7 Bears planning on playing collegiate sports

Bonduel High School held a signing day event April 28 for several senior athletes that plan on playing collegiate sports in the coming years.

Isaac Banker, Carson Robaidek, Breanna Schnell, Max Sokolski, Jayson Toellner and Kara Troxel all signed letters of intent. Kaden Bergsbaken also hopes to compete at the college level. The athletes signed their letters of intent in front of family and coaches inside the Bonduel gymnasium.

Banker will head to North Central College, where he intends to play football and wrestle. Robaidek and Troxel are both headed to Wisconsin Lutheran College to play basketball. Schnell is headed to UW-Stevens Point to compete for the track and field team, while Toellner and Sokolski will wrestle at Carthage College and Augsburg University, respectively.

Bergsbaken will be attending Minnesota State University, Mankato. He hasn’t talked with their coaching staff about wrestling yet, so he would compete as a walk-on if that remains the case.

Banker said his love for sports in general started when he was young.

“I had my heart set on football for awhile, but then after missing my senior year of wrestling (because of an injury), that kind of took a toll on me and I decided if I had the opportunity, it would be a hard one to pass up,” said Banker, who also missed his senior football season with the injury.

Banker said everything about the North Central campus felt right to him, from the coaching to the environment.

Coaching was a part of the reason Schnell landed on UW-Stevens Point for her college choice.

“I chose Stevens Point specifically because of the coach (Brett Witt),” said Schnell. “He just gave me like a very warm feeling when I met him. He seemed like a really good guy.

“He was talking to me about doing a pentathlon, so that’s five events instead of just like a few events at a track meet. And I was like, ‘That sounds pretty interesting.’ He said I’d probably be pretty good at it so I thought, it’s something new, I feel like it’d be fun to try.”

Schnell said she wasn’t sure that she’d want to play collegiate sports, but got a confidence boost from Bonduel track coach James Westrich, which helped ease some of the doubts in her mind.

Toellner also wasn’t sure about competing at the college level, but had a change of heart after a disjointed senior wrestling season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I couldn’t morally finish this year as my last one,” said Toellner. “I already knew toward the end of the summer that I was going to go to Carthage. I fell in love with the campus — I went there, I toured, and then I had a conversation with the (wrestling) coach (Alberto Quiros), and he reminded me of my other coaches and of everyone who has helped me throughout my years. He seemed like someone I could have coach me who would help me get to that next level of wrestling.”

Toellner thanked his coaches, teammates and supporters over the years for helping turn him from a wrestler that struggled to earn wins to one that could compete at the collegiate level.

The challenges that wrestling presents athletes is the main reason Sokolski fell in love with the sport.

“I just love wrestling because it tests you physically and mentally, and it’s probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” said Sokolski.

“I look forward to continuing that at the college level. It’s going to be a lot more challenging, and I look forward to that.”

Robaidek and Troxel are both multiple-sport athletes, but basketball always was their favorite.

The reason Robaidek ended up choosing Wisconsin Lutheran College was due in large part to Bonduel boys coach Duke Copp.

“He got me into a showcase down in the Dells and Wisconsin Lutheran was there and one of their coaches came up to me after my second-to-last game and said they would really enjoy me coming down for a visit,” said Robaidek. “I went down for a visit, I liked the campus a lot, liked the gym, liked the atmosphere and all the coaches were nice.”

WLC was one of the teams interested in having Troxel join their program.

“Once I toured their campus, it was just a really nice fit for me because it’s small like our high school, not too big where I could get lost as much,” said Troxel while chuckling. “But I just really liked their campus and all they have to offer for me.”

While some of his future is still up in the air, Bergsbaken knows he wants wrestling to be incorporated in some fashion.

“Having the chance to continue competing in the sport would fulfill many of my goals and aspirations for the next four years,” said Bergsbaken.

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