Black Hawk Warriors Preseason Practice

Monday, March 16, 2009 at Black Hawk HS, South Wayne


Black Hawk [South Wayne]

Division: 3
Enrollment: 145 [157 in '07-'08]
Coach: Cory Milz
Conference: Six Rivers
Conference Schools: Albany, Argyle, Barnevald, Belmont, Benton, Black Hawk, Cassville, Highland, Juda, Monticello, Pecatonica [Blanchardville], Potosi, River Ridge [Patch Grove], and Shullsburg
Notes: Many of the track athletes at Black Hawk were on the girls basketball team which lost a hard fought game in the D4 semi-finals of the WIAA State Basketball Tourney held at the Alliant Center in Madison on Friday, March 13.

In September of 2008 Black Hawk had 37 ninth graders, 36 sophomores, 37 juniors and 35 seniors enrolled in school. The girls have four sports offerings: Basketball, softball, track and volleyball. Because of budget cuts track only has one coach.

Left: Hailey Meier [SR] finished 9th in the D3 400m at the 2008 State Meet. Three days after playing in a D4 State Tournament semi-final basketball game Meier and her basketball teammates who are track and field athletes were at practice preparing for the 2009 track and field season.

Black Hawk High School serves the communities of South Wayne [pop. 478], Gratiot, Wyota, and Woodford.


Left: Savannah Ernzen [SR].

Right: Rachel Rygh [SO] hands off to Hailey Meier [SR] in the 4x1. The Black Hawk 4x1 finished in 6th place at the 2008 State Meet.

Black Hawk High School was the last stop on the Honor Roll's preseason tour.

Heading west on highway 11 the landscape gradually changed to the rolling hills that reminded early immigrants to the area who were from Switzerland of the homeland they had left behind. Family farms are still a symbol of the strength that this way of life gave to the American culture.

A question that the Honor Roll had prior to the visit was how could one coach address the needs of 42 athletes who compete in 18 different events?.



Cory Milz [R] is the head football coach and boys and girls track coach at Black Hawk. Before the practice started Coach Milz spent time detailing the workouts for each group of athletes. He has two volunteer assistants but budget cuts limit Black Hawk to only one paid track coach. All athletes went through warmups in the school cafeteria.


Drills involved traditional track line drills as well as exercises that stressed arm and foot action. The distance runners [pictured below] grouped up after warmups and took advantage of an unseasonable warm day. The hills that rise just south of the high school provided the challenge for the day.


As the practice unfolded the question of how does one coach address all the skills involved in teaching track techniques began to be answered. Coach Milz was very organized and was lucky to have senior leadership. Each group that went on its own had a leader and the athletes had the details of the practice plan that was to be followed for Monday. Coach Milz worked inside with the jumpers and new athletes who were learning how to hurdle. The veteran hurdlers led their own drills outside. Athletes at Black Hawk can compete in two sports during each season.


High jumper Nicole Kloepfer worked on technique while the sprinters took warmup laps outside before returning to the cafeteria for fundamentals. Then the sprinters went outside where senior Tyler Whalen [FBI] led the drills.



Left: Hayden Schliem and Hailey Meier competing in the sprint drills. Above center: Junior Grant Roeper. Roeper spent the last weekend with the Wisconsin National Guard. He will join the National Guard after he graduates in 2010. Above right: The Black Hawk track is next to Highway 11. Black Hawk athletes only practice on their track as all meets are away meets.

Athlete Accountability

Black Hawk athletes study the practice plan for Monday. Sprinters, hurdlers, distance, throwers and jumpers each had a plan. With only one coach the message that Coach Milz stressed was that athletes had to be assertive in demanding coaching.

Volunteer coach Holli Whalen [above left] who is a 2003 graduate of Black Hawk High School works on fundamentals with Erika Pombart [center] and Cassi Jorgenson [right].

Savannah Ernzen [far left] and Alyssa Pieper worked on 1, then 2 and finally the normal sequence of hurdles. After their workouts athletes went to the weight room for strength training where they were expected to enter their complete workout records in a computer data base file.



4X1 Relay Team [L-R:] Katie Place [JR], Hailey Meier [SR], Savannah Ernzen [SR], and Rachel Rygh [SO].