The stretch between state champions in the Rohde family spans 41 years. Still, a pair of state titles in one family is pretty cool. One came on the Kohl Center court, the other at the Field House.
When Brookfield Central downed Sun Prairie Saturday, 69-52, to win the D-1 title, one of the contributors was a freshman guard named Andrew Rohde. He hit a three-point basket in the win, and scored 9 points in the 61-47 semi-final win over Neenah.
The irony here is that, 41 years ago, his dad, Kevin, was a member of the Neenah Rocket team that finished the year 26-0 with a 58-49 win over Beloit Memorial.
They're not the first father-son pairing to play on state champs, for sure, but still it's a rare instance.
Kevin played for legendary coach Ron Einerson, who took 10 Neenah teams to state and won titles in 1975 and 1978 on the way to a 556-235 career record.
That same year the Neenah girls team finished 25-1, winning the state title by beating Beloit 49-38. Coach Jean Kessler took six Neenah teams to state, finishing runner-up twice on her way to a 176-47 career record.
I was covering sports in the Fox Valley then, and Kevin was a three-sport standout (football-basketball-baseball). You might even count that as four, as he was a pretty solid soccer player before getting his kicks at football. His success there led to a two-year stint as kicker for the Wisconsin Badgers (1982 & 1983). His best season was '83, when he hit 45 of 48 extra points and six of nine field goals to finish with 63 points. He ended his Badger career with 86 points, successful on 95.2% of his extra points and 64.3% on field goals.
Still, Andrew can talk smack at the dinner table. He scored 12 points in a state tournament and Dad was shut out.
And since a pair of sophomores combined for 30 of Brookfield Central's points in the championship game, the younger Rohde -- and his family -- just might make regular trips to Madison.
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