Beedle remained crucial in g-e-t playoff run despite injury
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With time waning in Saturday’s boys basketball sectional championship, the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau coaching staff kept busy, motivating its players and scheming their best attempt at a comeback with the Red Hawks trailing a strong opponent.
The coaches — while working relentlessly and visibly displaying belief in their team — were not who drew my attention, though.
Senior Jack Beedle has not played a game for G-E-T since Dec. 27 as he recovers from injury, but anyone paying attention to sideline conversations on Saturday might have assumed he was an assistant coach.
Beedle was constantly clapping his hands, supporting teammates to keep fighting. Even when it appeared there was no longer enough time left for the Red Hawks to make up the difference on the scoreboard, Beedle never stopped.
Every time there was a substitution, the senior was one of the first people on their feet to welcome a tired teammate back to the bench. He was talking to the other players sitting in chairs on the G-E-T sideline, urging them to keep the energy high.
Toward the end of the game as his classmates exited the final game of their prep basketball careers, again it was Beedle who rushed to congratulate them on a strong effort and the playoff run that was coming to a close.
At one point with less than five minutes remaining, Beedle had his hands cupped over his mouth as he echoed encouragement for his fellow Red Hawks, his face turning red and tears starting to form in the corners of his eyes.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever see a leader like that again,” G-E-T coach Jared McCutchen said of Beedle after Saturday’s game. “He’s been an unbelievable leader for us the last three years, but especially this year after his injury. It was tough, but he stuck with it.”
When Beedle was on the court wearing number 13 for G-E-T, his playing style was supportive, too.
Beedle was never an offensive superstar, though he occasionally found a groove from the three-point line — he hit all five of his attempts from beyond the arc to score a career-high 18 points and help G-E-T win a game over Coulee Conference opponent Black River Falls in January 2022.
He scored a season-high 11 points twice this season, one of seven Red Hawks to record at least 10 points in a game despite only playing in nine of the team’s 28 games.
Fans saw only nine games of Beedle on the court this year, but he made an impact in limited time.
The fact that he made even more of an impact off the court?
That’s what leadership is, and it’s the type of character that most coaches dream of having — the kind programs build upon.
Ettrick, G-E-T Boards set great example last week
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It is so nice to see what can happen when people come together to have meaningful conversations.
As I walked out of the library at G-E-T High School following a joint meeting between members from the G-E-T School Board and Ettrick Village Board last Tuesday, it dawned on me that it might have been one of the more productive public meetings I have attended in a long time.
The boards were gathered to talk about confusion over the use agreement regarding the Ettrick Community Center, which is attached to Ettrick Elementary School. The building is owned by the district, but the village paid for $900,000 of the building when it was constructed in 1998.
Residents have access to the center when it is not being used by the district, but a recent hiccup regarding a change to reusable electronic key fobs from the original metal keys caused some confusion over access for Ettrick residents.
Elected officials met last Tuesday to talk through the process and changes. I thought the discussion was especially constructive because it came with both sides asking what they could do better, how they thought the process should work and ended with a roundtable question on how satisfied they felt with the situation post-discussion.
More collaboration between local people is never a bad thing, and I was impressed how both sides conducted themselves while still advocating for their needs.
More importantly, though, it seemed like members of each board were listening to understand instead of listening to respond to each other—something I think most people would admit we can do better.
School board member Deb Lakey rightfully gave District Administrator Michele Butler credit for how she has handled recent issues, and the latter took responsibility for some miscommunication during a private conversation with a village board member over how fobs would be handled.
“One of the things that we’re really struggling with right now is one of the huge issues, and that’s safety in schools. This is an issue. It’s trying to keep the school safe, trying to keep the kids safe and yet allow the community center to continue to function like it used to,” Lakey said.
Multiple Ettrick residents have received their recurring fobs and now have access to the community center. The issue arose after the Times covered a recent Ettrick Village Board meeting, and I should make clear that it is our job to cover a public meeting in which concerns were shared in an open conversation.
Part of the paper’s job is to bring these issues to light so people who don’t attend those meetings know what is happening in their community.
And after members of both boards sat down last week, it was clear that the conversation was necessary to clear up questions. And I thought they were very productive in doing so.
So did they.
“I am happy with how this meeting went. I don’t think anyone on the Ettrick board has any ill will toward the school district at all. We had a board meeting, the newspaper comes and we had discussions there. We didn’t go advertise anything to the newspaper. I’m very happy with this. I have two young children who go to Ettrick Elementary, and I want them to be safe and I want them to live in a good community and I think this is a way to do it,” Ettrick board member Kaylee Waldvogel said Tuesday. “This (access) is an excellent way to support the community and the people who live there who donated lots and lots of money to make the community center happen.”
Butler recommended the boards keep their lines of communication open in the future, which I thought was an important nugget, too—it’s always good to revisit past understandings, especially as members of elected boards change over time.
School board member Cindy George summarized last week’s conversation really well, so I’ll part with a thought from her during the waning minutes of the discussion.
“I’m so glad we’re talking about this tonight. I’m not excited about how the issue came to be through the paper, I gotta be honest. I loved what happened tonight, though,” George said. "Lots of good conversations on both sides looking at ways to resolve things, working together. So I hope that can continue moving forward."
History, community and a trophy: Saturday regional was peak prep sports
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Last Saturday’s Division Three boys basketball regional championship game was electric.
Two Trempealeau County teams were battling for a regional title at Russ Lund Gymnasium in G-E-T High School, with the Arcadia Raiders visiting the Red Hawks fresh off an upset over the second-seeded team in the bracket.
Both teams drilled shots early, and excited screams were echoing off the walls of a jam-packed gymnasium. The building was near its estimated capacity of around 1,100 fans, and the atmosphere reflected it.
Every chant one typically expects at a prep sporting event was seemingly called out by somebody, and multiple communities appreciating quality basketball were out in full force.
The game itself was possibly the greatest prep hoops game I’ve witnessed in person. With both sides trading shots early, Arcadia senior Maverick Drazkowski took over for a short while to help the visitors earn a 10-point advantage in the first half before G-E-T found offense late and cut its deficit to six at the break.
Drazkowski would not be denied on Saturday and finished with a game-high 28 points. The senior passed 1,000 career points in the process with 999 of them coming in the past two seasons.
And he wasn’t alone in great achievements—senior Cody Schmitz continues to climb the mountain of Wisconsin’s best, passing former Wisconsin Badger and 2012 Sheboygan Lutheran graduate Sam Dekker (2,593 points) for fourth in all-time Wisconsin career prep scoring with his 20-point night.
Schmitz was a force for G-E-T in the second half, but both sides saw numerous players hit key shots or corral rebounds.
After G-E-T took the lead in the second half, Arcadia kept the game close. A whistle with 16 seconds remaining in the game could have seen the Raiders take a late lead, but a travel call negated the opportunity—the game still wasn’t over with G-E-T ahead one point and just two-hands-worth of ticks on the clock.
Sophomore Mason Brone nailed two free throws to extend G-E-T’s lead to three, and a last second 3-point attempt from Arcadia’s Cole Lockington bounced off the rim and out as the previously explosive audience took a collective gasp with the game-tying shot in the air.
Seeing G-E-T senior Jack Beedle—who has been out with an injury for much of this season—step out to claim the regional championship plaque was a thoughtful way for G-E-T to cap its second-straight regional title, and you could see that fans and players were excited for Beedle to be part of the achievement.
Saturday marked Arcadia’s first trip to a regional final since they won their last regional championship in 2015. This season saw the Raiders win a playoff game at home, an occurrence that hadn’t happened since 2018.
Arcadia fans clapped to congratulate G-E-T and send off their own players after what was an emotional performance by both benches culminated with the standard storming of the court from the home student section.
It brought back memories of high school for many in the gym, I’m sure, and the community support from either fanbase shone like the bright headlights on fans vehicles as they digested what was an incredible basketball game on a dark drive home.
Saturday was a great day to be surrounded by communities coming together to celebrate and support their neighbors, classmates, families and friends.
It featured a game those in attendance will not soon forget, and with it came stories and memories that will be told for years to come.
the underrated part of steien's historic night
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One would never have known talking to Lindsay Steien after last Tuesday’s girls basketball game at Blair-Taylor High School that the senior just broke a record that had stood for more than 30 years.
Lindsay Steien is officially the name at the top of both the Blair-Taylor and Trempealeau County all-time scoring leaderboards. Steien passed her father, Eric, and is now the only player in school and county history to reach 2,000 career points.
It was fun to be there to watch the moment live and see the senior draining long jumpers and sprinting through the lane before cashing in on an inside shot. The part that stood out to me the most from her big day, though, was the senior’s humility.
At the start of the year, Steien wasn’t all that interested in talking about the record. In her interview with the Times just after Tuesday’s game ended, it was clear that she still didn’t really want to talk about herself.
“It’s kind of cool that I get to do this,” Lindsay said, “but I couldn’t have done it without the help of my teammates, coaches, family, everyone.”
Every answer went back to the people around her, and it wasn’t one of those times where as a journalist you can tell that a high school kid is just saying that because their parent tells them to or because they don’t know what else to say.
She meant it. Steien truly felt that the moment wasn’t only about her.
And to some extent, I’d argue if there was ever a time to pat yourself on the back, taking over both the school and county record is a pretty decent option.
Her humility could be seen on the court on Tuesday, too. It wasn’t one of those times where she was doing everything she could to break the record.
The first half honestly started pretty slow in scoring for Steien because she was passing to every teammate she could find.
It wasn’t about taking shots from bad angles and trying to get the record out of the way. She was dishing assists more than she was shooting, and she was smiling the whole time.
The record was something she wanted to share with her team, and it showed.
There was a timeout and an announcement when she did pass her father on the leaderboards with a 3-point shot with 17 minutes left in the game.
How did Steien react?
She let a slight smile show.
She hugged her coach.
She hugged her teammates.
And then it was right back to work.
Electric scorecards for WIAA golf tournaments come with risks
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I’ll be the first person to admit that I am most definitely not a math guy.
When I use a paper scorecard for golf I sometimes botch adding up the scores from all 18 holes and appreciate a course that gives pencils with erasers to fix my mistakes—which sometimes happen due to a couple scary scores in the round.
But a recent mishap with the automated computer scoring system at a WIAA Division 2 girls golf sectional last week has me wondering if high school golf shouldn’t be sticking to the ‘old fashioned’ way of tallying strokes.
For a moment after last Monday’s tournament in Prairie du Chien, the official WIAA website listed Arcadia as the lowest scoring team in the event, which would have meant a victory and a berth to the state tournament.
With only four golfers, the online scoring system gave them credit for a “zero” for their fifth golfer. The Raiders finished sixth in real scoring, but for awhile it appeared that Arcadia was in good standing and had advanced.
I understand the benefits of the virtual scoring. Sure, it’s simple and most children have a cell phone to score on. The results are instant, meaning people can follow along before results go final. And it saves someone a lot of time to not have to add up 50 scorecards by hand.
How tough would it be to see your child go on the emotional rollercoaster of qualifying for the state tournament, something they have longed to accomplish for most of their life, just to later find out that they haven’t accomplished the feat due to a scoring error entirely out of their control? I’d think that would be a tough conversation.
It’s one I’ve seen, and it caused quite the ruckus.
Back when I worked in the Madison area in 2021, an Oregon High School senior golfer thought his career had ended at a Division 1 sectional. But a similar online scoring error miscounted the team scores, resulting in an emergency playoff.
A golfer from Mukwonago was given credit for a 38 on the online scorecard, but his strokes added up hole by hole on the same online interface added up to a 42. It tied his team with another, changing who qualified for state in the individual race.
The WIAA lists all team scores as final in such situations, but the teams agreed to replay the playoff for the final individual qualification four days before the state tournament.
I give the coach and player credit for the way they handled such an error. They took it as a second chance. But I’m thinking of situations such as Arcadia when the swing is in a negative light instead of a positive one.
Arcadia knew they hadn’t done enough to advance, but errors such as these should be avoided at all costs if possible.
Technology is awesome until it isn’t. Maybe it’s time to go back to paper scorecards, even if one kid might lose theirs along the way and you have to account for human error. Clearly we’re not the only ones capable of such errors.
And isn’t there the same risk of losing some scores if a player’s phone loses its charge and they can’t keep score that way? Players keep track of each other’s scores, so that would help, too.
At the very least, it’s time to work out the issues with the online scoring system. I’m not sure how it happens or what the solution is, but it’s time.