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WIAA Deputy Director Wade Labecki Announces Retirement

By Adam Roberts – 6/1/2021

Last Thursday, one of the top-ranking leaders within the WIAA announced his retirement after 12 years in the deputy director position.

Wade Labecki assumed the position in July of 2009 and has been responsible for student-athlete eligibility, interpretation of all association rules, tournament planning, and committee leadership in the sports of football, wrestling, and baseball, as well as the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. He had most recently had worked with the WIAA Sports Medical Advisory Committee and other health officials to effectively navigate the membership through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Labecki also served as a legislator to moved Wisconsin high school sports forward by way of new opportunities and rule changes. He provided guidance and leadership in the development and implementation of the 8-player football tournament, sponsorship and a tournament opportunity for girls wrestling, football-only conference realignment, concussion and football acclimatization policies and protocols, pitch-count limits in baseball, and bringing Wisconsin into compliance with NFHS rules in wrestling.

Labecki will work in the position until the end of August.

La Crosse Center To Host Girls State Wrestling

By Adam Roberts – 5/27/2021

Anyone who’s been to the La Crosse Center for the Bi-State Wrestling Meet knows what kind of an excellent, intimate atmosphere the arena provides for high school wrestling. So it’s natural that the venue will get a golden opportunity.

The WIAA yesterday approved the Center as the location for the first-ever girls state wrestling tournament. The addition of girls state wrestling has been requested for quite some time.

In addition, the WIAA board of control also has relaxed mask mandates for its outdoor spring sports tournaments. The official wording states that masks can be removed if appropriate social distancing can be attained. On top of that, the board has, among other things, lowered the quarantine time period for close COVID contact from 14 to six days as long as symptoms aren’t present, and also said that vaccinated student athletes no longer have to quarantine if they are symptom free.

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers To Participate In The Match On TNT

By Adam Roberts – 5/27/2021

Captial One’s The Match is returning to TNT later this summer, with another stacked foursome taking to the fairways of the Jack Nicklaus-designed Reserve at Moonlight Basin.

The annual charity golf match will pit Phil Mickelson, recent PGA Championship winner, and Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady against Packers QB Aaron Rodgers and golf star Bryson DeChambeau.

The Match will be July 6th, with donations during the coverage going to Feeding America. A year ago, Brady and Mickelson lost to Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning at the Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, while the charity side of the event raised millions of dollars for COVID-19 relief.

It will serve as another competition between Brady and Rodgers and their second of the 2021 calendar year after the NFC Championship Game last January. We know Rodgers is in Hawai’i at the moment rather than at Packer OTA’s. Perhaps the MVP is upping his golf skills this week in paradise, and I don’t blame him. I know I’d love to be!

Packers Restructure DL Dean Lowry’s Contract

By Adam Roberts – 5/27/2021

Two factors have combined this offseason to make spending a nightmare for the Green Bay Packers. First, the fact that Aaron Rodgers wants more guaranteed money from his contract to stay with the team, ergo the current situation between those two parties. Second, the fact that the Packers had to clear a total of 26.5 million dollars in order to get under the NFL salary cap, decreased by eight percent from one year ago. Not to mention the fact that as of right now the team still figured to be around 45 million over the cap for 2022.

Fansided wrote back in March that Rodgers, Za’Darius Smith, David Bakhtiari, Preston Smith, and Kenny Clark would account for 64 percent of the team’s cap for next year. So far this offseason the team has re-worked the deals of Bakhtiari and the Smiths along with Adrian Amos, Billy Turner, Mason Crosby, and Devin Funchess, but decisions still need to be made.

To try and help alleviate some pressure, the team today restructured defensive lineman Dean Lowry’s deal. ESPN’s Field Yates reported that the conversion of 3.11 million dollars into a signing bonus will create about 2.488 million in cap space. While this guarantees Lowry will be with the team this year, it bumps up the cap hit for 2022. No doubt general manager Brian Gutekunst still has more work to do before the season begins.

Last year, Lowry had three sacks and 36 tackles over 601 total snaps.

U.S. Olympic Athletes Still Planning On Competing In Tokyo Games

By Adam Roberts – 5/25/2021

The Summer Olympic Games have been delayed by nearly a year due to the on-going pandemic, and with recent spikes of virus cases in host nation Japan, there have been renewed calls to avoid the Games this year or to push them back even further. However, at least as far as U.S. athletes go, there are no plans to divert from the current course.

American Olympic athletes are still planning to head to Tokyo for the Summer Olympics. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said U.S. athletes will be following strict, longstanding COVID protocols. Japan is in the midst of another COVID-19 surge, which has prompted a “Do Not Travel” advisory from the State Department.

Tokyo is set to host the Olympics starting in July.

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers Shares Thoughts With Kenny Mayne on Sportscenter

By Adam Roberts – 5/25/2021

While I don’t think anyone really expected any groundbreaking information to come out of Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ appearance on Sportscenter last night, there were some interesting nuggets to take away from his conversation with departing anchor Kenny Mayne.

Maybe most notable was that Rodgers isn’t upset with Jordan Love, but the club’s philosophy he believes has gone awry. Rodgers says it wasn’t that general manager Brian Gutekunst traded up or even drafted Love, it’s how he handled it. “I Love Jordan, he’s a great kid,” Rodgers told Mayne on his final show with ESPN. He explained it’s about the philosophy that it’s about the people that make the organization great, not vice versa. In Rodgers’ opinion, the team’s front office feels too much like a corporation and isn’t entirely personable.

Of course while Rodgers made time for Kenny, he did not show up for the first voluntary team OTAs yesterday. This was an almost certainty, and he’s not required to be anywhere until June 15th for mandatory minicamp.

WI Transgender Bills Will Get Hearings This Week

By Adam Roberts – 5/25/2021

The debate over transgender athletes in sports continues in Wisconsin this week, with a pair of bills authored by Madison Republicans getting public hearings this week.

Under the proposed laws, all K-through-12 schools, University of Wisconsin System schools, and state technical colleges would be required to divide all teams by sex and officially bar any athletes born male from women’s teams. The legislation would mirror laws passed in other states such as South Dakota and Mississippi.

“I think if the governor really cares about women, he absolutely should advance this legislation” said Oconomowoc Representative Barb Dittrich last March as she presented the bill to the Wisconsin Assembly. “And there should be no reason why it doesn’t go [anywhere], unless he’s a sexist.”

Governor Evers has already made it clear that if the bills do reach his desk, he plans on vetoing them. Both the Senate Committee on Human Services, Children and Families, and the Assembly Committee on Education will hold hearings tomorrow.

Phil Mickelson Wins PGA Championship at Age 50

By Adam Roberts – 5/24/2021

Back in 2004, my mother, her partner, my sister and I all got the opportunity to see the PGA Championship in person at Whistling Straits north of Sheboygan. As an 11 year old just beginning to learn the names of all the major players at the time on tour, I was craning my neck all day hoping to get a glimpse of Tiger. While Eldrick would not be seen that day, we were able to catch some putting from both Vijay Singh and Phil Micklelson. After Phil’s putt, we called out to him from the stands, and to this day I remember his wave to us and a “thanks for the support”.

I like to think he directed this at me, but I know he was probably speaking to my sister, who that day was being wheeled around with a broken leg.

Phil put himself in the record book Sunday by winning the PGA Championship to become the oldest major champion in golf history. And he didn’t have to work all that hard for it.

Mickelson was in a tight race for the opening hour until Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen made all the wrong moves.

Mickelson won his sixth major and becomes the first player in PGA Tour history to win 30 years apart.

Next up is the U.S. Open and renewed hope for a career Grand Slam.

G-E-T Football HC Jon Steffenhagen To Retire

By Adam Roberts 5/24/2021

Success in high school football can vary from year to year. With the constant athlete turnover that is inherent with this kind of sport, teams that go undefeated and win state one season can easily fall below .500 the following year. It takes a different and special kind of program to constantly be at the top of the game year in and year out. Names like recently-retired Rick Muellenberg at Bangor come to mind, or perhaps Tom Yashinsky at Onalaska.

But that list would not be complete without Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau’s Jon Steffenhagen.

The last quarter century of Redhawk football has been defined by the Steffenhagen philosophy of run the ball at the defense and dare them to stop you. That mentality has netted the program 10 Coulee Conference titles and 20 playoff appearances in Jon’s 25 year head coaching career.

Coach Steffenhagen’s excellence in leadership extends also to powerlifting, where his teams won nine state championships and finished Top Three in state 17 times. It’s easy to understand why the two would go hand in hand, helping to develop a culture of physical and mental strength at G-E-T.

Coach came to the Coulee Region in the mid-80s as an offensive lineman for Roger Harring’s UWL Eagles. That career included a spot on the 1985 national championship team. He started coaching at West Salem, serving as powerlifting head coach and an assistant coach for the Panther football team. Stops on the way to G-E-T included o-line coaching gigs at Winona State and UWL between 1990 and 1995 before an opportunity with the Ancona Dolphins in Italy. By June of 1996, he landed at the position he would occupy for the rest of his career.

Congrats to Coach Steffenhagen on wrapping up an incredible career!

Packers, Vikings Begin OTAs Today

By Adam Roberts – 5/24/2021

Rodgers Watch is nearly a month old, and will hit that milestone this Saturday. Between now and then, the team will hold its first three days of organized team activities starting today in Green Bay.

Not many are expecting Rodgers to show up to any of the voluntary workouts May 24th, 25th, and 27th or June 1st, 2nd, or 14th. However, those June dates will be interesting to watch, since the cost of a possible Rodgers trade will drop off significantly after the first of the month. Mandatory minicamp will be June 15th through the 17th.

Jordan Love will be in attendance today, and it would make sense if both Kurt Benkert and Blake Bortles are there as well. As for who else will be attending, that remains to be seen given the players’ associations adamant insistence on players skipping voluntary workouts this offseason.

The Vikings are also going to spend some time together starting today. New free agent addition Patrick Peterson is expected to be in attendance for the voluntary event. The Vikings brought the star free agent over from the Arizona Cardinals in the offseason. Mandatory minicamp for the Vikings also starts June 15th.