August 2013

The aroma of hot dogs smothered in ketchup and mustard was on the air Saturday morning. A large, boisterous crowd filled the bleachers and chattered between bursts of applause. Five-year-old Cole Truitt wore a perpetual grin as he played around on the PA system, confidently predicted victory for the firefighters’ team, threw out a heater for a first pitch, and generally wore out any adult who tried to keep up with him.

In many ways it was just a fun summertime baseball game at Firefighter’s Park in the City of Middleton. In other ways it was not; this was the second annual Battle of the Badges, raising awareness and funds to help families impacted by childhood cancer. Everyone there - including police, firefighters,  medics, volunteers and fans - was rallying around Truitt, who was diagnosed in November with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

Yes, it was just a glorified practice.

And it’s true, no one will remember much about it come November.

But the fact remains Middleton’s football team was awfully impressive during a four-team scrimmage at MHS last Friday.

Middleton played host to Watertown, Madison Edgewood and Mount Horeb-Barneveld — three programs that all reached the postseason a year ago. And the Cardinals were clearly the top dog among the four schools.

“I was pretty happy,” Middleton 10th-year coach Tim Simon said afterwards. “I thought we did a lot of good things.”

Middleton was extremely sharp on offense.

Senior quarterbacks Luke Schafer and Kasey Miller rotated with the No. 1 offense and both had terrific success.

Middleton opened against Watertown, which is coming off a year it went 9-2. And the Cardinals’ offense was extremely impressive.

Many will expect a dropoff from a year ago.

Some will anticipate slippage inside one of the state’s most dynamic programs.

First-year Middleton boys soccer coach Ben Kollasch hears this and simply chuckles.

Kollasch, who takes over the program for longtime Cardinals’ boss Ken Burghy, recently held tryouts to determine this year’s team. And what Kollasch saw was a record number of athletes trying to play soccer at Middleton.

So despite losing 15 seniors from one of the better Cardinals teams in recent years, Kollasch insists Middleton won’t be rebuilding. Instead, the Cardinals will simply reload.

Deke Bradley won’t try tempering the excitement.

He won’t take the Lou Holtz approach — and dumb down expectations.

No, Middleton’s girls tennis coach will fully embrace the fact that his Cardinals will be one of the favorites to bring home a WIAA Division 1 state championship this fall.

Middleton opens its season Saturday at the Hartland Arrowhead Invite. And most expect it to be the beginning of a big year for the Cardinals.

“We love it,” Bradley said of the great expectations. “I'm going to try and embrace it with open arms. Try to use it to get my girls to play with confidence every match.

“We're the team to beat. We’ll have a bulls-eye on our back every match, so we have to be prepared for that. I'm hoping it will fuel the fire that gets them to work hard to improve and play their best.”