Tips for Athletes Running in Hot Summer Weather

By: Brian Burkhart   Prep Reporter    Twitter: @BrianESPN

There are a lot of health and safety concerns when it comes to an athlete running in the hot summer weather, since dehydration or heat stroke could occur.  High school baseball is in full swing and soon enough summer workouts for football will be starting.  An athlete needs to take special precautions when running in the hot summer weather.  Here are some tips for athletes’ to stay safe this summer, in the heat.

Run in the Morning or Evening

Running in the morning or evening is one way an athlete can stay healthy, if he or she is an active runner during the summer. Choosing to run during the middle of the day will put an athlete at risk for heat stroke or dehydration, since this is when the sun is at it’s peak. An athlete should try to run early in the morning or during the early evening, so that they can avoid the hottest hours of the day, which can prevent heart, related illness. If an athlete has to run or has practice during the middle of the day then hydration is key, drinking as much fluids as possible.

Do Not Run Too Hard

During the hot summer weather, an athlete should not try to run too hard; this will put extra strain on the body during hot days. It is important to always scale back any outdoor activities while it is hot outside, so if an athlete normally runs for an hour a day, he or she should only run for 30 minutes during excessive summer heat. An athlete should not try to push themselves to their max during hot weather, because it does not take long for heat illnesses to occur. If an athlete feels exhausted or dehydrated from running in the heat, it is important they stop running and takes at least a 10-minute break.

Wear Light and Loose Clothing

It is very important for an athlete to wear light and loose clothing, if they are running during the hot summer weather. Wearing dri-fit or cool gear clothing will help the body regulate temperature, which can keep the body naturally cool. It is very important that an athlete does not wear dark clothing; dark clothing absorbs heat, and is likely to cause the body temperature to rise to dangerous levels. Wearing loose clothing is also crucial for an athlete dealing with the hot weather, due to the fact that tight clothing can cut off circulation, and also cause skin irritations when the athlete sweats.  During summer football works, athletes should wear very light clothes because they also will be wearing pads or other gear, which will raise their body temperature as well. The main way to prevent heat exhaustion is to know your body and be smart when working out in the summer.

Know the Warning Signs of Heat Illness

Any athlete that is running in the extreme heat should know the warning signs of heat illness, so they know when to stop running and seek medical attention. The most common warning signs of heat illness include dizziness, fainting, nausea, vomiting, and clammy skin. These signs will help an athlete determine whether or not the heat has caused health problems. If an athlete notices these symptoms, they should lay down, drink lots of fluid, and seek medical attention if needed.

Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association Rankings

Sun Prairie ranked 5th in Division I Coaches Poll

Jefferson 2nd in Division II Coaches Poll 

By: Tyler Zavadsky   Twitter: @TylerZonESPN

     The defending state champion and current leader of the Big Eight Conference, the Sun Prairie Cardinals, are ranked fifth in the Division I Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association rankings to kick off the month of May. 

     The Cardinals sit at 10-2 overall on the season just ahead of Madison West (7-2) in the conference standings.  

     So far this season the Cardinals have scored 75 runs, averaging 6.25 runs per game, and have only allowed an average of 2.4 runs per game as the team has surrendered 29 runs. 

     Sun Prairie looks to repeat as conference champions this season as well as compete for yet another state title.

     Janesville Craig, Middleton and Beloit Memorial round out the top five in the Big Eight Conference in that order.

     Jefferson, the other local prep baseball team that has been having an exceptional season, is ranked second in the Division II Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association rankings. 

     Jefferson, the defending Rock Valley Conference winner, is 10-1 in conference play and 12-2 overall this season. 

     The Eagles have been pilling on the runs this season, scoring a total of 134 on the year while averaging just over 11 runs per game. Eagle pitchers have only allowed 4.5 runs per game on 55 runs scored and post a 3.33 ERA as a team. 

     Junior Roby Schlesner leads the team with a .512 avg. and has 10 doubles on the year along with 14 runs batted in this season. 

     Edgerton and Beloit Turner are also ranked in the top 10 in D II baseball. Edgerton sits at 7th, followed by Turner ranked 8th in the state.

Division I Top 5 Rankings

1. Bay Port (8-2)
2. Kimberly (6-1)
3. La Crosse Central (7-0)
4. Kenosha Bradford (7-2)
5. Sun Prairie (10-2)

Division II Top 5 Rankings

1. Waupun (12-3)
2. Jefferson (12-2)
3. Watertown Luther Prep (9-0)
4. Ellsworth (7-0)
5. Racine Saint Catherine’s (9-2)

By: Tyler Zavadsky    Prep Reporter ESPN 1380   Twitter: @TylerZonESPN 

Sun Prairie Cardinal Noskowiak Picks Golden Eagles

Area Standout Picks Marquette for College Future

By: Brian Burkhart     Prep Reporter      Twitter: @BrianESPN

    Nick Noskowiak, a 6’2 sophomore guard from Sun Prairie, orally committed to play for Marquette earlier this week after visiting the campus.

    Noskowiak averaged 17.8 point per game last season for the Cardinals, earning honorable mention all-state honors.  Though only a sophomore, Noskowiak felt that Marquette was the right fit for him and really fell in love with the coaching staff.  

    Also, with Marquette only being an hour away from home, the school is far enough but not too far to be able to go see his family on the weekends.  The Golden Eagles are coming off an Elite 8 birth in the tournament this season and with recruits coming in such as Milwaukee Dominican’s Duane Wilson; Marquette should be well on its way for another possible title run.  With Noskowiak only being a sophomore, he still has a ton of high school basketball yet to be played and now can focus in on refining his skills with his college choice wrapped. Noskowiak can now also focus on trying to win a state championship with the Cardinals.  

    Buzz Williams, head coach of the Golden Eagles, kept a close eye on Noskowiak during his AAU games, which he played for the Wisconsin Warriors.  He is the first commit for Buzz Williams and the Golden Eagles for the class of 2015, but should be a great starting block for a superb recruiting class to come. 

    Noskowiak passed up offers from other D-I schools such as Creighton, Iowa State, Northern Iowa, UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee.  He was getting a growing interest from Iowa and Wisconsin, but neither of those schools had yet to offer him a scholarship up to the time he decided to be a Golden Eagle. 

    The Sun Prairie Cardinals look to improve on their stellar 2012 season, going 16-2 during the regular season and winning the Big Eight conference crown.  The Cardinals will be losing a big piece of their team as senior Nick Fuller, who earned first team honors, will be playing at the University of Nebraska next basketball season.  Fuller was the Big Eight Conference MVP after averaging 24.9 points per game.  Noskowiak finished third in the conference in scoring and will be looked upon to lead the Cardinals team next season.

High School Athletes Wanting To Go Pro Isn't The Right Move

By: Brian Burkhart    Prep Reporter    Twitter: @BrianESPN

A major aspect of not wanting high school kids in the pros is the mental maturity, or lack thereof. This aspect of people is not quantifiable and is a problem for even college players. Professional scouts must attempt to decipher the maturity level of players, and for athletes in their teens, it is nearly impossible to figure out. It is possible that more Ryan Leafs will come out of high school athletes. Even for an athlete with an incredible amount of will and determination to succeed, it is difficult to imagine an 18-year old athlete withstanding the sledgehammer hits of 230 pound linebackers day-in day-out while running grueling training for almost twice the length of their usual high school routine, and, in the case of those that end up starting games, must cope with the incredible amount of pressure from the fans and media.

The problems associated with drafting young out of high school athletes has become even more intensified in the NBA. Each team has a roster of 15, and basketball has no minor league system. This inevitably leads to slow maturing of players, with the most notable and famous being Darko Milicic of the Detroit Pistons. Milicic played a total of 158 minutes over his rookie season. That is less than the time Kevin Garnett plays in four games. However, players like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Darko Milicic, and LeBron James, whom have all skipped college in order to enter the NBA, are actually far from the norm.  Again, maturity and a high physical level is necessary in the NBA. One example, although unfair, is 2004 MVP Kevin Garnett. While he has become one of the greatest all-around players in the history of basketball, one of the greatest knocks on Garnett has been his reluctance to post-up.

This could, although admittedly unfairly, be attributed to his early entrance into the NBA. Skipping college, Garnett was not ready for the physical game of the NBA and struggled in his early years, and has since become a regular 20-point scorer by taking jump shots. Imagine if he had learned to post-up with his seven-foot body. Kwame Brown, a former first-overall pick, is the perfect example of a high school kid with not enough maturity. Brown finally after a few years in the league, managed to show flashes of dominance, at last showing hustle and determination. Had it not been for his first-overall status, Brown could very well be out of the NBA by now, looking for a job outside of basketball. Not every high schooler will have the opportunity to be drafted early and have that leverage in being kept in the league to develop.  I fell that college not only helps a player mature mentally but it also gives them more experience to things they will be dealing with in the pros, things such as traveling a lot, going to huge arenas and playing in hostile environments.  Even if the athlete thinks college is a joke and wants to go straight to professional, it still will give him a great deal of experience going to college even if it is only for one year.

WIAA will not reschedule State Tournaments due to weather

Despite wet weather, WIAA will not move State Tournaments 

By: Tyler Zavadsky   Twitter: @TylerZonESPN

     Although the spring baseball and softball seasons have been delayed due to the extremely cold and wet weather much of the region has been experiencing, the WIAA will not move the state tournaments back to accommodate the late start. 

     The down right miserable weather has put a damper on all spring sports and has cancelled countless events in Wisconsin. Snow in the North, and rain in the South have made it nearly impossible to get any of the games and events underway. 

    WIAA officials had been receiving many calls and emails regarding a possible rescheduling of the tournaments but stated that there were too many logistical conflicts to consider while attempting to reschedule the events. A statement on the WIAA website highlighted some of the issues. 

    "We have received inquiries about  moving the state tournament dates farther into June," a WIAA press release said. "The number of changes that would need to be addressed at regional, sectional and state tournament sites along with officials working multiple sports are extensive.  In addition family plans, summer jobs, camps and clinics and other summer activities that would be affected.  It doesn’t seem as if that’s an option that could realistically be considered."

     With this news, the WIAA will allow schools in the area to reschedule games up until the last day of the season. This means that those schools that do not qualify for postseason play can schedule, or reschedule games, during the tournament in order to have a full season if desired. 

     Along with this particular news, the WIAA also received permission from the National Federation of State High School Associations to schedule games that are five innings in length to once again accommodate for the slow start to the spring in order to fit more games in. 

    NFHS rules state that baseball games must be set for seven innings in length but with this permission, the WIAA is exempted from non-compliance rules.

    For now, all that Wisconsin can do is wait for the weather to turn and for spring to actually arrive.

By: Tyler Zavadsky    Prep Reporter ESPN 1380   Twitter: @TylerZonESPN

Boston Marathon Tragedy

Another Week, Another Tragedy

By: Tyler Zavadsky    Prep Reporter ESPN 1380    Twitter: @TylerZonESPN 

Hot Topic: To Many Minutes Leading to Star Player Injuries

By: Brian Burkhart     Prep Reporter     Twitter: @BrianESPN

     Talented players are everywhere in our sporting world today, from the high school ranks to the professionals, its not hard to find a superstar talent.  The question that I want you to think about, when is a star athletes talent being used too much?  It happens in sports all the time, but goes unnoticed more than less.  A coach may put winning in front of his players, caring more about winning the championship then evaluating his players mental and physical health.  A prime example that happened even last night is Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.  Bryant went down with a season ending injury late in the fourth quarter of last nights game, it was diagnosed that he suffered a torn Achilles.  He will be out for the rest of the season, including the playoffs.  The reason I bring this up is because his injury can be directly related to how many minutes he has had to play down the stretch this year of the regular season.  In the last 3 games Bryant has played all 48 minutes of the game, and at age 34 this has taken a ware on his body tremendously. 

     This topic of course varies though from grade level in the athletes respected sport.  At the youth level it is a general un-written rule that all players get to play the same amount and they are out to just have fun.  When you get to the high school level though, everything changes and winning takes priority over everything else.  I remember distinctly back in my high school days, during my junior year we had a star player on our basketball team, Marcus Lewis.  Lewis was the do it all player on our team, and we were trying repeat as conference champions.  The rest of the team was not as talented and much of the pressure to win was put onto Lewis’s shoulders.  Our coach was a legend in the area, and his mentality was win first, ask questions later.  This ended up hurting our team in the long run, as Lewis went down with an ACL injury in the second to last game before the post-season started.  Our coach had played Lewis every game, all game.  I would always think to myself in the stands, how could his body keep up throughout the season logging these kinds of minutes.  Our head coach took a little bit of heat for the incident but it was brushed off after a week or so because he has been with our program for so long, producing state champions in the past.  I have a different thought though, and that is not brushing off the topic as if it’s not a big deal to student athletes.  I feel that some coaches having the wrong priorities in mind and it is jeopardizing some of their athlete’s college playing careers.   A student athlete is just that, it is not a machine or a person who can play 48 minutes a night, every single night.  I am not saying a lot of coaches are like this, because they are not but I would like to see fewer injuries to players because of over playing them.  This is only my opinion and you the reader are welcome to your own thoughts on this topic.

Rock Valley South Baseball Preview 2013

By: Brian Burkhart     Prep Reporter    Twitter: @BrianESPN

*2012 Stats

1^st - Clinton (12-4)

·      The Clinton Cougars varsity team will try to repeat as Rock Valley South Champions for the second straight season.  They were led by Justin Langley a 6’7 pitcher, who was awarded the team MVP in 2012.  He will be a big loss for the team and for the starting pitching rotation.  Justin is currently playing his college baseball for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

·      Another ace pitcher Aaron Roth graduated last year for the Cougars, and will further more deplete the strength of the pitching for 2013.  Also outfielder James Kollasch has moved on to play college baseball, he had the best batting average for the Cougars his senior year.

·      The only junior that was put on the honorable mention list for Clinton is current two sport athlete, Cody Risseeuw. Also a star on the men’s basketball team, he will be looked at among the team as the senior leader, who can lead them to another conference crown.

2^nd – Beloit Turner (10-6)

·      The Trojans will be losing big time outfielder Sam Burns, who led the team in RBI’s last season.

·      Brandon Noack a 1^st team player in 2012 will be a returning bright spot for the club, as he is the only underclass man to make 1^st team.  The outfielder has the highest batting average on the team his junior year, making him a hot bat at the plate.

·      Junior Pitcher Clayton Stenulson got 2^nd team all honors, posting a 4-2 record with only a 3.2 ERA.  He will be a big part of the pitching rotation going into the 2013 season.

·      Freshman Zach Virgin and JC Hughes both received 2^nd team honors for their production on defense and at the plate.  Hughes was the starting right outfielder for Beloit Turner and Virgin was the utility guy.

3^rd – Parkview (9-7)

·      Junior Trevor Aasen earned 1^st team honors in 2012 for his hitting and great plays behind the plate.  Aasen was regarded as one of the top catchers in the conference, only being a junior.  His batting average was .335, while hitting 6 home runs.  With Aasen standing at 6’2 he is a big body behind the plate, which is one reason he has had so much success at that position for Parkview.

·      Juniors Alex Hauri, James Lavery and Brendan Neal all received 2^nd team honors, and will be returning for hopefully a very talented senior season.  Lavery a 6’3 pitcher posted a 3-0 record allowing 0 earned runs, for the first games of the 2012 season.  Parkview hopes that he can continue this trend into the 2013 season.

·      Parkview sees five returning juniors to start their 2013 season, which looks to be loaded with talent and leadership.  All five juniors made conference honors and along with star sophomore Nick Henning, Parkview looks to move up significantly in the conference standings this year.

4^th – Palmyra – Eagle (9-7)

·      Big Lose will be losing Senior Infielder Adan Covarrubias, who earned 1^st team, honors in 2012.  He was a jack of all trades player for Palmyra, who not only was an all-star shortstop but also earned a 2-1 pitching record during the season.

·      Junior Tanner Gess will be a returning player earning 2^nd team last season.  Lucas Houk also a junior was honorable mention last year.

·      Palmyra looks to improve on a mediocre season last year, finishing in the middle of the conference with a 9-7 record.  They will be without Covarrubias their star senior player last year, and it will be expected for someone new to step into the leadership role.  With no a lot of returning talent, they will need to work together as a team to improve their record from the previous year.

5^th – Big Foot (8-8)

·      The loss of both seniors, third baseman Luke Hahl and catcher Tyler Santeler will be a big blow to the team heading into the new year.  Hahl was the star on Big Foot’s 8-8 team, earning himself 1^st team with his defensive talents at third base.  Santeler was another great player, among some of the best catchers in the conference even if the record may say different.

·      Big Foot looks to finish the 2013 season above .500 and they look to be poised do to that with the underclassman having another year under their belt.  Junior Carter Hehr, a first baseman for the Cougars, will be asked to become the captain of this young Big Foot team this season.

·      With talent looking to be far and in-between for Big Foot this season, they will rely on steady pitching from a young pitching staff that is mostly comprised of juniors.  Finishing second to last in the conference in 2012, Big Foot looks to get any sort of momentum early in the season.

6^th – Brodhead (5-11)

·      A big loss to the Cardinals is senior Tate Harnack, a two sport athlete who excelled on the basketball court as well as the baseball diamond.  The starting centerfielder for the Cardinals last year earned 1^st team honors because of his ball hawking abilities in the outfield.  He was the lone bright spot, besides Tyler Malcook on a Brodhead team that finished at the bottom of the 2012 South standings.

·      Sophomore Kyle Wescott, a left fielder for the Cardinals looks to be their best playing coming into the 2013 season.  He was moved up the varsity the beginning of his sophomore year and has found a nice spot in the starting lineup.  As only a sophomore he earned 2^nd team honors in 2012, hitting .312 on the season.

·      Junior Trent Gerlach, earned 2^nd team honors.  This Cardinal team can only move up this year, finishing last in the conference not only in standings up almost every other category.  They bring in a 2013 team that doesn’t have any star power but does have good youth.  If sophomore Kyle Wescott can produce even more his junior year, it may be enough to push Brodhead over the hump into relevancy.