 My name is Lee Benish, I'm a club member for the South by Attricopo, and I've been working with COLA for a year or two. Thank you guys, and good luck to all of you. We are here to pay tribute to each of your student athletes, and to acknowledge your participation over the last four years. So relax, have fun, and enjoy this evening's program. We do have a number of special guests that I'd like to be introduced at this time. Sitting to my right, on the table on the right is Dr. Joseph Sheehan. Superintendent of Schools, Pam Sheehan. Mr. Caldwell Simmer, Luther High School. Mr. Jason Bull, Principal of North High School. Mr. Michael Schoenberger, Principal of South High School. And to my left is Steve Peterson, who will be on the right. Very good plan on that. He's the Treasurer of the Elk-Square Art Committee. That's a great job in keeping us financially intact. To my left is Mr. Tom Fogel and Mr. Kevin Pauls, Co-Chairman of the Elk-Square Art Scholarship Committee. The applications you submitted tonight, they're reviewed with their committee, and have come up with a final selection. We also have with us an individual who has written many articles relating to all of your teams, and has done an excellent job of reporting sports in the local Sheboygan Press. Please acknowledge and be claimed back. To introduce the individual seated on the table, beginning from my left will be Mr. Dan Stengel, Activist Director at Sheboygan North High School. Mr. Chris Hyen, Activist Director at Sheboygan South High School. Mr. Doug Mulcaaney, Athletic Director at Colmer High School. And Deborah Van Duren, Van Drunen, A.D. at Sheboygan County Christian High School. To my right is Mr. Bill Wagner, Chairman of the Elk-Square Art Committee, an outstanding job of organizing this event, as well as other ways in which we recently took the scholarship. To his right is Mr. John McLaughlin, our guest speaker. Our resultant ruler of Sheboygan Elk School, 299, is Mr. Michael Roth. And then we have representing the Harold Godsecker Award, Mr. Todd Decker. At this time, I would like to ask the dining staff to come forward, and can we all please give a round of applause for another excellent job in serving our food this evening. I would call on the gentleman who keeps this committee going on the right direction and spends a substantial amount of time of dedicated in doing our work with the chairmanship. Would you please acknowledge Mr. Bill Wagner. We'll thank you very much. Student athletes, coaches, administrators, and members, welcome to the 56th Annual Grid Iron Sports banquet. The Grid Iron Committee was organized in the first week. The banquet was held back in 1959. With a direction from the exalted ruler to conduct the banquet, the honored football players from North High and then Central High School. Needless to say, things have changed. Over the years, the banquet has expanded to include senior letter winners from five high schools, 20 letters, and over 20 sports and activities. I want to welcome Sheboygan County Christian High School to the banquet. This is their first year for their students, coaches, and athletic director after attending the banquet. I wish that you enjoyed the program and the evening and say lots of nice things to the juniors at Christian High School and get them here next year. Most of you might be wondering, what is the Grid Iron Committee? The Grid Iron Committee originally had a football-first emphasis. It wasn't necessarily all that large. But now it is probably the largest continually active committee inside of this lodge. And it serves two purposes. The first is to conduct this banquet and reward scholarships and awards to the deserving student-athlete. Since 1985, the committee has presented over $200,000 and tonight with the generosity of the members and several Elks families will present another $15,000 in scholarships and awards to 16 students. Our second purpose is to support youth sports activities throughout the county. It is very possible, many of you or someone you know has participated in activities that the committee supports. Some of the organization's activities through the years include Sheboygan Youth Football, the Diamonds, the Strikers, the Sheboygan Area Youth Soccer, American Legion Baseball, and Special Olympics programs. And on the Elks bases, the Elks Book Shoot, if you've ever competed in that, basketball players, the Elks Soccer Skills Competition and SESO tournament, just to name a few. Plus we also are going to help host a huge, junior bowling tournament for scholarships. You might also be asking, who is this committee? Those of you on this side of the room, they'll be seeing me more than enough, right? Well, you may know a few of the members. Four members are current coaches at North or South High School. Coaches Walters Wright and Dan Beagle at North and coach Wyman at South are members of this committee. There are also five former coaches from North and South and also from the middle school level that are also on this committee. Those who have North, Valley Hill, Mr. Engels, have played soccer. He coached someone recently. Otherwise, the next recent retired coach, I think, is Neal. And that goes back when you guys were in first grade. The rest of the members are members of the community that have attended events at the high schools as their children have gone through them and some even attend, even though they have no children, participating. They may have graduated from North-South, Lutheran, Christian, whatever the case may be. Like the young man in the back of the room standing there in the diet looking down at her, Mr. Grouchow. He's had a lot of basketball games and a lot of football games. He's had a lot of good football games. He's just one of any members of the community or members of the committee that attend your games. They attend because they like and appreciate what you do. Dixiel. And Dixiel has conducted this program with nurses and things that need to be extended. First, the last membership. Their contributions provided to Diel you ate tonight. On the back of the ticket, there was a name of a member or a member's widow. Some have person in note thanking them for their donation. They truly appreciate receiving them. As chairman, I hear from members that have received thank you notes and they are truly impressed with the quality of the person who came to this bankbook. In fact, the person who has my ticket has already thanked me. Where are you close to that? There he is in the back of the room. He thanked me on Friday night. But he saw me at the JV track. Secondly, I want to thank a member of the committee that's been on this committee for a long, long time, Mr. Bill Richards. For many years he's done an exceptional job getting speakers for this bankbook with varying degrees of assistance from other members of the committee. In a discussion earlier tonight, he said he's been at that for about 40 years. And when you take a look in the program at the list of names of people that have spoken here, he's done one heck of a job. Third, I want to thank the longstanding corporate sponsor, Dean's Food, and going back when they were known as very fine of you for that late delay. He had a healthy drink tonight but still needed by that. And they've been doing it for years. I'm not sure how long maybe they'll go back to the first bankbook in 1959. Lastly, I want to thank many members that are here that have helped tonight in putting this and making this bankbook run as smoothly as it is. To them, thank you very much. Your work is greatly appreciated. Last thing I want to do, is welcome Mr. John McLaughlin to tonight's Bangler. I'm not exactly sure who this age is, me or him, but I remember going to the Milwaukee Bucks game back when I was in junior high in high school. I had to go to the Milwaukee Arena. As explained, it says best football player in high school college in the NBA are well documented. As is his career, one of the voices of the Milwaukee Bucks group in many, many years. One truly noteworthy aspect of John is his service and commitment to the community. He is one of the founders of the Midwest athletes against childhood cancer, which he and Eddie founded back in 1976. And he continues with his involvement as president of that organization. He also sits on the athletic board for the Wisconsin Coalition for Christian Athletes, and has emeritus status at the University College of Wisconsin. And this day, I'd like to introduce the Exalted Ruler of Elk Slash 299, Mr. Mike Roth. It's my honor as Exalted Ruler of Chihuahua Lodge 299, and as the beneficial and protective order of Elks to all communities. And at this point, since I haven't gone in, I will put in the shape of this plug to say I can see quite a few future Elks out there. Now, also, mostly I'm not sure to thank you. Obviously this has done a tremendous job, not only tonight, but there's countless hours behind the scenes raising the funds and seeing to it that we have facilities in the shape and the financial where we're called to do athletes tonight. Also, thank you as athletes for your dedication and hard work. Obviously there's no point in holding an event like tonight without that hard work and dedication. Thank you. But there's one group here, the Coaches. I've tried to myself raising or helping raise four sons, step sons, try coaching yourself sometime. It is a difficult job. Besides being a coach, you're a teacher, a confidant and a mentor. You're a tough little coach for the teachers doing well. I know from personal experience a good coach will give credit to the athletes that he's coaching. And my response to that is again a good job coach. So thank you all for your work and again for your dedication. And I think at this point we're going to turn it back to Mr. Thank you Michael. Thank you Bill. Now we'll have Mr. Dan Stangle, the Activities Director of North High School to receive the introductions of the Coaches and senior letter winners of North High School. On behalf of North High School I'd like to thank the hopes of their continued generosity on behalf of our student-athletes. Mr. Hyatt and I were talking to an athletic director from the surrounding community and asked him what he had on the docket for the night and he had their version of the Helms pain point where the local businessmen were supporting their student-athletes and he said it was a great night and how three other athletes, each one would be awarded the $100 scholarship and how much the community supported them. I know you're $15,000 and the amount of money this committee has given to our student-athletes over the years is really staggering. It's a very special night. So thank you to the host club. Next I'd like to introduce our Coaches in attendance. Again, thank you Coaches. Do you seamlessly when you play lessons every day where there are cracks or games with our student-athletes and support the mission and vision of our high school and the curricular efforts of our high school. So we thank you. Chris Lannis, our athletic trainer is here. Chris would please say hello. Coaches top, that's the top. Kevin Herbert. Jason Martin. Chad Belier. Chris will stay standing until the end. I'll be right back. Carl, Neen Heises here. Vicky Roepen. Ted Shremensler. Eric Spielman. Dan Stens. Sammy Utley. Chris Wright. Thank you. Kind of our student-athletes. Can you hear your name please? Stan, remain standing. We'll have applause at the end. I'd like to thank our student-athletes. Looking at Expo this past weekend from all the events that we have on their place. When I started this job 12 years ago, even then there wasn't as many obligations for your time. So how you balance those and represent more high school with work and what you have going on at home is commendable. We thank you. Michael Baca. Erica Berger. Mariah Bennett. Taylor Beterwald. Seneda Binderra. Erica Brayhan. Thank you. Erica Brayhan. Taylor Brunedy. Dominic Hudson. Austin Campbell. Nick Cook. Nick Cox. Trevor Damcott. Nate Davis. Danny Decker. Molly Deleving. Adrian Essins. Abby Flasher. Jacob Fritz. Gabriel Calante. Jaris Gellemore. Meggie Gentine. Lindsay Gussie. Tyler Griespion. Andrew Bruno. Marcel Perez. Emily Henning. Tori Hoppe. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Tori Hoppe. Lauren Hunley. Darcy Carrigan. Ellis Kirkwoods. Evie Buckum. Macy Counter. Evan Corus. Erin Kruble. Katrina Kruze. Paige Kutla. Cole Kutla. Sarah Leipman. Nick Kruz. Sarah Leipman. Nick Florian. Alyssa Lutsky. Jordan Marquez. Danielle Meyers. Jessica Meyers. Weston Nelson. Maddie Obey. Antonia Lucia. Samantha Parker. Jake Pellen. Sam Halza. Nathan Pfeiffer. Brett Pocker-Zinski. Sarah Prescott. Will Ruffin. Jacob Schmidt. Aaron Schmidt. Gallean Schroder. Abby Schuber. Angie Schubert. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Angie Seymour. Ian Chinners. Alice Baldwin. Claudia Stanskis. Margaret Stanskis. Noah Stengel. Ross Tager. Taylor Thiemard. Tyler Thiemard. Matt Thiebaud. Melissa Ermanic. DJ Usadam. Benjamin Vago. Danny Benfield. Sarah Gordon. And Danny Walsh. This is Doug Bocchini, the Athlete Director of the Fuller High School. These are coaches and senior letter winners from the Fuller High School. I'd like to congratulate all the student athletes from all five schools here tonight, and wish you all the best in your future. Special thank you to our core partners, Cheboygan Lutheran and Cheboygan Christian. These partnerships allow all our students to participate in more opportunities than our schools can handle alone. To the Oats Club, again, thank you and your organization for putting together this great event every year for us. Your continual commitment to our students throughout the school year area is tremendous. So, I'll start with the coaches. Tonight we are joined by several of our coaches. We'd like to thank all their efforts to give our athletes. These coaches dedicate not only to their own teams, but most of them give across several teams and other sports involved. So, coaches, please stand and stay standing until all your names are called. Generator Matt Bynes. Matt Zavada. John Colt. Dwayne Dumay. Eric Eggers. Kelly Cole. Eric Whitford. I think I have them all. Coaches, again, thank you very much. Athletes, congratulations to the Kohler High School faculty. And thank you for everything you've done for Kohler High School over the past four years. You are representing yourself and Kohler School's broader career and a continual positive path. With that being said, again, athletes, please stand as I call it your name. Eric Howard. Bill Case. Derek Egbert. Sarah Erlen. Cody Gartman. Valerie Link. Brett Miller. Zach Keel. Joe Polowski. Jacob Porter. Elizabeth Steckel. Calvin Stavagek. Paul DeSenti. Richard Z. And Kelly Settle. Seniors, thank you, and more importantly, when you go home, thank your parents and families for all the sacrifices they made for you by allowing you to participate and succeed over the past four years. Thank you, and good luck. Next we'll have Mr. Chris Hyde. I give this director of South High School who provides introduction of the coaches and similar winners from the Woodland South High School. All right, I think Dan and Doug have done a great job of recognizing yourself fortunate. We are in this community that the support of organizations like the Alps Club and they've gone over the numbers. I mean, $200,000 given away to student athletes in this community. $15,000 today. I hope you guys realize you're self-fortunate. You are welcome in a community like Sheway and that supports student athletes like yourself. I know when I was in high school I probably wouldn't really just realize that I heard people talking but wasn't really listening. And I hope you guys really are taking the same and I hope you realize how fortunate you are to be here and congratulations to the winners will be announced later. All right, first, I want to recognize the coaches and make it tonight. I want to thank them on behalf of the student athletes for all the time that they've dedicated to Sheway and South High School. I want to thank them for the time that they've given to their student athletes and so when I call your name if you could please stand and remain standing. Tyler Thomas Terry Radke Sim Safford Paul Rivas Todd Tutis I would also, I hope they can hear me in the back and also this time ask my secretaries in the activities office Mary, Rissy and Patty Gunther if you could please come forward. I hope they didn't die in a ditch. There they are. Thank you. So please give them all a round of applause for the student athletes of Sheway and South High School I'd like to recognize and I also would like to thank them for all the hard work and dedication that they've shown on behalf of Sheway and South High School over the last four years. When I call your name if you please stand and remain standing. Tyler Amundsen Nicholas Balma Eric Virchelt Paul Brun Mikaela Popli Kyle Cady Emmett Dean Jason Dakarski Katarina Dickert Eric Fisher Cameron Fuller Amariah Hurd Roberts Hoffman Chelsea Hunt Devonte Yerks Benjamin Johnson Samantha Kirsten Caitlyn Lampie Jennifer Leonard Jacob Malowitz Mitchell Martinez Cody McLaughlin Jacob Miller Kayla Nightway Brandon Nelson Carly Knoll Mackenzie Nolton Lauren Fial Cameron Pazowicz Noemi Polito Steven Rodriguez Samantha Rose Kelsey Taylor Ruppel Monica Sampson Sarah Schrang Mercedes Shookers Joseph Schultz Eddie Shanklin III Emma Sharpe Courtney Steuers Stacy Stone John Sullivan Rachel Vansluis Brianna Wojcik Alina Zhang Robert Yang Tua Yan Deng and Tyler Zeiss I hope I didn't miss anything So thank you on behalf of Schwoing and Sullivan High School again and best of luck in the future guys Thank you Thank you Thank you Mr. Hyde Next we will have introductions of coaches and senior letter winners from Schwoing and Luton High School by Mr. Allen Bolzheimer Principal, half-byte director Greetings, before I introduce our players and coaches on behalf of Schwoing and Luton High School I'd like to take a moment again to thank the balance members for this fantastic evening and yours to be commended for your efforts in awarding these scholarship awards for defying area athletes Thank you All the rest of the athletes here, congratulations on your accomplishments and blessings on your future endeavors Luton High is blessed to have such commended and dedicated coaches being our young men and women and I'd like to introduce them at this time Boys basketball, Nick Verhagen Girls basketball, Mike Shealy Football, Matt Zavada Golf, Larry Kettle Thank you Introduce our 2014 Luton High senior athletes an outstanding and talented young group of men and women Some of them are a threat of finishing up the musical place if I miss them please stand up so I can recognize them Jacob Ames Anna Barrow Daniel Byron Bianca Castellano Megan Rubin Emily Hammond Gloria Grigic Jeff Hess Kate Rediker Christian Steiner Taylor Zastrow Tyler Zastrow Thank you Paul Steiner This evening's final introduction for coaches and senior athlete winners will be by Ms. Deb Van Drouin She is the athletic director from Sheboyan County Christian High School I didn't realize the speech was in order but I too would like to thank the Alps organization for sponsoring this event and for the scholarship work that they appreciated I would like to begin by thanking each of our coaches and all of the officers who have been supporting our students and coaching for us this year Christian High and I just enjoy that and enjoy you bringing to your family by doing what you do This year we had a very small senior class so we had a small number of senior athletic winners and we have two wonderful young men representing our school this year who are the great leaders and Mr. James Rasmussen and Mr. Brady Otting Van Drouin and welcome Christian High School hope to see more of you next year At this time I'd like to have the head football coaches Chris Hine from South and Mr. Carl Knight Heist from North please come forward for the annual North-South football game trophy presentation I was wishing that I was going to talk to our guest speaker about a 1974 basketball game between the Bucks and the Lakers and I was a 10-year-old who was in the game in my memory of that I'll ask him after the banquet again congratulations to everyone here but I am here to hand the trophy over to South two things that come to mind when I knew I was coming here tonight was one camps and we held them in South I think that you guys all worked this in the slumber on that night the exalted ruler hit it on the head earlier so I do want to ask the senior football players who did I didn't know muscle anybody on that night so I do want to ask the senior football players here to stand so I'll accept this trophy on behalf of them Mr. Tom Fockel Mr. Kevin Pauls our co-chairman of the scholarship committee they and their committee members visited each of the schools at each school they reviewed all scholarship applicants needless to say this amounts to a lot of work and their efforts are greatly appreciated I would please ask that Mr. Kevin Pauls Mr. Tom Fockel come forward to begin the scholarship award presentation Welcome to the 50th year of the sports night and the 29th year of our awards 16 of you athletes tonight are here to receive the total of $15,000 of course I want to go over the bar because everybody is talking about $200,000 tonight it will go up to $226,250 so we've really made some I think those we'll go back to 1985 I think we awarded three people $500 and see where things have gone in the last seven years I would like to thank the committee members from the scholarship committee members Mark Shannon Mike Rhino and of course Tom Fockel the nice first award is the gridiron committee excellence award in memory of Dutch Thornton this award goes back to 1959 the award is a $500 scholarship to a football player from Northland from South sponsored by the Dutch gridiron committee Dutch Thornton was an original member of this group this this award goes to the football player for each team with the highest GPA from South so the first award tonight is for the North Hyde recipient had six letters three in football, two in wrestling, one in track two-time MVP three-time captain in football and most improved wrestler he is attending the Colorado School of the Minds had a big GPA of 5-0-2-2 in recipient from North Hyde is Carson Bell Carson is competing at the National Decker Conference is a subject matter, is category that is competing in sport management and entertainment and so he is out west right now more than that so he is going to accept that Tom is going to accept that because he is an outstanding recipient from South so the four winner, two in football, two in wrestling is a two-sport team captain and most improved player is attending the University of Wisconsin Whitewater and a rated GPA of 4.58 that is Jacob Moles and received at least two varsity letters and high school athletics you need to be nominated by a varsity coach and you need to apply for an Opal Scholarship that's the form you put out you should be at or near the top 25% of your graduating class enter a program leading to a bachelor's degree and maybe most importantly exemplified good citizenship this first award is with a Ryan Blazer Memorial Award it's given to one recipient from either North or South Kohler or Lutheran or this year Christian and is majoring in math or science field and he awards for a thousand dollars sponsored by this panel Ron was one of the founding members of this committee and he served as chairman of the scholarship committee for over 15 years he was a long time respected educator in the Sheboygan area he taught math and science I think and a great community services tonight's winner has six letters, four in soccer basketball two-time MVP captain's soccer two-time first team all conference and player to year in soccer attending well excuse me his GPA is 4.0 on a 4.0 scale ranked first in class attending Carroll University from South High Rachel Banks Lewis Mr. Harrison Memorial Award a recipient from North South Kohler Lutheran a recipient from all schools and he awards for one thousand dollars he was a long time loyal he believed in kids he's a founding member of this committee and a sports fan he believed in character building a high school sports provides he appreciated the student-athlete and the work and the one especially they had to work a little bit harder he wanted to always appreciate the one who really worked through adversity this athlete is a very talented one and had to overcome an injury during his senior season he came back through a lot of hard work and had a great senior season he had eight letters four on track, four across country three-time captain two-time MVP it was a two-time all conference and state qualifier across country and two indoor fieldhouse records and track his GPA is 367 out of a four-point scale he's attending the University of Oshkosh this recipient is from North High, Trevor Nant from the second year was also my father in law so he's a student here to give Son Fogel is going to give away he's a past recipient of the Godsecker Award and he's going to present for real so congratulations Kevin didn't mention that we're like the most important guys here because we give away one make sure you're nice to us at least for 40 groups I want to just briefly say to you guys and I don't want to take any responsibility here but we have about 170 160 senior letter winners here you guys got to realize how special that is think back to your days in your second grade to play baseball, basketball soccer track, whatever it is and that pyramid on the bottom there were a lot of players 50 to 200 youth baseball, soccer and as you grew up that pyramid got shorter at the top how many letter winners really were out of your schools on those teams so if you're getting an award or not today, you got to walk out of your head high because you stuck through some good times bad times, everything else all the tough practices the time commitment every day if you played in the game or not when you look back I guarantee you you're going to look back and say you're part of it not even beyond the court or the field because there's a good percentage of you students that aren't a part of it they're just studying you're studying going to practice so congratulations to every single one of you you got to be proud of that with your head high and walk home that being said this this next award is the first annual Robert L. Gutschel Memorial Scholarship there's two scholarships one for a male baseball player and one female softball from either north or south we're honored today to have Bob's son Tyson with Bob's granddaughter Tyra Gutschel to hear present the award and talk a little bit about their father and grandfather Tyra Gutschel going to step up here and join all of you seniors and talk about all the special award grandfather was here so please give it up for Tyra my grandfather Robert Gutschel was born and raised in Sheboygan where he owned a successful family business my grandpa was dedicated to his family friends and the Sheboygan community he was always looking to give back to the community through financial contributions to numerous charities, youth athletics adult sports the Sheboygan Software Association and its teams the Sheboygan A's and many other area projects Robert had been elected into many sponsorship with all of the names throughout the years and also received the community sponsor of the year award on their 30th wedding anniversary my grandpa and grandma founded the Sheboygan County Children with Cancer Fund this local fund which is still going strong today raises money to help families that have children with cancer pay for things like gas cards hotels, weights expensive medicines and other related expenses my grandpa also played a lot of sports throughout the years that included football basketball golf and baseball which he excelled at the most in high school my grandpa started at third base on the varsity as a freshman on the varsity baseball team and then lost in the state finals Bob went on to play college baseball at Stout and then finished his baseball career playing in the Wisconsin State Semi Pro League his final game came at the Milwaukee County Stadium where he was scouted by St. Louis Cardinals but did not make the team because he was too slow because of my grandpa's love for baseball and youth sports my family would like to be awarding two $1,000 scholarships to student athletes who display good citizenship good academics and baseball under softball okay, the softball recipient for the first annual Robert Alcache Memorial Scholarship goes to an individual that has seven letters three in volleyball four in softball team captain all conference honorable mention softball last year hopefully that improves for her second team in all area in volleyball 3.91 out of a 4-point scale attending Loyola University of Chicago this year's softball recipient for the Robert Alcache Memorial Scholarship goes to North High Alexandria Spulte the first baseball recipient has seven letters four in baseball three in basketball two sports team MVP other awards Legion Baseball All-Star Game and MVP of that All-Star Game 4.01 of a 4-point scale ranked number one in the class attending Augustana College this year's baseball recipient for the Robert Alcache Memorial Scholarship goes to South High the first Memorial Award is given to one recipient from the Board of Christian for the amount of $1,000 Tom recently passed away and was one of the founding members of this preliminary committee avid athletic background of high school and college sports and was a long time local businessman in Sheboygan and gave back to the community not only monetarily but also in his time this year's recipient has six letters four in baseball two in basketball team awards captain in basketball very active with the Sheboygan community on the customer service side grade point average of 3.65 on a 4-point scale attending UW Oshkosh this year's recipient Thomas Manny Elton Memorial Award goes to South High high school recipients will receive $1,000 eight letters four soccer three basketball one track team awards first time two sport team captain other second team all conference in basketball and soccer member of the 2012 state championship team and a starter on this year's state team for basketball grade point average of 3.21 looking to attend UW Madison recipient Lutheran High second recipient for Lutheran High has seven letters three volleyball three in track team awards two time MVP and captain in volleyball other awards volleyball two time first teamer on conference one time second teamer and one time all area home volleyball grade point average of 3.7 on a four scale attending Concordia University Lutheran High recipient of Elk sports award second one goes to Emily this year's recipient has seven letters four swimming three track team awards team captain others three time top three state finisher grade point average of 3.85 on a four scale attending UW Madison this year's Elk sports award from Fuller High goes to Courtney Rutten first sports award from Salafia goes to recipient that has five letters two in basketball three in soccer team awards two time team captain one time team MVP other awards are two years scholar athlete and has volunteered in various community service activities grade point average of 3.86 attending Loyola University first recipient of Elk sports award from Salafia goes to Breanna which is six letters two basketball two soccer two volleyball team awards three time team captain in volleyball one time in books this year here actually involved all captains others other awards two times scholar athlete and also various community service activities throughout our community grade point average of 3.23 attending UW Madison results second recipient of Elk sports award goes to camber posits four letters team awards two time MVP two time team captain other awards first team all kind of championships grade point average of 3.73 attending leighton college our first recipient of Elk sports award goes to CJ Yusabel high school recipient has seven letters three basketball team awards three time captain basketball two times captain one time MVP in soccer other awards second team and first team all conference first team all area in soccer grade point average of 3.73 attending trinity christian college our first recipient ever came up with a joke don't tell the juniors that our next award is called the herald gotzucker award goes to the best male athlete amongst north south color who earned christian scholarships four thousand dollars herald was the original member of the grand air community local business man community leader grade high school athlete law and lower danger it's my honor to introduce introduce former coach of mine and also a father of one of our past recipients of the herald gotzucker award coach Todd decker to present the award on behalf of the herald gotzucker family it's an honor to be here tonight to represent the herald gotzucker family and high school buddy of mine who works in sanatorium today so he asked me to come in and it's an honor to do that great to see all these people a lot of kids I know it's thrilling to be able to see the success that people have and good luck in your future the 2014 herald gotzucker award for male athlete that was an eight bar C letters for second team law conference in football and basketball top five receivers in area with 40 basketball top 10 in the scoring area three times state qualifier in track six in the 300 hurdles fifth on male 18 and hopefully more will be coming his way great point for the 3.7 two on a scale we'll be attending university of scots in the ass and we'll be a badger 2014 herald gotzucker fourth recipient from polo high school a few years ago she was a great athlete that excelled in tennis and low ball sports especially in high school sport this memorial for you guys the 2014 ankoff award for the area's top female athlete has letters four in tennis two in basketball one in soccer team awards three sport team captain two time MVP in tennis one time in soccer recognitions second team all state tennis three times state qualifier in tennis WIA scholar athlete the starter on the championship conference team for north high in basketball the other way there 2014 ankoff recipient for the area's top female athlete is from north high they don't do it for the paycheck they do it to educate you through the arena of sports okay if you were like i was in high school you kind of saw a vision on your own your own little society of your individualism as you go through college you know in a certain situation where it's going to remind you of what a coach did or said or a teammate and then when you get into life that will happen more and more and more so i want you before you graduate go up to your coaches and thank them okay that will mean a lot to them keep them coming back ades will appreciate that it's hard to find good quality coaches now before you graduate reflect on some of the stuff they taught you okay don't dwell on some of the stuff maybe you disagreed with think about the things that they taught you and thank them we want to thank the coaches for taking the time for the nominations and not only the time for the nominations all the time you guys put it through a few years with these great student athletes we'd like to thank the 80s and staff Dan Stangel and Kelly Gephart just so you could Chris Hyman I've been doing this for 11 years Mary Reecey Doug Muccini Al Volzheimer and Mal Christian Defender I'd like to thank the guidance counselors and staff Cheryl Stubbe et al Lynn Bidney et al we'd like to thank the Gutshaw family for sponsoring $2,000 scholarships it's the Knoll family for their $1,000 contribution the Gutshaw family for $1,000 the Glacier family for $1,000 the Harrison family for additional $1,000 and we'd like to thank all the Greenering committee members for all their hardware they've put in throughout the year the thing goes and various meetings and golf meetings that we have to raise the money so we can get $16,000 every year and I'd also like to thank the scholarship committee for their guidance and leather winners everybody in here congratulations and we wish all of you continued success thank you thank you to all of our presenters congratulations to all the work winners you should feel very proud because obviously the competition is very challenging please remember that the boost of this evening's program would like all the work winners to come over to this stage area it's my honor to introduce tonight's guest speaker known as the original Puck John McLaughlin has been associated with the Puck's organization since the inception of the franchise in 1968 the 2013-14 season marks his 38th as analyst for the Puck's 2D games and his 28th period in the broadcast booth with Jim Haskell the duel are three time Wisconsin Emmy award winners for their work the Glockland average 19.6 points per game in the Puck's inaugural season of 1968-69 and went on to play 8 years in the law at Uniform his name appears in five categories on the Puck's all time career leader's list named in the 1969 Eastern division All-Star team John McLaughlin is called was the starting guard in the Puck's 1971 World Championship team with many uncorked contributions to the franchise his number 14 jersey was retired in 1976 and currently hangs from the Raptors inside the Beemle-Harris Bradley Center McLaughlin began his NBA career in 1965 with Cincinnati where he played two seasons before going to San Diego an 11-year NBA vet he sports a career of scoring average of 11.6 points per game a college demo at Indiana University McLaughlin is a member of Indiana University Hall of Fame Indiana basketball Hall of Fame and was named one of the 50 greatest players in Indiana State history he was inducted as the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame as a friend following his retirement from basketball in 1976 McLaughlin joined the Puck's front office and together with forward Puck's master grade who set following the Midwest athletes against childhood cancer probably my talk to him is his promised moment to start this fun serving as president the fund finance construction the MAC Fund Research Center at the mental college and it's contributed more than $42 million to the fight against childhood cancer in June of 2004 after spending eight years as a trustee he was named trustee emeritus for the mental college of Wisconsin McLaughlin is on the state board for the fellowship of Christian athletes John's wife Pam resided apartment along with her son Sharon and his wife Colleen and granddaughters Kay Lee and Olana their daughter Megan her husband Matt and granddaughters Quinn resided in Delphi please give a great to Mr. John student athletes functions administrators it was the head table Elk's grid arm committee I got it I got it, I'm good I'm good, thank you the last thing you athletes need is an old guy standing up here talking to you at seven o'clock when you've been here long nobody go ahead hurry up though so what I'm going to do is I'm going to try to make a worthwhile for you okay I'm going to give you a pulpery of things I'm going to talk fast and cut my hour speech down to about 20 minutes is that good okay and what I want to do is really give you a lot of things quicker so stay with me alright I'm going to give you a little bit of background and a few stories first that's the fun part and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the Matt fund and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about where you're headed from your high school years to your college years and your great years coming up you've had great ones, you're going to have more great ones so look forward to that very much I've been doing this a long time going throughout this state speaking at all different types of activities in my 47 years here I grew up in Indiana and I have to tell you when I come to something like this and I sit here and I listen and I watch and I see what you've accomplished and I watch your attention the young people it is my honor to be here tonight it's a privilege for me to be here with you and see what you've done and see what you're going to do as you look forward in life it's a great thing so thank you for allowing me to be here with you this event I shouldn't say this to shoes but white shoes I know you're out there you came and got me to speak at this and they've had some great speakers over the years you don't need a speaker at this this is what you have right here this is tremendous and it's really a privilege for me to be here I tip my head if I was a baseball player I'll shoot a temper for you because I was a basketball player it's all you young people congratulations, great job now let me just give you a little bit more on me I grew up in a small town in Indiana and a lot of you probably have not seen the movie Hoosiers but the old people have and if you haven't seen the movie Hoosiers it's a sports story and it's a true story and my background was very much like that growing up in a small town in Indiana and you know in a small school I played I ran track baseball football basketball but basketball was something that I knew and I could remember that God had given me an ability that was my sport I was always kind of tall you know growing up and it was the sport of my choice even though I played the other sports as many of you have in this room you can do it all and the smaller the school the more you do because you have to but growing up in a small town in Indiana and being a basketball player especially in the era that I grew up that was kind of like heaven or earth because being a basketball player in Indiana was politics religion food was life I never played in four years of varsity basketball I never played in a gymnasium at home or on the road that wasn't sold out and the world's largest high school gym is in Indiana where the Indiana basketball hall of fame is Newcastle, Indiana it seats almost 10,000 people for basketball on Friday nights not gym class and that's the environment that I grew up in you see it was just everything I never played day and night and that's what I did and athletics became the defining thing in my life but as you have I discovered as I went along the line I had to be a student I had to be a citizen I had to be other things and that's what athletics taught me after all these years that I've lived and all these different professions that I've been blessed with having football and announcing and business and other things the athletic background the athletic formula and all the words that these coaches and all of you have heard commitment and motivation and dedication and all of those things they're great words and a lot of people don't like words like commitment today it's a great word it accomplishes things and what I want to tell you is this those words that become they apply to everything in your life everything that it takes to be a good athlete it takes to be good at anything in your life whether it's a business person a student eventually a parent a grandparent involved in community activities whatever it is it's the same formula so what you've done to become a good outstanding athlete if you apply that to everything in your life you will have a shot at being successful and you will be successful in your heart because you know you did all of those things athletics is a great foundation in our society now if you ever thought about this how we value athletics in the world and in America I mean look at this how many things other than an athletic event will put as many people in your gym how many things other than an athletic event will fill Ken Granville Stadium or the Cole Center or the Bradley Center or Miller Park and take that around all the United States and then take it around all over the world how many things other than an athletic event will attract millions of people to a television set like the World Series the Super Bowl the NBA Playoffs the Olympics how many things not many unfortunately not many there should be others but unfortunately it doesn't happen so think about how we value athletics in our society think about it it's highly valued so consequently if we form it in the right direction good things happen a lot of good things happen there are so many wonderful people in this room good things happen that's how we started the Mac phone I'm wearing one of my Mac phone shirts it meant that I didn't have to wear a tie that's what I like but that's a good thing we took the limelight of athletics on my retirement night and decided we're going to raise money for childhood cancer research so we took that limelight and we put it on the Mac phone 37 years ago and Eddie Doucette and I started going on radio and TV and talking about the Mac phone this is what we've done the Mac phone made us an athlete against childhood cancer and Johnny Mac that's what it was about we raised $35,000 in the first year and we were going to start calling you hey Johnny Mac if we give you our event will you come well if we do this will you come we'll pass the hat if you come so that happened all around the state of Wisconsin and that was $35,000 37 years ago you just gave the numbers I think you gave them the numbers we've actually given in June we will have given $50 million in the fight against childhood cancer that's what we've given and here's what's happened in those 37 years have gone from 37 years ago 20% so children got childhood cancer 37 years ago of any form only 20% survived let me put it another way 80% died today because of research and our $50 million the numbers are reversed 80% are surviving and we're trying to get to $100 a great example of taking a limelight of athletics and focusing on something good and look what we have we're stating children's lives we're stating family's lives it's really important it's a great example of what all of you can do with your lives take the limelight of athletics and do something with it in 1969 the year I made the NBA All-Star Team with Milwaukee Bucks I was asked to go to Hawaii with some other players and do a USO film then I was asked with two other players to go to Vietnam and be a USO Joe I happened to be in the Army Reserve at the time and I thought that I should go so I went with two other players and we go to Vietnam and on the way over this is when it was hot and heavy I was concerned about what do we have to offer professional basketball players a lot of these guys over there probably don't know who we are and Bob Hope a great entertainer would go over all the time and bring other entertainers with him and Miss America would go and starlets would go and they were all big hits what were we going to bring three basketball players and I was there one day and I found out that we had as much to offer as Bob Hope because and all the starlets they loved us because we were professional athletes and we were from the world and we would play 70, 80, 100 games a day against the guys we would play everywhere we went all over Vietnam but my point is the strength, the value the impact of being an athlete it was a great thing for these men at that time mostly men in Vietnam the value of athletics the way we value it here and you know we live in a world of change and you really see it today we didn't have as much change when we were growing up but today it's fast and it's furious we've seen change that you have to deal with all the time in your lives you have to be ready for change whatever that means we've seen changes in athletics I mean certainly I've seen it in professional sports you heard my credentials well the year we won the NBA championship I was making $30,000 a year the last contract was $80,000 a year one year well if I just did what I did then and I did it today it would be about $8 to $10 million a year and I would invite you all to my own island because that's where I would be that's a world of change my first year in the NBA we did not have traders I learned to take my own angles when I came out of Indiana where we had 10 trainers and they took care of us and fed us and did all these great things not quite like we can do at the University of Wisconsin because in Indiana we had to go to class now O'Rei is a personal friend of mine and believe me they go to class they might not in Kentucky just think about that for a moment well I can tell you the crazy stories even if I didn't but I don't get that where was I going? I have no knowledge but I just want you to understand the value of athletics and what it means to you you all have that equity background I mean I'm an old man and I'm 70 years old and I still think like an athlete it's ingrained in me it's from an athletic standpoint and you can do the same I do want to share well I was talking about change the change that has occurred in athletics I mean it's incredible but it changes in the world and so you have to be ready to change as well and I thought what I would do is just share with you a couple things and I won't go much longer but I would like to tell you a few stories I have so many stories if literally we had two hours announcing about playing about different eras about athletes I mean I'm asked all the time is LeBron James the greatest athlete all the time was Michael Jordan well if you've got a little age on you in this room I would say well what about Oscar Rarenton and what about Will Chamberlain and Bill Russell and then there's Larry Bird so I'm asking all these questions and you can't compare eras easily but probably if I picked the 10 to 15 greatest players of all time the majority of them would probably come from the 60s, 70s and 80s by Frank because of what some of them had accomplished and what some of them did over time where does the Michael Jordan which you would of course know the name of and LeBron James and where would they rate very high and they would be in that bracket but they don't know the world of change as well but I want to give you one story when I came into the NBA out of high school and in college at Indiana University and high school and college as a basketball player I had no weaknesses I could do everything nobody could beat me and even at the big 10 level I was one of the better players I could compete with anybody I came to the NBA and I discovered I had about 15 weaknesses because when you go from high school to the big 10 it's a jump like this and then you go from the big 10 to the NBA it was like as high as the ceiling because they're all great players and you suddenly find well I'm slow I can't jump, I can't go left well I can't do this, I can't guard that that's what you discovered and you discovered the physical strength of the athletes even in my year before we had weight training at the level they have today before we knew about carbohydrates the way they do today and the way that the training methods are we have one in two coaches we have eight now on many teams that work with the players we did most of them ourselves in the off-season but the power now if I were to ask any of you if you remember Shaquille O'Neal you remember he's really a big dude he's the strongest guy that they've ever seen in the NBA perhaps that's true but there was a player before him that the older people in the room and in the other room would know about his name is Will Chamberlain Will Chamberlain was 7-1 weighed 300 pounds had a body fat of about 4% he was the strongest player that I had ever played he was the guy that had scored 100 points in a game no one's ever done that his best beauty average 50 points and 28 rebounds again in the NBA that's sure what I just said 50 points and 28 rebounds back when there were 9 NBA teams which means he played against Bill Russell the greatest defensive player of all time for the Boston Submissions he played against Bill Russell 10 times a year he didn't play against the forward or Wayne Embridge who was dominant and he averaged 50 and 28 so I'm a rookie in the NBA with the Cincinnati Royals who were playing Philadelphia in Philadelphia where he was playing and I always heard that Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love don't believe it and I discovered that night I'm sitting there as a rookie out of Indiana on the bench and I'm watching these fans literally when you take the ball out the fans were right here they would grab you they would throw bottles I mean it was not nice so I'm watching Will Chamberlain and I'm going to have to guard Hal Greer who's a 15 year old son so I go with the game on guarding Hal Greer they throw the ball into Chamberlain and he was on the left see the right box you know what I mean the box down at the bottom the ball goes into it Greer cuts, I'm guarding Greer I go with it and as I go with Greer we pass Chamberlain as I pass Chamberlain he lowers the ball between his legs to make a move to the basket to dump the ball so I decide well I'm even going to time up for a jump ball which is ridiculous I couldn't jump but it's worth playing the game the right way or take the ball away from me which I couldn't do either as I grab the ball Chamberlain is on his way to the basket to dump the ball the next thing I know I'm on the way to the basket to dump the ball now I have the ball like this he takes me off the floor I let go in midair, fall back, hit my head he dunks it ran down to the other end and never knew I was on the other end of the ball now I played at 6'5", 205 pounds I've decided that as a strong man I will never do that again but when I saw I had never seen a player of the power of a real Chamberlain until Shaquille O'Neal came in who was a dominant player but he was not the talent that a real Chamberlain was but it's an example just of how the world changes and how athletics changes and how the power of athletes then and today was one of the things that I was most aware of as an athlete and it's something that I think if you adapt yourself and lie to the changes you'll face then I think it's something that will help you not only as an athlete it will help you as a student and whatever else you elect to do and I'd like to just finish this thought for you you're all very bright accomplished and I think that's a wonderful thing and as you move through your life okay as you move through your life think about staying focused on others and being involved in other activities like Mac Fund and different things that come along you see the two greatest commandments we were ever given in the Bible just to focus upward love the word God order hearts on my understanding it's saying be focused outward the greatest college coach of all time his name is John Wooden he coached at UCLA he coached Karim and many other great and he's the greatest coach of all time one because I know him and I think he is the greatest college coach of all time he has hit many great saints he's a very religious man a great American citizen and he said many things that I could come in here and read them to you and there would be great knowledge for all of you to take but the one that I want to bring to you tonight is what I'm talking about focusing outward as you go through your lives and trying to give and be community oriented and helping with whatever you do and wherever you are in your life because it'll make us a better community and I will tell you this I get calls from around the country over the years about math fund in Indianapolis how do we start a math fund in Cleveland and I tell people I'm not sure you could because you need the ingredients of the athletic thing and commitment by certain people and I'm not sure of work but I would like to say this also I'm not sure of work like it has here because of the people of Wisconsin the people of Wisconsin are still giving and committed and caring and really focused that a math fund comes along this new thing that raised $35,000 the first year and now is giving $50,000,000 I'm not sure what happened every word we care here about each other and it's a great thing so what do you come to wouldn't say many things but here's the one I want to bring he said you have not lived a perfect day until you can do something kind for someone who can never repay you so if you think that way and you stay overly focused in your life you can have great success and I wish that for all of you to wherever you're going to different colleges and universities whatever you're doing do well congratulations on tonight and it's been my privilege to be here with you thank you it's been closing on behalf of the Shoe Morgan Elks Club and it's an entire membership on behalf of the Grid Arts Committee I would like to thank each and every one of you for attending this evening's program I want to remind you tonight's bank with me it was paid to you by a member of the Elks Lodge or a will of one of our Elks members and on the back of your ticket you'll have their name one of the best things you can do as John said it's taking more than 5 minutes to have a stamp too but take care of that business and I think you'll feel better about it because remember we like all of our recipients to come up to the stage for pictures congratulations to all of you best success in your whole secondary world right carefully be safe and we'll let you graduate