Burlington High School sports teams don’t win state championships.
As a 2000 graduate and former Demon baseball, football and basketball player, that breaks my heart.
But for the most part, it’s true.
You have to dig up the history books all the way back to 1965 to find the last time a boys team won a state title. It was the cross country team, with names like Erickson and Leffelman.
Two decades later, the softball girls won state in 1984.
Finally, it took another 30 years before the school saw its next champ, the 2011 and 2012 girls volleyball squads.
The back-to-back titles were unprecedented, and with Catholic Central winning the gold ball in the same season, the city of Burlington made WIAA history with two teams claiming titles in the same sport from the same town in the same season.
While those championships put girls volleyball on the map and have kept the program at the top of the heap year in and year out, Burlington’s baseball state championship may do the same thing.
The June 16 state final victory, a 6-4 come-from-behind triumph, over mighty Hartland Arrowhead, a school with 2,200 students and endless resources (they built a professional locker room for their football team and there’s a state-of-the-art hockey rink), proved the Demons are officially on the state radar.
I like to avoid clichés at all costs, I swear, but the David vs. Goliath scenario rings true.
Despite a 22-5 record entering the Division 1 state baseball tournament, Burlington was getting zero respect from the state.
Coaches’ rankings from www.wissports.net had the Demons out of the top 10 all season, and the final rankings had Burlington only one slot ahead of Waterford, a team it handled twice.
At state, you had past state champions like Janesville Craig, Sun Prairie and Arrowhead all standing in Burlington’s way.
All seven of the Demons’ state counterparts in the Division 1 field had a larger enrollment, and four schools boasted enrollments of more than 2,000.
Burlington fell behind 3-0 in the first inning against defending state champ Janesville Craig before proceeding to outscore opponents, 20-4, over the next 20 innings.
The Demons dug themselves out of two early holes to knock off perennial state powers, and they walloped a Green Bay team with 2,100 students.
Everyone on Burlington can pitch, regardless if they had during the season or not. A guy like Cal Tully was the No. 3 or 4 starter, and he would’ve been the ace on many teams in the state.
His gutsy, 5-plus innings of two-hit ball in the state title game saved the Demons and put them in position to win.
And the hitting was superb all year. Rarely did the Demons score less than four runs, and they put multiple 20-run shellackings on respectable Southern Lakes Conference foes.
The look of sheer joy on team manager David Sheffer’s face while hoisting the state championship trophy said it all.
“I can’t put it into words,” Sheffer said of the feeling, and that was only after winning the preliminary rounds at state.
Burlington’s state semifinal win was also the school’s first.
The three-decade transformation has been impressive.
In 1999, Scott Staude’s first year, I was a much lighter pitcher and outfielder, and we won three games. The next year, we were something like 7-23. This was part of the Southeast Conference “experiment.”
But Staude, who stays positive no matter what and leads with an uncanny, youthful exuberance, wouldn’t be denied.
Helped by the renaissance over the last six years of Burlington Little League champions, the high school state tournament may now become commonplace.
Jacob Lindemann, Zach Campbell, Aaron Sturdevant, Dale Damon and Grant Tully, five studs, are back next year.
With the continued commitment to the city’s youth, including a batting cage shed adjacent to the Little League field, the Junior Demons and Burlington Titans, the future is bright.
Most importantly, the city benefits from dedicated parents who are willing to sacrifice time and money to give their boys the best opportunities to play the game they love, whether it’s a weekend in Waupun, Indianapolis or even Florida.
So buck the trend and keep cable on your T.V.
You will keep seeing the boys of summer, at all levels, on your screen for years to come.
Burlington baseball, we salute you.
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