Good afternoon, everybody! Welcome to WFHRs! Playmakers!
Hope you all are having a great afternoon out there. Thanks so much for joining us.
You have your host, James here. I'm joined by our partner in sports, Mr. Michael Comer.
Mr. I don't know where that is. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on with the music.
Yeah. Yeah. The look on your face was priceless, man. I wanted to surprise you a little bit.
What the hell is this? What is going on? You're playing the wrong thing music.
We wanted to change it up a little bit, especially when we got a new sponsor. So we want to shout out,
of course, our longtime sponsors, Quality Plus Printing, a big thank you to Phil in the gang.
It was great to see him in here earlier today. And of course, our great friends over
family, natural foods. Big shout out to them. Appreciate them being a part of things.
And as much as we appreciate all you being here, we are wide open. Hit us in the number 715-424-2600.
Michael and I got plenty to talk about in the pre-game. I was telling me about some stuff that I'm
already looking forward to diving into with you. So let's say probably about 530 mark when we come
back from our time out. We'll get into River Kings, get into local high school stuff. I certainly
want to talk about the release of the brackets and getting into some of the women's conference
on that side of things, especially assumption division 5, getting into a little bit of the layout
there. But before we get into all of that, sticking with basketball, I want to talk a little
Wisconsin Badgers basketballs. They had a big couple of wins recently, certainly beating Purdue.
That one's noteworthy. They per-didn't. Yes. Man, that Purdue Pete mascot. Somebody's got to do
something about that. That thing is creepy. That is what, top 5 creepiest mascots got to be top 5.
I don't know. I mean, nothing against Peter Papermaker, but Peter Papermaker is kind of the same
part. For some reason, it doesn't creep me out as much. I don't know. There's something about
Purdue Pete that's just weird to me. I don't know. There's something about it. Maybe the unblinking
eyes. That might be it. That might be it. If you've seen the king-cake baby that the New Orleans
pelicans were using for a while there, that is the easily most terrifying mascot I've ever seen.
It is by far it away. It's worse than any tree. Not a great mascot, either for Illinois.
The fighting allied eye, they just don't really have a mascot anymore. They're with a lot of
things that have happened and stuff. But Badgers, great mascot, great badger, great mascot. Badgers
of victorious over Illinois, 95, 74, noteworthy, certainly because this is a game that they struggle
with in years past. This one was not a struggle. This was pretty convincing. Sanjay and the team
took care of that. They made sure of it pretty early on, I think. Just with that, it got me
thinking about Big Ten play and I wasn't even sure necessarily when the Big Ten tournament started.
Comes up on March 12th. It'll be looking forward to that. Certainly as a eSucker for the United
Center, I like a lot of these games being played there. Looking at the rest of the season for Wisconsin,
the rest of the regular season, Oregon, of course, this Saturday, Washington on Tuesday,
going to be at Michigan State on Sunday, at Minnesota, the following Wednesday, and then wrapping
up the regular season, Penn State coming to Madtown. Come to Penn State. I will say that
rodent soda game that's going to be interesting there with what they did to UCLA last night. I
didn't foresee that one going the way it did. I only caught the tail end of the Badger, Illinois,
Illinois, this game there because I just come back from Stevens Point. But yeah, I was impressed,
and there's a couple guys down at the bar that I stopped at on the way home that they're sitting
there. They're screaming. They're really into the game and I'm sitting there, okay. But they were
saying they're going to break a hundred. They're going to break a hundred. They're going to break
while they didn't. But they were on the cusp and if they don't let up, they're going to. It was
interesting. I didn't get to research too much into it. It was how the Illinois coach and guard,
they agreed. We don't need to go through the post game handshake. I wondered if there's
some stuff being said on the court. We don't know about because garden, garden that Illinois coach,
they were cool. I mean, they were talking. They know whatever. But they said we probably don't
need to go through this. I noticed that too. Yeah. And I would love to hear more reporting on that,
what I'd like to see some more done on that. What I'm curious about too, especially for some reason,
just thought of the Jawan Howard situation. Oh, that's a lot of bad.
Part two, because I see Michigan at the top of the Big Ten standings. And certainly he's having
a great season. Michigan State iso and what he does over there a year out. I have nothing to
get out. You actually have to pay property taxes and Steven's point when he was going after Sam
and Joey Houser. Wow. Really? I mean, that's not true. But he spent so much time at point.
I just didn't know that he actually went after the Housers. That's it. Well, yeah, Joey. Of course,
he did. Of course, Joey played. Joey played Michigan State his last year. And there's a whole list
of things that go into that because Wisconsin supposedly spurned them and the parents were happy.
This is all 10 years ago. So who knows now? With the Big Ten tournament right around the corner.
And so much Big Ten, of course, play at the end of the regular season and gets us thinking about
this and how Wisconsin and these teams rank up. I was constantly sitting third right now in the Big
Ten standings and that could change a bit as these games are being played against fellow conference
teams. But still the fact that Wisconsin is this highly ranked seeing Michigan State kind of back
in the run of things. And with this edition of UCLA, Washington, Oregon, all these other teams.
I don't know the last time I was this excited about the Big Ten tournament and I don't really have
a team in it. I am I am living bicariously through you Wisconsinites through the Badgers. I like
the Badgers. I wrote for their hockey team as long as I've been alive. I've wrote a for their hockey
team. But I don't I'm not going to, you know, be one of these bandwagon jumpers. No. You guys know
who I wrote for. We can move on. They had a good year like one or two years ago. They made
a second round. Yeah. The Mississippi State. I think it was all right. It was all right. Maybe
that's the best one they ever had. Yeah. When it comes to this this tournament, I'm just excited.
That's a basketball fan and I love the game. I love basketball and I love college basketball.
So I'm excited. I think that by no doubt, I'm not going to say who wins the Big Ten tournament.
This is going to happen. No idea. But I will say the teams that are the final four of the Big
Ten conference championship, though one of those teams, I have no doubt is going to make it to
the lead eight and could make it to the final four. And I'm going on such a limb here. I'm not
trying to go out of limb. I'm giving you something that I think is something we're talking about
and something we're paying attention to now through March into April. And as this tournament
goes on, there's a lot of local stories here that we can get into along with just love and
basketball and March madness. I think there's a lot of talk this past weekend when I think it was
Tennessee Alabama or Auburn Alabama. Auburn Alabama. Yep. Yep. Yep. So there's a lot of talk
about that about this isn't your old year. This isn't your grandpa's or your dad's Wisconsin.
And I watched a little bit about that and like, ah, there's some validity to that.
They can't take a shoot outside. Yeah. They're not just the grind, the clock, physical,
punch, you beat you up. Just just pound on you. They're not that. I mean, they can do it.
But that's not them anymore. And that's that's where it's a different team to prepare for that.
Listen, I've already said how I feel about SEC basketball and that. I mean, you get a couple teams
here and there, but generally speaking, I don't I don't buy into them. The the biggest sometime,
I mean, the big 12 even a little bit there too. K state Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma State,
everyone. They went and he Sutton was still around for sure. I mean, there's teams there to watch.
I understand like J billis is brilliant with basketball. I love hearing him talk about it. I
think he's a great mind for it and everything. And he's one of the people coming out and really
championing saying this SEC conference right now is maybe one of the best ever. If not the best
ever in college basketball, how difficult it is, I could not, I could not buy one with second
of that. I will say Auburn is incredible. They are a fun team to watch that happens to be in the SEC.
I watched that Alabama Auburn game as much as I could on YouTube. I saw reruns. I didn't see a
life. That's how I catch a lot of stuff to be honest with everybody. I don't get to see a lot of
things in a moment. I'm catching up. That was sadder than one of that. Yeah. Yeah. I was at
Lincoln for wrestling. Right on. I was watching it like highlights at one of the board to get
everything. And I'm watching this game and I see yeah, Auburn's got some players. Auburn's
pretty deep as a team. Alabama good three point shooters. I got nothing else. I don't see an SEC
team outside of Auburn. If I'm looking at this as conference against conference, big 10 against
them, I feel good about my chances up and down the conference. I feel good about how we line up
against them. I am a little more worried about your St. John's about some of these other teams
in the out there. I don't know how that's going to go, but that's all that'll all shake out
in the tournament. That'll shake out with all those things. And when we're yelling about who was
seated where or whatever else, a couple of March. One other thing I wanted to mention about
the badgers for those that didn't catch this, they have a new GM. And that may sound really
weird to some of you out there, but this is the new day at age that we're in. Now I have been
jokingly calling Macintosh their GM for a while. He's their AD, but that's essentially a GM now
a days in college sports. But now they have an official one, Marcus Citibary, old badger himself,
taking the position like we've seen with a number of places. Andrew Luck in Stanford is probably
the best example. These are these are big recruiters. These are big mascots. He's right there with
Bucky as a mascot as somebody who can help would navigate this stuff. Maybe take a couple things
off of Macintosh's plate so that he can just focus on this. It's the new day in age that we're in.
Regardless of how you feel about NIL or college sports having GMs or any of these things,
I feel like it's kind of like barking at the sun. I mean, it doesn't change anything. It doesn't
do anything. I'm more concerned with seeing the teams that we root for, the teams that are in our
conference or that we talk about, how are they adapting to the modern times? And I see the Wisconsin
Badger University for a good, I'd say almost 10 years now, has been right on the cusp if not ahead
of trends. Yeah. And doing a really good job of it. I'm not saying obviously they have one
national championships. They're not even winning any recruiting wars necessarily, but they're not
lagging behind. They're not like some other big 10 teams or some other teams and other conferences,
including the SEC that are way behind on this. I would be very encouraged by that if I was a
Badger fan and I was rooting for this team, but it also made me think about the Milwaukee Brewers.
Oh, and they're in ability to earn willingness to spend money. And not just that. That's an old
conversation. Yeah. We had it last week. Yeah. And I don't, I'm not saying that I don't want
even talking about it. Or I don't want the listeners to feel like we can talk about it. I'm just saying
that we've definitely talked about that covered that. Yeah. It's more like this new dialogue that's
coming up now where we're able to look behind the curtain more than we've ever been able to. Yes.
And we have owners like the New York Metz owner, Steve Cohen, who are showing you his books,
who are coming out and basing like, this is what it's like. This is what I got. I'm a billionaire.
I got more money than Solomon. And this is what I'm doing with it. And no more open checkbook.
I like, oh, hey, close it now. Like, that's a real great. That's like telling your kids after
the ice cream. All right. No more treats. Like, you know, okay. Sure. But regardless,
when you are the owner of one of these teams, and I'm talking about the Brewers, but I can be
talking about a lot of teams here in a lot of different sports. And you're telling your fan base,
my hands are tied. I want to do it. I want to sign Alex Bergman. I want to sign this guy, but
oh, dang it. We're a small market team. And I just can't afford it. We're a mom and pop place.
And gosh, darn it. We just can't afford it. And yet we don't get to see the books. We don't
get to know what's going on there. We don't get to understand. Okay. Well, if it if that's the case,
we'll empathize with you. We're obviously die hard fans. We love this team. Just go ahead and
be honest with us. But instead, it's this dog and pony show. Oh, I love that expression. I
use it all the time. I was I was I was looking for the expression in my brain. And I'm like,
oh, that's the one. I we don't get to use it enough in society. Enough nowadays anymore. I'm
bringing it back. We want to bring it back. We it's not this. It's not that. It's it's it's it is
that. I'm sorry. It is that it's just this whole thing that they every owner brings out going
back to the Oakland A's or any of these other teams about whining about how they can't survive
or something. Well, we know that's not true. And if it is true, how did you get to this point
in your life like in business? How did you get to the point where you got to chance to own an
actual sports team? Like if you're that bad at business that you that your team is not finishing
in the black. That's on you. That's not on me as a fan. I you you bought the team. Yeah, you
bought now and here is something that I ask of all ownership and specifically of Jerry Jones
to just be honest with their fan base. You know what? We just can't do this. We just can't win.
So what we're doing and we heard this from Anastasia the other day and one of the worst
sound bites from an owner of all time. And God, I bet that he he regrets it. Basically telling
the fan base to Milwaukee Brewer fan base. Well, I don't know if we can win a world series.
So we're just going to try to make make family fun night. We're going to we're going to be a
fun place to go for the family. Maybe we can't win a world series, but gosh darn it. We're going
to go out there and have some fun. Yeah, that's that Pat Murphy felt about that. How do you think
Christian Yelich felt about that? That those guys that are going out there grinding, giving you
everything they got. What's the point of even playing? Why are you doing this? Yeah, like the
fans buy into sports for championships. Ownership by sports for money. Unless that chain
there's not going to change there or anything. But until ownership is at least honest with the
fan bases, why are we going to these games? Why are we buying jerseys? What is the point of buying a
whoever your favorite player is on the brewers right now? Why are you buying their jersey?
Is there any guarantee they're going to be there in two years? Right. I don't I will not buy a
white a current white sock player jersey because there isn't one to buy, but that's me that that's
mine. Well, I thought you had your own share of the next manager. I mean, I just I I'm frustrated.
I understand what I got in Jerry Ryan's door. He has made it very clear who he is. And we know
the second he opens his mouth, he's lying to us. And not that any of that's good, but I've come
to a good piece with that. I have realized, okay, I'm not going to give that guy any my money,
but I'm still rooting for that team because of the players and the coaches, et cetera, et cetera.
What happens with the Milwaukee Brewers year and a year out is downright heartbreaking to me
because they lie to this fan base over and over again. And and I'm not saying the fans take it.
I the fans see through it, but they continue to well, maybe they do. Maybe they don't. I want to
speak for all fans. I'm not I'm not a dire Milwaukee Brewer fans. I want to speak for that. But I
will say that it is heartbreaking to see because I do think that a lot of them take the hook. And
yes. And the best the only way that they're going to listen to you is if you hit them in the
wallet, you got to hit them in the wallet. I hate to do this. We cover brewer games, but I am
nothing if I'm not honest on these airwaves. And what they're doing is lying to you right now.
They're lying straight to your face telling you it's one thing if you truly couldn't compete,
we would understand. But we know that you can. We know that you got the money. You know that
you can compete. You are in and I don't care. There is no more small markets with the with the
TV deals and the amount of money that's coming in. Get out of here with small markets. Yep.
I think there is no small market in all of sports. The Green Bay Packers are in the black every
season. And they're the smallest franchise in all of all the whole world. There's no smaller team
in the whole world than the Packers barely over what a hundred thousand or whatever in the city.
They got a chest sitting there of money. In case something goes bad, we found out about during
COVID because it's so smart about things over there. Well, they run that franchise. You're telling
me that you and Milwaukee can't do that. Don't tell me that. Don't lie to my face. At least be
honest about it. Be like, hey, we don't want to open the books. We want you to come to the games,
but we ain't going to open up the books. We're going to do what we can with what we got. And we're
going to finish in the black blah, blah, blah, blah, please come to our games. Be honest about it.
Don't in this day and age, I thought that's what we were doing. I thought with all the rise of
people not holding back anymore and saying the quiet part out loud and everything, be that. Do
that at least give us some positive to that narrative. You know, that's one that I'm getting to
the time of year where I get to make my annual $20 wage or with a friend of mine that the
brewers will not make or win a world series. And we're getting to that point. So I'm hopefully
going to see Tony eventually and go about that. And last year he said, well, how about double
or nothing? So I won 40 bucks off of him. But that's the one thing. And you touched on that
quite a bit that it's it's one thing for us who are not fans of the worst sit there and say,
you're not going to win. And it's not because of the market. It's because your ownership. And
that's been I mean, my thing is just because I don't think they're I don't think they have the talent
to do it. And that's because they're not willing to spend. And the other part is the talent looks
at green or not green, but Milwaukee as a glorified farm team that, okay, well, I'm going to get my
big contract by playing well here. But I know I'm never going to win here. So that's why I'm going
to leave. I mean, Prince Fielder did it. I mean, he's just just won Cease's Barthia. But that was
was that this is a stepping stone. Yeah, it was because he knew that there was no way Milwaukee
was going to open up the purse strings to do it. And that's I didn't hear the exact quote, but I
read something about it this week that I said, I need to go back to that and believe it or not,
I didn't get back to it. But it was it was pretty much what you're just saying is, yeah, we're
just going to make this a fun experience. We're not going to try to win. And maybe that's not the
right words because everybody tries to win. Yeah, we'll win the division. Okay, good. When you're
a bad division like the central was the last two years, good job. You won the division by default.
I mean, so that's why that's why I just this is just this is just a continuation of what I've
seen for a long time. Just to wrap up before we get into another subject, the quote from Anastagio,
is my job to win a world series? Or is it my job to provide a summer of entertainment and passion
and a way for families to come together? I can answer that for you, sir. It's to win a world
series. Well, I say both, but heavier emphasize emphasis emphasis on the first part. You can do both.
I believe I'm pretty sure you can chew and chew gum and walk at the same time. I'm pretty sure
that you can do both of these. I can't say both at the same time. Right. Let's talk hockey, Michael.
All right. Let's talk to the old hockey game. We are we are just less than 24 hours away from one
of the more exciting hockey games. I can think of that as an exhibition game. It really doesn't mean
anything. And that is US versus Canada. And there is no cup to fight for here. There is no gold
metal to fight for here. Yet it means everything. And I love that. I love that you strip away the
Stanley Cup. You strip away the gold medals. And we are still here. We're nine seconds into the
Saturday's game when these two teams played the last time. There's there's three fights.
And and there's nothing but trash talking going on. Yep. And I've heard a real quick. I've
heard a number of people say that the NHL stole the all-star weekend from the NBA. They didn't
steal nothing. They took it. They took it. They earned it. They we they took the all-star NBA all-star
weekend. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know anything about it. Yeah. You didn't miss anything. You didn't
miss anything. None of us did. Team USA's Matthew Kuchuk, Canada's parade of the high gold
traded punches I said at a night. And now they are doing it on social media. The two have been
going back and forth quite a bit, which I am just loving. I want more of this. I love it especially
because some of this is happening with guys who got to play together the rest of the season.
Yeah. It's enjoying each other's team. But that's hockey. They're they'll be fine. They'll be fine.
They'll be able to do that just fine. It's it's wild to see also the the argument that's being
made because they're saying that some of the teen USA players in their group chats together
organized this fight like right off the cuff. And they designed it to happen. And they're
supposed to be upset about that. And you can't just say how that's the that's like a that's
their shot at us that we planned it. Yeah. We did. Nothing had happened yet. Of course it was planned.
Like you did. It's not like Matthew because Chuck was just standing there like, you know what?
I'm going to start a fight right now. Of course they planned it. Yeah. The game had the the puck
hadn't even hit the ice yet. Yeah. Of course they planned it. And yes, they should have planned it.
This is hockey. Like you they've taken the goonery out of hockey. I get that. They haven't taken
the man I almost said something. I shouldn't have right there. But you know what I wanted to say
about there. They have taken that out of hockey. That's still there. And as long as there is a
adrenaline in sports, you're going to have this from time to time and quit lying to yourself that
you don't love it. It's a part of the game. It's it's you wouldn't think that you'd like seeing
your father get into a fight. But my god, it's somebody earliest memories. It really is. It really
is. And these are people that he liked. I'm very excited about this game. You've got USA, Canada,
facing off tomorrow for the final four nations face off championship. It might be the only time
they do this. I really hope it isn't. But if it is, you want to go away the winner on this one. And
one thing I don't think the Canada I would be taking advantage of is I was them. And they don't seem
to quite understand. America loves being an underdog. And we will always be an underdog to Canada.
We can win four gold medals in a row and will still be an underdog to Canada. And we love that.
They make it the perfect rival. They are the absolute perfect rival for us. Maybe not because they're
not great at trash talking all the time. They're too nice. They're way too nice. That's a compliment.
I mean, that is a compliment. That is shot. But I think that they're a perfect rivalry in many ways
because of that because we love being an underdog. And we're always going to be no matter how good we
are. And we are good. We have got a great team. I'll take our goalie over anybody in the NHL.
Halley's great. Got a good team. Should be a lot of fun. I'm curious if anybody's going to watch
if anybody's interested in it. That's not right there. Yeah. Tomorrow night at seven.
Unfortunately, me and good old Randy Paul, we got to work. We'll be talking about that. We come
back along with some other local sports and some river kings. It is Michael and James taking you
through your evening here on Playmakers. Welcome back to Playmakers, everybody. Good Wednesday afternoon
to out there. Michael and James hanging out. Appreciate the company. Go ahead and give us a call.
715-424-2600. Just a touch or two away on the Civic Media app. And if you don't feel like
calling in, remember you can text this through the Civic Media app. Feel free to get those sports
takes out of your system. They have a shelf life people and you keep them inside too long. It's not
good. You're going to have that time. They make it bitter like me and Randy. Exactly. It's
seen here. Me too. So please, I go ahead and get out of your system. Michael, I wanted to focus
on the next half here of time. We'll get into River Kings talking a moment. But you had some stuff
on our local teams. Oh, I've got a whole bunch in there. I'm going to just come back quick with
what I told you off the air. I'm still up. I hope the United States beats Canada. I mean, I'm an
American man. This is this USA all the way red, white and blue. And I'm still really mad about
2008 when they stole our gold medals and gave us Justin Bieber in return. I will never forget
that. I can never forgive them. That Brian Adams. That one cuts like a knife, dude.
That is the story of Canadian Dave about their houses. At least they shared a rush with us.
So I'll do that. There you go. Yeah. Rest in peace, Neil. Yes. Great.
You mentioned in our pregame that we have a couple of players that are going to be hitting
out my stone tomorrow. Yes. Yes. And that's that's God willing and everything that goes with it.
But yeah, Randy Paul, we're going to be on the air right around seven o'clock,
a little after seven o'clock for the regular season finale of the assumption girls basketball team
where they take on the strat for Tigers, good old 10555 WRI. And that's going to be historic on
a couple points. If the royals win, now they beat Stratford by 10 earlier in the year. If the
royals win, that'll be 36 straight conference victories. Well, I don't know where that ranks in
records or anything like that because that that's just that that's just a record you've really
got a hunt for. And records only go back so far that you can access them on the old inner webs.
It's interesting. Yeah. It's weird. But then the other part is that after so the royals have only
lost one game this year. And that's going to be another point that we talk about here in a little
bit. But what's going to happen is a junior Jordan Jaglinski six points away from a thousand career
points. And then a senior Sarah Shaw, she's 12 points away from a thousand career points. So if I
was a betting man and I'm not, but I should this in this instance, I think we're going to get two
1000 point scores in that game tomorrow night. That's pretty cool. That is pretty cool. You see
you're seeing a more and more and you always see him at the smaller schools more than the bigger
schools with traditionally. But like there is a girl from Stevens Point last night,
Soiberts, Spash, she's sophomore and she just scored a thousand points. So what's she going to do
in the rest of her career? Yeah, really. And where does she go to college? As soon as she does that,
it's just unreal. So I mean, that's one of you want to hear some history tomorrow night.
Can't guarantee the win, but I'll guarantee the thousand point scores. Well, I shouldn't even do
that in case of injury. You never want to see that. But you're probably going to hear it from
Randy and I tomorrow night. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It should be a good one. Seven o'clock tomorrow,
right on our sister station, WRI joining us at seven o'clock. Assumption, verse,
Trafford, Mike and Randy on the call for you. Other great local stuff going on as well,
Michael right now. Yeah. I did go up to a mentioned Stevens point. The wrestling team sectional
in it went exactly how I thought it was. You had number one, Cacana and number two Wisconsin
Rapids. Cacana just absolutely destroyed Hortonville in their semi-final. Rapids did the same
exact thing to Nina. And then they met and early on the driveway was 120 pounds. It was close
to about the first half of it. And then towards the end, Cacana's just depth and talent at the
upper weights took care of business. So that ended the team portion of the of the Rapids wrestling
schedule. But there's a little more that goes into it. Now, I'm a little worked up about this one.
And it was something that James and I had talked about earlier in the year. I said, yeah,
just the sectional pairings. You'd have to get a map to really look at and appreciate it or
get really mad about it. And I mean, I'm not furious by any means, but I'm sitting here. I'm
miffed. And that is you have some of the best teams in the state sitting at home, not going to
the Cole Center. Now Rapids, they shot their opportunity there. They they they have their
opportunity and they got beat by almost 30 points. Cacana is that good. There's no I'm not taking
a darn thing away from the ghosts. They the Rapids saw ghosts. It had more than one way last night.
And that's the Cacana's good. So I'm not nothing against Cacana. So no, I don't want anybody to hear
that. But the whole idea of geographical representation. That is what we are going to have at
team state is a load. And here's why I'm saying that. The teams that are going. Cacana, you know
where that is on a map, Bayport, Green Bay, Holman, LaCrosse, Reed's Bird, so Madison area.
Then you're going to have Muskego. It was good. Arrowhead, good. Then the other ones would be
West Alice. And there's one other one that I'm drawing a blank on right now.
Drawing a blank on it. But either way, I will guarantee you you put Wisconsin Rapids up in a
duel against every single one of those other in Cacana. Rapids beats them. I will guarantee it.
Now, all those teams that are going, they did their job. They won the regional. They won
their team section all their top two teams in the regional. Okay, go ahead. In the tournaments
that Rapids. Rapids didn't see many of these teams in a duel format, but open tournament.
So you have your weight classes and go by there. I have in my grubby little paw here the results of
the Waukeshaw West and then Wauwatosa. I believe that's the other one. 106 pounds. Two wrestlers.
113 pounds. One wrestler. Yep, yeah. I mean, there's a handfuls. And what that one was,
that one in particular was the Milwaukee City and Brookfield and Wauwatosa. So you have
what Rapids had, which is a seven to eight kids per bracket. Waukacana had the same thing.
Bayport, I know, had the same thing. I went through and looked at this. So you can't
see the problem is where it's participation, really. And you can't tell me that
Hortonville, who was six in the state, they got beat by Cacana. Rapids number two.
A Luxembourg casco was up there as well because they got bumped up for competitive balance.
Really, you look at geographical representation. You get the west, the south, in the east.
Where's the north and central? Where's that? With section A, for example, that goes from
Holman to Marshfield Superior. That's a big area. Yeah. The Madison, it's Bearaboo,
Readsburg, it Madison. Okay. The one Rapids was in B, goes from Merrill to Rapids to
Ashkash, Cacana, Appleton, okay, centrally located. Then here's a fun Bayport, which is just
north of Green Bay. Luxembourg casco, which is just north east of Green Bay, goes from there
all the stink could weigh down to Port Washington and slinger and Fondelac.
I understand the big portion of the population in the state is that south.
I get that. I get that. But you're not representing if you want geographical representation.
Man, you're missing probably some of the best wrestling in the state.
Absolutely. And now I do understand, you got to draw lines somewhere. When there's borders,
you got to draw lines somewhere. I totally understand that. And the way they go about it
is they have the top ABCDEFGH, whatever it is for the number of sectionals that you got to do.
So you do that and then you balance some top seven or 14 or 16 and then you group them eight and
seven and seven, whatever it is to get a fair allotment in each one. And now this is the
hard part about living where we do is some years, rapid has gone to that northwest superior,
or clear. Some years they have gone to that northeast. Some years they have gone south west,
to Madison and everything there. And sometimes they've gone to the Fox Valley. So that's,
it's living centrally located. You can go anywhere. I get that. But it's just,
it's just frustrating that. And you could say it's sour grapes to a point, I guess. But if state
tournaments are about getting the best of the best there, they do not have it. I think that's the
overall point. Like, you know, representation is nice, but it doesn't, it's not as important as
getting the best as a part in part of the tournament. Right. All things. I agree with you, man.
And I can see the frustration. I didn't, I had not dove that much into this. Just talking about
it with you, I'm sitting over here getting frustrated. I mean, I've done my research on this.
Yeah, I'm glad you homework. Let's take a phone call. Good afternoon. You're on the air.
Oh, it's sad to keep gentleman. Hey, I, Michael, I can't agree. I can't agree with you more.
The way they see it. I don't remember. I mean, I know wrestling is hard. And I know how you did it.
But even back in with the basketball programs, it wasn't that long ago that you had number one
and number two. And they play each other in a regional final. Yeah, I remember that.
I think within the girls and with assumption and
it was somebody. Yeah. Newman. Newman. Thank you. I was thinking of side-feltables and side-feltables.
Right. In a regional final. I would say if you could see it in the national final, maybe,
but I think they need to set up these brackets. They need to basically do it like the college
does. Come up to your number ones. And then they pretty much hold that bracket.
All the number one. I'm sure they can figure this out in the state of Wisconsin
and with the school and stuff. Oh, yeah, they definitely can figure this out.
There should be never a number one and first number two when it sets in a regional final.
That is just interesting. The state has got to figure something else out of them.
They got all these high school things all goofed up. They have a goofed up in football. I mean,
the thing about this is too. I don't get it. The thing I feel about this too is that we are all,
we are all doing this out of the passion. None of us are necessarily. While Michael and I are
technically kind of paid to do this. We're also doing this out of passion. Most of the work we do
for this show is not we're not paid for. It's off time. It's off air. Kevin calling in right now is
doing it on his own free time. And we still come up with a lot of better answers and a lot of
better decisions than the people that are literally paid to do this that are literally paid to come
up with how to figure this stuff out. I'm not saying that they don't know more than we do or anything
like who knows more whatever. What I'm saying is that I mean, it can't be, I feel like it's not
that hard. It isn't as difficult as they're making it. And I can't understand why they are.
And I'm more curious. I'm just as curious, I should say, as what is the what is the hold up in this?
Why is it year after year? It seems to be this way. And it seems to be where they have a real
tendency to have a blind eye to this area. They really do. No matter what the sport we're talking
about or anything like that, it's as if we are a fly by city. We are. That's borderline ridiculous
to me. Not only because it doesn't just, not only the population wise, it doesn't make a lot of
sense. And I'm talking about central Wisconsin here as a whole. You can even talk about cities if
you want it. But more so to the point, the history in this area for teams, whether we're talking
about wrestling at Lincoln or assumption girls basketball or etc. Yeah, there's plenty of
reason to pay attention to the athletes in this area. And it's been this way. My family's been here
for about 30 years. It's one of the oldest things I've heard in this area is this is this argument
in one version of or another of it. Yeah, there's there's a whole long list of it. And one solution
that I do have is get me a case of beer and a couple maps of Wisconsin a couple of my buddies that
went through wrestling and have us draw this up. So I'm pretty sure it'll make a lot more sense.
That's the first part. The second part is when it comes to the regional top two teams. Okay,
let's rank them. Let's see them. And Cacana would have been one. No argument. Rapids two,
Bayport three or Holman three, whatever. And then have them go through that because you can you
have teams crisscross in the state every weekend. Let's get the best four or eight teams or whatever
it is. What how are you want to narrow it down and seed it that way so that you for sure have the
best eight going to team state instead of this arbitrary. Oh, we're going to change it every year,
every other year that that obviously you're not getting the best teams there. I don't say this
lightly. So I tend not to say this phrase very often, but they act like they're scared of the area.
Like they're like there's something that they're afraid of these were the athletes here beating
athletes over there or whatever the case might be. That's how it comes across to me as somebody
kind of almost from a looking at this from a third perspective and everything. It doesn't make
a sense to do why why they're doing it otherwise. I can't imagine what financial it's not as if
people here don't spend money or follow their their kids. Right. They'll follow them up and down
to state if they're there anything they're doing anything. They're low and if they're in a sport
that's you know doing well that they enjoy or something like that. I mean Randy and I do and I mean
would we stop to get a gas station to get something to you know get something to eat or stop at a
restaurant after the game or something or spending our money in these communities following the
our local kids and and that's the thing is is people will travel and that's why and I mean I
don't know how much I bought by the the oh they ignored Central Wisconsin because I mean there's
some good teams that they're going to have to reckon with anyways. But it just you see it and
and it's just it's just frustrating because it's hey we're not giving a fair shake here.
Can you go ahead back when out back when I was in high school and I'm
I was in the 90s. I actually graded graduated 90. I mean we had to go for our especially in
baseball. We had to go clear over to almost all clear to play our sectional final.
You can't tell me that we can't you can't take some of these schools. There's been and at that
time was A B and C. Yep. You can't tell me there's another enough class B schools in the
Central Wisconsin that we could have made a regional or a sectional just in Central Wisconsin
because I mean obviously I think they try to keep it as close to you can so that you know the
schools don't have to you know the gas money and all that. But basketball I remember there's
when they said one to the one two three and four divisions there was times that Adams French
had to go to Rice Lake to play a sectional final. I got one better for you from last night.
Hockey, Thomas Sparta had to go all the way up to Westminsterina in Superior.
You can't you can't tell me that these guys there's not even close enough that you could try
to keep them close at the beginning or even at even toward the end of the regional and divide
it up better. I just I really remember which is surprising because the president of the WIA
isn't it still her kids are playing in the M. Houser. Houser isn't she isn't she the president?
I'd have to double check that I don't want to speak on that but she ranks up there and I mean
it's one thing too is the WIA is of course located in Stevens Point so they are centrally
located so I mean you know maybe you can get away with saying no they are centrally located blah blah blah
blah and they have the state cross country state gymnastics here's eight man football championship
here central Wisconsin but and they utilize all over the state but you you've got some pretty
good points there too that teams travel all the time and but why do why is it always that big split?
yeah I see a president Corey Hinkel from luck okay Wisconsin I see well that's board of control
that board of control you're right yeah whoa I didn't see that I thought it was board of directors oh
just like see as a heck of a thing that's right I appreciate you before I let you go Kev I
did want to ask River King's thoughts feelings as we're getting ready to wrap up the regular
season here get ready for the playoffs how are you feeling about it they I think you'll be
seeing them out west are out east I think they're gonna I think they should roll through this
playoffs pretty well I mean a couple of the games have been new this year I mean it's
they're fast they pass well um a couple of coach balls got them playing and they're buying
into playing for that logo and they're playing hard and I really do see them going out and
making some noise out east I really do I mean I think if I look right at the standings when I look
at it they have the ninth best rocker in the country yeah yeah I saw that I saw it in the top 10
yeah yeah they're they're playing some amazing hockey right now when you shout shoot a team 90 to
18 on like they did on Saturday I mean granted the nothing notice respect isante but they are not
on rapids level no no and I don't know there's too many teams that are that was one of the most
one-sided thing once had a hockey games I've ever seen I don't want to annoy the man because he
is so busy but I saw that stat Saturday night and I almost texted him at one in the morning or
yeah Sunday morning I was gonna tell I sure he would have been I just want to bug him because I'm
like is that real is that 91 shots on goal he challenged the guys to put up I guess 100
just so because if they did put up 100 they would be basically no discipline for the things
he did screw up on it and yeah they came 10 short so I guess they really got pounded on I don't know
but it was it was a fun weekend it's gonna be another fun one coming up cab thanks for the time
you have a great night man all right guys have a great good one buddy are you two Michael and I'll
be back more of the wrap up the show here on playmakers probably brought you the quality plus
printing and family natural fruits here at WFHR welcome back everybody
I just can't do it the playmakers here at WFHR I was gonna go into old James Brown thinking I'm
not gonna do it I'm not gonna do it we have the time for that we only have a couple of minutes
left to show we want to make some room for you guys who want to call up 715 424 2600 love to
hear from you closing the loop us it is Stephanie Hauser that is the executive director of the WIA
so Kevin saw you guys right about that one and just and just wrapping that part of the conversation
uh we were talking a little river kings do want to remind everybody that we got kings on the
radio dial for you this weekend last regular season games and they'll be right on our sister station
WRI be sure to join us for those so take a look at our schedule Michael tomorrow we got the great
guard show at 605 right here at WFHR and guard for the uh nice uh looking forward to hearing from
coach about that one great guard I would love to talk to him just about his recruiting uh he
is a not a sneak it's not a sneaky thing anymore it's like darn good recruiter yeah and I'll be
honest with you after uh after uh coach retired they're uh Drona Blank but over a coach Ryan
yep yep yep my old drinking buddy uh after and there's stories behind that we'll get some other
yes we will but uh anyways so honestly at first maybe I gave him a couple years and I really didn't
know what to expect and I started good and a little sour on him but you know what I he's he
give him he got to give people time yeah yeah and he's showing his worth man I can't remember what
game it was but it was probably his second year and I was calling for his head I'll hold you
on that I'll own that 100% uh I was wrong about that I'm glad to see that uh I love to be wrong
in many ways uh I like to learn things and I love seeing a guy who can turn things around and
get better at the job I they knew something that we didn't and I'm it was good to see that's their
job to know that stuff we are excited about also of course as Michael was touching about in the last
segment out tomorrow seven oh five join us for tip off assumption girls basketball hosting
strafford Randy and Mike gonna be on the call that is must listen to radio right there be sure to
check that out everybody Friday five o'clock playmakers we'll wrap up the week together get ready for
the weekend of course river Kings going on over on our sister station WRI puck drops at seven for
the Del Stux coming to town Mike gonna be on the call for that one and right here at WFH
chart seven o'clock Wisconsin men's hockey hosting Notre Dame uh I I make no bones about it I think
there is only one team that I say that I actually hate and that is Notre Dame so any opportunity to
beat them go for it I'll go ahead I am looking forward to seeing the Badger B victorious and that one
and on Saturday when we play him again right here at WFHR Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Wisconsin
men's basketball taking on Oregon first time big 10 really being able to match up there that's
going to be a good one and again the river Kings will be on the dial and at seven o'clock on Saturday
on WRI we'll talk about this on playmakers on Monday uh that is a look at our sports schedule going
ahead um we've been talking a little bit about local sports did you have anything else you wanted
to show in there basically playoffs playoffs you talk about playoffs yes I am and that's a girl
next week in hoops and boys he'll have their brackets announced this coming Sunday at 11 a.m.
quick quick look at it my opinion only for what little it matters uh the four local teams uh I think
Niku support and Lincoln get bounced their first games I hate saying it that's that's my
opinion there uh I do think assumption makes it to at least the sectional semi-final if they make
it that far they're more than likely will face but Shelley the only team to have beaten the royals
this year they did it in overtime on the royals home court that game would be played at Wapaka at
this moment uh and then after that they'll probably be playing Lina and that'll be at Wasa West on
a Saturday game time that fluctuates so we'll see where that goes but the royals everything's
it this is their world now this is they've got every opportunity to win the whole you know what
thing if we want to quote uh Taylor from the major leagues I uh I like the way that's bracket looks
for them for the lady royals yeah I like the way it lays out for them notice respect to my friends
that are on the CW in the central sconset conference but all my bankrupt is not going to beat the royals
but Shelley's got a chance they did it once before yeah uh but I I don't know what to expect
but it's it's royals up to Lina the thing with Lina they've got a really good center she's
like six one six two right very very solid ball player uh she got them to the championship game
last year uh I don't know it when assumption is playing it's best defense I don't know if there's
anybody that can match that pressure and it goes from basically a one three one to a to a man in
the three quarter court half court in their trapping their pinching in the corners uh boy yeah
you got to be there forcing you to make long passes if you can make them that's how you beat the press
but you've got to be able to make them and that's tough to do there's a lot of great coaches in this
division five and everything but oh yeah our coaching staff over anybody the coaching staff
an assumption over anybody's especially with the way that they have been able to adjust year
and a year out in the consistency of that program and that's a long time going I mean you're talking
with today's with with Joe Berkhauser until Ryan Klein took it over and Klein with Cheglinsky and
Nelson they're doing very well uh with um with all that uh they're built for this tournament they
know this tournament better than most and uh that's another thing about this when it comes to
tournament play to me which was my convert was what my point on Monday was about the big 10 uh
in in the big dance and how confident I feel about them having representation going very deep
into the tournament I'm saying elite eight at the if not the final four I feel very
confident about that they could do uh they they are built for this they are built for tournament play
there is certain styles of this game it the uh Florida Panthers went to Stanley Cup got swept
completely overhauled their team like we're built for the regular season we're not built for the
playoffs yeah go on then that very next season to win maybe one of the greatest game sevens and
Stanley cups I've ever seen yeah that was a good one that's what you need to do in sports like
that's what you do if your team isn't doing that I I don't I don't know what more you can expect
from them uh way it goes back to what we talked about with the Brewers or what I've talked about
endlessly about any of my any my teams it's just pick one yeah if you're if you're not blowing
things up to make a championship where the team you're just making a fun family experience
nicely done my man nicely done to the great show today uh hang good hanging out with you thanks
you too buddy uh great with the callers as well appreciate everybody that's been listening out
there and a gigantic thank you to our partners our our teammates if you will our good friends
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