Tuesday State Sports Briefs: Gamblers tied record for regular season records

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GREEN BAY - The Green Bay Gamblers have tied a team-record for regular season victories. They now have 45 wins on the year, after 6-1 home win over Muskegon yesterday.

Green Bay is now 45-8-3. They can break the team victory record when they host Muskegon again on Friday night. The Gamblers have 93 points as a team – and with four games left, they only need three points to break their mark of 95 set two years ago.

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The UW-Milwaukee men’s soccer program has self-reported six secondary violations to the NCAA. The violations turned up while school officials were reviewing allegations that former coach Chris Whalley made inappropriate comments to players. Whalley was fired last month. The violations included two instances in which athletes received instruction from a non-coaching staff member. Also, UWM said a member of the coaching staff had improper contact with a prospect in-between the player’s tournament games. And among other things, several improper phone calls were made inadvertently since last July. It’s not known what types of sanctions the Milwaukee soccer program could face. The NCAA is not commenting for now.

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A third member of Pewaukee’s Watt family has decided to play his college football at Wisconsin. T.J. Watt, a junior two-way player, gave his verbal commitment yesterday to join the Badgers in 2013. He’s a tight end and defensive end who caught 27 passes for 505 yards and three touchdowns for Pewaukee last year. Watt’s oldest brother J.J. starred for two years with the Badgers at defensive end after he transferred from Central Michigan. And in January, J.J became the first rookie defensive lineman in NFL history to score a touchdown on an interception in a playoff game, when he helped Houston beat Cincinnati. The family’s middle brother, Derek Watt, is currently with the Badgers. He was a redshirt as a freshman, and is now competing to be the main backup at middle linebacker behind Chris Borland.

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After quitting last October, Casey Dehn is back with the University of Wisconsin football team. He’ll be a redshirt junior in the fall. And he’s competing for a starting job on the offensive line at the Badgers’ current spring practices. Dehn said he left the team because he was frustrated by the slow pace of his development. He was also on the Wisconsin track-and-field squad – but he’s now putting all of his focus on football. Coach Bret Bielema has said that Dehn didn’t get along with former offensive line coach Bob Bostad – but Dehn said it’s not the reason he quit. He said he missed his teammates, and a couple of them told Bielema after the Rose Bowl that Dehn wanted to come back. Bielema spoke with linemen Travis Frederick and Ryan Groy, and both liked the idea. Dehn has two years of eligibility remaining.

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The UW-Stevens Point baseball team rose one place to eighth in this week’s national poll from D3baseball.com. The Pointers are 10-4 overall. UW-Whitewater is the only other Wisconsin team in the Top-25. The Warhawks jumped one place to 21st. Trinity of Texas is still at No. 1.

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The UW-Milwaukee baseball team scored three runs in the eighth inning yesterday to beat Illinois-Chicago at home, 7-3. Jonathan Capasso sparked the rally with a two-run double, and Phil Striggow capped it off with an RBI-single. Greg Blohowiak earned the win in relief. He did not give up a hit in two-and-two-thirds’ innings. UWM improved to 4-5 in the Horizon League and 8-16 overall. Illinois-Chicago dropped to 5-4 in the conference, and 11-14 overall.

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The University of Wisconsin softball team fell to Northwestern at home, 8-3 Sunday. Amy Letourneau hit a three-run homer, as the Wildcats improved to 2-4 in the Big Ten and 14-18 overall. Shannel Blackshear hit a two-run double for the Badgers, who fell to 3-3 in the conference and 14-12 overall. Elsewhere in softball over the weekend, UW-Green Bay lost at Valparaiso 4-3. Alli Rivera and Hailey Mohrfeld homered for the Phoenix, who dropped to 0-3 in the Horizon League and 10-12 overall. Valparaiso scored all four of its runs in the sixth innings, as the Crusaders remain unbeaten in conference play at 6-0. They’re also 20-10 overall.

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Cale Tassi of UW-Milwaukee has been named the Horizon League’s baseball pitcher of the week. Tassi, a junior, struck out a career-high nine batters in a 7-1 Panthers’ victory over Illinois-Chicago. Tassi leads the conference with a 2.20 ERA, and he’s tied for the league lead in strikeouts with 32. Corey Davis of Wright State was named the position player-of-the-week.

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Reliever Brandon Winfield of Marian in Fond du Lac was named to the national Division III Team-of-the-Week from D3baseball.com. Winfield picked up one victory and two saves for Marian last week. He had a two-inning save against Lawrence before closing the door on Wisconsin Lutheran on Saturday. On Sunday, he shut down Lakeland to get his victory for the week.

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UW-Oshkosh women’s basketball coach Terri Schumacher is stepping down after seven years. She’ll move into a full-time position at the school’s Recreation-and-Wellness Center. Schumacher led Oshkosh to a WIAC title in her first season in 2006, and the Titans went 12-14 overall last season. Her career record was 71-107. Oshkosh officials will conduct a national search for a new women’s coach – and a replacement is expected to be announced by the start of July. Schumacher’s resignation came just days after Oshkosh men’s coach Tim Van Dellen retired with the fifth-highest number of victories in WIAC history.

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Anthony Hargrove apparently did not have much negotiating leverage in working out his new free agent contract with the Green Bay Packers. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Hargrove ended up signing a one-year contract for the veterans’ minimum of $825,000. There was no bonus money. And if he goes on injured reserve, Hargrove’s base salary gets cut to $393,000. Also, the paper said the 28-year-old Hargrove had to sign a injury waiver, which would pay him even less if he aggravated a previous physical problem – like the back issues he’s had since joining the NFL in 2004. Also, Hargrove – an eight-year veteran – could be suspended by the league for his involvement in the bounty program when he was with the New Orleans Saints in 2009. He had one of the more vicious hits on Brett Favre – whom along with Aaron Rodgers was one of four quarterbacks targeted for injuries by the Saints’ defense.

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A former Packers’ trainer who invented the modern knee brace for NFL players has died. His family said 83-year-old George Anderson died last week in Santa Fe New Mexico. He had diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. Anderson was the Oakland Raiders’ original trainer in 1960. He left the Raiders in the mid-‘90’s, and worked under Packers’ trainer Pepper Burress for both training camp and playoffs. Sports Illustrated football writer Peter King said Anderson worked in 15 league or conference title games in his years with the Raiders and Green Bay. King called Anderson “one of the legends in the business.”

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