The Southern Door girl’s basketball team protected their home court yesterday in the semi-final round of their holiday tournament. The Eagles blew by the University School of Milwaukee 45-24. Alyssa Sekadlo scored 12, Bridgette Baudhuin added 10 and Courtney Wautier also had 10 points to lead the Eagles offensive attack.

Sturgeon Bay did not have the same kind of success that their rivals experienced. At the Seymour Holiday Classic, the Clipper girl's team fell to Seymour 65-37. Thunder senior Stephanie Ambrosius scored 17 points to lead the home school to a win. The Clippers were led in scoring by Sarrea Schmelzer with 11, Kelly Curtin's 10 and Sarah McCaulley added six. Today, Sturgeon Bay faces Oconto Falls at 6 p.m.

Sevastopol played West DePere down to the wire but came up short 33-25 in Brussels. The Phantoms will play Southern Door for the championship at 2 p.m. today. Sevastopol will play the University School of Milwaukee in the consolation game at noon today.

Kewaunee topped Random Lake 53-27 in non-conference action. Tiffany Polifka poured in 13 points, Chelsea Selner added 11 points and nine rebounds and two other Kewaunee players managed to score in double digits as well. The win moves Kewaunee to (5-3) overall.

The boy's basketball teams in the area were busy on the hardwood yesterday too. Southern Door will look to sweep their holiday tournament after a win in the semi-finals over Milwaukee St. Francis 67-53. Senior Derik Hawkey scored a game high 23 points and Michael Blizel added 18 points for the Eagles. Southern Door plays in the championship at 6:50 p.m. today. They will meet up with undefeated Weyauwega-Fremont.

In the Crivitz holiday Tournament, Kewaunee strolled to a 69-35 win over White Lake. Kewaunee will play the host school in tonight's championship game scheduled for approximately 8:15 p.m. Alex Delebreau scored 12 points and Brent Dahlke added 11 points.

The Ashwaubenon Holiday Classic gave Sturgeon Bay a tough match up with Seymour. The Clippers fell hard 71-33. Cody Hollenbeck-Torp led Sturgeon Bay with 10 points. Nate Felhofer added eight and J.T. Burke scored six.

Last night on 104.1 FM WRLU Andy Boettcher joined me at the Ladder House. Every Wednesday “The Sports Page” is broadcast from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Boettcher was the founder of a charity event involving the Green Bay Packers four years ago.
A handful of Packers players played a charity basketball game against a team of local celebrities. Players like Ben and Beth Rikkola, Gary Bies and the Sturgeon Bay mayor lost to the NFL players. However, it wasn’t about the score. All of the proceeds went to the Door County YMCA.
Nearly 1,000 fans showed up in 2003 at the Southern Door High School Gymnasium. In 2004, a similar turnout was noticed at the Sturgeon Bay High School Gym. Players like Najeh Davenport, Tony Fisher and Aaron Kampman made the trip to help the Y. Donald Driver also made a special appearance at the event. Boettcher said that was one of the game’s highlights. There is no plan to continue the event, but Boettcher did not completely rule out the possibility.

Packer’s rookie kicker Mason Crosby leads all NFL players with 131 points. He has a chance to surpass the NFL rookie record with a repeat performance of his recent 15-point day at St. Louis. Crosby needs just one point to surpass Ryan Longwell’s franchise record for points in a season by a kicker (131 in 2000). The player out of Colorado needs 14 points to surpass the NFL record for points in a season by a rookie kicker, established by Kevin Butler (144 points) in 1985.
Crosby would become only the seventh rookie in NFL history to lead the league in scoring and the first since Butler in ’85. The last Packers player to lead the league in points was Chester Marcol (94, 1974).
Green Bay will host the Detroit Lions on Sunday at noon. The game will be broadcast on 104.1 FM WRLU and 105.1 FM WSBW. Pre-game coverage will begin at 11:00 a.m. The Lions are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

Green Bay travels to Chicago to face the Bears today in the 175th installment of the most historic rivalry in professional football. The Packers come into the match up winners of 16 of their last 18 games and have already clinched their 18th division title in team history. Winners of eight of its last nine road contests, Green Bay also has clinched a first-round bye for the first time since 1997. No two professional football teams have met on the gridiron more than the Packers and Bears. The two clubs sit No. 1 and 2 in world championships. The Packers have 12 and the Bears have nine championships. In addition, the teams are numbers 1 and 2 for most players enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Bears 26 and the Packers 21. The two teams have enjoyed recent success as well, with the last seven division titles going to Green Bay and Chicago.
Soldier Field has proved less than hostile for the Packers, as quarterback Brett Favre owns a higher winning percentage in the Chicago stadium than at Lambeau Field. Favre’s 12 wins at Soldier Field are twice as many as the next closest road venue, 6 wins at the Metrodome. Overall, Green Bay has captured 12 of the last 14 contests played in the Windy City.
The Packers hope to avoid a Bears sweep in the season series, which Chicago also accomplished in 2005. Green Bay dropped the first meeting of the season, a primetime contest at Lambeau Field in October, after committing five turnovers. A win would match Green Bay’s franchise record for wins in one season.
The game can be heard today on 104.1 FM WRLU and 105.1 FM WSBW.

It has been 34 years since a wrestling Conference Championship banner hung in the gym at the Sturgeon Bay High School. The co-op team with Sevastopol took a step in the right direction last night with a 48-27 win over Kewaunee. There were a handful of critical matches for the Clippers. Troy Tauber at 171 pounds won a close match, 5-4, over Spencer Schleise. Tom Thornton's pin at heavyweight also proved be a momentum swing for the home team.
Other winners for Sturgeon Bay/Sevastopol were Jon Bittorf, Sam Delain, Austin Binish, Cody Lauder, Noah Salmeri, Derek Nebel, Jordan Olson. Kewaunee received wins by Shane Watachek, Dan Steinhorst, Devin Deda, Ryan Cherbenka and James Malechek

The Luxemburg-Casco boys basketball team fell to (1-4) in the Bay Conference after a 53-37 loss to Denmark. The rivals pounded it out in a close game until the Viking pulled away in the fourth. Led by Logan Krueger, Denmark outscored the Spartans 20-3 in the final quarter. Denmark moves to (4-1) in the conference and (4-2) overall. Jake Sinkula scored 11 points to lead L-C. Travis Tlachac added eight and Jason Jandrin scored seven.

Although the Green Bay Packers deserved to have more participants in this year’s Pro Bowl than four, the whole concept of having an all-star game AFTER the regular season is a joke. The National Football League should scrap the meaningless Pro Bowl and just have the coaches in the league vote on the All-Pro teams from each conference. That’s it. Forget about a game that is played a week after the Super Bowl in which most of the superstars take a pass or go through the motions. Forget about a game that is the most boring of the year. They should call it the “Snore Bowl”. Forget about a game that has NEVER been for the fans, just a reward for the players who get a trip to Hawaii. But knowing the NFL, it’ll probably continue this innocuous tradition for the next decade or two. In the meantime, I’m not going to lose any sleep over the Pro Bowl selections, even though the Cowboys received 11 selections and the Vikings placed 7 starters in the game. In the meantime, the Packers should focus on the upcoming play-offs and worry about the only “Bowl” that matters, the Super Bowl. If individual recognition is important to the Packers and fans, the Pro Bowl snubs should only ensure that Mike McCarthy is the “NFL Coach of the Year”. Then again, sportswriters decide that award and you know what they know about football!

Wooooah Mr. Schmitt! You exude passion on this topic and that is spectacular. Take a second, sit back and think this through logically. You know, irrational decisions can be made when you don’t think something through.
The Pro Bowl is about one thing and one thing only…MONEY. The NFL played a regular season in London this year. A home game was taken away from the New York Giants when they played Miami at Wembley Stadium. The game was held to raise awareness for the league in a global light.
Hawaii hosts the annual all-star game in the NFL and people there love the sport. Why? Because thousands of NFL fans from the contiguous United States travel to the island and spend money.
The Pro Bowl is an excellent idea for the league. It is a chance for players to fraternize, plead their case as to why another star should consider his team and give players more face recognition.
The game is more about the sideline interviews than the product on the field. It is a marketing masterpiece and has gone over well.
As for the Packers not receiving equal representation in the game compared to the Dallas Cowboys, that is a mockery. Nick Barnett is the best middle linebacker in the NFC this year and somehow he was bypassed for two players that play on far worse teams. Greg Jennings is second in the NFC in touchdown catches and has a higher average reception total than teammate Donald Driver.
You could make serious cases for Charles Woodson, Mark Tauscher, Nick Collins, Ryan Grant, Donald Lee and Scott Wells too.
The voting is based on name recognition and the Packers lack in that category. That’s what happens when a team has the youngest roster in the league. Players and fans have been unable to familiarize themselves with the names on the most surprising team in the league.
The positive that can and I believe will come from the Packers being slighted in the Pro Bowl is ideal. Green Bay players have a bigger chip on their shoulder because of the Pro Bowl balloting results and will play that way for the rest of the season and into the playoffs.