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February 8, 2000
Bauer getting settledNEW ULM -- Former Minnesota Valley Lutheran teacher and coach Jim Bauer is doing fine in his first year at Lakeside Lutheran in Lake Mills, Wisc. Bauer, his wife Gayle, and daughter Bethany were in town on Saturday for Parent's Day at Martin Luther College. The Bauer's oldest son, Aaron, is a starter for the Knights' mens basketball team. "It is different when you break into a new school," said Bauer, who is the head boy's basketball coach there. "Right now, we are 8-8 -- .500 in both our conference (Capital) and overall. The kids are working hard on what I am trying to teach them. "We have an excellent conference. Wisconsin Heights has a 6-foot-9 kid who signed early to go to the University of Wisconsin. There are some outstanding players in the conference, so it has been quite a challenge." Bauer also coached football there where he helped with both the JV and the varsity, which finished with a 3-6 record. "I just appreciated being able to help out in football," he said. "I knew that (not being head coach in football) was the situation going in, and that is fine. It was quite an adjustment but I am just trying to help out where I can." Bauer's daughter Bethany, "had a very fine year in volleyball. Their team went undefeated in the conference this season and qualified for the state tournament, where they played some very big schools out of Milwaukee. She is also the starting point guard now on the basketball team. They have two losses on the year and are having a good year." Gayle Bauer is also back into coaching there where she is an assistant coach in both volleyball and girls basketball. CHARGERS ON WINNING STREAK: The MVL boys basketball team has won five straight games following their loss to Springfield. They have ran off those five straight wins with team play and balanced scoring. One of the players who has improved his game is junior Jesse Pfeifer. "He has gained a lof of experience and has played some nice defense the last two weeks," said head coach Craig Morgan. "Jesse has been able to score from either the inside or outside but I like to see him score from the inside. He has some nice moves inside; he had a good game against Cathedral." Pfeifer said that he has, "gained confidence this season. Plus I have some great teammates to play with, and the coaching has been great." He said that the loss to Springfield made the team set their minds to be more focused. He also said that playing AAU basketball has helped a lot. "Most of us played (AAU) this summer. We did not have Dan (Unke) for some of the games because he played on a different team, so we had to find scoring from other places and I think that that helped. We knew that we had to find scoring from other people." One of the other people has been point guard Jay Wendland, who also looks to the game with Springfield as a turning point. "We found out that when we do not play as a team, play together and do what our coaches want, we saw what happened." Wendland feels that this year the Chargers have more offensive weapons than in the past. "Most teams will key on Dan (Unke) and that leaves other players open. And other players have stepped up their game. When we need to, we can step it up." Tonight, the Chargers play at Sleepy Eye St. Mary's -- a team they looked past in their first meeting. "They gave us a real run in our first meeting; we cannot look by anyone," he said. "We told ourselves (after the loss to Springfield) that we cannot let another loss happen because we want to get a good seed (for tournaments)." One of four seniors on the team this year, Wendland uses his senior leadership, "to calm everyone down, make things happen and get everyone involved in the game." And he has done a great job of doing that. HOUNDS TO COME OUT FOCUSED: Jesse Ahlbrecht, the senior post player from Cathedral, feels that his team can rebound from the loss to MVL tonight when they host Buffalo Lake-Hector. "We need to play with more focus; we need to recognize that we can beat these teams," he said. "We need to believe that we can win and we have to go out and do the job. "We need to get the job done on defense first. If we do that, I think that our offense will come around. We can start capitalizing on those things." Ahlbrecht said that the crowd at MVL Friday night, "was the biggest crowd that I have played in front of for a regular high school basketball game." If you were out at MVL, you know what he is talking about. I got there 10 minutes before the B-squad game started. The MVL gym was already three-fourths full and quickly turned into a standing room only crowd. Cars were parked out on the road almost halfway to Highway 14. Maybe, if both AD's agree, both games in the regular season should be moved to a neutral site such as MLC or, if available, New Ulm Senior High School. Both have a lot of seating for everyone. HEALTHY EAGLES PLAY WELL: The New Ulm High School Eagles have played well the last five games, "because we have been playing good defense," said senior Brent Farasyn. "Plus, we have played more as a team; we have worked the ball around on offense for the open shot." He felt that earlier in the season, the team was trying to find themselves. That may have come when the Eagles, who play at Blue Earth tonight, went down to Fairmont and beat the Cardinals. "We played four solid quarters there." He feels that the game tonight, New Ulm will keep improving. "We take one game at a time; earlier in the year, we had high expectations and getting too far ahead of ourselves. Now, it is one game at a time." The return of Mitch Stueber to the lineup, following a broken hand, has given the team a boost. "His return has been huge," said Farasyn. "We missed him playing defense. We always put him on the other team's main scorer and he managed to shut him down and that gave us a chance to win each game."
Column by Jim Bastian, Journal sports writer
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