MANITOWOC — When Josh Erickson took over the Roncalli boys basketball team in September of 2022, he wanted to continue to set the bar high for the basketball program.
They were coming off their 2nd state title in program history the spring before and have made 8 state tournament appearances in the last 20 years.
“He tells us all the time, if we’re playing with the Roncalli jersey on – it’s Roncalli, we’ve gotta live up, push to live up to those expectations,” said junior guard Donovan Cowley.
During his playing days, Erickson helped set those high expectations, he was a part of one of those eight seasons (2014) that went to Madison. Now he's trying to instill in his players what it takes to live up to them.
“It means a lot to be giving back to a community that I love and appreciate and that I'm really blessed to be a part of, so I’m very fortunate,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that go into (making it to state). We really just try to stick to the culture that we’ve had since I was an athlete here and what coach Garceau had.”
His coaching career with the Jets didn’t start out how he wanted during the 2022-23 season, missing almost half of it with a form of Stevens- Johnson syndrome.
“I spent three weeks in intensive care,” Erickson said. “Basically, you develop a rash, it turns into blisters and I was in a burn unit and they treat it as a burn. It was pretty scary at the time but I’ve pretty much made a full recovery since with it.”
Erickson says it was stressful not being able to be on the court building the foundation of his program, but he felt the most stress for his players.
“I think it was really tough to miss him because we started off with him there for like a month or 2 and then all of a sudden he’s just gone,” said Jets senior captain Matthew Bonin.
“I think there was a lot of really hard times for the seniors at the time who wanted to have a good season and young guys who were looking for leadership and guidance,” said Erickson. “It was tough, I wanted to get back so badly during that time.”
A lot of underclassmen played during Erickson's first two years – where they had some struggles. In year one, they went 8-17. In year two, they were barely above .500 but ended the season with a Regional Final win. Now, everything they’ve gone through has led them to being at the top of the Eastern Wisconsin conference.
“Going through adversity, going through tough games, going through tough times, it’s made us more poised and composed this year,” Erickson said.
The Jets are improved across the board in year three of the Erickson era and they're excited about what the future holds.
“We’re making our name known again and we’re just playing good basketball,” said Bonin.