ROSENDALE — High school sports are about more than just winning. It's about building high character young men and women.
Nothing exemplifies good character more than sportsmanship. This week in Youth Sports: Beyond the Score, NBC 26 caught up with the Laconia Spartans softball club, a team awarded for their conduct on and off the diamond.
“The game of softball is awesome,” said Spartans head coach Scott Ritzema. “But it’s life that really matters and I want to always pour into my team and kids that, ‘Hey this is temporary but what you’re going to be taking into the future makes a big difference."
After a loss in the middle of the 2024 season, Ritzema had some words with his team.
“I said, ‘You guys are better than this, we have more potential and more ability’,” Ritzema told the team.
They would then rattle off 9 straight wins to get to state. As a four-seed in the Division 3 state tournament, they upset one-seed Mishicot to get to the title game.
“We were down to our last strike twice and pulled that game out and that has to be one of my top wins in my career of coaching,” said Ritzema, which is a big feat considering he’s won a few state titles.
“Just to get that win just to get to the state championship game, it feels great,” said now senior at Laconia, center fielder Gwen Westphal.
They lost in the championship to Prescott, but after talking to a few of their leaders, this team knows that winning isn’t everything.
“Sportsmanship is what builds the game,” Westphal said. “I mean yeah, the game is actually doing it and winning and losing, but I don't think it’s about winning and losing. I think it’s more about playing the game, having fun, and respecting each other in the midst of it.”
According to Ritzema, he preaches humility to the girls. they're not better than anyone else.
"To be a good sport and to be able to respect your opponents and respect the officials that are out there means a lot and it’s building character into the future,” he said.
That good sportsmanship and respect even caught the attention of their opponents.
“I've heard from people I play travel ball within our conference, that every time they play us other parents are like, ‘that’s the nicest team we’ve played all year’ and that’s pretty nice to hear,” said senior shortstop Emma Bohn.
And it wasn’t only noticed by opponents, but also by the WIAA. They were named one of the winners of the Sportsmanship Award for the 2024 spring state tournaments.
“It shows how much we care about each other and how much we care about other teams, it’s not always about winning and losing,” said senior Cambree Johnson who plays second base. “It shows your true colors when you play against teams you don’t really like or even if you do like them, it just shows who you are,” Johnson adds.
It wasn’t just the team that won it. It was a team effort by everyone involved in and around the program.
“That means a lot to us and I couldn’t be more proud of our kids, being able to model that, our fans, this community, I have a great coaching staff it’s a team effort all the way across from the parents in the stands to the gals that are sitting on the bench and everybody in between.”
This is the third time the Spartans have won the award, with the basketball team in 2002 and the baseball team in 2017 also receiving the honor.
