Brookfield/Elm Grove Monthly

FEBRUARY 2014 Freeman Brookfield & Elm Grove • Page 7A Fewer boys diving into high school pools Specialization has numbers dropping for swimming By Pat Neumuth Freeman Staff WAUKESHA – Playing sports is getting more specialized. There are less and less multi-sport athletes. Club sports have turned sports into year round activities. Even in the south, there are two football seasons. Kids are shown they need to choose what sport they want to stick with. That has hurt other sports, and Waukesha West/Mukwonago co-op boys swim coach Brian Wright thinks it's his sport that has taken the biggest hit. "It's taken a lot of the athletes out of the pool that join other sports," Wright said. "They play soccer in the fall and in the winter they play indoor to train. Swimmers are the same way, but you don't see much of the younger kids – and by that I mean middle schoolers – because they are doing other things. Other than doing Waukesha Express or other club teams in the area, there's nothing else to train them in swimming." Wright began the season with 13 swimmers and two divers on his team, with just one from Mukwonago. He said when he started coaching eight years ago he had a team twice as big with about 10 kids from Mukwonago. Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial coach Blaine Carlson has a much bigger program. Carlson – who is also the CEO of the Waukesha Express – said his high school team has expanded since he took over 20 years ago, but he'd like more than 30 swimmers on his team. At the start of the year, South's co-op had 30 swimmers, but is at 25 now. South's co-op is the largest of the three co-op teams involving city of Waukesha schools. "It's the guys on the team that are going to have to recruit and pull those nonswimmers in," Carlson said. "We have a lot of guys that will try it as seniors. It's great that they do, but if they come out as freshmen they can make a difference when they are seniors." Wright said his boys teams with the West co-op have been about half the size of his girls teams – which have no co-op school. Carlson said nationally the ratio is about 60 percent to 40 percent female to male. Co-ops have helped keep rosters larger. Brookfield Central and Brookfield East have combined to make one team. Brookfield coach Bill Twitchell said combining the schools has given him the bodies, but there aren't as many yearround swimmers. Swimming is a no-cut sport in Brookfield, and he said some swimmers join just to put they were part of athletics on a college résumé. "I would say 1/3 to 1/2 have no competitive swim experience," Twitchell said. "You wouldn't expect that on a football or basketball team. We have 36 swimmers, and I'd say six of them are six serious club swimmers. And then there are about 10 part-time club swimmers." Twitchell said the culture of swimming has changed in Brookfield. Several of his swimmers are in other clubs during the season and there aren't many "gym rats" anymore in his sport. Before, swimmers weren't allowed to miss a single practice. Now, swimmers can miss a practice if there's a conflict with another club. "I imagine, like in other sports, in those three months for those three months you were a swimmer," Twitchell said. "That is not the case for three fourths of my team. I view it as the evolution of swimming. It's gone with the days of having 36 guys on the team and 30 swim all year round. I've had that." The Brookfield co-op is still one city South's co-op . with four swimmers from Catholic Memorial is also a close drive from school to school. Wright said the fact swimmers have to provide their own transportation from Mukwonago to West every day has made it tougher to get the numbers. Waukesha North has Kettle Moraine and Pewaukee on one team. Pewaukee had a referendum to build a pool at the school several years ago, but it was turned down. "When a high school is involved with a co-op program, there's no money to transport athletes to the host schools," Wright said. "The co-ops allow some kids to participate, but I think other kids that could participate aren't because they don't have their own pool in their own community ." Wright said the fact that all three public high schools in Waukesha have their own pool will keep boys swimming afloat in the city . Email: pneumuth@conleynet.com PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Brookfield Central 74, Marquette 48 WHEN THE WEATHER BITES, WE BUST OUT THE TIGHTS. Lancers keep on rolling By Andrew Wagner Freeman Correspondent 235994004 MILWAUKEE – Less than 24 hours after his team upset top-ranked Germantown, snapping the Warhawks' 69game winning streak, Mark Adams gave his team a little break. But after a light workout and some film sessions the day after the victory, the Brookfield Central High School boys basketball team was back at it two days later, prepping for their Greater Metro Conference showdown at Marquette. Adams' methods proved beneficial as the Lancers recovered from a slow start for a 74-48 victory over the Hilltoppers on three days after beating Germantown. "It was hard," Adams said. "The guys that played most of those minutes were still gassed, so it wouldn't have done any good to go hard (Wednesday). But we had a great, spirited practice (Thursday), which doesn't always mean anything – but it helped." Beating Germantown would matter little in the grand scheme of things had the Lancers not been ready to go against Marquette. "As soon as that game was over, we focused on what we needed to do to get better," Central senior guard Riley LaChance said. "We knew they were going to come out hard, shoot the ball. We had to come out strong, get past that and weather their storm." LaChance put the Lancers on his back in the second period, erasing the deficit by scoring 15 points of his game-high 37 points – including 13 during an 181 run to finish the quarter that gave Central a 33-25 lead at the break. SLICK ROADS. DEAD BATTERIES. FROZEN FUEL LINES. BEFORE 18900 W. Capitol Dr. Brookfield, WI 53045 262-781-9800 soerens.com 236289001 Family Gatherings WELCOME! Call for information. Tue-Wed-Thur 4-9pm Friday 11am-10pm Saturday 4-9pm WISCONSIN'S ALL-TIME LEADING SALES GROUP! MARK PATTON JAMES RICCABONI PAT BITTERBERG STEVE BAUMAN Freeman file photo Brian Borden of the Brookfield co-op swims during a meet last year. $965 MILLION CAREER SALES $56 MILLION SOLD IN 2013 FEATURE PROPERTY 235949006 BROOKFIELD 19435 Summerhill Lane $1,040,000 PIN 13695 1005 S. 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