View from the cheap seats

A weekly perspective on sports

Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review

Local high school and college athletes are receiving their own form of daily exercise and strength training, despite school fitness centers and area gyms being closed because of state Gov. Tony Evers’ Safer at Home order through May 26.

It’s neat to see Dave and Debbie Bauman, owners of Bauman Nursery & Landscaping in rural Edgar, hire local young high school and college athletes. These are the perfect employees for the Baumans to have work for their business, because they are strong and can handle the difficult job.

Their current work crew consists of Edgar High School football players Drew Guden and RJ Knetter, Michael Lang of Marathon who is an offensive lineman on the NCAA Division 3 UW-La Crosse football team, and Jeremy Schoenherr of Stratford, who was a four-time state individual wrestling champion for the Tigers and then received a scholarshp to compete for the NCAA Division 1 University of Wisconsin Badgers.

I saw this collective group of local athletes on Monday working hard in the village of Stratford by spreading mulch around trees and in flower gardens at Klemme Park and the Stratford Public Library.

I’m sure Edgar varsity head football coach Jerry Sinz is elated to see two of his players in Guden and Knetter, who will be seniors this fall, still being able to exercise and build up their body strength by performing landscaping work for the Baumans.

Last fall, I recall seeing a picture on the Bauman Nursery & Landscaping Facebook site of the previous summer’s work crew of local athletes following the Edgar against Stratford rivalry football game.

The photo was of brothers Drew and Ty Guden, along with Brayden Baumgartner of Edgar, with Ben Barten, Easton Kilty and Jaykob Mickelson of Stratford. Ty Guden plays football at NCAA Division 2 Bemidji State. This fall Ben Barten will be playing football for the NCAA Division 1 Wisconsin Badgers, while Kilty will play football at the NCAA Division 1 North Dakota.

Dave and Debbie wrote the following group of athletes’ photo caption: “You are all winners in our eyes and we would like to wish you good luck the rest of the season. We hope to be watching all of you play at the state championships in Madison and Ty stay warm up there in Bemidji.”

I remember also seeing a group photo on the Bauman’s business Facebook site, which I believe was from the 2018 high school football season, stating their work crew is proof Edgar and Stratford football players can get along with each other, despite their teams being arch-rivals with each other.