bringing them up again. They are sponsoring our bar for
which should be a good thing for central Wisconsin. But we're doing that and then we'll have the
program. And at this point, I'll mention our winners because we already some years we wait and
make that a surprise. But because of the new format, we wanted to announce our winners early.
The MVP award winner is Paul Peckman. Oh, wonderful. From the River Kings. The rookie of the year
award winner is Dave Coons of the coach of the Kraken, which is a great story. You know,
this swim club swim team. He's been here for a couple of years now. I think he eventually
gave a win in the lifetime achievement too because he's been doing this for 30 years and his
resume is spectacular. And then our lifetime achievement award winner will be Bob Galetta.
Oh, wonderful. The retiring baseball coach from Lincoln High School. So another quality
person in the area. Yes. All three great people. All great candidates. All great people. How does
that process happen to the choosing of these folks? We solicit nominations. The nominations
command and we have a committee formed. And then the committee goes over them and basically makes
the choice, you know, based on what we're seeing. This year, because of the new format, we didn't have
a huge number of nominees. So it was relatively simple. And obviously, I don't think we've missed
on any of these. So we've got some pretty good choices there. And the other thing I will mention
in regards to the Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame is going to start. We're going to start out by
inducting all of the previous MVP winners into the Hall of Fame so that we don't just have an empty,
you know, one person in error, whatever. And by the way, there won't be a goal jacket or,
no, interesting. Due to budget, we won't be able to do a bust for it. We think it's going to be a
cool thing to induct all the MVP award winners from the past. That's great. And so I think we're off
to a good start. Looking forward to that and looking forward to the event plan on being there
and also looking forward to maybe even in 2025, you guys having a category for a host of sports
shows in the area that are on from five to six Monday Wednesday Friday. Just, you know, for some,
I'm just thinking just off just spitballing off the time I had. What a great idea. I love that
category. It's a little long, but I love it. It's a long category. It's a very specific category.
And somehow still loot somehow. We're not going to let you make a speech. That's a good idea.
It's probably a good idea. Ken, thank you so much. Before we wrap up, I didn't want to people
out there that are listening to know if people want to volunteer if they'd like to be a part of
the sports commission in any other way or just learn more about this. Is there a way to contact you
or someone to contact for that information? Sure. I don't have all the letters in front of me
or the acronyms, but just Google Wisconsin Rapids Area Sports Commission or the Wisconsin Rapids
Area Convention of Visitors Bureau. Because I did not mention that, but the sports commission is a
branch of the Convention of Visitors Bureau, sort of guided by them or just go to visitwiswrapids.com.
Yeah. Thank you for that, Ken. I do appreciate it. Thank you so much for the time.
Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. Now, looking forward to Thursday night,
that should be an awesome evening. I think they've been going well and I think we're going to
continue that process. Yeah, they're looking forward to it. Thanks again, Ken. Randy and I will
be back with more playmakers here at WFHR. Probably brought you by Quality Plus Printing,
getting your words out right here in Wisconsin Rapids.
Welcome back, everyone, to WFHR's Playmakers.
Randy and James here with you. Thank you so much for joining us.
Phone lines are wide open. 715-424-2600. Hit them in the numbers.
Phone lines wide open. We thank our friends not only at Quality Plus Printing for joining us
and giving us the hour here to hang out with all of you, but want to thank Ken, of course,
from the Sports Commission for joining us. That was great.
Yeah, it's always fun to have guests in. We always are blessed to have people in from the community,
and we're so grateful to have them come join us and can a great guy and just wealth of knowledge.
And I'm sure he would appreciate seeing as many people out there to join in on the festivities
on Thursday. I do appreciate that. We'll be talking about the event coming up not only on our
morning show, but here on Playmakers reminding everybody about it and encouraging you to get tickets.
Do you want to do something as well? I didn't get a chance to in the interview, but Ken did a
great job covering the bases. A big thank you to Meredith Clarkler and our friends over at
Visit Wisconsin Rapids Bureau. Wonderful people over there. You're not going to meet many better
people than Meredith and again over there. They do such a great job promoting this community.
Yeah, isn't that true? You know, just like we were saying with all the different
activities that come into town, the different sporting events, and we're just like, oh yeah,
oh yeah, you know, that's how you do it, you know, because there's so many that we just
not like we take them for granted, but it's almost like you forget. Yeah, yeah, you get so caught up
in these things and there's so much going on. It's hard to keep up with. This is why I have no doubt
in my mind that if Meredith played baseball, she was great at covering bases. Like she was always
like an outfielder. She was always covered second or third for people. She was, we will talk a
little baseball. We get a chance here, Randy. There has been a little bit of hot stove news.
I'm going to save this one for Friday. I've got actually a couple interesting things about
not only hot stove news, but then general, the hot stove time of year. I want to talk about the
history of that a little bit in baseball and everything. If we have a chance, we'll get into that.
I do also want to talk some River Kings with you. Great weekend for the River Kings and River
Kings fans out there. College and pro football, the schedules this weekend. Not too much
to meet on the bone there. So we'll see what we get into. Maybe we'll get into it more on Wednesday's
show. But I do want to talk a little bit about the Green Bay Packers and my stat of the show.
And my stat of the show is 25. That is, how many career starts Jordan Love has had? 25 career
starts. Pretty small drop in the bucket for anybody if we are going to take a step back or
getting a time machine 10 years down the line at the end of this young man's career. Hopefully
all of them in Green Bay and done well. Pretty small sample size right now. I don't blame
Green Bay fans here. I understand it. I understand it better than you can know because you guys have had
two great quarterbacks back to back in 20 years of great quarterbacking where no matter what the
offseason, every offseason you went into in the last 20 some years, you had some inkling of,
well, we have a chance. No matter what, you had a chance because you had that guy. You had
number four or you had number eight or what have you. What is going on right now is different.
It's new. You've gotten established. You feel you've got a good quarterback, but it's built on
potential. And whereas your memory of these other quarterbacks is, well, I've seen them win
playoff games. I've seen them make game winning drives some of that. So that's some of the concern
there I imagine with Jordan Love along with some of the injuries that have that have piled up into
in 25 starts. I understand all that stuff. And at the same time, I'm very impressed with a lot of
the Green Bay fan out there that is not like panicking or freaking out or anything like that.
What I will say and I'm a little disappointed that I haven't heard more of is any critiquing of him
that doesn't involve also Matt Laflour. Like you cannot separate these two. These two are attached
at the hip. This is Montana and Walsh. These guys are attached to each other. And if you're going to
get compliment one, you got to compliment the other. And if you're going to critique one, you got to
critique the other. Because you may say, well, it's not Matt Laflour throwing these interceptions
and making these bad decisions. But it is the coach's job to coach that out of him before he hits
that field. And it's the coach's job to assess this player and fortify practices and four to five
days building up to the game. And what is the best thing that's going to help my team win?
Not not who's got the bigger contract. Not who has proven themselves or anything like that.
None of that matters. Week to week. That's what football is. And this week, who gives me the
best chance to beat Detroit in Green Bay? I get one shot this year at it. Who gives me the best
chance? And if you are Matt Laflour in that game coming into that game and during that game,
I don't know how you make that decision. I don't know what part of your brain thinks that that
was the right call. Matt Laflour knows more about football than I'll ever know. And much smarter
and handsome than I'll ever be. Apparently spends $100 a week on that, according to Tom Brady.
I don't know about that. But I thought that was an interesting thing to take from the conversation
from Matt Laflour. But if you are making that decision, you don't think Malik Willis who has proven
to you already. It's not Malik Willis coming over from Tennessee two days ago. This is Malik Willis
who has proven himself and proven himself to that locker room. That's my focus is okay. But why
isn't this been coached out of him yet? And why was this the decision? And why if you think you're
still in that game, are you going for a field goal when you need more at least two scores to get
back into this game? Why are you going? Why are you not every down? It's four down territory. Go,
go. You're not in the red zone, but you're right next to the red zone. It's four down territory.
You're down by two touchdowns. Why are you going for field goals? And why is he out there when the
game is out of hand? Why is he still playing with a injury that we all know needs the only thing
that heals at this time? Like what are you doing as a coach? I don't understand any of those decisions
at all. Again, this guy knows a lot more than I do and I'm sure that he has defenses to these
and answers to these questions. But in real time, like going during the game and everything,
why you don't... All right, Malik, warm up. Like we saw him warming up. Why you don't... In the first,
in the first drive, you saw he could not handle that ball. He could not handle the conditions.
I don't know, Malik will as good, but I'd like to have seen... I'd like to see him find out.
Jergoff was playing with the same conditions as he was. And Jergoff seemed to have no problems
whatsoever. Jergoff seemed to be playing in Hawaii. You seem to have no issues with the conditions.
You've got your window as soon as Jordan loves sign that contract. That window, like sped up,
a ton. All right? It's now winning now, winning next year, winning the next year after that.
Like this is what it's all about. Every game counts. I don't understand the thought process of
not going in there with the best team to win and the best team to win, especially... I was saying
this last week. So I'm not saying anything that you don't kept in hindsight here or anything.
I don't know how you make that decision. And I would have more critiquing of Matt LaFour
than I would of Jordan Love. Because again, Jordan Love's throwing the picks, but it hasn't
been coached out of him. That's a guy who has 25 career starts. Of course, he's going to be throwing
those moves and still using young quarterback. He's still figuring this stuff out. Peyton Manning
was doing it at that age. Brett Farve was doing it at that. Brett Farve was doing it at 35.
Yeah, he's still doing it. He's still doing it right now. He's throwing the picks up where.
On the coaching staff, why else do we have coaches? Yeah, it was kind of interesting going
to the game. I think we talked a little bit about it off air too. We were just saying the fact that
what were the odds of being the Lions, especially with him dinged up with that groin a little bit.
You're saying, do you take a chance with Malik? It's easy and high in sight. Do you bring in Malik?
Willis, who's played well and maybe he could avoid some of the rush, the slippery conditions.
Maybe that would give him an advantage when he's scrambling. You're paying Jordan Love and
Off a lot of money to sit there. But then we also said, you know, they need to have that extra
week to heal because you would have all last week. You'd have all this week because there's a buy
sweep. Basically, we'd have three weeks to heal up and we're like, you know, you want to beat the
Lions at home like you said, there's only one chance. But then you look at the other hand,
you go, it's week what nine compared to 18 when they're in the playoffs, which you need them
completely healthy and there's no guarantee you would be. The other thing I think that you look,
you have to look at, there's so many layers to this. The very first drive, they've got to feel
good, right? He throws this past a Brooks. I mean, he's wide open at the 7-yard line. He walks
into the end zone, he drops the ball. They had so many drops history. Guys right in the chest.
Yeah, right in the numbers. And, you know, the Lions didn't have any drops. He was 11 free,
11 to start out that game, which means his receivers were catching the ball. So that's not on him.
Some of them were a little bit behind him, but these guys are getting paid to be making those
coaches. I will say on the one that he threw the pick on, they showed it from behind and he did
have Tucker craft to the left. But when you got 300 pound guys chasing you, I think I'd be throwing
it away too. And, you know, I'm sure that if we look at a lot of the other games yesterday,
there are other quarterbacks who threw silly interceptions, right? Maybe going back to the coaching
part of it. You're thinking there's 30 seconds left and yeah, they want to go down and maybe
get a feel go before half because the Lions are going to get the ball back. But if something does
go wrong. And then the Lions do get a pick or a fumble recovery. And then they get the ball back.
This could all of us and get out of hand. And that's what you always, you know, being the
pessimistic packer fan that we sometimes are, you know, this could go bad on us and sure enough
that happens. And they're just like, oh no. And then they, you know, instead of being down by 7-yard
half turn on by 14. This is, this is the other thing that stood out to me about that game. And
you can lose a game and that's okay. You know, we just said it's week nine. There's a lot of
football to be played yet. We're in the, you know, the first quarter of the season really here.
But one thing that can happen pretty quickly and it's, I don't know if it's even possible to get
a team back. You can lose that locker room. You can lose those players and their belief in you
when you're making bad decisions. And when you're, when they're seeing these things, there's one
person that's held accountable that they see every day. It's not the GM. It's not the owner of the team
or every single one of you out there that has a A sheet that tells you you're an owner of the
Green Bay Packers. It is Met La Floor. It is there, there are personal coaches for their position
coaches and some of these things. And when guys are dropping passes, when Cubis are making bad
decisions, when guys are not rap tackling, when guys are not in position for red zone plays,
coaching, coaching, coaching, coaching. Otherwise, why are they out just doing this themselves?
It's got to come down. There's got to be accountability. Otherwise, you can't expect these
players to have accountability. You know, it makes me think of all the false starts we had yesterday.
You think of the play with the Bears, right? And in the press conference after the game,
coaches up there saying, we practice this a thousand times. We've got guys in front. We've got
guys in the middle. We got guys back there. The kid doesn't go back there. You know, it's like,
you can practice it a thousand times. And if the kid doesn't do it, it's like, now you look like
an idiot. And it sucks. There's no getting around it. And that's rough. And at the same time,
this is why are you in that job? Like that play, Tariq Stevenson deserves plenty of blame and
didn't, and he's lucky. All he got away with was losing a start. But you know, who else shouldn't
have started that game? Met La Floor, Met La Floor, Eber Fluce shouldn't have started that game,
because that's on him too. It's on the special team's coach. It's on the defense of coordinator.
Like, it's on them too. This is your job. You are, I'm so tired of the of people passing the
buck. Like, why else do you get paid millions of dollars? Like what? Met La, one thing that bugs me
about Met La Floor. And I would love to actually have him in front of me to talk about this.
Because it's not just him. This goes back to Greg Popovich or any of these other coaches.
When you get hired to do this job, what is one of the things you know as a grown man? You're
going to have to answer questions. And they're most more than likely not going to be great questions.
Not going to be fun questions. Not going to ask you, what is your, you know, makeup routine? That,
you know, they're not going to be asking you, I'm, you know, well, you heard Tom Brady said,
you spent $100 on makeup and all and then making me look good and stuff. So what do you spend it on?
They're not going to be asking you that. They're going to ask you hard questions. So his quote,
it's really annoying being up here though. Obviously he's fighting, he's competing and we know
the what he's got. But I don't question anything about what he's trying to do. The, the, the,
the whininess of some of this and not just from him, almost every single coach in sports,
specifically football for some reason, the tough guy sport. Answer the questions and move on.
And you know, you don't have to smile doing it. You don't have to give him a long answer.
You could be Marshall Lynch about this. Yes. And move on. But you don't have to be a petty child.
You don't have to, these are people just trying to do their job. Okay. Plenty of times there have
been bad questions asked. Plenty of reporters have maybe gone too far or something like that.
But you don't get to be Joel and beat. You don't get to be, this is journalism. This is part
of this and this is part of what where we've gone wrong in a lot of ways where we don't respect
journalism anymore. There's a job to be done. Let them do their job. So you can go back to doing
yours and you don't have to answer these silly questions anymore. Like your job is so dang
important. I should be off doing something. You're a football coach. You are not running anything.
You're not running a country or anything like that. Get over yourself. Answer the questions
and move on. Don't be, you're supposed to be like, even though you're a professional coach,
you're still helping grown men, be grown men. You are oftentimes having 18, 19, 20 year olds
in your locker room. They're still looking up to people. They're still trying to learn what it
is to be a grown man. What it is to be an adult. An adult asks like an adult and adult answers the
questions and moves on. This whinynessy. It's annoying. Well, actually, part of the problem is
you guys and your questions and all that. We don't let athletes get away with that stuff. Why do we
let coaches? Why do we let the Bella checks and the Bella checks and these guys get away with this
stuff. It shouldn't answer the question, move on. That's your job. If you don't like it, go do
something else for a living. You don't have to do this for a living. We have to go to a break.
We do have to do that. We'll do that. We'll come back. Randy's got some high school stats for us.
We want to get into. We also want to take some of your phone calls, 715-424-2600. Before I wrap up,
Randy, did you see the Saquon Barkley highlight? Oh my gosh. Oh my god, we got to talk about that.
We got to talk about that. It's coming up on the Playmakers here at WFHR.
Welcome back everyone to WFHR's Playmakers.
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support them. Randy, you've got some local stats for us. It's been a while since we've been
able to do this. What do you got over there? Well, I thought we'd talk a little bit about some
of the action that took place as far as high school. Football just with local teams starting off
on Friday night level two. A few area teams in action. Division seven, second ranked Edgar,
shut out, Chi-Octon. We're not surprised by that. 37 to zip. In Division six, number nine,
ranked Bond-a-Well, beats fifth ranked Auburndale, 34 to 21, and then a fun one. So,
Nacusa goes to Abbotsford the week before, plays a great game to get a touchdown call back,
the game would end up being within seven points, so who knows how that turns out, but they didn't
get it, so they ended up losing by 14. We're thinking, well, you know, now you've got to take this
trip over to Coleman, whether it's Abbotsford or Nacusa. Coleman is like ranked second in the
division. They have got 300 yards per game rushing. They had four games of 40 points or more.
They had two games of 50 points or more, so basically if it's Abbotsford and Nacusa goes over
there, it's going to be tough, right? So, what happens? Half-time score? Abbotsford six nothing.
Of course, really. So now Coleman scores in the second half at seven to six. Last play of the
game, Abbotsford's got a field goal to win it, and also everybody moves the guy kicks it. I just
didn't have a good view of it, so I don't know if he made it or not, but they move it back five yards
and the moment he kicked it, Coleman started celebrating because he must have pulled it right away,
so they end up losing seven to six. So, hey, Kudos to Abbotsford though to go over to the second
ranked team this day and be within feet of that game, right? Yeah, he got to be proud of that guy.
He got a lot to hang your head up about. Absolutely. Division five, number one, Stratford. Again,
that one's no surprise. They'd be feeding Amherst 28 to seven. Nothing in Division four from
the area. Over to Division three, six, ranked Medford. They were 20 better than Fox Valley Lutheran
42 to 22. And in Division one, how about DC Everest? Yeah, that's pretty cool this day. Yeah,
first the upset Hudson. They're the seventh seed. Now their second straight road upset this
week, 45 to 24 over third seed and seventh ranked Madison Memorial. It's impressive. Yeah,
we'd go evergreen. Well, as we were looting to before with when Kenny Porter, our friend was in
here. We're talking about the state cross country meet. That took place right here over at the
ridges for the boys in Division one. Spash captured the crown for the third consecutive year.
As Kenny Porter said, there must be something in the water in the past when it comes to running,
that's for sure. D two, it was Kohler taking first while in D three, Cedar Grove, Belgium.
They were crowning the champions on the girls side in Division one. Nina came in first.
D two saw University School of Milwaukee capturing the title. And in Division three,
Kohler was first with the assumption royals finishing fourth as Lucy Dolan took fifth place with
a time of 19 minutes and three seconds. So congratulations to Lucy as well as the assumption
girls cross country team. So that's another year in the books for that as well. And they always do
a great job over there and over at the ridges as well. So congratulations. Again, like Kenny said,
all those volunteers that make that happen. I mean, that's just not one or two people. Yeah.
We always highlight our athletes. We talk about our coaches and hold them up. We certainly
appreciate our sponsors and so many others. But it none of this happens without the volunteers
and without community members coming together to ref these things or parents dragging their kids
back and forth the practices all week and some of these things. So many unsung heroes out there
that we were able to do this for. We're able to have fun with them and thanks to.
You know, and we were talking last week, a little bit about basketball, be upon us before we
know it. And it's like two weeks from tomorrow already. That's the first game with Nina coming
to town to take on the Lincoln Red Raiders. And they're talking to somebody about the assumption
classic, which is not much beyond that's the following week. That weekend, right after things,
giving the 29th and 30th and somebody was saying, yeah, it's just a blast. But those are 13 hour days.
And it was one of those people who volunteers. And they said it was a smile on their face.
Yeah. Yeah. So just that type of attitude in this community is just awesome.
A big thanks to them for that. We'll get into our schedule and a little bit here.
Randy, thank you so much. It's been too long since we had a rundown like that. I appreciate it.
Thank you for that. I do want to talk a little bit of staying local here a little with our river
kings. A bit a nice successful weekend for the kings. Friday night, five, three victory over
the Steel County Blades. Nicely done by them. And I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. And then Saturday,
Saturday, another five, two victory over Steel County. It's keeping consistent and all
seriousness. If you look at your kings over the last, especially the last handful of games,
we're really going back to the first games of the season. You're going to see one consistent
stat and that is shots on goal. This team is peppering that net. They are aggressive. They are
smart with that puck. But when they get an opening, and I mean a sliver of an opening, they are
taking it. And that is something that is so instilled in winning hockey is not only peppering
that net, but your players being in provers and being able to think creatively and what to do
with that puck when it's coming flying at them and they're getting a reflection because it's all
about that deflection. Very seldom is that puck going to the net with the forward or the center
thinking necessarily that it's going in, but it's going to get deflected. And my guy is going to
be right there for that deflection to knock it in the five hole or knock it in between the legs
or whatever it might be in these shots on goal cannot be taken lightly. They'll see this aggression
from this team to see how hungry this team is. And that is awfully good because we are being hunted.
We are the hunted now. We are not going to sneak up on anybody. Nobody is going to see that,
everybody is looking at us as a team that we can build our season off of beating them.
We can, hey, if we come to Rapids that next weekend or they come to our town and we sweep them
or we get a point off of them or something, we can build off that. Which is a good place to be.
It's a pretty cool place to be for us as River King fans, but it's also noteworthy that,
hey, we're not sneaking up on anybody. It's all the more reason why these guys got to be aggressive.
They've got a pepper that net. The River Kings with the weekend, the successful weekend,
they had moved into second place in the North Division standings, still behind the Minnesota
mullets who are only a couple points ahead. And boy, cannot wait for those games to take place.
We've often said that, at least in my opinion, I think those people who are playing hockey or maybe
some of the most talented athletes in the world, to be able to skate the way they do stay on their
feet when they get rocked, to be able to handle that puck, to knock it down, the reactions of those
goalies. And then you watch the highlights maybe on sports center, the top 10, and you see these guys
hitting it between their legs as they're coming down full speed or passing it between their legs.
I mean, they have to put it in super slow motion for you to even see it happen.
And then you talk about our River Kings, and how this has become just such a growing thing with
their team. And Kudos to Coach Paul, right? And how I'm so glad to hear that Kenny was talking about
that he's going to be honored as well on Thursday. That's pretty cool. Yeah. And what's he only
hear? Right? Is 30 or no? Yeah. Yeah. And they built such a foundation here already. And when I say
that, I don't mean just as the GM or head coaches of River Kings, I just mean that him in this area,
like that, just as a person, even, what he has added to this area, a little loan all that he's done
as a GM and head coach in that. And to build off with Scout, really should mention too.
Yeah. And to build off what you said earlier with the Packers, how they got these young men that
they're training to be men. And that's the other thing that Coach does as well. And he talks about it
all the time. You know, got to get out in the community. You know, it's about more than just you
and building these people, these young people to become future leaders in our country.
Kings are back in action on the seventh. They're taking on the Dels, taking on the ducks there. And
then back home at the South Book County Rec Center, this Friday and Saturday, everybody. Join us as
we help the boys winter build hockey up and down the river. Seven o'clock puck drop as the
Kings back at home at the South Book County Rec Center, taking on the Northwest Express. Get to
the ice rink if you can show them what home ice advantage is. If you can't, we got you covered.
We'll have these games over on WRI with our friend Michael. South doing a great job also. Yes.
Back in the studios. You bet. We appreciate being able to bring these games to you, everybody as
well. A big thank you to our sponsors and everybody that helps with that. Obviously, Mike and Seth,
but certainly so many other people working so hard on this. It feels so good to have these games on
the airwaves for you and everything. Be sure to join us this weekend on our sister station 105,
WRI, runner Kings hockey. Oh, God, it feels good. Any cell is in play, Randy. It's so much fun.
And there have been, I would say almost every weekend. It seems like, well, that was one of the
greatest catches I'll ever see. And as a former receiver, I love being able to talk about these
Garrett Wilson one handed catches that are just insane. And, you know, while we could get into,
you know, the gloves nowadays or some of these things, it can't be brought, it can't be made
lightly of the what we're seeing in real time and the renaissance of the wide receiver and the
renaissance of actually playing the position right and ripping the ball out of the sky and
running your route and blocking and being a three down back as a wide receiver. So many of these
things that we're seeing in the Debo Samuel or Cooper Cup or some of these full, complete wide
receivers, all of that being said, say, Juan Barkley did something that you completely, like, I
don't know how to talk about anything other than that. If you have not seen the play, everybody,
uh, we can't do it, Joseph. We can't. We can't. Kevin Harland, I don't think good. He's the best. I love
but they gone Bartley. So he takes this pitch out and he's running and he actually has a wonderful
move before that a spin move. And then he has the, the thought in his head to not just like hurdle
a guy, but hurdle him backwards because of the spin moment to me has. And he does it in reverse,
like, he doesn't even go with the complete momentum of the spin. He goes in the opposite way to
basically do something that you can't even do in a video game. Like there, there are programmers
out there that are like, okay, we got to update the system because we're going to add that now.
And he's jumping because the guy's going to going low. Yeah. But as he jumps, the guy starts
standing up and yet he has still elevated himself so high that he is able to get over the person
backwards. So, um, you know, at this point in the season, I, we just got done saying that,
you know, Green Bay has got a whole season ahead of them and everything that there's nothing
necessarily to, you know, worried that much about and everything at the same time on the other
end of my mouth. I will tell you that there are certain things that I feel very comfortable in
in my takes of the show and my hot takes at everything. And one of them is being one,
we don't have to talk about the Dallas Cowboys anymore. We are done. We, we can officially,
unless you are a Dallas Cowboy fan and you are in physically in the state of Texas,
that's a whole different story. Outside of that, the rest of us as a country is a football fan base.
We can all take a breath. Thank you, Mike McCarthy into the Dallas Cowboys. We are done with you.
And they're three and five and they lost stacks for multiple weeks. Yeah. Yeah. They're,
they were done before the season even got started, but now we can officially say they are out of
a playoff can pick up. No, they're not really. I know statistically, they're not, but they are.
They are. And we could stop talking about that. And I think people felt that way after the
playoff loss last year. Yeah, absolutely. I felt that way when Mike McCarthy decided to put
a Zekiel Elliott out there with two like offensive linemen and just it just take a wall up for no
reason. Like I love the like the lack of accountability out of that guy where every time there's
something goes wrong and it's the players. Like there is in the wrong position. Well, like maybe
that might come down to coaching. I don't know. Maybe, maybe, maybe Mike needs a better assistant coach.
I don't know what it is, but I feel that's one of the hot takes we can have right there with that.
And I will say too that I don't believe that as far as talking about coaches and accountability,
Philadelphia is starting to win some games playing okay. That is not a team that is going to win a
Super Bowl. You can go ahead and play this back to me and over and over again, never take anything
I say seriously again because of this take. I will stand on a hill and die on this. There is no
way that team or that coach is winning a Super Bowl. That man lost that locker room and they are
playing for each other right now. I don't believe that. I don't believe he's got that job next
year. I would think he has more of a likelihood of being fired than most coaches right now. I don't
see that happening. They can keep winning games, but it's a whole different story when they get to
the playoffs and they got to fight for each other. They got to fight for their coach. They got to fight
for their city. Some of these things. I don't know if that team has made that way or at least coach that
way and it's kind of interesting because they only beat the Jags by five right? Yeah. Yeah.
I'm not impressed with that team at all. And it's interesting because that's what happened to
Robert Salah right? They were like if they won the next week they had been in first place I believe
with the Jets and they fired him. So I mean you could win. You can be in first place and that's
not a guarantee either. I think that there's a couple of other ones too that stand out to me.
But there's one other thing I want to make sure to mention before we go to or you know we get too
far along here and everything. So Vanderbilt beat Auburn over the weekend. And why are we talking
about this as central Wisconsin because it's pretty darn amazing and it's something that has taken
and helped them complete something that they have not done since 1955 or that is the last time
Vanderbilt beat Alabama and Auburn in the same year. Wow. That's noteworthy for two reasons I think.
One wow since 1955 that's quite a long stretch of time and everything. And second wow they did
this before. I didn't even know they'd done it once. I thought that's pretty impressive. I was
going to go vending. Yeah I was thinking beating Alabama in a year. Yeah. I can't recall when they
beat them one you know how long it depends since they beat them but that's crazy. And it's part of
what I'm enjoying about college football right now is we for our whole lifetimes every year there's
really only two to three legitimate teams that could win the whole thing. And right now while
it is the Wild West and they need to get that figured out quick before they kill this game that
we love. It has opened up the lanes for other other teams. It has opened it up for more parity in
the end college football from more of these players where instead of sitting three years in Alabama
and not seeing any playing time I'm going to take my talent go over here and actually start playing
a little bit and get some experience and I'm able to maybe help this team that nobody saw coming
play and do some good football. I think that's pretty interesting. I think that's pretty cool.
And one thing that I think is really good if you're a college football fan we're going to get rid
of some of the fat. We're going to be cutting off some of the fat in the coaching system.
For a long time college football coaches have just basically been going to city to city.
I'm Jerry Kill and I'm going to take a job into Calville Illinois. Oh they want me in Minnesota.
I'm going to take that job. Oh they want me over here. I'm going to take that job and just keep
moving around. Place the place because it's lazy. They don't look that hard into hiring a new coach.
There's a lot of universities. There's a lot of coaching jobs and they just do the well.
This guy's got experience. We'll bring him in. So many of these coaches cannot hang with NIL.
So many of these coaches cannot adapt to the modern way of college football.
And I wasn't asking that question. When Tony Bennett left he had just signed a contract.
I think it was through like 2029. Just like earlier in the year and it's like wow.
If he can't put up with this transfer portal do you think that's going to make it tougher
and tougher because you know you recruit people and then it's like they commit badgers have had
guys commit and they just decommitted again now. How long can you stay in that position trying
you know recruiting had to be tough enough but now it's one and none or maybe they don't even
stay you know for the full year. I hear you and I empathize with anybody in that position especially
if you've done it so long in certain way and been successful in that certain way and I don't know
Mr. Bennett's personal situation or how much that might have played into it or anything
and I don't feel one bit sorry for I don't feel one bit sorry for him or Nick Sabin or any of these
coaches your coach you plan all week your offense to do this your defense to do that what happens
you get in the game something happens and you got to adapt and you got to change in real time
because that's your job and so you make adjustments and your team goes out there and if you did your
job you're going to go and win that game because you made adjustments that's life you're teaching
life skills to these young men what did you just do Tony Bennett you just had a bunch of young men
that you recruited to Virginia to come play in Virginia not a darn one of them are from Virginia
you brought all these young men in you're ready to go college football let's go a college basketball
let's go seasons right around the corner and you decide to quit you quit on them you there's no
getting around it outside of health issues or anything like that you quit on that team you quit
on those players you're you're the only one in that university you're the one of the highest paid
people in that state let alone the highest in that locker room and you decided to quit on that
team I am not going to feel sorry for anybody in that position adapt get better at it how much do
you love the coach how much do you love this sport I understand it's crazy I understand it's
wild west that's everybody's fault it should have been fixed a long time ago we're in real time
trying to fix this we are on the boat that is leaking trying to fix it on the water we understand
this you understand this is a grown man who is one of them a championship you know full well
better than I do what this is and you know better than I do what you just did to that team what
you just did to those young men you just showed him it's okay to quit you just showed him that it's
all right to stop to just to not treat this as relentless as you're supposed to be I got no
empathy for that I got no sympathy for that I I find that is appalling as I do when a coach tells
recruits these players in in two minutes later is leaving for a better job that's not that's
not teaching a person to be a grown adult that's looking for scapegoats or what's the easy way out
the tough thing would have been to stick out the season and and to finish the season at least
and then leave or what have you not get right up to the finish line and be like I have no I can't
do this that's not a good that's what a child we would tread a player for that we would destroy a
player for that I'm gonna let a coach get away with it a grown man get away with that but I no no
you you got to be better you got to be better you got to adapt I hear a lot of crying about NIL
I don't hear enough talk about that I don't hear enough people holding grown men responsible for
being grown men like come on you're paid to do a job and speaking of that the UL Monroe's coach
the assistant coach who just had a complete breakdown on the sidelines this weekend and and
basically whip in a player around and everything like that guy still has his job today I was waiting
waiting waiting I was even waiting until the last segment to bring this up in hopes that he would
have been fired by now he's not I'm sure I'll have some little disciplinary thing or something like
that like the people that are making these decisions need apparently they need to be reminded
we're hiring young men and women to to bring in to these universities and and part of the job is
to raise them to be good people to to do make good decisions we're letting them be coached by
these people by grown babies like come on there's no set of talent in the world that is worth putting
up with that there's nobody who gets away should get away with that there needs to be some accountability
with these things we would expect it from the players we should have it from the coaching staffs
it does look like the bar brewers made a handful of moves kind of in the quiet of night
doesn't look like they are going to be resigning bringing Devon Williams back that looks like
that is done that era is over and it does look like they are going to be having some new coaching
positions in in Milwaukee as well did they say something a con right to maybe I saw something
that might not be bringing him back as well I saw that in the same article that I saw that they
there's like a couple of play like Royce Hawkins it is supposed to be sticking around there's
a couple players that are but it does look like they're making some moves and for what I'm hearing
they're making these moves because they are planning on making a big move they are hoping to
free up some room this is not them trying to like okay well we had our chance we're done it looks
like this is a team that hey we've got some momentum here we're looking to make some moves they
still got to have the other person want to sign and all those things but it does look like they're
freeing up the room to be able to make some big moves and and Wednesdays playmakers I'd like
to talk a little bit more about this to the brewer fans out there are you're feeling about this
because I think the big question mark for the brewer is going into the offseason wasn't so much
will they sign this guy or that guy specifically but will they do something you know open up the
open up the checkbook just do something you know you got a competitive team you've proven that
you can win this division you've seen a wildcard team can win this the whole thing like now's time
to go I think they're gonna have a qualifying offer maybe for Adamus and then he's gonna have to
decide by I don't know November 19th or something so they were talking about doing that I think
it'd be done by maybe today even I think today yes yeah and and I have not seen anything about that
so I'm guessing I don't think he's gonna take it though yeah and and that might be and I like
the kid I like what he does for the team and everything you got a short stop there of your future
already and and you've got enough infield help I would say if he was a pitcher it might be a
little bit different but given the position he is and the money he's gonna want let Baltimore let
somebody else pay him you know I think that you know that you've got enough on your plate as it
is in Milwaukee and you're gonna have guys that you're gonna have to pay eventually it's part of why
they paid Jackson early and maybe that's why they there's talk about trading Devon Williams like
get something in return yes yeah which which I don't think that's a bad move I you know I think that's
Randy great show thank you good to be in here and thanks to Ken for joining us from the sports
commission as well as all of you they appreciate you have
