By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
With every New Year, there is a chance to reflect on the past 12 months and also to look ahead.
What 2015 holds remains to be seen, but we can take a quick look back at how 2014 unfolded for the student-athletes and teams at Big Foot High School.
The following is a brief look at some of the highlights, written in two, six-month segments. This week’s article will recap the first six months of the year:
January to June: Big Foot’s Will Utesch placed third at 220 pounds to lead the wrestling squad at the annual Mid-States Tournament on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus; a 21-6 second quarter helped the girls basketball team snap a six-game losing streak in a 64-41 non-conference win at South Beloit; the boys basketball team was tied with unbeaten and state-ranked Edgerton through three quarters before the Tide outscored the Chiefs 18-7 in a 56-45 victory;
Travis Berryman (106) and Will Utesch (220) each had perfect 4-0 records and finished first at the Monroe Invitational; Berryman finished second at 106 pounds to highlight the wrestling squad’s effort at the Rock Valley Conference Tournament. Utesch and Evan Graham (285) both finished fourth overall; a shot at the buzzer was just off the mark as the boys basketball team fell 46-45 at Beloit Turner; Travis Berryman (106) and Will Utesch (220) finished first and second, respectively, to advance to the Division 2 Waupun Sectional;
Nate Freytag hit two free throws with 10 seconds left to give the boys basketball tea a 41-38 victory over Whitewater in a Division 3 regional opener; the girls basketball team trailed by just three points halfway through a Division 3 regional opener at Evansville, but the hosts broke the game open en route to a 58-32 win that ended Big Foot’s season at 5-18 overall; host Marshall jumped out to a 21-8 lead after the first quarter and cruised to a 79-51 win over the boys basketball team in a Division 3 regional semifinal. Big Foot ended the year at 8-16 overall;
Big Foot Athletic Director Tim Collins announced that he had hired Greg Enz as the new varsity football coach and Caitlin Dowden as the new head volleyball coach. Enz replaces former longtime coach Rodney Wedig, while Dowden replaces former longtime coach Jen Koplitz; four coaches with ties to the Big Foot football program and three seniors were named to the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Small School All-Star game roster. Named were coaches Rodney Wedig, Adam Bakken, Brian Ryczkowski and Greg Lueck and players Gus Wedig, Collin Frederick and Ian Gallagher;
Sophomore Morgan Courier, freshman Olivia Briggs, junior Kathryn Colby and senior Austin Hoey were voted to All-Rock Valley Conference basketball teams; the Big Foot eighth-grade girls basketball team brought home the Wisconsin State Invitational Tournament championship from a field of 90 teams that played in the four-division, two-city event. Team members were Zanzie Demco, Yesenia Gonzales, Samantha Hartwig, Lauren Paulsen, Grace Gillingham, Makenzie Trosclair, Payton Courier, Courtney Schoenbeck and Kat Lopez.
Courier and Schoenbeck were named to the All-Tournament Team for Division 3. The team was coached by Rick Schoenbeck and Joe Lopez.
In a two-game span, the Big Foot baseball team outscored their opponents 27-1 to improve to 5-3 overall and 2-1 in the RVC; the boys track and field team finished eighth, while the girls were ninth at the RVC Meet at Clinton. Gus Wedig won the conference title in the 110-high hurdles; behind a 14-strikeout effort by pitcher Austin Hoey, the Big Foot baseball team beat Clinton 9-2 to clinch the RVC title; visiting Elkhorn scored a run in the top of the eighth inning and made that hold up in a 7-6 win over the Big Foot softball team in a Division 2 regional opener; senior boys tennis players Adam Kolnik and Seb Lauterbach advanced the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 State Tournament;
The boys and girls track teams combined to send nine athletes to the sectional meet. Advancing from the girls’ squad were Brooke Wellhausen, Gloria Esarco, Lexi Edinger and Kalen Gillingham, while boys who moved on were Gus Wedig, Quin Dixon, Dan Pearce, Connor Kirk and Fletcher Strahan; Craig Halma shot a 79 to finish fifth at the Evansville Regional Golf Meet and advance to the sectional; Brooke Wellhausen advanced to the Division 2 State Track Meet with a second-place finish in the 400; the girls soccer team finished the regular season on a four-match winning streak to improve to 12-4-1 overall.
