We asked our sports reporters to submit their favorite stories of 2024. Here’s what we got.

Posted by Admin December 31, 2024 Sports

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The past year was another memorable one in the Wisconsin sports universe.

Our sports reporters covered a huge variety of stories, including high school state championships, rising stars like Jackson Chourio, disappointments like the playoff Bucks and Brewers, heroes-turned-villains like Craig Counsell, unforgettable performances like Jack Gohlke’s during March Madness, international superstars like Jordan Stolz, stunning victories like the Packers in the wild-card playoffs and players at the top of their game like Sarah Franklin.

Those were some of the biggest stories our reporters wrote. But we wanted to know what were their favorite stories of 2024.

Here’s a sampling:

Zac Bellman

The headline: High school and club coach Tomislav Markovic remembered for his unrivaled passion for soccer

The story: A memorial to Milwaukee-area soccer coach Tomislav Markovic, who died Jan. 15 at age 48, more than four years after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

An excerpt: “He would give the same passion to his best player on his team, and he’d instill that same kind of passion with a kid who probably needed a little bit more seasoning,” longtime friend and current Muskego boys soccer coach Chris Logan said. “‘Passion’ is a really strong word. Tomi definitely had it.”

It was that passion that Markovic used to guide programs from St. Thomas More, Martin Luther and Franklin high schools and his beloved Croatian Eagles Soccer Club to historic successes. A 2006 WIAA Division 3 state title at STM and a 2012 U.S. National Open Cup Championship with the Croatian Eagles’ Majors team were among his career highlights, but records and titles were not how Markovic defined his legacy.

“He wanted soccer to be fun,” Logan said. “It’s not always about wins and losses, it’s about how much fun can you have? It’s an opportunity to build relationships and bonds with friends.”

Why it is my favorite: This story represented the culmination of a half-dozen raw and emotional conversations with sources still grieving the loss of a dear friend. The lede on Tomislav’s affinity for sausage-making came from the last minute of more than two hours of interviews and was a detail that I felt tied the whole piece together. I was deeply proud to have approached that story in a considerate and thoughtful way, and to have those efforts acknowledged later by readers who affirmed I captured the essence of a man I never personally got the privilege to meet. My only regret is that we never did.

How to read the full story: Tomislav Markovic

Pete Dougherty

The headline: Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst rewarded for returning to the tried and true

The story: After a couple of seasons of trying to go all-in on a Super Bowl run for Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst returned to the organization’s philosophy of building a team through draft and development.

An excerpt: The Packers, as you almost surely know, were the league’s youngest team last year. For all the hand wringing and second guessing that came with that prospect, they ended up making the playoffs at 9-8 and were playing as well as anyone by the time the 49ers bounced them from the divisional round of the playoffs in a game that went down to the wire in San Francisco.

“I know everybody talked about us being young,” Gutekunst said last week, “and I’m a Ted Thompson disciple, I’ve never looked at it as a negative, you know?”

Last season and last week’s news conference drove home that Gutekunst adheres to the personnel wisdoms he learned working for Thompson and Pro Football Hall of Famer Ron Wolf, truisms that probably are nearly as old as professional sports. They for sure go back at least to baseball’s Branch Rickey in the 1920s and hockey’s Jack Adams in the 1930s and ‘40s, and were carried on in the NFL through the likes of Hall of Famers Vince Lombardi, George Young, Jim Finks and Wolf.

Sayings such as football is a young man’s game, and athletes from their late teens to about 26 generally make the best players. That knowing when to move on from players is a critical part of roster building, and the corollary better to do it a year early than a year late.

Why it is my favorite: I picked this one because it put to use the 30-plus years I’ve spent covering the Packers and NFL and was a way to share the wisdom I’ve picked up from smart people who have worked in the league for a long time. It’s easy to forget the tried-and-true methods for team building and get caught up in the moment when a young, rebuilding team struggles early. Judging by the quotes in the column, there were even people on the Packers’ football staff who’d forgotten those truisms, or maybe never knew them. One of my main jobs is to provide context for how things work, or at least can work, in the NFL, and this was a good way to impart what I’ve learned over the years

How to read the full story: Brian Gutekunst

Curt Hogg

The headline: The ‘orange Life Savers’ of MLB: How a Pat Murphy theory on candy is central to the Brewers’ winning ways

The story: Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy has an unusual take on evaluating talent: He likes to find the underhyped and undervalued players. He calls them orange Life Savers.

An excerpt: Murphy has a long held theory about baseball players.

As head coach at Arizona State, where he won 629 games and four times made the College World Series, he recruited a bit differently, choosing to go after the overlooked players whose talent was modest but work ethic was indefatigable instead of the stars.

He once got fed up with his staff for only bringing elite athletes to the table in recruiting meetings and brusquely opined, “Can we find some red-headed, short-armed lefty?”

The next day, a photo of a red-headed, short-armed lefty at a junior college two hours north was on his desk. His name was Kole Calhoun. He ultimately helped lead the Sun Devils to the College World Series and played 12 years in the major leagues.

That was the mold of player, under-recruited and undervalued, who often thrived under Murphy. Dustin Pedroia, Willie Bloomquist, Jason Kipnis and Andre Ethier were that way, too.

And Murphy had a name for those types of players.

Orange Life Savers.

“What’s the first thing you do when you get a pack of Life Savers?” Murphy explained. “You open it up and you take the red ones. Everyone likes the red ones. Nobody wants the orange. I always had a theory that I liked the orange Life Savers.

“When you recruit the red Life Savers, they end up disappointing you a lot of times. The orange Life Savers for me were the ones that were valuable because everyone is going after the red. I want the orange, which is for me the second-best Life Saver.”

Why it is my favorite: The idea came from one small comment from one of Pat Murphy’s former college players and, still early in the season, captured the energy and identity of not only the Brewers but Murphy himself. Murphy would go onto win Manager of the Year in the National League and a big reason why was his ability to rally his group of orange Life Savers together.

How to read the full story: orange Life Savers

Dave Kallmann

The headline: From pancakes to a clown in polka dots, ski legend Ernie St. Germaine has 50 years of Birkebeiner stories

The story: Ernie St. Germaine was there for the first American Birkebeiner cross-country ski race from Hayward to Cable. As the 50th Birkie was set to go off, the 76-year-old was primed to be the only skier to participate in every one of them.

An excerpt: St. Germaine can’t tell you his best time or his best finish from his 49 Birkies and wouldn’t begin to try to guess. He has never been close to placing – especially as the race attracted more elite competitors – but that’s never been his reason for entering.

“I love to ski,” he said. “Of all the things that I’ve done and being an athlete all my life, a baseball player … instructors and coaches, nobody ever taught me how to quit.”

St. Germaine doesn’t judge those who do. Every skier has goals of their own. Some misjudge the difficulty of the course, fall ill or just have a bad day.

“There was a girl that was going up O’Brien Hill, which is a 1k long hill, 7k from the finish,” St. Germaine said. “She had fallen down, and I stopped by her. She was getting up slowly. I started singing to her, ‘You Are So Beautiful.’ And everybody around joined me and started singing to her. And she got up, smiling, and skied with us. It was wonderful.

“Another time, I came up, going up a hill, and there was a guy stopped, completely cold, and he was leaning on his poles. … I say, ‘You’ve got 11k to go. You just came up one of the toughest hills, and here you are almost to the top.’

“He says, ‘I don’t think I can make it.’ And I said, ‘You know, Main Street is the most amazing experience.’ I said, ‘There’s nothing like it. People screaming and cheering for you. You will never forget it as long as you live.’ And he started skiing. And he just kept going. Before long, he gathered himself again and there he goes, he skied away from me. That made me so happy. I just know he made it to Main Street and that finish line.”

Why it is my favorite: The Birkie package was a lot of fun in general, talking to passionate people involved in it in a variety of ways, from people who skied in the first to people who worked for the organization to a winner to the daughter of a founder, and learning the history. It’s one of those things that a lot of people know about but don’t really truly know much about it. That said, the sidebar was my favorite. When I went back to look over options, that’s the only story I read again from start to finish. Then I pulled up the text I got from him about how reading the story had him in tears. That’s powerful. Hopefully, he was an inspiration. If a reader got to the end and felt nothing, then that person is either a bad reader or a bad person. The irony in my choice, of course, is that there’s little actual writing in that 60 inches. It’s one man telling his story and me ducking out of his way, contributing only by steering the conversation and then creating some bridges that get the reader to the absolute best parts of his storytelling.

How to read the full story: Ernie St. Germaine

Jim Owczarski

The headline: How Giannis Antetokounmpo learned to get over himself to play the best basketball of his career

The story: Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo was at a crucial point in his career, contemplating leaving the game, when he started talking with a sports psychologist. He learned how to “be OK with myself.”

An excerpt: Some knew of the work he had put in on himself, how his mindset was evolving. But he would not say the phrase “I’m over myself” in public until nearly a year later.

Antetokounmpo, 29, spoke with the Journal Sentinel on this topic in a series of interviews over the last three seasons, recognizing that arriving to that place took time, that putting it into practice required a long runway — and that it will always be a work in progress.

But it doesn’t mean he’s “over” winning more MVPs or being recognized for his play.

“No. No. It’s just maturity,” he allowed. “Like, I know what I’m capable of, I know who I am and I know what makes me tick.”

Antetokounmpo further explained what it means to him.

“I know that sometimes I’m going to get to my spots, sometimes I’m not going to get to my spot, sometimes I’m going to have a good game, not a good game,” he said. “Sometimes I’m going to play well, sometimes I’m not going to play well.

“Like I don’t try always to be this perfect guy. You cannot be perfect. Especially when you play the game. You cannot always be perfect. It’s human performance. Human performance means that you’re gonna make mistakes! Nobody; you cannot be perfect. You’re going to miss free throws, you’re gonna air ball free throws.

“But like, can you be OK? How can you be OK with yourself? And I think I’ve got to a level where I’m just OK with myself, you know? But that doesn’t mean that I’m not competitive. That doesn’t mean there’s no pressure. You want to win. I want to win. I play to win. But, if this guy (next to me) has 35 points in the fourth quarter and I have zero, I’m OK with it, because at the end of the day the goal is to win.”

Interestingly — and perhaps not coincidentally — his first season operating on the court with that mentality saw the Bucks reach the pinnacle, an NBA championship.

Why it is my favorite: This was my favorite story of 2024 probably because it took several years to produce. The seed for this story was planted in the 2022 season when Antetokounmpo first used the phrase “over myself.” But I felt like, at the time, I had to give that more time to find out if he truly was over himself. So I just sort of checked in with him over the course of those following seasons on what that meant to him, and how that impacted how he was playing and his thought process stayed fairly consistent – until finally it got a point where it was time to write it. This piece was also recognized by the Pro Basketball Writers Association, earning an honorable mention for moderate-length feature writing.

How to read the full story: Giannis Antetokounmpo

Todd Rosiak

The headline: It’s a numbers game: Brewers players explain why they wear the jersey numbers they do

The story: We wondered how players got their jersey numbers so we went around the clubhouse to find out.

An excerpt: (Wade) Miley has played for eight teams during his 14-year career in the majors and has worn 20 with five of those, including twice with the Brewers.

It’s a number he holds dearly.

“I lost one of my childhood best friends (Johnnie Santangelo) to brain cancer in 2016,” Miley said. “In 2014, he got diagnosed. I got traded to the Red Sox (in 2015), and he’d always worn 20 – from when we were little in pee wee football, college baseball – his whole life. So, I made the change to 20 in ’15. It was available with the Red Sox, and he was really sick, but he freaking loved it. So, I’ve tried to wear 20 ever since. It’s his name on my glove that I’ve used since 2014 (Lil Man 20).”

The No. 20 meant so much to Miley that when he rejoined the Brewers heading into the 2023 season, he compensated Mike Brosseau – who had carried it over from the 2022 season – handsomely for it.

“I got him a watch. I think it was a Breitling,” Miley said. “I’m ballin’ on a budget. But it wasn’t cheap.”

Why it is my favorite: A simple idea to write about how the Brewers issue uniform numbers morphed into a three-part series that became way more detailed and deep-diving that I had ever anticipated. And it was a blast to write because not only did I get a bunch of good backstories from the players, but I also was able to interview and write about an employee that’s typically off-limits to media (he’s great!) and dive into team history in the process. We don’t have much time to deviate from our typical coverage menu during the baseball season because of how many games there are. But this was one of my favorite projects in many seasons.

How to read the full story: Brewers numbers

Paul Smith

The headline: Dr. Robert Riepenhoff, son of my predecessor, takes on firearm injuries and deaths

The story: Dr. Robert Riepenhoff, who happens to be the son of former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel outdoors editor Bob Riepenhoff, chose firearm safety as the theme for his presidency of the Medical Society of Milwaukee County.

An excerpt: Riepenhoff’s views began taking shape 32 years ago when he was taking a Wisconsin hunter education class. He was joined by his father. The elder Riepenhoff even wrote about the family’s journey with firearm safety and hunting in a 1992 article.

“It occurred to me if I was going to convince (Robert) how important all this was, I’d better do more than just talk about it,” Bob wrote. “So I decided to enroll in the (hunter education) course along with him.”

Father and son attended a series of evening classes and heard presentations on a wide variety of topics, including the different types of firearms and ammunition as well as proper firearms cleaning, storage and transportation.

It concluded with written and field tests to demonstrate proficiency in firearm safety.

More than three decades later, Dr. Robert Riepenhoff knows how fortunate he was to receive a “gold standard” of firearm safety training in the hunter education class, as well as supervision by his parents, including his mother, Elise, at home.

Riepenhoff said the family’s firearms were always unloaded and stored in a locked cabinet.

Now a husband and father, Riepenhoff recently went through hunter education classes with his 14-year-old son, Louis.

Why it is my favorite: My favorite story for 2024 was a column I wrote in October on efforts by Dr. Robert Riepenhoff of Wauwatosa to reduce firearm-related injuries and deaths. Dr. Riepenhoff is an emergency-room physician and the son of my predecessor, Bob Riepenhoff. The column allowed me to combine elements of the legacy of the newspaper’s outdoor editor position with hunter safety with a leading public-health issue.

How to read the full story: Dr. Robert Riepenhoff

Ben Steele

The headline: Milwaukee leaders love what Shaka Smart is doing at Marquette, and not just with basketball

The story: Marquette men’s basketball coach Shaka Smart has cultivated a deep relationship between his players and the community outside of their college campus.

An excerpt: Those interactions with the city’s movers and shakers have made an impression on the players.

“It’s really cool,” MU big man Oso Ighodaro said. “I don’t think that a lot of programs across the country do things like that. Just the opportunity to network and make connections and meet people who are successful in their communities is really cool.”

(Milwaukee County executive David) Crowley estimates he’s had about a half-dozen talks with the team as well as several dinners. (Milwaukee mayor Cavalier) Johnson, Crowley and (Milwaukee County Board chairwoman Marcelia) Nicholson were all at the Martin Luther King Community Center last April when the Golden Eagles were given a city proclamation after their Big East regular-season and tournament championships.

“I think the biggest thing is understanding that they’re people just like us,” Ighodaro said. “Seeing some Black faces in positions of power like that is really motivating for us as a team.”

While Ighodaro was talking, he was dressed in a sharp blue suit while standing outside Madison Square Garden in New York and holding a trophy awarded to him as the Big East scholar-athlete of the year. He’s come a long way from the skinny freshman who played just 38 minutes for former MU head coach Steve Wojciechowski in the 2020-21 season.

Ighodaro has thrived in his three seasons playing for Smart. He’s a future NBA draft pick who also will leave MU with a finance degree and an MBA in four years. Ighodaro hails from Chandler, Arizona, but like many of his teammates has adopted Milwaukee as another hometown.

The Golden Eagles do basketball clinics at Boys & Girls Clubs across the city, and the program has a long-standing relationship with SHARP Literacy that includes the players reading books at local schools.

Why it is my favorite: The best sports stories usually don’t involve much sports. I thought it was interesting how Marquette coach Shaka Smart got his players involved in a community, especially since nearly all the players are from different states. It was about more than basketball, it was about learning, mentoring and community.

How to read the full story: Marquette Golden Eagles

Mark Stewart

The headline: Wisconsin freshman setter Charlie Fuerbringer is from a volleyball family and is ready to take reins

The story: An introduction to Charlie Fuerbringer, the newest member of the Wisconsin Badgers volleyball team and a key player on a successful, veteran team.

An excerpt: Imagine having a couple of former All-Americans and NCAA champions to call mom and dad. Imagine having a former Olympian as an uncle. That was life for Fuerbringer growing up.

Her father, Matt, was a four-time All-American at Stanford and a member of the Cardinal’s 1997 national championship team. Her mother, Joy, played at Long Beach State and was an All-American setter as a senior when the program won a national title in 1993, the year the Final Four was played at the UW Field House. Her uncle, David Mckienzie, was a 2012 Olympian.

Today, Fuerbringer’s father is an assistant coach with the U.S. national men’s team and will coach the Madison League One volleyball team this winter. Her mother spent five seasons as Long Beach State’s head coach.

“I think setting came naturally,” Fuerbringer said. “I also think part of it was my mom was a setter. I just think subconsciously that kind of led me to the same position that I’m in today. But growing up in a volleyball family, a volleyball world was awesome. I think it helps with my IQ and that’s a big thing. To be a setter, you’ve got to have good IQ in volleyball.”

Why it is my favorite: I chose this story not only because of Fuerbringer’s interesting background and the challenge she was about to face this season but because of the picture. I’m not a pro with the camara, but sometimes I get lucky and the picture of her setting a ball that accompanies the story was my favorite picture of the ones I took in 2024. Often when she sets, her back is facing me or one of her teammates interrupts the shot. For that picture, I moved behind the service line and caught her mid-air in a crouched position as she made the pass. It was a satisfying moment.

How to read the full story: Charlie Fuerbringer

Dominique Yates

The headline: The stories behind how 32 Green Bay Packers got their jersey numbers, and which number they’d rather wear

The story: Football players are uniquely identified by their jersey numbers. We asked Packers players how they chose or received their numbers.

An excerpt: Jordan Love, No, 10: My dad wore number 10 when he was in high school. That was like a tribute to him. When I was younger, I started wearing 10. I think, like, sixth grade, seventh grade I started wearing 10, and it kind of just stuck with me. Definitely a tribute to my dad, he wore number 10.

Why it is my favorite: The story I enjoyed working on most was with Ryan Wood when we asked members of the Packers how they got their jersey numbers. It was one of the first videos I worked on when I got here on the beat and I thought it was fun to do. Getting a chance to chat with the players about something not related to on-the-field and, for some of them, there’s significance behind their number. One that stood out was Jordan Love. 10 is the number Love’s late father wore in high school. It’s special that he honors his memory.

How to read the full story: Green Bay Packers numbers