A WINNING PROGRAM FOR MARCH MADNESS
Brad Luepke is hanging up coaching basketball at St. Paul, Bonduel, and as his assistant I will, too. I’m writing this for two reasons. First is to thank Brad for the fun ride. Second, is to alert any high school in the area that has had the same dismal, depressing ending to their season year after year, you can change that! Ask Brad Luepke to be your varsity coach, if you’re tired of losing and would like a winning program.
There are high schools in the area that have parochial feeder programs. These schools have 5 starters from the parochial and 5 from the public school in each freshman class, but their season ends the same each year.
In December 2015 Brad Luepke asked if I would assist him with coaching. We coached the St. Paul Girls’ “A” Team. The A team is made up of 8th grade girls, but Bonduel is small so we have a mix of underclass students. Saying “YES” to assisting Brad was one of the best commitments that I have ever made, and it has been an exciting five-year ride.
St. Paul is in the Big 6 conference, and that first year we took 2nd in the conference but did manage to get invited to the state tournament. The team had two 8th grade girls starting, and the remainder were in 7th grade. We ended up winning the consolation bracket.
Over the next four years, we won the Big 6 conference championship each year and only lost one regular season game. The Big 6 is made up of parochial schools from Shawano, Clintonville and Green Bay. Each of these communities is larger than Bonduel. We got invited to the state tournament each year finishing 5th or 6th. In 2020, we finished 2nd, which is the best any team from St. Paul, Bonduel has ever done. During this same time St. Paul was invited to the national tournament at Valparaiso University for four consecutive years.
For the five-year span, St. Paul Girls “A” teams’ overall record for the Big 6, state, and national tournaments was 126 wins – 7 losses. Some of the victories at nationals were against various state champions and numerous state 2nd place teams. Most schools in the state tournament are larger than St. Paul, Bonduel, and several of the schools at nationals have more kids in their school than the Village of Bonduel has listed on its population sign.
Brad is respected and well-known by coaches on the state and national boards. Brad has been told that when the board is considering which schools to invite, many board members do not know where Bonduel the town is, but Brad has put Bonduel basketball on a pedestal, and everyone knows the quality of Bonduel basketball.
At the 2020 Shawano Optimist tournament Brad coached against three tournament teams. The first two were undefeated DePere and Appleton teams. St. Paul, Bonduel played a tournament team from Menasha for the championship and won 52 to 26. What is a tournament team? A tournament team is normally made up of players from 5 to 8 schools and the parents pay for their children to try out, with no guarantee of being on the team. If their children make the team the parents pay many dollars for those children to play and tour with that tournament team.
St. Paul, Bonduel is what it is today because Brad works with younger kids in the summer by holding open gyms. There is no requirement to come to open gym, but the girls show up and they bring their little sisters. We work with all of them. The little sister tells us that she wants to be on a winning team just like her big sister.
In the past few years one night each week our practice has been at
4:45 P.M. Many kids ride the bus and would just be getting home, then parents would have to run them back into town. Brad holds a study hall, which is also a bonding time for the team. It is mandatory that the girls get their homework done before any fun stuff. Once or twice each season Brad has a bonding party at his house where the girls have a ton of fun. Frequently Brad discusses life lessons with the team. Brad praises the upper class for accepting the younger team members. Two years ago, we went to nationals with five 8th graders, one 7th grader and two 6th grade students on the team and took 6th place.
The nationals committee considers 140+ schools from around the country and 32 are selected. At nationals you expect to see several teams with athletic girls 6 feet tall or taller, so the competition is superb, and the coaching is excellent.
It is fun to watch Brad during a timeout. Brad will tell the girls, ok this or that has been happening, so the other team will try to do this or that, so this is what you will do. Brad is correct 90% of the time in this coaching chess match, and what is most pleasing is to see the confidence in the girls’ faces as they head back onto the floor. Brad is a winning coach!
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
Vince Lombardi