Cheers and Jeers
Sportswriter Steve Tietz will use this blog to try to duly reward the great, praise heartily the hard-working, uncover the unsung, and take to task the spoilsport, the foul-mouth and the crass in the local prep sports scene. He'll try to remember that kids are just kids and that coaches aren't in it for the money. He'll try to gently remind parents that the kids are playing for fun, not for profit and that the officials, though occasionally human and therefore prone to error, are there to ensure fair play and not out to get anyone.
Can the North Shore boys hoops race get any more jumbled?
It's come down to this.
Adult coaches who are fierce competitors, traditional rivals, and respected foes have taken to texting each other like teenagers moments after their games are completed to figure out the latest direction of the convoluted and contorted North Shore Conference boys basketball race.
Take what happened to Germantown boys basketball coach Steve Showalter less than an hour after his team pulled off a harrowing 65-63 upset of league-leading Port Washington last Friday.
"Both Ray Curry (Homestead) and Paul Hepp ((Nicolet) texted me saying ''Way to help the league!,'" said Showalter, "and I responded 'Hey, I'm just trying to win some games here!'"
And in a somewhat off-the-record comment, Showalter said something along the lines of "Thanks for nothing!" to Curry for the Highlanders successful denting of the Warhawks six-game winning streak the week before.
Such is the life in the NSC these days.
With the Germantown win and the Nicolet upset of Bay the same night, you now had one hard-pressed rabbit (Port) at 6-2 with a pack of baying, hungry hounds (Bay, Homestead and Germanrtown) right on its heels at 5-3 with two hopeful hunters (Nicolet and Milwaukee Lutheran) at 4-4 still thinking that they can clean up the mess at the end.
Bay Athletic Director John Gustavson, himself a veteran of harrowing league races while the successful head of the Nicolet girls program in the 1990s, said he wouldn't be surprised if the league champion has a minimum of three or four losses.
And it just gets more interesting every week.
Further confusing things, Bay coach Kevin Lazovik had to miss his team's one-point loss to Nicolet last Friday as his wife gave birth to their first child earlier that day. He also missed the subsequent day's nonconference win over Hartford, but the happy father was slated to be back when the Blue Dukes hosted Germantown on Tuesday night in another NSC battle.
No word on whether he was going to give Showalter a candy cigar to celebrate, because in this league, no one can celebrate any one win for too long.
That's because this league is full of migraine-inducing talent.
Port's Wisconsin recruit Josh Gasser is tossing in 23.9 points a game, while Chip Rank of Cedarburg has exactly the same total (334 points in 14 games). Chim Kadima of Milwaukee Lutheran (20.5), Zak Showalter of Germantown (18.0), Myles Henry of Nicolet (15.9), John Johnston of Bay (15.4) and Coy Smith of Homestead (15.4) are just a few of the other selected hotshots who have coaches packing Pepto-Bismol tablets on a nightly basis.
Complications are likely to arise tonight with the Germantown at Bay game and the Homestead at Milwaukee Lutheran contest and Hepp himself could be the subject of congratulatory text messages himself if he can somehow knock off Port Washington at home tonight.
Nicolet is a puzzling unit. Senior-dominated and guard-oriented they seem built for the long haul, but recent frustrating losses, including a bad one to Cedarburg (3-5), left the Knights in a lurch until the thrilling one-point win over Bay.
"We believe we can play with anyone on our schedule (if we do things right)," Hepp said.
Meanwhile, the healthy Lazovik baby was the least of Bay assistant coach Joe D'amato's concerns, as the rebuilt Blue Dukes looked like they were going to stun everyone and repeat as champs despite the loss of Princeton recruit Jimmy Sherburne and several others off the NSC title team of a year ago.
But a first quarter injury to Johnston put Bay on the defensive in a loss to Lutheran and even with Johnston back, a raft of turnovers did them in against Nicolet, despite a heroic effort by junior Ron Patten, who battled back from a second quarter knee injury to almost carry the Blue Dukes to victory in that contest.
"Until we get all four quarters," said D'amato. "We're still likely to have some trouble."
And go figure Germantown. A week after looking every bit like the skinny, inexperienced sophomores they are in taking a beating from a physical, senior--heavy, football-player-filled Homestead squad, the Warhawks were back at it against Port, racing out to an 18-point lead before hanging on for dear life at the end.
Showalter pointed to seniors like Jordan Infield and Jake Keefe for stepping up and doing the little things to help out the four sophomore starters and give the Warhawks back some of the swagger they had gained in the six-game winning streak that Homestead broke.
"That game (Homestead) we were a little full of ourselves and it brought us back to reality," said Coach Showalter. "After that, we had a great week of practice."
"This (the Port win) puts us in position of having a chance down the stretch. It's just so close."
And likely to get closer on Friday as Bay will get a chance at a season sweep when it visits Port Washington, Germantown will host Milwaukee Lutheran and Homestead gets a visit from Cedarburg.
"It's really going to be a war down the stretch," said Curry.
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