Sky's the Limit

It was a sad week for me because two people who were a part of my life because of youth and recreational baseball in Brookfield passed away — Wally O’Malley and Bonnie Martin.

If I had to pick one word to describe Wally O’Malley it would be a hard decision to choose between persistent and passionate. Wally, a man who was known largely for his ties to the Brookfield Bulldogs of the Land O’ Lakes baseball league, passed away Oct. 13.

Wally, with his red face and white hair, never met a baseball conversation he didn’t like, especially when it came to his beloved Brookfield Lakers (now Bulldogs).

I met Wally when I was a player for the Lakers. At the time, Wally was the head honcho on the board of directors. When manager Larry “Skip” Majeskie retired, he recommended me for his job. I ran the team for four years, and we played in two leagues.

I ran the team for three years, took a year off, and came back for another season before getting my PR job with the Milwaukee Brewers. We had a young Laker team and played in two leagues – the County Major and the Lakes, and it took some doing to convince Wally to let us play in the County Major. He didn’t want us saving our best pitchers for the other league if we weren’t winning in the Lakes.

I had attended Wally O’Malley Day prior to a Bulldogs game in 2007. I hoped to spend some time with my former players that day, but I when I got there, Wally put his arm around me and asked me to handle the public address system for the game.

It was hard to say no to Wally because he had a passion for baseball and the Lakers, who later became the Bulldogs, and most of all, he cared about people.

My friendship with Bonnie Martin, who died Oct. 11, was more indirect. Her husband, Dave, and I managed our oldest sons in the Elmbrook Little League, winning a title in our final year together.

I never did use that line again.

Bonnie was a quiet, but tough woman, who kept Dave — who was even more excitable than I was as a coach — in line. Bonnie was well-known throughout the community because of her work as a social worker with the Brookfield Police Department.

Brookfield Central couldn't have drawn a nicer script for the final game of the football season.

Many people figured the Lancers chances of winning the title were slim and none when they dominated Marquette, but made five turnovers and lost, 10-6, a few weeks back. That left The Hilltoppers and West Allis Hale on top of the pack.

But the Huskies beat Marquette the next week, leaving Hale as the only unbeaten team in conference play, meaning if the Lancers beat Hale in Wednesday's season finale at Hale they would earn a share of the GMC crown.

Well, Sussex Hamilton, fighting for a playoff berth, became the perfect trap game for the Huskies, who beat Marquette and were looking forward to facing the Lancers in the finale. Hamilton coach John Damato had his Chargers ready to play and they knocked off Hale last Friday and now we have a three-way time for first with one game left.

While all eyes will be at the Central-Hale game in West Allis on Wednesday, Marquette has to look out for the same situation that got the Huskies last week.  You see, the Hilltoppers, who are in the playoffs, have to play a Menomonee Falls team (3-3) which needs to win or see its season come to end.

It's a wonderful drama and I can't wait to see how it plays out.

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On the other side of Brookfield and West Allis, you will find another big game. Brookfield East (0-6) and West Allis Central (0-6) meet at East and each will be seeking their first GMC win of the year. The loser finishes last.

You can bet the hitting at this game will be just as hard as the Central-Hale game.

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A congrats goes out to Hannah Trasser and Katie Peterson of Brookfield Central and Natalie Dillon of Brookfield East. They finished 1-2-3 in the GMC Cross Country Championships last Saturday. The Lady Lancers finished first and the Lady Spartans finished third.

Despite the fact the Wauwatosa East (3-4) and West (0-7) football teams have a combined record of 3-11 with two games left to play, it's not the fault of the squad's respective junior quarterbacks that the locals are struggling.

On the contrary.

Ethan Harris has been the best quarterback the Red Raiders have seen since the days of Jeff Donovan. He has been involved in 18 of the 20 touchdowns his team has scored from scrimmage, tossing 9 touchdown passes and rushing 9 times for scores. That means he has been involved in 90 percent of his team's scores.

Across town you will find West's Kevin Gorman, who has been responsible for all 14 of the Trojans scores from scrimmage. The speedy signal-caller has run for seven and passed for seven scores. The Trojans have scored one touchdown on defensive fumble recovery and another on special teams.

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Tosa East is still eligible for postseason play going into tonight's game at Brookfield Central, but it's an uphill battle for the Red Raiders. Central (4-1) still has a chance to share the Greater Metro Conference crown if the Lancers win the last two games and Sussex Hamilton (3-2) will be shooting to make the playoffs in the final game.

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No one has questioned how good the Brookfield Central defense is, but with the veer offense coming together, the Lancers will have an interesting postseason. Central has two big, fast running backs in Xavier (The X-Man) Whitaker and Jeff Lewis, to go along with QB Tommy Braaten, who is a threat passing as well as running.

Speedy Tim Nass at WR and big TE Mitch Aprahamian give the Lancers two outstanding receivers, while sophomore Sam Rohr (6-4, 225) also came up with two big catches in last week's win.

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Cross country and girls volleyball conference tournaments are this weekend, so the postseason begins next week. The boys soccer postseason starts next week and the Brookfield schools are in one of the toughest sectionals in the state.

Brookfield Central's girls golf coach Brian Scrobel and girls tennis coach Dave Steinbach pretty much block off the first two weeks of the month of October. Why?  Because the Lady Lancers are heading to state once again this year.

You see, this is the 13th straight season the girls have gone to state for tennis and 7th in a row for the golfers.

 The Central girls won the Kenosha Bradford Sectional on Tuesday and will take part in the WIAA State Tournament Monday and Tuesday at University Ridge in Verona. Kelly Coakley (79) and Trica Mark (81) were third and tied for fifth, respectively on the Maplecrest Country Club course, Chelsey McCoy (91), Marissa Schlagenhauf (91) and Amy Wareham (98) were the other Central linksters.

This girls are so good that they have played much better than they did on Tuesday and still won by 11 strokes over Greater Metro Conference rival DSHA.  I thought I could relate to the job they did, because I've shot in the 90's before, but then I found out they play 18 holes, not nine like I did.

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The second-ranked Lady Lancers, after being upset in the GMC tnournament last week, came back and dominated the Waukesha South Sectional on Wednesday. Central qualified for team state in a few weeks and qualified two singles and two doubles teams for individual state next weekend.

No. 1 Brittany Skemp and No. 2 Rebecca Nelson qualified at singles and Laura Edwards/Allie Porrit and Nicole Spiel/Rebecca Wenzel qualified at both No. 2 and No. 3 doubles. There is a seeding meeting Friday night to see who else makes it as special qualifiers.