KAUKAUNA (NBC 26) — This is one of the most dominant high school teams in Wisconsin history.
Since 2000, the Kaukauna softball team has five state championships, 13 Fox Valley Association titles and a state-record 108 consecutive wins — four shy of the national record — from 2021-24, a streak that was snapped last month in the state semifinals.
Galloping Ghosts have always been successful, and that success starts even before the players reach college level.
- Following the 1999 season, head coach Tim Roehrig took over the Kaukauna softball program.
- Through fundraising and player engagement, Roehrig revitalized the city’s youth program, which now features players as teenage as five.
- Roehrig said she works tough to identify top talent early on, helping to shape each athlete’s skills and passion for the sport.
- The Ghosts youth program focuses on showcasing top talent from across the Midwest; teams often travel out of state to do so.
Kaukauna is no stranger to winners.
Jordan McCabe’s brilliant basketball teams won two state championships – in 2016 and 2018.
The Ghosts wrestling team, coached by Jeff Matczak, has won an incredible eight state championships since 2014.
But during the spring and summer, The Electric City becomes a softball town.
“I started playing when I was about seven,” said 12U pitcher Micha Matthies. “I did it because I wanted to be like my sister.”
“We have a lot of tournaments,” said Emily Thoreson, a shortstop on the 12U team. “We look at the colleges and want to do what they do.”
The passion for the sport runs deep. Those around him say it can be traced back to one man.
“I think it all started with Tim Roehrig when he took over the program,” said Travis DeValk, parent and Ghosts 12U coach.
Brandon Kinnard
Roehrig took over as head coach of Kaukauna varsity following the 1999 season.
At that point the Ghosts had only one FVA Championship to their name.
“We only had 46 kids play softball in our youth program,” Roehrig said.
“We weren’t in a good place financially,” he added. “I got involved and started raising money to get our little butts together. I was selling poinsettias door-to-door.”
25 years, 538 wins and five state championships later, the Galloping Ghosts are synonymous with softball.
Roehrig believes it all starts with the city’s youth program; Kaukauna Ghost Fastpitch The program features 8U, 10U, 12U and 14U teams, with some players as teenage as five years aged.
“We start early,” Roehrig said. “They’re sponges at that age. I joke with everyone every year that I won’t be happy until they’re born with gloves on, and I think that’s still true.”
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As the aged saying goes, practice makes perfect.
“Practice is practice, and you go there to get better,” DeValk said of his 12U team. “You don’t just go there to see your friends.”
But Roehrig believes the real improvement will come from the competition his teams face.
“We force them to compete in the biggest, baddest tournaments we can find,” he said.
“We’re going to lose,” Roehrig added. “I’d rather lose by 10 points and let them feel like they have to get better. And I think that’s a paradigm that’s very different from a lot of other programs in the state.”
The schedule is not circumscribed to just spring and summer.
“There are teams that will just pick up the gauntlet in April and play until mid-August and call it a season,” DeValk said. “That doesn’t happen here.”
Some Kaukauna players and teams travel to tournaments year-round. They are often the only school team surrounded by dozens of clubs and all-star teams.
“We have girls (on our teams) who play other sports. It’s great,” Roehrig said. “We take players who don’t play other sports and play in the winter.
“We’ll find tournaments somewhere under the dome, or we’ll find tournaments down south and go.”
Roehrig tries to identify the greatest talents from an early age, focusing primarily on players who stand out for their speed.
“I think there are too many programs designed to win when they’re young and not designed to win when they’re older,” Roehrig said.
Kaukauna, on the other hand, is willing to sacrifice success at the youth level if it means those players improve by the time they reach high school.
“If a lot of our younger guys are fast … we’re already moving them to the left side (of the plate),” Roehrig said.
“Sometimes I have to explain it to my parents,” he said. “It’s going to be bad for now. We know that. It doesn’t matter to us.”
“She’s going to be crazy when she grows up,” he added.
It’s a sacrifice players like Thoreson and Matthies are willing to make, hoping to one day carry on the Kaukauna tradition.
“It helps me get better,” Thoreson said. “Our coaches push us to be the best versions of ourselves.”
While most of the Galloping Ghosts’ talent is homegrown, Roehrig admitted there are players interested in transferring from other schools.
He added that in that case, nothing is guaranteed for those players and he will not speak to them until they sign up for Kaukauna.
