Knights continue building baseball dynasty

When Nicolet's two-time NOW All-Suburban outfielder Brian Huntsinger met 1990 All-Suburban Player of the Year and fellow Knight Danny Winn at a Brewers-Mets game the team was attending earlier this summer, it was more than just a happy coincidence for the current and former stars.

Because Huntsinger, who has frequently been compared quite favorably to Winn by coach Dick Sykes, knows that he and his fellow two-time All-Suburban selection and teammate Sam Kohnke were just the latest recipients of the brightly-lit torch that is baseball in this particular section of the North Shore.

"I'm very honored to be compared to him," said Huntsinger of Winn, "and we were lucky enough to have him there, just based on the things that we've all heard."

Likely, those tales of legendary feats will mark a striking similarity to those that Nicolet players a decade from now will likely be saying about Huntsinger and Kohnke.

Because that's just the way it is with baseball in this area as in the 21-year history of the All-Suburban team, Nicolet currently has the most all-time selections (33), one more than 2010 state champion Franklin (32).

A former three-time selection, Steve Daniels, was even on the Knights coaching staff this past summer.

"I know, I know," laughed the catcher/pitcher Kohnke. "When I first came up to varsity a few years ago, guys like Ben Knight and Pat Collis were guys that I looked up to. We had been successful on the Little League level but varsity was a whole other speed.

"… Every kid dreams of carrying on this tradition (of Nicolet baseball). I hope we carried it on pretty well and I'm looking forward to my little brother (Sulli, short for Sullivan) carrying it on well too."

Chances are that will happen, as Sulli's group, which just completed a highly successful freshmen season and saw a member of their group (Tyler Crass), get promoted to a starting position on varsity at second base, is just the latest product of the Knights' powerful feeder program, the Glendale Little League.

"Tyler really did the job this year," Huntsinger said, "and that's saying something because there's a world of difference between eighth grade and varsity baseball."

The Glendale Little League is used to advancing teams deep into the regional and national playoffs (Sulli, Kohnke and Crass's group narrowly missed out on the latter last year) and sending that talent off to the high school and to the college ranks.

"That represents a lot of dedicated parents willing to take kids to their peak," said Sykes.

And the alumni of both the Little League and high school squads stay close to the current teams.

"I'm friends with Sam (Sivilotti, 2006 All-Suburban POY and current University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee player)," Huntsinger said. "He was someone I watched coming up through the Little League and I wanted to model myself after him. Now I've been watching the good players (in the current Little League) and I'm really happy with the progress of the sixth through eighth graders."

"They know who I am and I know who they are."

Some friendly competition

And it all leads to a ratcheting up of the intensity and internal competition on the varsity team itself.

"We've always been real noisy as a group," said Kohnke, referring to the Knights, cacophonous bench. "We always see who can be louder than the others. There are a lot of different personalities who are not afraid to speak their minds."

"We feed off each other that way and build up a lot of internal competition. I look up to Brian and try to be better than him and he tries to be better than me and Rob (Mayer, utility player and 2009 All-Suburban selection) tries to be better than both of us."

"It leads to good things for the team. If Brian goes four-for-four in a game, then I want to go five-for-five in the next one. Everyone wants to pick it up."

Bright future ahead

Sykes loved the competitive intensity in this current group and saw it as an extension of players like Winn, Anthony Wycklendt and Sivilotti. He's sad to see players like Kohnke, Huntsinger and Mayer go, but he's not worried about the future.

"I look at a player like Brian and say 'I'm not going to see anyone like that ever again'," Sykes said, "but then Jeff (assistant coach Jeff Wolf) will say, 'but you say that every year.' "

And not surprisingly, still more success follows, success that Huntsinger and Kohnke will try to continue next year.

The pair, who were opponents in their youth as members of rival select teams, will likely get a chance to go against each other again on the NCAA D3 level, as Huntsinger will play for Carthage (he'll major in philosophy and business) while Kohnke will play for UW-Whitewater (business/marketing major).

Sykes said that if Huntsinger were just a few inches taller, he would have been a major D1 prospect, but Huntsinger is not worrying about that.

"It's sometimes hard for a summer baseball player to get noticed, when big-time (collegiate) coaches can fly to tournaments and see hundreds of guys as opposed to coming up to Wisconsin for just one game, just one player," he said.

"But I have no hard feelings. I just want to play baseball."

Like any good Nicolet kid does.

All-Suburban Repeat

HUNTSINGER'S STATS: .523 batting average (56 hits in 107 at bats) with 34 runs scored, six doubles, six triples, eight home runs and 49 RBIs. He walked 12 times with a slugging percentage of .907 and an on-base percentage of .615. Repeat first-team WBCA All-State.

KOHNKE'S STATS: .462 BA (49-106) with 34 runs scored, nine doubles, one triple, seven home runs and 34 RBI. He walked 16 times with a .764 slugging percentage and a .606 on-base mark. He was also the number two pitcher on the team. Second-team WBCA All-State at catcher.

OTHER REPEAT NICOLET ALL-SUBURBAN SELECTIONS: Outfielder/pitcher Sivilotti (2005 and 2006); catcher/outfielder Daniels (2003, 2004 and 2005, one of 10 three-time selections in the All-Suburban team's history); infielder Wycklendt (2001 and 2002); pitcher Jason Grodsky (2000 and 2001); and outfielder Jimmy Ellwein (2000 and 2001)

→ Meet the All-Suburban Team: Page 26