By Kim McDarison
Mike Opperman, Blackhawk Booster Club president, and Brett Ketterman, Fort Atkinson Parks and Recreation Department youth recreation supervisor, both find satisfaction in engaging in youth-oriented sports. They recently put their heads together and came up with an idea for a podcast. Its topic? Fort Atkinson High School sports.
Both said they started the podcast as a way to bring continued sports coverage to the Fort Atkinson area.
Said Ketterman: “I would say for a long time Fort Atkinson really got good coverage.”
More recently, he said, from his perspective, there has been less opportunity.
To fill the gap, he said of himself and Opperman: “We thought a great way to have people stay up to date with sports was through this podcast. It’s a way to promote sports.”
Since August, Ketterman has hosted seven episodes of the Blackhawk Booster Podcast.
“I was honored when they asked me to be the host, and it’s a nice time frame. I see how good it is to get these teams and players some recognition for all of their hard work,” he said.
Ketterman described a longterm affiliation with local sports, noting that 20 years ago, he began “chiming in” on a local radio station’s sports casts, offering his perspectives on such sports as football, basketball, baseball and softball. In time, he was invited to offer “play-by-play” insights.
“That’s where you paint the picture of what’s going on on the court or field,” he said.
In his role as radio sportscaster, Opperman said, Ketterman became the “voice of Blackhawk athletics.”
Opperman said he was among fans who listened to Ketterman’s broadcasts. When the concept for a Blackhawk Booster Club podcast came up, Ketterman was an easy selection to serve as host.
A history with sports
Ketterman said he developed an interest in sports at an early age, playing basketball and baseball at the high school level.
“I watched a lot of football,” he said.
In his role as Fort Atkinson Parks and Recreation youth recreation supervisor, he said, “We do all the sports activities.”
Sports activities offered through the city’s parks and recreation department are developed to serve children ages 3 through high-school-aged students, he said.
Typically, the department’s programming serves some 10,000 kids annually, he noted.
The programs draw kids from the city and the county, and mainly from across the School District of Fort Atkinson, he added.
While the podcast was created to bring sports to the public, it also gave Ketterman a new way to continue to broadcast, he said.
He explained: “I started working here (parks and recreation department) in 1999, so I couldn’t coach baseball and basketball anymore.” He noted that he coached those sports at the high school level between 1992 and 1999. Ketterman is a 1993 graduate of Fort Atkinson High School.
His involvement with a local radio station began while he was coaching. He said: “After the games, I’d go out with the coaching staff, and we’d invite the media guys out.” Eventually, he said, “they said: ‘hey, be on the radio with us.’”
Ketterman said he was knowledgable about Blackhawk sports, which helped foster his confidence as a radio personality. By the year 2000, he was on the radio.
In the first few years, between 2000 and 2004, he estimated that he brought commentary to some 60 games.
Looking back at his various sports-related endeavors, he said, “I really like coaching, but radio afforded me a way to watch the games and still be a part of the action.”
Opperman said he has served on the Blackhawk Booster Club board for eight years. He is serving his third year as president.
As a student at Beloit-Turner High School, he played football and basketball. He graduated in 1986.
After college, a career opportunity, working with the Hoard Dairyman Magazine, brought him to Fort Atkinson.
After his arrival, he coached youth football for several years.
In the 1990s, he coached fifth- and sixth-graders, he said.
In 2013, he returned to coaching youth football, and in 2021, he began coaching freshman football at Fort Atkinson High School. He has served in that capacity for three seasons, he said.
The role of the booster club
Opperman said the role of the booster club is to provide support to the Fort Atkinson High School athletic department.
“We go above and beyond what the athletic department budget can do; we pay for equipment and training that every sport can benefit from,” he said, adding that right now, the club is paying for half of the money required to support the athletic trainer at the high school.
Looking to find ways to support the department and athletes, he said, the club came up with the support for the podcasts.
Through booster club activities, including the podcasts, he said, “We are trying to help ensure that every student athlete has a positive experience while playing a sport at Fort Atkinson High School.”
The club engages in fundraising activities to support its endeavors.
“We have corporate sponsorships, and we also get a significant part of our budget through running the concession stand at the football games,” Opperman said.
Members also pay dues. The club has about 100 members, he said.
“A lot of parents of athletes are members,” he added.
What’s on the podcast and where is it found?
The podcasts, which began airing in August are created using the Zoom platform and then uploaded to YouTube. They can also be accessed through popular podcast apps like Spotify and Apple Play, Ketterman said.
Access to the podcasts is also available through a paid click-through ad on Fort Atkinson Online.
“Every week, we try to cover three different sports; we always have football, but then one or two others. We talk to a coach and players, and at the end of each one, we recap the week and promote upcoming activities,” Ketterman said.
A goal is to record one podcast each week. Typically, each podcast runs about 20 minutes, he added.
During the introductory podcast, Ketterman interviewed Opperman, along with the Fort Atkinson High School Athletic Director Steve Mahoney and football coach Nick Nelson.
While the first podcast focused on football, Opperman said: “In the fall, a lot of sports will be going, so we will try to introduce each sport.”
Future podcast episodes will look to include girls swim, boys soccer, boys and girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, girls golf and girls tennis, Ketterman and Opperman noted.
Opperman said the Zoom platform was chosen because, as the owner of a marketing firm, he has experience with it.
Ketterman said the three-segment format for the podcast was developed after the first one was recorded, noting: “It just kind of worked. During the first episode, we threw three out there to see what would happen, and when we hit the 20- to 30-minute mark, we said ‘yeah, that worked.’ Coaches spend a lot of their time at work and practice, so we wanted to be respectful of the time.”
In the beginning, Opperman said, “we said we’d play it by ear. In the winter there are only four sports going on.”
In the future, both said, they would like to see the podcast host new high school players, and maybe even some former high school players who are now attending college. They are committed to recording the weekly podcasts through the end of this school year, after which time, they agreed, they will evaluate the program.
While the booster club supports both high school and middle school sports, for now, Opperman and Ketterman said, the podcast will focus on high school athletics.
Said Opperman: “An interesting thing is the role COVID played in all this.”
During the pandemic, fans could not attend games in person, but, he said, Ketterman was still there.
“There were no fans in the stands,” Ketterman said, but parents still wanted to watch games. In response, he said, a lot of schools began videotaping games and putting them on YouTube.
Fort Atkinson streamed the games, he said, adding the he was asked to do the play-by-play.
Football games are still streamed, Ketterman said, but the value is not as high because people are back in the stands.
“As a society, we are now more comfortable with podcasts and Zoom,” Opperman said, which opens the door for ideas like the booster club’s podcast.
Ketterman said an added value of talking with coaches using the interview format is that it gives parents a chance to get to know them as people.
“Coaches are under a lot of pressure in any sport. The expectations of parents and fans are extremely high. It is easy to verbally abuse someone if you don’t know them, but if you know them, it’s different,” he said.
Podcasts are designed to appeal to the non-student, he added.
Students are plugged in, they have social media and they talk with their friends. They know the outcome of games, both Opperman and Ketterman agreed.
“The podcast is for the casual fan who wants to keep up to date with Fort Atkinson athletics,” Ketterman added.
Relative to student athletes, he said: “We want to promote sports, and even those that didn’t get a lot of attention before.”
Said Opperman: “We want the players’ parents to say, ‘great job.’ They want to see if their kid’s name is mentioned, because who doesn’t like that in any form?”
Brett Ketterman, host of the Blackhawk Booster Podcast, at left, and Mike Opperman, president of the Blackhawk Booster Club, arrive at the Fort Atkinson Parks and Recreation Department to talk about the podcast, its formation, goals and upcoming episodes. Seven episodes are available through YouTube, Spotify and Apple Play. YouTube episodes also can be accessed by clicking the image below and on the cover of Fort Atkinson Online. Kim McDarison photo.
Click the ad above to view episodes of the Blackhawk Booster Podcast. The click-through ad also can be accessed on the cover page of Fort Atkinson Online.
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