Barneveld recognizes a lot of state girls teams

By John Dalton

It was Bring Back the Champions Day at halftime of the Barneveld Girls Basketball Game Friday night celebrating the rich history of the Lady Eagles Basketball Program.  

From 1995 through 2016, eleven Barneveld teams participated in state championships and those teams were invited back for this special tribute celebrating the teams' accomplishments.  During this span, three of those teams were undefeated.  There were three, one-loss teams.  Three, two-loss teams, and two, four-loss teams.  That record equates to 282 wins to only 17 losses.  

Barneveld’s record at the state tournament over those years was 15-5, including 6 state championships and 3 second place finishes.  Players from these teams were introduced at halftime with current coach Bill Freidig and past coach Jim Myers speaking to the crowd.  Myers was the coach for all those teams.  In his time with the girl’s program, (38 years) Myers became the winningest high school girls’ basketball coach in Wisconsin history with 699 wins and only 138 losses.  

Second-year coach Freidig said when he got the job he knew this was a special place to be able to walk in the school and see all the rich history and tradition that he and his girls’ team are striving to be.  

Said past coach Myers, “What an honor it was to coach the quality of these young ladies over the years.  Not just the champions, all of them.  They were all champions because of how hard they worked and how hard they played for each other.”

He said, “Every team is going to have a 5-star kid, and we had our share of them, but we had 10-star teams.  And that’s what made the difference in what we did.  I can’t tell you what I had for lunch yesterday, but I can look at each of these players and tell you a story about them and each huge basket.”  

Myers went on to say that the program has a rich tradition and that the program is in great hands because programs are run by people like that (Freidig), who remember and recognize the past which helps guarantee a successful future.  

If you would like to watch the halftime ceremony, please visit our Facebook page for the entire program at www.facebook.com/TheDodgevilleChronicle.