When the COVID-19 pandemic canceled their annual tournament trip to the Wisconsin Dells, members of the Gibraltar/Washington Island baseball team could only think of one place where the money should go.

The team donated $1,500 to the Door County Fire Chiefs Association and $500 to efforts on Washington Island as communities across the country address the needs of their residents. Gibraltar senior baseball player Brandon Stillman says the money they raised was a sign of support from the community for their team. He believes it was only right to donate it back.

The donations came a day after the Gibraltar Area School Board unanimously approved canceling in-person classroom and extracurricular activities for the rest of the school year. 

Picture courtesy of the Door County Fire Chiefs Association

FULL INTERVIEW WITH BRANDON STILLMAN

With baseball season on the shelf for now, Gibraltar wide receiver, linebacker and running back Alex Laughlin can turn his attention to the mailbox as college programs come calling.

According to his mother Heather Laughlin, the All-Conference performer has received two offers from Division II schools: Southwest Minnesota State and Upper Iowa. SMSU went 3-8 in 2019 while Upper Iowa went 2-9. During his junior year, Laughlin led the MONLPC-8 in receiving yards with 1131. In his high school career Laughlin has accrued 1589 yard rushing (7.9 yd avg rush) and 3156 yards receiving, finding the endzone 60 times. He has also registered 247 tackles including 28 for a loss on defense. 

The Gibraltar baseball program was already powerhouse before they had their breakthrough at state over 40 years ago.

The Vikings won 17 conference championships before Rod Billerbeck led his 1979 team to an 8-4 win over Spencer to win the state title at Wausau Athletic Park. In its matchup against Deerfield, it set a state record with eight stolen bases during their 10-2 victory. They almost set it again when they did face Spencer for the title, swiping seven bags. The 15 bags stolen in the two games remains a record for the state tournament, with Wisconsin Heights (14) and St. Mary Catholic (13, 2006) the only ones that come close. 

The state title drought ended after a 24-hour rain delay with pitchers Hans Logerquist and Jon Bastian holding Spencer to just one hit in the game. Jeff Paschke was an offensive star in the game, hitting a double and scoring a run in the second inning to break a 2-2 tie and then tripling home one run and scoring on a suicide squeeze in the fifth inning to put the game out of reach.

Ending their season on a 20 game winning streak, the 1979 Gibraltar baseball team remains the school's only boys state championship squad.

The Door County Library's Online Newspaper archive provided much of the content for this article.