by Joseph Back

When basketball starts up at Stanley-Boyd in the months to come, at least one face, won’t be there.

Long-time Stanley-Boyd varsity basketball coach Tom Hause retired from coaching earlier this summer after more than a decade of leading Orioles basketball. He reflected re cently on his time as Orioles varsity basketball coach.

“I have coached varsity for 15 years,” Hause said. “I started coaching at Stanley- Boyd a few years prior coaching middle school for one year, C-team for one year, and then JV for 2 years. I truly enjoyed coaching. The friendships formed with players and coaches was very rewarding. There have been some rough patches that every coach runs into in their time, but the great athletes and fun memories far outweigh those times. I’ll take away some really fond memories with a lot of athletes and coaches, not only from Stanley-Boyd but from the Cloverbelt conference and the surrounding communities.”

As to memorable highlights for coaching, Hause listed making it to the Sectional Finals with the 2016-2017 team. Highly skilled at basketball but also very coachable, the team went out on a high note that year.

“The biggest challenge is to help players develop the desire to win and work as a team,” Hause said. We had a large group of seniors that year and some pretty talented underclassmen as well. Players embraced their roles and had fun doing their part, that’s what separated this group from others.”

Also listing the game against Fall Creek for the conference title this past February as a memorable experience, Hause said it was quite a game, seeing double overtime.

“We lost in double overtime, but a heck of a game to be a part of,” Hause said. “We have had many overtime and buzzer beater games with Fall Creek over the years.”

Saying that he had some thinking to do after the season ended on whether he wanted to continue coaching, the varsity and talented players coming up made it hard for him to step down.

“These are some great kids and I look forward to watching them play in the next couple seasons,” Hause said. “However, with our family businesses growing, I just feel I couldn’t put in the amount of time needed to truly run the program from youth on up.” While ultimately stepping down from coaching to attend to his business, Hause also paid tribute to the assistant coaches he had over the years to help out on the team.

“I have been blessed with so many great assistant coaches over the years, I can’t thank them enough!” He said. “They truly made coaching at Stanley-Boyd a great experience. I was also fortunate to have family and friends that traveled with the team over the years to keep scorebook and record video. These things were so important to our team and were greatly appreciated..” Always cherishing his time as a coach, Hause closed out with thanks to the administration, teachers, support stau, coaches, athletes, and Orioles fans and others as he closes out his career as Orioles basketball coach.

“I would also like to thank the administration, teachers, support stau, coaches, athletes, and Stanley-Boyd fans for all the support over the years,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade any of it, and I will always cherish my time as a basketball coach.”

Tom Hause (left), looks on with assistant basketball coach Ryan Wundrow as a buzzer beater by Carsen Hause seals the Oriole win against Black River Falls this past season. File photo by John McLoone.