Weir helps D5 North rally for win, is a softball all-star as well

ALL-STAR HOOPS, SOFTBALL

The transition from being a Pirate to a UW-Platteville Pioneer has already begun for Gilman graduate Tatum Weir, but she got two last chances to represent the purple and gold in June at Wisconsin high school all-star events.

First, Weir played for the Division 4/5 Blue team in the Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association Senior All-Star Games in Wisconsin Dells on Tuesday, June 13. Then, Weir was back in the Dells last week for the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association’s Division 5 All-Star Game. She was on the North team that rallied from a 20-point first-half deficit to beat the South All-Stars 75-68 on the morning of June 28.

“They were a lot of fun,” Weir said Monday. “They weren’t super intense or anything. It was laid back, just to have fun. It’s your last time playing for each sport.”

In last week’s basketball game played at JustAGame Fieldhouse, Weir scored 13 points, including 11 in the second half during the North’s victory. The team arrived two days before the game, practiced twice and had short scrimmages against two Division 1 teams and one team from Division 2, Division 3 and Division 4.

Weir said the team struggled in the scrimmages and that was a sign of things to come early in the game Wednesday morning. The South’s quickness and perimeter pressure defensively got the North completely off its game in the 10-minute second quarter, turning a 1512 lead into the makings of a rout at 34-14 when Maddy Benson of LaFarge sank a 3-pointer.

The North’s Bailey Rikkola of Sevastopol answered with a 3 and over the last four minutes of the quarter the team started to even things out. Weir got her first basket at the 2:28 mark to make it 36-19 and free throws in the last minute by Grace Krawze of Laona and Marley Hughes of McDonell Central made it 4024 at the break.

Ryan Klein of Wisconsin Rapids Assumption was the North’s head coach, but he got some advice from Wisconsin coaching legend Jerry Petitgoue, the 1,000-game winner of the Cuba City boys program that played a role in getting the game turned around.

“(Petitgoue) came over to our coach during the first half and he was like, ‘if you guys want to win this game you’re going to have to start feeding that big horse under there’” (referring to Weir),” she said. “So at halftime we said we’re going to have to start looking inside. Coach Petitgoue said to if we want to win this. Then we started looking more inside.”

Weir started the second half and got an immediate lob pass in the paint and scored. After a brief break, she was back on the court and scored off a lob from Clayton’s Grace King to pull the North within 46-36. The North ended the quarter on a 9-0 run with four points from Edgar’s Reagan Borchardt, a score from Hughes and five points from South Shore’s Lily Truchon, including a 3-pointer with six seconds left, to make it 50-49.

Blair-Taylor’s Abby Thompson hit a 3 for the South to start the fourth quarter, but Weir fought through a triple team to score off an inbound lob and then put back her own miss to make it 55-53. She sank two free throws after rebounding a teammate’s missed 3 to tie it at 55 with 8:07 left. Kat Miller of Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah put the South on top with a 3, but Carleigh Kaczmarek of Gillett answered with a triple for the North and a bucket by Rachel Schlies of Wausaukee put the North up for good. Weir made a nice spin move out of the high post, got fouled and made one of the two free throws for her final point, making it 65-60 with 5:14 left.

“In the second half, I don’t know what clicked but I think we just really wanted to beat them,” Weir said. “Our coaches weren’t yelling at us or anything. They really didn’t mind. They gave us pointers. They were coaching us, but they weren’t mad about the start, which I think helped partly because it didn’t stress us out.”

Borchardt led the North with 14 points, while Prairie Farm’s Marnie Kahl and Truchon also hit double figures with 12 and 11 points respectively. The roster also included Lillian Fuhs of Iola-Scandinavia and Melissa DiGiorgio of Hurley. Paul Jaglinski of Assumption and Tom McCarty of Edgar were the assistant coaches.

“They were all really fun,” Weir said. Nobody knew anybody so it was all about meeting new people, unlike softball where some people were from the same team. Our coach said, ‘the one thing I looked for when I was picking you guys was if you actually love to play basketball because if you were just good at it, but you didn’t love it, I wasn’t looking for that.’” The group’s three-day stay in the Dells included team meals, a jet boat ride, some intrasquad competition on the mini golf couse and the awards banquet on Tuesday.

At the WFSCA Senior All-Star Games, the Blue team lost both of its games, but Weir said all went well.

“We didn’t really mind. It wasn’t the end of the world,” she said.

Weir spent the majority of her defensive time at third base and rightfield. She also pitched two scoreless innings in one of the team’s games.

“I did get a ball hit to the outfield to me, so that was pretty cool,” she said. “I got some action out there when I was out there. I caught a fly ball and threw it to third because there was a runner on second. We didn’t get the out on third.”

Offensively, Weir said she drew a walk, scored a run and hit into two groundouts.

“The games were close,” she said. “No blowouts or anything. They were lowscoring games. The pitchers were fast. All of them were fast. Compared to our conference, it was different.”

The Blue team had a strong Blair-Taylor connection, as it was led by the school’s coaching staff and featured four Wildcat players –– Lexi Lofgren, Lindsay Steien, Abby Thompson and Callie Wagner. Thompson and Steien also played for the South All-Stars in the basketball event. Weir’s Eastern Cloverbelt Conference rivals from Columbus Catholic, Hailey Zimmerman and Cierra Dieringer were on the squad as well as Kennedy Gruhlke from Fall Creek and Ava Teclaw from Thorp. Gracyn Beck of De Soto and Jolene Jordahl and Mackenzie Van Loon of Onalaska Luther rounded out the roster.

“Everybody got a lot of playing time. It was two games’ worth,” Weir said. “The girls were all really nice, really open and welcoming.”

Players arrived the day before the games, had a one-hour practice, went on a Wisconsin Ducks outing and then attended the awards banquet that night.

Both events serve as fundraisers. Weir was required to raise a minimum of $300 for Wisconsin Special Olympics at the softball event and a minimum of $500 for various funds at the basketball event. Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer, better known as the MACC Fund, is the main one.

College basketball with UW-P is next on Weir’s athletic docket. She’s actually played in some weekend tournaments in the Dells with Pioneer teammates, including one that took place right before last week’s high-school all-star event.

“We’ve had two tournaments at JustAGame, three games on Sunday for both,” she said. “We’re playing other college teams. The coaches aren’t there. We’re just playing. It’s a lot faster, that’s for sure with that pace of ball. Bigger girls too. They’re all welcoming and give pointers. They’re making it pretty easy.”

Members of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association’s Division 5 North All-Star team include (front l. to r.) Melissa Di-Giorgio of Hurley, Carleigh Kaczmarek of Gillett, Grace King of Clayton, Bailey Rikkola of Sevastopol, Grace Krawze of Laona, Lily Truchon of South Shore, (back) coach Tom McCarty of Edgar, head coach Ryan Klein of Assumption, Marnie Kahl of Prairie Farm, Marley Hughes of McDonell Central, Rachel Schlies of Wausaukee, Reagan Borchardt of Edgar, Lillian Fuhs of Iola-Scandinavia, Tatum Weir of Gilman and coach Paul Jaglinski of Assumption.SUBMITTED PHOTOS

The Gilman youth baseball team won the Tri-County Minors championship last week, beating Lake Holcombe 4-2 in the semifinals on June 28 and Cornell 9-5 in the final Friday in Cornell. The team went 9-3 in the league season. Team members include (front l. to r.) Liam Bradley, Bradley Halida, Kenny Copenhaver, Oliver Pockat, Mark Ewings, (back) coach Tyler Pockat, Joe Cepress, Liam Ewings, Jacob Hernandez, Jett Soper, coach Cory Halida and Brody Komanec.SUBMITTED PHOTO

Gilman head softball coach Brian Phelps was among those cheering on Tatum Weir during the Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association Senior All-Star Games in Wisconsin Dells.