I'm Phil Day with WRCO sports tonight high school boys basketball returns.
River Valley plays at Richland Center in a key conference game to begin the day after
the New Year's day holiday.
The teams have only played one conference game a piece so far.
So it's a busy January for Southwest conference teams pregame time tonight around 715 sponsored
by the testing power sports.
Also tonight Lancaster plays at Dodgeville and Plattville at Prairie Dushin North Crawford
at Westby, Cooley Christian Providence at Brookwood, Seneca at Kikapoo, Ithaca plays
at Wozika Stubin and that's a makeup game from December 19th.
At Riverdale tonight, a busy place LaFarge plays at Riverdale boys at six.
The girls game at 730, Barrowwood travels to Boston, Highland at Blackhawk and Luther
at Cashton in Area Girls Basketball.
WRCO lost a good friend recently, Ken Manning died last week at his home in LaCrosse.
He was a local athlete that graduated from Ithaca High School and attended UWC Richland
and later Plattville University.
His coaching career began at Lancaster in 1979 and later he moved to Westby High School.
More broadcasters not only interviewed Ken many times through his career, but we crossed
paths often.
After he retired from head coaching, he began Western Wisconsin video productions and he
covered not only wrestling, but many sporting events.
We often sat side by side with Ken as he promoted area athletes and their endeavors.
During his combined head coaching tenure at the two schools, Ken had 37 state qualifiers,
24 state place winners, nine state finalists and five state champions.
Ken's accomplishments earned him a place in both the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association,
George Martin Hall of Fame and the Wisconsin chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Ken joined me on a WRCO sports broadcast following the news a few years ago that his name
would be in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
I go back to when I was wrestling at Ithaca and then at the campus and then at Plattville,
UW Plattville and then as the coach and stuff.
I think about all the different communities that have been a part to help me shape my life
and my career.
And it all started right there at Ithaca and Richland Center and just to involve the home
if you want to call it that, I think it's just so special and then to pick up more family
members at Lancaster and then here at Lesby, it's just been a joy and you know, you talk
about and I always kind of look at this and go, you know, thank God for something like
this because it's just mind boggling sometimes.
Some of the guys that coached you too, in fact, we talked to Jim Allball just last year
when he went into the state Hall of Fame, so you had some good mentors along the way.
Oh, you know, you talked about between, I was just thinking about that actually this morning,
so with, you know, my coach Jim Allball, I had him in middle school, junior high, high school,
and then the two years at the campus.
So I did not know anybody else.
I didn't know anybody else could coach us from other than Jim Allball.
So, you know, until I went to Plattville and then had the Bob Garcia there,
you know, and then there's people like the albumens, the Ted Harris' as officials,
the John Burns, you know, all those kind of people have just shaped what I've done.
Very good neck, you know, he was one of those guys that continued to help me grow as a coach,
you know, learning technique and those, you know, those little nuances within the sport that you've
got to know. My good friend, Chuck Rasmussen, my buddy Mike Meyer up here, you know, at Westby.
I mean, those friendships will last forever.
From an interview with Ken Manning a few years ago when he went into the Wisconsin
chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, a visitation for Ken Manning will be held from 11
until 130 followed by a memorial service at two this coming Saturday, January 4th at Brookwood High School.
On the state of Wisconsin scene, the Packers apparently will have to make their entire postseason run
without two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jair Alexander. Packers coach Matt LaFlores said yesterday
that Alexander is undergoing surgery to repair the knee injury that has kept the 2018 first round
pick from playing for most of the past two months. Alexander's absence creates a major hurdle for
the Packers in their bid to make a Super Bowl run as a wild card. The Packers regular season is almost
over, but Green Bay is ramping up things for a major event later this year. The 2025 NFL draft
will bring thousands of people to title town and also the city's downtown area. A campaign called
Touchdown Downtown is working on draft a fun for the huge crowds who will be visiting.
Downtown Green Bay assistant director Jen Matcaff tells WBAT TV organizers want to make sure they
showcase what you can do when you come to downtown Green Bay. Concerning the game on Sunday,
the Packers and the Bears, the Packers Xavier McKinney talked about what makes Caleb Williams tough.
He can extend plays with his legs and I think the receivers do a good job of like converting
routes and just moving around. So it's tough. You got to be prepared for it. I think that's something
that we can prepare for in practice and kind of get ready for mentally knowing that sometimes
downs might be longer. The Packers are trying to overcome the laws to the Vikings. Here's Josh Myers.
Yeah, I think top to bottom. I think you asked anybody in this facility. We were extremely
disappointed. You know, we all wanted that one bad and we all wanted to perform better and
wanted a different outcome. So yeah, that was a pretty disappointing one elsewhere in football news
in college action yesterday. Quite the ball game as Texas avoided the first big upset of the college
football playoff hitting a fourth and long touchdown pass to keep the game going and beating Arizona
state 39 31 and double over time when an interception by Andrew McCuba finally ended a peach
bowl quarter final classic number six Ohio State roared into the college football playoff semi-finals
with a 41 21 victory over number one or a gun in the 111th Rose Bowl Jeremiah Smith caught two
of Will Howard's three touchdown passes while Ohio State went 34 nothing ahead in a sensational
first half. The college football playoff quarter final in New Orleans was postponed today after
a truck plowed into a New Year's crowd about a mile away from the side of the sugar bowl. The game
originally was scheduled for Wednesday night at the 70,000 seat Superdome Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Huntley
says all parties agreed that it was in the best interest of public safety to push the game back. It's
now set for three o'clock this afternoon. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry says he'll attend the
sugar bowl and his confident the area in and around the stadium will be safe. Yana's out to the
Kupo Tells reporters box coach Doc Rivers gets the credit for the teams come from behind 120 to 112
win over the Pacers New Year's Eve Milwaukee was trailing 83 64 in the third period when the
coach motivated his players to come roaring back led by an energized Yana's the box ran Indiana
off the court 56 29 the rest of the way. The eight time NBA all power forward scored just four
points in the first half, but he finished with the total of 30 a dozen rebounds and five assists
Brooklyn visits the five serve forum coming up this evening. I'm Phil me with an update on sports
