 We'd be up by 15 or 20 a half. He would come in and be ranting and raving, getting all excited, getting the team all fired up. Son was in a freshman biology class with Ron Roode, with Ron Roode all being his teacher. We went to a parent teacher conference one night and got done talking about how my son was doing in his class. And I'm just getting up to walk away. And he said, wait a minute, there's one more thing. And he said, my boss wants to talk to you. And I said, you're school boss or you're basketball boss. And he said, my basketball boss, he's looking for somebody to do his stats. When Tom Desitel took over the Sheboygan North Basketball program in 1977, he changed the face of North basketball. Since 77, coaches teams have won 16 conference championships and made six state tournament appearances, winning the Division A title in 1986, the third of three straight trips to Madison. This success led to Tom being named Coach of the Year in the State in 1984 and Sheboygan Press Land Coach of the Year in 1993 and 2004. Coach Desitel stated during his first year at North, basketball is more than just practices and games. And took this mantra and showed the rest of the state what can be done when coach and player are willing to work towards a common goal. Tom learned his basketball from the best, having ties with John Wooden, Al McGuire, and Hank Raymond's. Our show will chronicle North basketball program under Desitel for the past 34 years. The coach came in and for the first two weeks, we never saw basketball. We went from wearing casual clothes to the blue blazers. Every person on our team had to look the same, there were no individuals and worked out well. He certainly bought a lot of discipline to that program in a hurry. Let's talk a little bit about how this all got started because I know you were at Madison, Milwaukee, Madison before coming to Sheboygan. How did you find out about the job and the interview process and all that? I was taking some practice interviews at the time and the opportunity came, I had a call that my favorite high school basketball player, a college basketball player at the time was Jerry Hoffensberger and I remember when I was 12 years old, sitting up on my bedroom listening to marquette basketball games and I used Jerry as my idol because I was forced to wear glasses. My vision was very bad as a result of chicken box when I was a kid and Jerry was one of the few college basketball players that wore glasses. Jerry was the principal at Sheboygan North and another friend, Coach Nagel, Jack Nagel was his coach and his son was the JV coach at Sheboygan North so I was intrigued to apply for the position. When you became the head coach, what in the program, the basketball program needed to be established? Well just about everything I think we needed to, we always told the athletes in Sheboygan that they need to get out of the surrounding area and see what basketball is like in the Green Bay area and particularly the Milwaukee area. We always used the analogy of the breakwater out at Lake Michigan, we needed to get out into the deep water. Basketball players are made during the off season and working on skills, given the middle of November every basketball program throughout the state starts and if you don't develop during the off season by playing some basketball, hey, you're not gonna catch up with the best if you don't start working harder than the best. Were you able to do everything you wanted to do within those first year or two or did you have to back off a little bit and ease into it like John Wooden said you might have to in his book? Well I think you try and build a rapport with everybody, respect for other sports and that North High School was too small of a school to be arguing among the other programs and you had to get along with the football program and the other sports programs and our kids were participating in a lot of different sports as well. As you look back over your years, especially the early years, what might you have done differently? Oh I'm not sure, I'm not sure about that at all. I thought I did things the way we wanted to get them accomplished and the people cooperated, they knew or I was able to sell them that we were interested in the total development of our kids both in the classroom, in the school and in their future after high school as well. We had a bunch of seniors on that first team in 77, 78 and we wanted to follow them through their college careers as well. Big on academics, he made sure that he knew exactly what your grades were and that's one of the memories I have with him that he knows every player what they're doing at all times. One of the things that I thought you started that impacted not just North basketball but really the whole area was your WizKids basketball school. Talk just briefly about that. Well, we would invite kids from throughout the area. Each school had their own local program, Mr. Wigan Southwood, maybe even have a Bucks camp over there, a day camp and, but we thought that through the YMCA and Don Lohman, the executive director, he wanted to bring the kids from Wiesberg and Chilton in and the remnants of that were echoed in 1986 too with three schools winning state championships. You know, WizKids, it seemed like more of a Norse thing. I know if you were gonna play in North, all the kids went to WizKids. I had the opportunity to work it because Desatell brought kids in from all different high schools which I thought was nice. WizKids for me, you know, as a player, it was an introduction, you know, to basketball, learning the basics, the fundamentals. A lot of guys would run camps and have the kids would come in and have some fun and, you know, play some games and all this other kind of stuff. You know, Tom was just dedicated to those kids are gonna come in and let's teach them something and let's drill them out and let's make those kids learn some basketball and not just have some fun. Making sure playgrounds are safe. Just one of the many ways that PTA can help you create a healthy environment for your child. Join us today. PTA, every child, one voice. Think about, you know, just, you know, how good of a friend Tom was. He was one that would do anything for ya in a basketball, outside of basketball or whatever. And I think that, you know, the combination of how well his kids were coached and just, yeah, just what a good friend he was. You had great success from 83 through 86, making it to state three straight years. How did those first two years going to the state tournament help lead to the 86 championship team? Well, we had to get out of map to Madison for, for Sheboygan. Sheboygan hadn't been to the state tournament since South had gone. And South kind of showed us the way as well. That they showed us a few years before that it's possible to make it to the state tournament. And we were real happy to follow them even though we were rivals in that, but they had a very, very good team. In the 80, 82, I think it was. But then in 1984, we went to the state tournament and Jim Schreiber, our captain, and Peter Dales were part of that team. And the kids were kind of wondering, hey, this is a vacation or whatever. They didn't really have the idea that they needed to have. In 84, 85, we were more serious. But in 85, 86, it was a business trip. Everybody knew that. And everybody went down there with one purpose in mind. In fact, I had to lighten them up a little bit. They were so fixed on what the final goal was. Walkie Madison, when I was the JV coach there, was very privileged to make the state tournament two of those years prior to coming to Sheboygan. And that's perhaps built on my credentials as an assistant coach as well. And we had been there before. And hey, get into sectional. You go up the ladder one step at a time. And I can remember taking the kids into Culp Fieldhouse where we had EZ Ed McCauley basketball camp and sitting on the benches there and telling them, this is where we hope to be in March, playing at Culp in a sectional tournament. We were actually on the court, telling the Nina offense where to go. That's how prepared we were. And that was all because the coach just telling the scouting. He helped prepare everybody. Probably the thing that really pushed you over the top as a team, as far as 85, 86, would be your big man, Portman and Rudolph. Talk a little bit about those two players and the impact they had in your success. Anytime you have a young man that's close to seven feet tall being recruited by several schools, you've got a good foundation. And when we had Troy Rudolph coming into the program, he played on all three of those state tournament teams as did Kurt. Troy was an unbelievable leader. He was a first team All-State player. And as was Kurt, how often do you see two boys from the same school making the All-State team? Troy was a tremendous leader. He directed everything on the floor. He does everything I want in a leader. And of course Peter Dales, a valedictorian, went to the University of Notre Dame. He was the captain before Troy, so we had two leaders on those previous teams, 84 and 85 in Peter and Troy. And then in 86, Peter wasn't with us, but he was our scorekeeper for the state tournament because he was on winter break from Notre Dame. Whenever you have big guys, you always have to have somebody that can get them the ball and you are also blessed on that team, obviously with good guard play. Let's talk a little bit about the people who made it happen from the outside, getting it to the big guys inside. Well, the starting guards were Steve Coles and Brad Simmons, and they were able to put some pressure on the other teams. And of course, if they got beat, they'd have to face Mr. Rudol and Mr. Portman in there. And then we had those guards dogging the other teams' guards, and we were able to bring off the bench. John Tharp and Kenny Muth, who would be college players, they were only juniors at the time, and they would be able to chew on the other team a little bit before they got the ball across midcourt. So we had four very, very good guards. Let's talk a little bit about the 86 championship specifically. In the second game, you played Walnuttoast East, who had a Marquette recruit, Tony Smith, was a very tough game for you guys. You wanted to pull it out. Is that game, in a sense, the state championship game? Because you beat Appleton East, not quite as formidable, obviously. What are your feelings on that? Well, it was kind of an unusual state tournament in that there were three pressure games in my mind, all three of them low-scoring games. The first one was against Milwaukee Madison, my old mentor, Ray Rose, and that was a two-point game. Then the second game against Tosa East, I think rated number two in the state. We were rated number one. They had Tony Smith, first team wall stater in his own right, and Kevin Conway, our forward, our forgotten man, the quiet man in our starting lineup, just went after Tony in and prevented him from getting too many touches, and we were very fortunate enough to win that game. And after that, it's just a deep breath, and the next day you're playing for the state championship against Appleton East. That was 1993 when they were the state runner-up. Sitting at the old field house at UW Madison doing that game, and so yeah, that's gotta be the highlight when you're sitting there doing stats for a state championship game. Even an Iraq vet like me who's in really good shape needs good healthcare, especially when it's top quality and convenient, and it's not just for men. In fact, aren't you a vet, Patricia? Yeah, I served in the Air Force. So why not come in today? When you check in, you'll get a full medical exam. First thing, free for vets at the VA. So check us out and see you here. North-South games are very interesting. The one thing I wanna, the atmosphere is so much different than any other place that I've ever played or I ever will play. Not just for the fact of the stands, we're full every night and that the floor was a little bit bigger, but yeah, we didn't have the space on the side of the courts to move. It was the stuff that during the day on Saturday, you practice, but you practice while cheerleaders were practicing on the sideline, or there was people hanging up posters, or the night before you would practice late at night because all the JV freshmen had a practice as well. The armory was a special place and anybody that's been there, there were articles about it the last year that the game was played in the armory. So many memories that the middle age to senior citizens have of the armory and going to the armory when they were in school as well, I was fortunate to be a part of so many of those games. I know the first two minutes of every North South game I played were always the ugliest basketball because everybody's getting so much emotion and up and down the court. Indeed, it's an experience that you wish you could recapture. It was Hoosiers, it was everything about what high school basketball was. It was written up in the journal Sentinel as that, the war on the shore, if you would, and just a special time, a special place, a special atmosphere, and you never knew if the underdog ever had a better chance to win. It would be in the armory with all those things to fight. When you think back, what games do stand out in your mind? There were so many good ones, really. I couldn't pick out one or the other. And I'm sure the South side of Sheboyga will remember those victories that they got over North as well in which a young man would come and just excel and maybe break a scoring record just by going off in North South series. Everyone was memorable in its own right, I think, and I hate to single one or the other out. The one I remember best right now is our last one, it wasn't at the armory at all, but the North-South games are special in Sheboyga. Brandon Bogan shoots either my junior or senior year as we were jogging over in our warm-ups. He tripped and fell into the grass and had a giant grass stain on his warm-up pants. When you play him in the field houses versus the armory, how is it different than the armory? Well, if people remember a team sat on opposite sides, the South team would sit on the South, on the South end of the armory and the North team would sit. You'd have to run to the scoring table, which was on the baseline. If you went in for a layup and got pushed at all, you wound up on the stage or against the wall in front of the stage. If you ran into the other end, you might run right into the ticket booth at the other end of the armory, so it was a special atmosphere and all of the games were filled. The condensation dripping off the walls, dripping off the ceiling onto the floor and just special times and special places. I think I'm bringing back memories. The shower, the locker room, which was about the size of most walk-in closets for both teams and walking down the steps to get there, we actually would dress at the YMCA because of the JV game going on there and so many special memories. Let's do one more thing. We've got a little bit of time left in this segment. It's not a North-South game, but it is a North, I should say, an armory experience. And that was back when Joe Wolfe was a senior at Kohler and you guys scheduled a game with Kohler in the armory. Talk a little bit about that. We were an up-and-coming team. We hadn't had much recognition. Indeed, when I came to Sheboygan North, North had, in the history of the school, had lost twice as many games as they'd won. And we were just about to turn the corner, have a winning season, I think a 13 and 6 record we finished with and Kohler had the Wolfe brothers. And our kids were pretty tight with Joe and Jeff Wolfe. And in fact, the year before, I took Joe and Eric Portman down to Chicago, to the McDonald's All-Star game so that he could meet John Wooden, who was one of the directors of the game. And we talked about playing in the McDonald's game and we also talked about maybe having a game against each other. And that came about, and I can remember, Herb Kohler calling for tickets the day of the game and our principal saying, where are we going to get tickets to put in some of these executives for this big game that would be on cable television in 1982? I will keep dancing on point, even if it hurts. My arm is killing me. I don't know if I can pitch another ball, but I'll just play through the pain anyway. I have to do the big stunts. We'll look better than the other cheerleaders if our tosses are bigger. My elbow really aches, but I've got to keep flexing. Nearly 50% of all sports injuries sustained by middle and high school students are from overuse. Don't play through the pain. Visit StopSportsInjuries.org. I made a road trip to Hartford one night and it was dark. It was probably after seven o'clock and as we're going along, it's dark and out of the blue, here comes a deer right in front of the car and we smacked it head on and it was absolute silence for about 15 or 20 minutes and we got to a smaller city along the way and we pulled over to check out the damage, but that's a night we still joke about to this day. In fact, he always tells me when we're going out scouting together, let's not go out and do any deer hunting. I've picked a couple of players, Coach, because we don't have a whole lot of time, but I would like you to have you make some comments on them. One is John Tharp and you had mentioned on the 86 team, he was a substitute, but when he came into that championship game, he helped you win that championship and he's moved on to bigger and better things. Talk a little bit about John. Well, John's now coaching college basketball. Basketball centered around the backyard basketball around his house. He was electric personality and just a special person. Next player would like you to comment on is Kyle Tetzelog, one of your taller players, quite a player for you. I'm glad you're picking out these players, but Kyle was special and thanks for selecting him. He was one of our best leaders of all time and I'd like to give him some credit for Kayla's development as well and nothing ever happens without the leadership of mother and dad. The next one is a more recent player, Nolan Free. Well, Nolan didn't look much like a basketball player. I had to have to tease his father was far more athletic than he is and his sister was a lot tougher than he was, but he had a knack of knowing what to do and when to do it. And I'm making fun of an all-state basketball player that was just a special person, a special leader. His demeanor under pressure was always bring it on and he's ready for it and the people around here that watch Nolan play know how special he was. Who played better defense, Nolan or the old man? Well, Billy Free played some D was a comment I used to yell out all the time. Billy played very, very little defense, but I don't like to tell his daughter that. He said something to say about that coach. Nolan was special on defense. He had us practice, you know, every day, Saturdays. We practice Sunday nights and he instituted the before school practices. We were in there from six to 7.30 every day practicing. We need to talk briefly about some of the teams that you've had over the years. I'd like you to comment about that very first team and how they responded to your coaching, you know, after having a different coach the year before and most of the players on that first team in 77, 78 played fall sports, but the ones that didn't have got faced with fitness club and fitness club meant out on the track, it meant an hour of running, an hour of jumping benches. There wouldn't be any basketball involved in it, but that was quite a thing and it kind of established my reputation as no nonsense. We wanted to turn the corner. I can remember Fred Forstling, they said he's gonna be a tough one to handle. He's good in baseball. He's good in football. He's bullheaded. Freddie'd laugh at that I think right now, but I can remember one night coming home to my apartment just before Christmas and here big Freddie kind of saunters out and he's got a plate in his hand and I didn't know if this would be the end for me but he had Christmas cookies that he said, he said coach here, one of the better coaches we've ever had and I was kind of touched by that and said well maybe things are gonna be all right here. The 92-93 team that placed second in state and what happened in that final game and what was the team like? Well the team was a great team as well. Certainly the second best record wise that we've ever had at North High School. We had great people on that team. We had a young man named Balco. We had Renzelman. We had Schrameyer. We had a sixth and seventh men that wound up playing college basketball. We lost in the state championship game in Wauke Washington. The kids at Wauke Washington and Jim Gordon at the time were just as great kids. It was a tough game. It came down to a couple of shots at the end that didn't go in but the journey was very important for that team and a lot of great memories for those young men as well and for me as well. I was not having a very good shooting weekend and the encouragement and support of my teammates and the coaching and all the coaches was probably memorable. 24,000 children die every day from preventable causes. My name is Lucy Liu and I believe that number should be zero. Believe in zero. Join the effort. Visit unicefusa.org. I missed the layup at the last second to lose the game, how I kind of put it. The crowd went crazy. Coming down from the south side and I'm kind of dazed because it was a fairly easy layup and Coach Destel sought me out, put his arm around me and said, hey, you got to play more games. Senior year, you were battling out there as the only starter. Don't hang your head. Who were your mentors as a young coach? And I'm talking way back like when you started in 68, 69. Oh, when I started, the person that got me out of the gym and onto the playground was Ray Rosak, my mentor at Milwaukee Madison. But prior to that, I had been going out to, I had written in via an article in the sporting news to John Wooden's basketball fundamentals camp and had gone out there for a couple of years. I had used as credentials working at McGuire's basketball camps in Della Field, St. John's Military Academy and that. And I was kind of a basketball junkie. We got a little bit of ball, and I know we just lost Coach Wooden and Coach Raymond's also. How did Coach Raymond's help you? Well, Coach Raymond's actually was at a banquet up in Sheboygan in 1977. And he said, boy, you've got to take a look when you're looking for a basketball coach at this coach down in Milwaukee. He's special. Of course, Hoffensberger was a Marquette grad. So they listened and they granted me an interview in May of that year. So Coach Raymond certainly helped me out along the way. It wasn't bad when you have references of John Wooden and Al McGuire, Hank Raymond's. That was kind of special. I was blessed. Coach, we've talked a little bit about your mentors. You obviously are a mentee to a lot of different people, specifically your assistant coaches. Talk a little bit about the assistant coaches you've had. Well, I got as much from them as they got from me, certainly. And Jeff Wolf helped us out. Very special person, very special father. I think that title is far more precious than Coach. Todd Decker, young guy. I didn't do much to straighten him out, but Mrs. Decker certainly did. And he's gone on to be a very, very successful person. A student teacher I had, Andy Seroni, a son playing for UW Green Bay right now, was a student teacher, was an awesome football player. John Tharp, one of our players that got into coaching, very proud of him as well. What were some things that you felt were important to impart to those coaches? Well, I think the duties of any coach, to teach them to correctly and properly execute the fundamentals, to get the athletes into condition, and then to teach them to play like a team, those three attributes that I learned from Coach Wood and I hopefully passed on to them as well. Coach, I want to thank you for coming in. It's been a pleasure covering your teams and watching you play. I want to say thank you to all the staff here at WSCSTV for helping formulate this program. And to all our fans out there watching, thank you and we'll see you down the road. Things I think about with North Basketball is how prepared North Basketball always was. I think one of the biggest advantages the North players always had is they were always prepared. We appreciate everything he's done for us and I think all of us view him as a father figure and we'll never forget everything he's done for us and the program. It was a pleasure to play for you. I can say that now. It was a privilege to coach with you, but mostly it's an honor to be able to call you my friend. Thanks for everything. Thanks for the memories, for the education and the friendship. He's really taught me everything outside of basketball is more important than basketball itself. I wish him luck. I hope he sticks around for as long as he wants. I just wish now and then he would give me some credit for playing defense, but he doesn't.