I’m in awe of colorful tennis shoes

I gave my condolences to Kyle Brewster at halftime of Monday’s Edgar varsity boys basketball game against Spencer for his father, Gary Brewster, passing away on Nov. 16. I then read messages Edgar girls basketball players wrote in honor of Gary on a large poster on the north gym wall inside Edgar High School’s gym.

Edgar 2021 graduates Kyle Brewster and Drew Guden both attended Monday’s boys basketball game while they are on their college holiday breaks. Kyle was home from studying at UWStevens Point and Drew from UW-Madison.

These two student athletes were members of great sports teams in Edgar last season. They helped the Edgar varsity boys basketball team earn a trip to the state tournament for the first time in 24 years and they helped lead the Wildcat boys track and field team to a WIAA Division 3 state runners-up silver trophy.

Kyle Brewster, Guden, Brayden Baumgartner, Austin Dahlke and Konnor Wolf were Edgar’s senior starting five players in its loss to Oshkosh Lourdes in the WIAA Division 4 basketball state tournament semifinal last season.

I witnessed on Monday night that Brayden’s younger brother, Brett Baumgartner, is already turning into a great boys basketball player for the Wildcats varsity squad this season.

I’m just hoping Greg Streit and his daughters don’t get too good at taking photos at Edgar’s basketball games or I’ll be out of a job soon.

I was in awe of the colorful Nike shoes the majority of Edgar’s underclassmen varsity boys basketball players were wearing against Spencer. Wildcats freshman Leyton Schuett told me if I watched the NBA then I’d see many of the professional players are also wearing tennis shoes with bright hot teal, pink and yellow.

Longtime Edgar boys basketball varsity assistant coach Tom Bauman joked with me after the game that back in the day players only wore simple black and white tennis shoes. I remember Air Michael Jordans were a big hit during my high school basketball playing days in Marathon in the mid 1990s, but I believe these tennis shoes only consisted of plain red, black and white colors.

I am wondering how many years Jim Heidmann has been an Edgar varsity boys basketball assistant coach, because it seems like he’s been on the team’s bench forever. I forget to ask him. My mother, Edgar native Pauline Berg, once told me I’m related to Jim Heidmann.

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View from cheap seats