View from the cheap seats
A weekly perspective on sports
Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review
On Monday afternoon, I decided to look through a box of memorabilia from attending Marathon High School that I keep hidden in the back of my my closet. It’s hard to believe it’s already been 25 years since I played basketball for the Red Raiders.
I cut out and glued all the sports stories written in the local newspapers and placed them into a book during my Marathon 1995-96 senior boys basketball season. It was interesting to discover while looking at this book on Monday that I actually played basketball against Athens native Tony Schultz’s Wausau Newman boys basketball team during my senior season.
Schultz was a sophomore who scored eight points for the Cardinals in their 73-67 win against my Red Raiders’ squad during the Wausau West holiday tournament. A few years ago, I recall watching Schultz play for a team in the Stratford adult men’s basketball league on Sunday nights. Schultz was still true to how he played in high school, by using his tall frame to get easy points close to the basket instead of hoisting up three pointers.
The Marathon boys basketball team’s season sweep of Auburndale in the current 2020-21 season is good for the Edgar boys basketball team’s chances of winning the Marawood South Conference championship. Marathon’s season sweep of Auburndale is also sweet for me, because I still remember Auburndale beating my 1995-96 Marathon boys basketball team in the playoffs to end my high school playing career.
Today’s Auburndale boys basketball squad, coached by former player Chad Weinfurtner, plays very similar to how it did during my high school years. Auburndale always has great guard play, whether it’s Hunter Wright this season or Mike Huser in the 1995-96 season.
The Athens boys basketball program has come a long way today compared to when I was in high school. Back then, Athens was known as a wrestling powerhouse rather than for basketball. The 2020-21 Athens boys basketball team has rising star players like junior Cooper Diedrich and sophomore Aiden Janke who are attempting to guide the Bluejays to their first conference title since 1950.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 71 years since the Athens boys basketball team won a conference championship, but like I said earlier, Athens was known more for wrestling than basketball in the 1980s and 1990s. I was always excited to see the Athens boys basketball team on my Marathon regular-season schedule in the mid-1990s, because I knew it would be an easy victory. That’s certainly no longer the case today, as this year’s Athens boys basketball team is again a force to be reckoned with in the Marawood Conference, as evidenced by its win against Marathon on Friday.
