Hello Fastpitch Folks,
The 2018 WFSCA coaching clinic is history so that means the “official” start of WIAA softball is nearing quickly. It all “officially” begins on March 12th with the first day of interscholastic play being March 20th. Teams can play up to 26 regular season games and that includes all levels of teams. Players can play in no more than 26 games unless their participation is limited to not more than one inning of any other game (unless the school has a hardship waiver where they can play in up to three innings and not have that game count toward the 26-game limit.
Greg Lampe, former head coach at Oak Creek High School, is now the Executive Director of the WFSCA (Wisconsin Fastpitch Coaches Association). He has always done a great job with the awards area for the coaches who are WFSCA members. This year he distributed a list of coaching award winners within the clinic packet that was given to all clinic registrants.
I have used the information from Greg to update the Fastpitch Chronicle Coaches Honor Roll on the Fastpitch Chronicle website. The Fastpitch Chronicle it its own entity and is not a part of the WFSCA. The Fastpitch Chronicle does promote membership in the WFSCA by all coaches.
Winning his 500th varsity game of the season in 2017 as reported and posted on the Fastpitch Chronicle website was Roger Schliewe of Horicon. Roger is now an assistant coach at UW-Platteville as well.
Winning their 400th varsity games were Don Bjelland of Grantsburg and Jeff Hodgson of Belmont.
Winning his 300th varsity game was Todd Felch of Mosinee.
Winning their 200th varsity game were Julie Detjen of Fox Valley Lutheran and Steve Lyga of Cochrane/Fountain City.
Winning their 100th varsity game in 2017 were Wade Winkers of River Ridge, Chris Gade of Brillion, Jeremy Wusterbarth of Oconto, Allison Steinke of Parkview (Orfordville), Jeff Trask of Oak Creek, Hank Johnson of Delavan-Darien; Dave Wilcox of Shiocton, Randy Books of Chetek-Weyerhauser, Greg Klotz of New Berlin West and Arlin Grandaw of Criviz.
The only coaches that I did not have on the list prior to getting Greg’s lists were Winkers, Gade, Trask, Johnson, Books, Klotz and Grandaw. All the rest had notified me soon after picking up those milestone wins.
The list that Greg had were WFSCA members only as not all head coaches in the state join the WFSCA. If a head coach is not a member of WFSCA their players are not eligible for any WFSCA post season honors such as all district, all state, senior all start nomination, Academic All State and perhaps even other WFSCA related things. Administrators, parents and players should urge their head coach to join the WFSCA. It’s an organization that is interested in what is deemed best by for the game by the coaches in the state as represented by the WIAA Softball Coaches Advisory Committee (just six members on the committee). The committee gets input from the leadership of the WFSCA.
Former Head coach at Thorp and now principal at Fall Creek, Brad Ceranski is the President of the WFSCA. The executive board members can be learned by going to the organization website at wfsca.org so check that out.
Here are some other awards handed out by Greg to the members who have earned them:
10 Years of Service Award
Chris Gade of Brillion; Jeremy Wusterbarth of Oconto, Dave Halverson of McFarland, Randy Books of Chetek-Weyerhauser, Arlin Grandaw of Crivitz and Terry Wagner of Cedarburg
15 Years of Service Award
Matt Doering of Lakeside Lutheran in Lake Mills
20 Years of Service Award
Greg Bratina of Blair-Taylor, Don Schoen of Luxemburg-Casco
25 Years of Service Award
Tim Whitford of Winneconne (now retired),Jack Miller of Greenfield,Tom Anderson of Iola-Scandinavia
Dan Stuhr of Gale-Ettrick-Trempeleau, and John Larson of Tomahawk
30 Years of Service Award
Deb Braatz of Waterloo
Outstanding Service Awards went to
Tim Whitford of Winneconne, Janet Dunlap of Wausaukee, Willa Papalia-Beatty of McFarland, Leah Maulemans of McFarland, Amy Sausen of McFarland, John Koepsel of McFarland, Liz McCowan of McFarland, Jeff Agnew of Fort Atkinson, Del Schneeberger of Fort Atkinson, Paul Olson of Fort Atkinson, Kevin Schultz of Fort Atkinson, Brian Bosch of Fort Atkinson, Stephanie Schriener of Fort Atkinson, Bill Brandl of Fort Atkinson, Gary Epping of Waunakee, Charity Kostroun of Evansville, Dave Alery of Pacelli, John Jonson of Pacelli, Tom Kujawski of Pacelli, Kelly Shields of Pacelli, Roger Schliewe of Horicon and Jared Faherty of Chippewa Falls
In an upcoming Bulletin I will list the coaches who won conference championships in 2017 and were WFSCA members.
I am always looking to update the information on the Fastpitch Chronicle Coaches Honor Roll pages. If you have information that would add a coach’s name to one of the lists just contact me.
Have a great day and as always ---
Keep it Rising!
Bob
