Embrace Every Day

Well since moving to the UP and taking on a new challenge in life, I have debated on when and what to write a new blog about. Today it hit me as it is Jimmy V week and I watched the classic Jim Valvano ESPY speech and then I see a video on twitter about a student-athlete at Madison College who battled through Cancer, that I need to share what I have seen and this is a great time to write my next blog.

Just this week I was asked by a student at the school I teach at, what is your favorite quote. While I enjoy quotes and believe in the impact they have, this question made me realize I have never truly thought about my favorite quote and the impact it has on me. After just a couple minutes of thought, I realized it was an easier question than I originally thought. I went straight towards the Jim Valvano ESPY speech and a quote that I will never forget and will always be with me. Jimmy V during his 1993 ESPY speech said these profound words that have always stuck with me,

"There are three things we all should do every day. No. 1 is laugh. You should laugh every day. No. 2 is think. You should spend some time in thought. No. 3 is you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it, if you laugh, you think and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heckuva day." 

I remember the first time I heard Jimmy V's speech I was in high school and I saw it on ESPN. Ever since that day I think it is a shame that ESPN just shares it once a year on its network as it is something that really resonated with me. That being said it is something I look forward to watching every year on ESPN and provides perspective for not only me but the thousands of viewers, so thank you ESPN for never forgetting Jimmy V and the impact his words can have.

While that speech has had an impact on me for years, tonight I was able to see another video and speech thanks to the world of Twitter that impacted me and inspired this blog post. While I do not know Pierson Gibis, his story is one that needs to be told and shared. Pierson is a current Madison College baseball player who has battled through Cancer. I urge you to watch his speech and video below. I do not feel I can do his story justice so I will just pull out a couple quotes that really impacted me. Pierson stated,

"You don't know the meaning of a grind until surviving every day is a battle in itself." Later on he went on to say, "Each day is a gift and an opportunity in itself, that people need to learn to appreciate more." 

Tonight, while watching Jimmy V and having the privilege to hear Pierson Gibis story, it inspired to write this blog and to urge people to embrace every day. Another very important piece to this post for me is that while watching these two speeches tonight, I could not help but notice and think about the letter and picture I have on my desk. I personally have lost one family member to Cancer and it has had an impact on me ever since he passed away when I was in 6th grade. My grandpa was one of the biggest people who inspired my love for baseball as any time I saw him we would always talk about the game and the horrendous 1990 Brewers teams. And every time I saw him he would have to tell me his stories about seeing Ted Williams play Minor League baseball. These are images and stories that I will never forget. As I have moved to the UP and tried to take another step in the game of baseball by coaching college baseball, I know my grandpa is here with me and would be proud of how the game has impacted my life.

The two speeches below share how precious life is and how people need to be thankful for every opportunity they are given. So Jimmy V and Pierson Gibis, I want to thank you for the motivation and reminder to embrace every day to it's fullest.

For anyone that has been inspired or feels the need to support Cancer research do not hesitate to do so at Jimmy V's website or any other local or national foundation. Remember any amount can help and to "Embrace every day!"

Youth Sports... What is it about?!

I have been wanting to write on this topic for a while and as I sit and hope for a snow day tomorrow, I thought this might be the perfect time.

While I have only coached youth sports the past 2 years as a 5th grade and 8th grade basketball coach, I have been around youth sports my whole life and think it is an epidemic across our county, state and country right now.

When I first think about this topic, I think about what is the point of youth sports? I think if you ask myself, most High School coaches and even most parents they will say it is to develop the children's ability and also for them to have an enjoyable childhood while playing sports.

Sports teach us so much and I think I am as much a product of that than anyone. I was fortunate enough to grow up with parents (especially a father) who valued youth sports possibly more than anything else. One of the lifelong lessons I will take from my dad during his days of running Grafton Little League, being a board member of the Grafton Basketball Club, Grafton Booster Club and organizations at church is to put others before yourself and family. While that may sound bad at first, he showed me that while providing for my family, he had a greater responsibility than to just coach a team that his son was on. He gave that up to help 300+ kids in Grafton Little League. When being involved in youth sports is it more valuable to help 10-12 kids who your child is friends with or be someone who everyone in the organization knows and create positive relationships with countless children and adults. I think the ability to create positive relationships with more than just his kid and his kid's team showed me that my dad valued everyone else as much as he did me. And isn't that what kids and people want? To be valued and to have someone who cares for them. While I always knew my dad cared for me, I also knew that he put plenty of others before me and would always do what is best for the organization and not his kid!

One of the reasons for me wanting to write this post was a recent experience I had at a youth event I was coaching in. While I know coaching 8th graders is close to High School and what everyone wants athletes to be ready for, I was shocked and taken back at some actions I see out of youth coaches. While I hate throwing opposing coaches under a bus I have seen more than once during this past season where all coaches care about is winning in 8th grade. Whether it is a coach playing 7-8 players in order to win instead of the 12-14 on their team or if it is a coach putting his starters in to press a team when their bench is in and they are winning. After seeing this happen multiple times this season, I explained to my 8th grade team that my job is to develop all 12 players, not 5 after a heartbreaking loss where I let our "bench" players stay in the game and experience late game pressure, that they otherwise would have never experienced before High School. Yes the emotion of losing the game hurt but it was a learning experience for all of my players on what they can do to get better to prepare themselves for high school. Isn't that what the point of youth sports is? To get better and get ready to High School. I also told my team one of my favorite quotes from a couple of my other high school coaches, "Our games are not in the paper". Meaning who cares if we win or lose, my job is to get everyone ready for high school athletics. While it may have been a disappointing season for some of the players as we may have lost more games than we thought we would before the season, I would not change a thing as I know I did my job to develop not just 3-4-5 or 6 players on the team, I did my best to develop all 12 and give them experiences that will help them in the future. Who cares about winning in youth sports! Anytime I ask youth sports coaches "how is it going" and they immediately respond with some type of win loss record or if they won or loss the most recent game, that is always alarming to me. I don't care if 9-10-11 years old won a game or lost a game against there so called rivals, I care about are the kids learning the game and are they all developing and experiencing difficult situations within the game.

While this thought and ideas may be common, I have noticed it is a lot harder to act on  then what I originally thought. Growing up around my dad and Tony Lukas, Mike Donahue, Corey Esselman, Tim Chopp and others who always put Grafton Little League before whatever team they were coaching, I just always thought that's how it was, but I am sadly mistaken. Youth sports is in a trying time in our country and I hope more and more people realize that winning doesn't matter at the youth level, while I know keeping score and such is good as it builds competitiveness in kids, teaching them how to win and lose is also just as important. For anyone who has not read Mike Matheny's book The Matheny Manifesto I would highly suggest it as it starts out with a letter he wrote to parents as he was beginning to coach his son's youth baseball team. To say it lightly, Mike Matheny gets it!

I will leave you with some of my favorite excerpts from Matheny's letter to the parents:

"I'm asking you to grab the concept that this going to be ALL about the boys. if anything in this is about you, we need a change of plans. My main goals are to: 

1. Teach these boys how to play baseball the right way.
2. Make a positive impact on them as young men
3. Do all this with class"

"We may not win every game game, but we will be the classiest coaches, players, and parents at every game we play. The boys are going to show respect for their teammates, the opposition, and for the umpires-- no matter what."

"I believe the biggest role a parent can play is to be a silent source of encouragement. If you ask most boys what they want their parents to do during a game, they'll say "nothing." Again this is ALL about the boys. I know youth league parents fell they must cheer and shout, "Come on, let's go, you can do it!" but even that just adds more pressure."

"Let me go on record right now that we will not have good umpiring. The sooner we all understand and accept that, the better off we will be... But at no time will our boys be allowed to show any emotion whatsoever toward the umpire."

"Along with where he hits in the lineup and his amount of playing time, which position a kid plays is one of the most complained about issues. I need you to know that I am trying to develop each boy individually."

"One of the greatest lessons my father taught me was that my coach was always right--even when he was wrong. That principle is a great life lesson about how things really work. Our culture has lost respect for authority, because kids hear their parents complain about teachers and coaches."

These are just some of the key points hit on throughout Matheny's book that I feel very fortunate that my parents instilled in me as well. 

So as I conclude this post, just remember youth sports is about developing and having fun for all kids involved, not winning!

South Carolina and Coaching

This past week I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in a rare opportunity for a high school basketball team from Wisconsin. As a member of the Port Washington High School Basketball coaching staff I was able to go along on a Varsity trip to South Carolina for a 3 day tournament. Not only was it a great experience on the court but any time you can get away from the snow you will always take it!

Being part of an out-of-state trip like that is something that not a lot of high school programs get to experience for any sport. To be able to do it with a special senior class and a basketball program that I have had the privilege of helping out the last 3 years was truly a memorable experience. These types of trips often do more for the players and coaches off the court than it does on the court. While a 14 hour bus ride might be grueling it is a time to grow relationships and become closer as a group. Not to mention the games in the hotel rooms, the going out to eat and just enjoying each other's company all week. All of these things were true on our trip to South Carolina and I do not think it is a coincidence that we played some of the best basketball we have all year on our way to a Claw Classic Championship.

As far as the on-court experience, our players got to enjoy 3 consecutive victories against teams we had little knowledge or scouting for. One of the things that sticks out the most to me about our 3 consecutive victories was the fact that it came 3 days in a row after driving 14 hours on a bus. That is tough for professional athletes to do as NBA players hate back to backs but our player's gutted out a long bus ride and some long days to win on back to back to back nights. Hopefully there is more to come from the Pirates this year as they continue to grow as a team on and off the court.

Two moments that stick out to me from the last week that brings me back to why I coach go back to one of my first blog posts about "Every Kid Needs a Champion". On the bus ride a player I have had the privilege of coaching the last couple years came up and just wanted to talk. While this may not be a big "AHA" moment, it shows me the relationship and trust that this player has in me and that they know I truly care about them as a player, student and person. This player also shows me the respect and reminds me that they care about me as well. That is something that was evident again yesterday as I was out and about and had a former player come up and give me a hug and spend time talking with me about what is going on in life. The ability and willingness that players show to communicate with me gets me back to the "Why I coach". Creating these relationships with young adults where they are willing to trust me and show that they value our relationship is the real reason I am a coach. While winning Championships and traveling to the #ABCA2019 Clinic this weekend in Dallas are great experiences, the relationships with the players is the real reason why I am a coach.

I have included some pictures from our trip to South Carolina and you can see in one of the videos how much the players enjoy the head coach, Brian Hebein as they were waiting for him in the locker room to celebrate the Championship. What a great moment that everyone who was involved will never forget. Continue to make memories as an athlete, scholar, coach, and help those around you!

We were able to hold a shoot around before our first game thanks to a 1000 win coach in South Carolina. 5 time State Champion, Tim Whipple, thanks again Coach!

The boys after the Championship!

Port boys taking a picture with the team from Australia who was there supporting us in the Championship game!

Best Wisconsin High School Basketball Teams since 2000

This is a topic that stems from me watching some of the best regular season basketball I have ever seen in this state yesterday. Watching Brookfield Central beat the #2 team in Division 2 by 25 points and doing so handily while also seeing the quote unquote Game of the Year with Sussex Hamilton vs. Nicolet. The star power in this state may never have been higher and this was evident yesterday as these 3 teams just blew me away. That makes for the conversation to see where these teams rank compared to previous top teams from this state since 2000. Now I do want to warn you that teams that I have seen with my own eyes may be advantaged in these rankings but again these are just my opinions on the top teams this state has seen in recent years.

Honorable Mentions: Wauwatosa East (26-1) 2008 Division 1 State Champions, DePere (25-3) 2011 Division 1 runner-up (lost title game in 3 OT), Onalaska (27-1) 2012 Division 2 State Champions, Appleton Xavier (28-0) undefeated Division 3 State Champions, Oshkosh North (27-1) 2018 Division 1 State Champions, Manitowac Roncalli for their 7 State appearances since 2005, and the 2011 Grafton Black Hawks for stopping a 69 game conference losing streak against eventual Division 2 State Champions Whitefish Bay Blue Dukes.

Alright back to the rankings. I did not take multiple teams from 1 school for this as I choose what I thought was the best team from a certain school since 2000. That way Germantown, SPASH, etc. eat up all the rankings.

Alright so I couldn't decide with just a top 10 so we will go with the top 11 and count down.

11. Racine St. Catherine's (25-2) 2009 Division 3 State Champions. I chose the 2009 team over the undefeated team from 2005 mainly because I saw them play and again was very impressed with how good they were defensively. They also had two future college players who could score in Steve McWhorter and Jake Thomas. McWhorter was an athlete that the smaller schools could not compete with.

10. Randolph (26-0) 2004 Division 4 State Champions. Complain what you may that they were in Division 4 but this was the best of the Randolph run as they won titles from 2002-2005. The '04 Randolph team was led by 6'11" senior Greg Stiemsma (later played at Wisconsin and in the NBA) and 6' 7" junior Ryan Tillema (later played at UWM). This size and ability to shoot would be tough for any team to defend and Randolph during the season went and beat bigger basketball schools such as Madison Edgewood and Monroe.

9- La Crosse Aquinas (25-1) 2011 Division 3 State Champions. While this team did not have the full on star power that some of these other teams had, they were led by 2 very players. Mike Conway was not a scholarship player but he was a very solid high school basketball player who could hit the open shot which was perfect since he had one of the best High School passers I have ever seen in Bronson Koenig. Koenig's feel for the game and ability to pass and score was very difficult for any school to stop. While he went on to play at Wisconsin he was a top recruit offered by Duke and North Carolina.

8. New Berlin West (26-0) 2000 Division 2 undefeated State Champions. I remember watching this team because my cousin was going to New Berlin West. They were ginormous. As a 7 year old watching them on TV playing at the Kohl Center, I just remember thinking they are huge. They started 6' 10", 6' 8", and 6' 5" with no starter smaller than 6' 2". They were led by two future college players in the Chappell brothers (Jason played at Madison). That size alone made them difficult covers in the state at that time.

7. Oshkosh West (26-0) 2006 undefeated Division 1 State Champions. While this team does not impress you with any names other than future Badger role player, Tim Jarmusz, this was a team that I remember watching and just admiring the way they played basketball. Being led by Lance Randall they played methodical basketball and played very strong defense on their way to beating a star-studed Madison Memorial team in the championship game 52-40. 

6. Milwaukee King (26-0) 2002-2003 Division 1 undefeated State Champions. This King team was not filled with star power like the Milwaukee Vincent teams of the early 2000's but being led by Jim Gosz you knew they would get after you defensively. They were led by Dupree Fletcher who went on to play at Evansville than UW-Whitewater. They won their 3 games at the State Tournament by scores of 55-48, 39-27, and winning the Championship against a Brian Butch led Appleton West team 57-46.

5. Madison Memorial (26-1) 2009 Division 1 State Champions. This Madison Memorial team was chosen over the 2005 team with Wesley Matthews and a young Keaton Nankivil because this 2009 team was stronger, deeper and had more star power. Led by future Golden Eagle, Vander Blue and Tennessee Volunteer, Jeronne Maymon, this team was athletic, strong and could shoot. Then you add a Cleveland State, Providence and Western Kentucky future point guard in Junior Lombomba (who by the way best name ever announced at the State Tournament) and this Spartan team was very difficult to stop. 

4- Whitefish Bay Dominican (27-1) 2012 Division 4 State Champions. I chose the first team of Dominican's 4 straight years of State Championships. This 2012 team had two of the best kids to ever come through that school in Duane Wilson (future Golden Eagle) and Diamond Stone (future Maryland Terrapin). It's amazing to think that these 2 did not even lead their team in scoring as future South Dakota School of Mines player, Jamall Taylor led this team in scoring. 3 different types of scoring weapons and players that can affect the game in multiple ways. 

3. Milwaukee Vincent (25-2) 2000-2001 Division 1 State Champions. This team was led by five future college players that made their name inside and outside of the state. At this time Vincent was on quite the run as they had won State Championships in 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2001. I chose the 2001 team as the best due to all the star power they had. Maurice "Boo" Wade (who later played at Wisconsin and Marquette) was not even the best player on his team and neither was a young Carl Landry (later played at Purdue. This team was carried by Boo Wade's cousin, Dejuante Wade (later played at UWGB) and Deonte Tatum (Played at Hawaii) who was the MVP at the State Tournament in 2001. This team was also joined by Greg Brown who in 2002 won Mr. Basketball over Steve Novak. This Vincent team finished 11th in the country and was something to be reckoned with.

2- SPASH (26-0) 2016 undefeated Division 1 State Champions. If you want to talk about a team with star-power that played unselfish basketball, this SPASH team has to be near the top of the list. They were so fun to watch with so many weapons on the court including future Badger Trevor Anderson and future Golden Eagles in Sam and Joey Hauser. SPASH ran through the state this year in the middle of their 3 year run as Division 1 State Champs. At state in 2016 they beat their competition by scores of 75-48 and 89-64. 

1- Germantown (28-0) 2013 undefeated Division 1 State Champions. This was by far the toughest decision on this list choosing between their 2012 team led by Seniors Zak Showalter and Josh Mongan or the 2013 team led by transfer Lamonte Bearden. I went with the 2013 team as Luke Fisher (Indiana Hoosier) was a much different and better player in '13 and Lamonte Bearden provided something that this team did not have previously. He was the quickest player on the court every night with the ability to dish and hit deep 3's as he did at state in 2013. The 2013 team won their games at state by scores of 80-60 and 57-28. This 2013 team also had future South Dakota State players in Evan Wesenburg and Jake Showalter along with D2 player Jon Averkamp. Combining 5 college players with the assertiveness of Coach Steve Showalter, this Germantown team was arguably the best this state has seen since 2000.

Now last night I watched 3 teams who I think could potentially end up on this list but we will see if they can live up to the hype. Brookfield Central always has 5 guys on the court who can score including 4 future college players and they move the ball like the SPASH and Germantown teams. Sussex Hamilton has the #1 sophomore in the country and he lived up to the hype and can carry any team he is on to stardom. Nicolet as everyone knows has all the talent in the world with 3 Power 5 college players including the #4 junior in the country who dropped a triple double last night. Only time will tell if they can leave their mark as one of the best teams this state has ever seen.

I will leave a highlight from one of the most impressive dunks I have ever seen at State from the 2012 Germantown team. They knew how to set the tone early in the game including their students chanting "Thanks for practice" at tip off against Grafton in 2010.

Learning in the Classroom

My last blog post talked about the power of student choice and some things I was trying in my classroom. This blog post I want to focus on one of the reasons why I started this blog and that was to broadcast all the amazing things that go in in a classroom over the course of a year.

This past week if you would have came into my classroom you would have seen something you may not be used to. I almost gave up my role as a teacher and the students guided their own learning. I was there to help facilitate and guide some of their learning but it was all student initiated. While I was not giving direct instruction every day it was amazing how tired I would be after these days as well. The students working throughout the room asked such great questions and really wanted to discover their own learning. This was the true definition of flipping your classroom and allowing the students to lead the learning.

The students at the end of the week completed a survey for me and all 48 of my students said that they enjoyed this type of learning more than taking notes or reading a book. Can I blame them? They were excited that they were able to learn about what they want and that they could learn at their own pace. I also allowed the students different options to present their information to the class. Some did a skit, some made a poster, some made a Google Slides presentation, and some made a video. It was such a powerful week for me as an educator as I got to see the students truly enjoy learning and strive for more.

I have now asked my students what they want to learn about our next unit which is water. Some of the questions the students created once again were amazing and will continue to guide the learning that goes on in our classroom. The students also in math solved various real-world problems all week and below is some pictures of student work and engagement. I have also included a link to more photos so you can see the true engagement in our classroom last week.

Photos from my classroom this week. 

Student Choice in Education

Student choice is a topic and idea in education that can sometimes be hard to come to grips with. Of course it sounds good to have students be a part of their learning but to truly allow them to have say in what they learn and what is covered in the classroom is a whole other issue. 

Our education system has always and to this day is designed by curriculum companies giving teachers the information to instruct and ways to pass this information to the students. You will rarely if ever find a curriculum that asks the students what they want to learn and to base your instruction around that. However through some work being done at my school and some personal research, I am continuing to try different ways to incorporate students ideas into our daily classroom instruction. 

It started by having one of my team members sharing a reflection sheet that she was going to use on an assessment in her classroom. I took it and gave it to my students as well. It asked the students to grade themselves and then explain why they gave themselves that grade. The students were surprisingly very honest and knew what to grade themselves because they knew how confident they were in their skills. They also were able to describe why they were not necessarily as confident in one skill compared to the other. To me this was true student involvement in their learning. I am now able to use these reflections as a guiding tool in my classroom and will instruct students and what specific skills they need based on their reflections. Below are some specific examples of students assessing their skills on either standard algorithm multiplication or solving for volume using the equation Length x Width x Height.

Now while I did feel that this was one step forward to incorporating student choice in my classroom, I saw something on Twitter the day before break that challenged me to do more. The article was titled, "Taking the Manage out of Classroom Management" and it really challenged you to incorporate your students ideas into your classroom. So I decided let's give this a shot. 

I showed the students a Ted Talk about a 12 year old who asked one simple science question that turned into her and other students being the youngest published scientists in the world. This prompted the students to come up with one topic or question they want to discover about in science. It was amazing to see some of their questions. They were things I would have never even thought of. Some examples were:

• What is the physical limit of our body?
• Why do our hands get sweaty when were nervous?
• How do our reactions react?
• Why do we need more inventions when they pollute our earth?
• Ocean levels and temperature
• What are possible planets to live on?

These were just some of the examples that my students came up with. Now I am challenged with what to do as an educator? Do I go back to my curriculum and instruct students with what the curriculum says or do I embrace this student choice and let them discover and solve their own real-world questions? I think I know what the students would rather do and what I think is more beneficial to their learning. Why not let them discover their answers and tie the curriculum into what they discover? That is true authentic learning that is based on #StudentChoice. 

  

The story of the 2010 State Grafton Baseball Team

As I think about blog ideas and things to share just recently I ran into a parent of one of my baseball teammates and then I found myself again bringing up this story to a friend. After seeing the parent who is now battling cancer, I remembered just how short life can be and that is the driving force for this blog post.

After going 9-43 in my first two years of Varsity baseball, we all had high hopes for the 2010 season, little did we know what we would accomplish. There was a solid group of us who had played with and against each other through Grafton Little League and on Varsity as Freshman, Sophomores, and Juniors. The class of 2010 and 2011 were two groups of kids who loved baseball and worked and wanted to change the face of Grafton Baseball. While we were young players on Varsity we had to take our lumps but as we said at the end of the 2009 season, next year "We are going to state".

We all put in our work in the off-season and we were finally gearing up to play some spring baseball and get ready for the season we were all waiting for. Then something changed on the night of March 12th. I will never forget that night. I remember coming home from a friends house that night and staying up later than I usually do. I still woke up early like I typically do and then I got a phone call at 8:15 that Saturday morning the 13th. Mattie Malkowski, a friend and teammate was in a car accident the night before and was in serious condition at the hospital. He battled for about 7 weeks before passing away on April 30th, 2010 from injuries in the accident caused by a drunk driver. That day, April 30th I will never forget the mood around the school and the community for the coming weeks. It was a very difficult and trying time for everyone who knew Mattie. And our season we all had been looking forward to since our Little League days was to start in just 2 weeks.

It was amazing to see how our team, school, and community all came together after this tragedy. A huge credit to the Durst family and the Malkowski family for the fundraiser of "I Hit for Matt" T-shirts. That shirt and motto became our rally cry for the season and something that you could not go a day without seeing that shirt in the Grafton community. It was truly amazing to see the Little League, School District and community just absolutely embrace this family and fundraiser. To this day you still see the "I hit for Matt" T-shirts in the community and it just reminds me of the special season we were about to have.

We started the season all excited and still a little struck that we were about to take the field without our friend and left-fielder. We decided to embrace the situation we were put in and come together as a family to do all we could to honor our teammate every day. Mattie was always someone who played with a fun, passion and enjoyed the game of baseball so that is what we tried to do every day. We started the conference season with a record of 4-1 and were off to a great start with our one loss coming to a strong Muskego team. Now the true battle was about to start and that was the North Shore Conference. We knew if we wanted to change Grafton Baseball this is when it would be done.

We started the conference season with a nice win against our rival Port Washington. Next was the powerhouse Nicolet Knights and they showed us how good they were by run ruling us. Our next 2 conference games is when our season changed. Conor Fisk, who was drafted this same week by the Milwaukee Brewers, proved to be our workhorse as he put up a 1 hitter against Cedarburg who we beat 2-0. Then the next week, he went 8 innings allowing 1 run against power Homestead as we pulled out a 5-1 extra inning victory. I remember getting off the bus that night and all of us were like we can really do this, this is our season. That was the changing point of the season for us as we had a solid season where we took 3rd in the difficult North Shore Conference with 4 of our losses coming against Nicolet and traditional power West Bend West. We finished with a 18-9 record during the regular season and we were ready to start our journey to state.

We beat Port in our first playoff game fairly handily and got a nice draw when Brown Deer upset Cedarburg in the first round. We were going to sectionals having to win 2 games in 1 day which turned out to be 2 days because of a rain delay and we were able to save our Ace, Conor Fisk, for the Sectional Final. One of Mattie's best friends on the team, Dylan Mayer threw the game of his life in the sectional semi-final as we beat Brown Deer 4-2. That setup a matchup with the number 1 team in the area and the offensive power, Nicolet. They were averaging over 8 runs a game and Conor Fisk did not disappoint and shut them out as we scored a 1-0 victory over Nicolet to head to state for the first time since 1983.

There are 3 moments from that game that always stick out and I will never forget. The first was in the bottom of the 6th inning, Nicolet had bases loaded with 1 out and a good hitter at the plate. He grounded back to Conor who threw home, to Skyler Bohn and then to first, Dylan Mayer for a 1-2-3 douple play to get out of the inning. I remember running into the dugout from that inning and jumping up and hitting an assistant coach and in the dugout that inning I remember thinking, we are going to do this! My next moment that I will never forget is as we are in the field in the last inning, I had a great view from 3rd base of all the Grafton fans who came to support us. I remember just looking at the crowd with all their "I hit for Matt" shirts and them chanting "Hit for Matt" as we fought for the last out. There may not be a better picture in my life. Then when Conor struck out the last hitter it was like it happened in slow motion. The pitch, waiting for the ump to make the call, then just swarming Conor, throwing my glove in the air and dog piling on the field! What a moment it was!

We had officially accomplished the goal that Mattie had set out for us the previous season, to get to state! That journey and season was so special. We carried him with us to every game and practice. At every BP, you would see our whole team wearing "I hit for Matt" shirts no matter how many games we had that week. We kept his jersey in our dugout, we went out to left field before and after every game to hit the "MM" sign that was put up and we all gave his mom a hug before and after every game.

It was an emotional season but it was a season that us 20 players, coaches, family, friends and Grafton community will never forget. To be able to bring Grafton Baseball to a state tournament after years of losing seasons was something that people thought would never happen and for it to happen 2 after losing a teammate, made it that much more special!

To all my teammates, coaches, friends and family who were a part of that journey, Thank you! And lastly to the Malkowski family, we will never forget Mattie and this story will always live on!

Fundraiser for Mattie's Field of Dreams