'A bunch of dudes that love basketball': This is how Fond du Lac won its first Fox Valley Association title in more than 20 years
FOND DU LAC – For the first time since 2000, the Fond du Lac boys basketball team is the outright champion of the Fox Valley Association.
“It feels good to bring the conference title back home after all these years and show everyone what Fondy basketball is really about,” said junior forward Ryker Johnson.
Coach Nick Ford, in his fourth season, has led a turnaround from finishing 4-22 overall and 3-15 in the FVA a year ago to being conference champions. The Cardinals are ranked ninth in the state in Division 1 in the final Associated Press poll of the season.
Fondy wrapped up its regular season with an 80-70 victory over Kaukauna on Saturday to improve to 18-6 overall and finish 14-4 in the FVA. The Cardinals earned a No. 2 seed in the Division 1 playoffs and will host Menomonee Falls on Friday in a regional semifinal.
The Cardinals have been ranked in the top-10 since Jan. 17 in the wissports.net coaches poll, moving up one spot this week to No. 6.
“I don’t really worry too much about what other people say,” Ford said. “I don’t think people knew who we were coming into the year. Everyone knew about Jay (Dalton), but we were really inconsistent with our guys around him last year. We’ve been in the gym for a long time. These guys have put a lot of time in.
“Colt Blank has had a heck of a year, Stephen Schreiter has had a big-time year and I just don’t think people understood how good those guys were because of the inconsistencies we had, whether it was different lineups, injuries, whatever it was. The outside world doesn’t really matter. I pay very little attention to that. I knew going into the year that being picked eighth (in the conference) or whatever we were picked, was crazy. Our guys are way better than people think they are.”
Fond du Lac clinched a share of the conference title – its first since 2000-01 when it split with Oshkosh West – by way of its home victory over Hortonville on Feb. 14, and although the Cardinals fell to Appleton North on Senior Night in their next game, they still captured the conference crown outright after Kaukauna’s win over second-place Oshkosh North the same night.
“It definitely feels great,” Schreiter said. “A little weight lifted off of our shoulders. It’s just a product of all our work that’s come up to this moment, being in the gym every day in the summer and really just trusting all of our coaches, especially, in the process. It just feels amazing to accomplish that.”
Since Fond du Lac joined the FVA in 1989-1990, the Cardinals have won the conference championship 10 times. In comparison, since the FVA’s inception in 1970, Neenah has 15 titles, Kimberly has nine, Oshkosh West has eight and Oshkosh North has seven.
Fondy dominated the FVA for most of the decade from 1990 to 2000 and into 2001, claiming conference championships under legendary head coach Dick Diener in all but two seasons – 1991-92 (Oshkosh North) and 1998-99 (Oshkosh West) – winning four of those titles outright and sharing the throne on five other occasions.
There were also two state championship appearances during Diener’s dynasty, finishing as the runner-up in 1987 and 2002. In 2007, he was inducted to the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
“I grew up idolizing Drake and Travis (Diener) and those guys, so this is really cool,” Ford said. “The work these guys have put in and the sacrifices they’ve made – our team has a lot of depth this year – I think it speaks to their character the way certain guys have stepped up in situations and that means other guys had to kind of take a back seat and they’ve never flinched. It’s never been a selfish thing. I’ve never had to talk to anybody about their mentality. Whatever is needed for the team to win, they just go and do it.”
Highlights for the Cardinals this year include the first season series sweep of Neenah since 2003-04 and their first victory against the Rockets since Jan. 19, 2018, snapping an eight-game losing streak. Fondy also picked up its first win over Kimberly since Feb. 14, 2017, ending a streak of 10 consecutive losses to the Papermakers. Senior guard Jamariea Dalton also reached 1,000 career points Dec. 30 in a victory over West Bend East.
Ford attributed the team’s ability to remain consistent throughout the course of the season not only to its depth and versatility, but also its belief in the program.
“We have different guys that provide different things at different times in the game when it’s needed and our ability to mismatch and work different lineups at different times depending on what the other team is doing, or the flow of the game, has allowed us to really have a lot of flexibility within our game plan,” Ford said. “Then we’ve got some guys that are really versatile in their own game. I think it’s also our buy-in. Our guys are winners, they’re competitors. Winning matters, it’s not just about scoring 20 a game.”
Added Johnson: “I believe we have been able to stay consistent by always having that surge, or hunger, to go out and compete with each other. Whether it’s in practice or in a game, we are ready to take on whoever opposes us.”
Ford said the Cardinals wouldn’t be where they are today without the efforts put in by those who have come and gone through the program in recent years.
“Another aspect that I think is special about winning the title is I think back to two, three years ago – the guys that have played here – we have some guys that we’ve been building for a while,” Ford said. “This didn’t happen overnight. Those guys – Henry Wright, Drew Dickman, Mack Sebert, Al Rusch, Fletcher Haus, Cole Linder – you can go down the list of guys that have played for us and see that it’s been a process. This isn’t something that just happened this year.”
The best part about coaching the team this season, Ford shared, has been watching the amount of time and effort his seniors have put in from the beginning, along with the growth and development in his first full class of players.
“Our senior class is special,” Ford said. “These guys are a special crew. I think you’ve got a bunch of dudes that love basketball. This is my first full class, from freshmen to seniors. The buy-in – Will Braatz has been bought in since he was a freshman, Stephen Schreiter very rarely misses workouts. I can’t remember a time Colton Blank or Jay weren’t in the gym. Kyan Miller moved here and is an every day guy, shows up and works hard to make this program better. So they’ve bought in and then it makes it special because you’re able to see their growth within their game and their love for the game and each other.”
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The success the Cardinals have had this season may have come as a surprise to anyone besides the Fondy faithful, but to the players it has been a pleasure to repeatedly prove everyone wrong.
“I knew coming into the season we could be as good as anyone, so it feels good to have proved wrong all the people that had us not winning, or even being a top-5 team, in conference,” Dalton said. “It feels very good and I’m happy to have made everyone proud.”
Despite the excitement of accomplishing a major team goal, the Cardinals are fully aware the job isn’t done yet.
“We want to be playing our best basketball going into regionals and then into sectionals, hopefully,” Ford said. “It’s a long road ahead, but our goal is just to keep getting better.”
Added Dalton: “It feels very good to be conference champs. That was something the guys and I have been wanting for a while, so it just feels good that we got it done. We got here by working as hard as we can during practices and with good preparation during film breakdowns for every team that we have played.”
Said Braatz: “We’ve just got to keep working, keep it going in the playoffs and hope to make a good run. We treat every day like it’s the only day that matters. Practice, games, no matter what we compete every day. It feels great to be conference champions. We knew we would be successful going into the season just based on how much work we put in and it feels good to show people that.”
This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Fond du Lac Cardinals cherish first FVA boys basketball title in over 20 years
