Special Interest   

Pasta Mania! It's a community thing
R. Mattrisch 8/28/08

Tradition abounds for the Greendale High School Varsity football team. For the last 7 years or so, the football team always holds a special meeting the night before their football games. They don't really talk about X's & O's or the opposing team, but rather they talk about who can eat the most. This year it is no different. One little wrinkle, however, is that instead of everyone piling over to someone's house, the Greendale Fire Department will now provide the location instead. Typically in the past, the family hosting the party does all of the meal preparation at their expense. The team would bounce around each week to a different home in anticipation of gorging themselves with much needed carbohydrates otherwise known as Pasta. This will still happen only now the parents will just bring everything down to the fire house and serve it there. There is just more room which makes it a lot easier.

"Why?"

There are several reasons why these guys do this. First and foremost is that the best way for an athlete to prepare his body for a physically demanding competition is to load up on carbohydrates. Pasta is one of the best forms of carbohydrates. The body breaks this down and stores it up so that it is ready to provide extra fuel and energy for the up and coming sporting event. Long distant runners such as marathoners do this all the time.

Another reason is that it provides a central meeting place for all of the players on the team to get together and hang out in an informal atmosphere before a game. No coaches, just teammates. "Bonding as a team is crucial to be successful," Coach Rob Stoltz said. "It develops comradery, friendships and respect. When you have guys pulling for each other and watching each other's backside, the result is a sold tight knit team that will get the job done on the field."

Lastly, it's free food! These guys will never pass up an opportunity for free food. Not to mention that they don't even have to do the dishes when they're done. It really doesn't get any better than that!

In closing, it really says a lot about the support the Greendale community offers high school athletics. Having the Greendale Fire Station open their doors is just another example of what living here in Greendale is all about. Oh... and if the water pressure does drop while there is a fire, the G.F.D will have 57 finely tuned athletes to man the bucket brigade!

Photos by Eric Campbell

Varsity   

The Boys Are Back In Town!
R. Mattrisch 8/18/08

After starting their 2008 practice season with an overnight stay at Carroll College, the Greendale Panthers returned to Greendale to continue their pre-season practicing for this year's up and coming season. This year the Panthers are coming into the season on the heels of three consecutive undefeated Woodland Conference Championships. In fact they have a 23 game conference winning streak going. Even though that looms in the back of their mind, they know that they have to just play one game at a time and at a very high level. There will be plenty of teams gunning for them this year and one of those teams would love to be the one that would snap that winning streak. If these guys can stay focus and continue what they have been doing in the past, their record will take care of itself. "These guys know that they will be huge targets this year," Head Coach Rob Stoltz said. "We aren't worried about the streak. That just happens. We are just focusing on being the best that we can be."

"One More!"

"One More" is the catch phrase for this year. The chances of them doing that are very high! As like any high school team, you always lose key players through graduation. The challenge for the coaches are to replace those players with this year's players. Because the football program is so strong in Greendale, they will have no trouble filling those shoes. "Honestly, we should be just like last year only with a bigger hammer," said Coach Keith Ringelberg. "We will bring another very strong receiving core to the field, but we think we will be stronger at running the ball." One of the reasons is that the Panthers are returning four of their five starting offensive linemen from last year. "You can't beat experience when it comes to line play," mentioned Offensive Line Coach Scott Bond. "Our offense is very complex so when you have guys coming in that already are seasoned veterans, it makes things a whole lot easier for us as coaches and a whole lot better for us as an offensive unit." The other reason will be this year's starting quarterback Chris Ridgeway. While he would be the first to admit that he may not be as accurate as Mike Hennessy was last year at throwing the ball, he does have a very strong arm and he will get the ball to the recievers. The difference, however, between the two is that Ridgeway is stronger at running the ball. In fact, you would almost classify him as a hard running fullback. When you have the receivers that Greendale does, and a spread pass attack offense like Greendale runs, having a bigger threat at running will really cause the opponents problems.

Defensively, size won't be the issue, but their youth will. "We are strong in the secondary and on the line," explained Coach Gary Jagodzinski (Defensive Coordinator). "We do need to fill some shoes at linebacker. At this point we do have some guys that are looking very good. What I like is that they are extremely attentive and aggressive. If they can play at their highest level each play, we will be fine." Even though the defense will be on the younger side, those younger players are no strangers to winning. Last year's Varsity Reserve won the conference with only one loss while the freshman went undefeated. To be able to do that, you needed players that can play at a high level. These guys will hopefully bring that mentality with them again this year. If they can do that, the Green Machine will continue to roll on as that have done in the last three years.

This Friday (8/22), the Panther squad will head down to Kenosha Tremper for their annual pre-season scrimmage. The scrimmage will start at 1:00pm and will include Kenosha Tremper, Riverside, and Milwaukee South. Greendale will start their regular season the following Friday on the road against Milwaukee Lutheran.