April 28, 2017 at 1:17 p.m.
Staff dominates students in charity basketball game
Staff dominates students in charity basketball game
With RHS boys' basketball coach Derek Lemmens and assistant coach Chad Bolkema splashing from the outside and assistant Hodag coaches Brandon Karaba and Kurt Zalewski pounding in the paint, the SDR staff rolled past the RHS students 73-56 at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
The students won last year's game 84-71, snapping the staff's five-year run of dominance in the series. Fielding a squad that included first-team All-Great Northern Conference player Owen White and fellow RHS varsity players Reeve Craig, Easton Senoraske, Brad Quade and Reese Flores, the students jumped out to an early 7-0 lead. But the staff answered with an 18-0 run and never looked back.
Craig, a senior point guard, insisted the students were taking it easy on an ever-aging staff squad.
"You can't go too many years without them winning or they get a little crabby," he said.
Instead, it was the students who ended up a little salty afterward with White mocking a "16-versus-one" analogy used by the announcer - a comparison first drawn by former RHS boys' basketball coach Rich Fortier describing the students' chances of upsetting an experienced staff squad.
"They should be (upset)," Lemmens said. "It wasn't very pretty and, right from the start, I think we showed (that). They had their little run. We let them feel good and then I think the cream rose to the top."
The staff led 41-29 at half, and played with a 20-plus point lead through much of the second half. Lemmens initially denied that last year's loss to the students served as motivation on Monday.
"Last year was last year," he said with a smirk. "We're professionals here and this year is this year. We just focus on the present."
Pressed to explain his facial expressions, Lemmens finally spilled the truth.
"Of course we were upset," he said. "We don't like to lose. This was definitely we can not let two in a row happen."
The staff now holds a 9-3 lead in the series which dates back to 2006.
The game was a low-key event played in front of a light crowd of family and friends Monday night at the Miazga Gym. Proceeds from the event will go to the Rhinelander High School Key Club.
For some of the students - like Craig and Senoraske - it was a chance to play on the Miazga Gym floor one more time and match skills with their coaches.
"It's always fun," Craig said. "I love Derek. We trash talk basically every day. You get used to it after a while and have some fun with it."
"I like playing with these guys," added Lemmens. "It's just a great group of guys. We're able to coach together and be able to play together at open gyms and that. This stuff's always fun. It allows us to feel young a little bit every now and then."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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