View from the cheap seats

A weekly perspective on sports

Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review

I anticipated Edgar varsity girls basketball player Makenna Guden would score her 1,000th career point against Marathon on Thursday, until her head coach told me she’d gone home sick with the flu during the school day.

Regardless, I decided to research the Edgar 1,000 Point Club plaques hung on the wall just west of the concessions stand inside the Edgar High School gymnasium, in preparation for the likelihood Makenna would be healthy enough to play in Edgar’s WIAA Division 4 home regional quarterfinal against Plainfield Tri-County on Tuesday.

My due diligence paid off when Makenna returned to Edgar’s starting lineup to achieve the 1,000 career points milestone, while also helping the Wildcats easily beat the Penguins on Tuesday to advance in the playoffs.

Just as Edgar’s girls basketball team welcomed Guden back on the court against Plainfield Tri-County, the team was required to play without starter Gabriella Keim who couldn’t play because she was now ill with the flu. Hopefully Keim returns to full health for the Edgar’s home regional semifinal against Rosholt this Friday, Feb. 28.

I noticed Edgar High School graduate Larry Brown is the basketball career points leader, among both boys and girls, in school history with 1,275 points scored by the time he was a senior in 1981. I asked Jim Steinke, Edgar middle and high school athletic director, if Brown still resided in Edgar. Steinke told me Larry Brown played college basketball at UW-Eau Claire and he lives in Eau Claire today.

Steinke also informed me Larry Brown’s son, Tyler Brown, played basketball at Eau Claire North High School. Steinke told me Tyler Brown ended up playing one year of college basketball at Central Michigan before transferring to play at UW-Green Bay, where he unfortunately injured his knee and thus didn’t see any playing action on the court.

Holly Denfeld is Edgar High School’s second-leading career scorer with 1,258 points by the time she was a senior in 2013. Edgar head girls basketball coach Betty Urmanksi believes Makenna Guden will eclipse Denfeld’s scoring mark next season, and possibly even Larry Brown’s all-time school record.

Urmanski did say 1,000 career point scorers will become more common in the future. This is because the WIAA is allowing varsity boys and girls basketball teams to play 24 games, instead of 22, beginning next season.

It was neat to hear former Edgar girls basketball player Tianna Borchardt was in attendance at Tuesday’s game to support Makenna Guden joining her in Edgar’s 1,000 Point Club. Borchardt finished her playing career with 1,105 points.