ASHWAUBENON — The Ashwaubenon boys basketball team booked a trip to the state tournament last weekend by beating Nicolet 92-71 in the sectional final.
Senior Marcus Tomashek put the team on his back with a school record 46 points, but the senior is only worried about winning.
“On a game to get to state, I don’t know if it gets much better than that does it?” said his father and Ashwaubenon head coach Mark Tomashek. “For an individual player. Marcus is so dialed into the team, he really doesn’t care about any of those things.”
Mark Tomashek says the all players on the team have stepped up and playing the the Fox River Classic conference with a lot of great teams has set them up to be in this position.
“We’re the smallest school other than Notre Dame in the conference,” he said. “I mean, you’re playing against division one’s all the time. Playing against De Pere and Bay Port and Sheboygan North and all those teams they play hard. I think it was a really big, big help for us to do that.”
Tomashek is one of the top scorers in the state averaging over 25 points per game and senior point guard Matthew Imig is second on the team in points per game. The two players have been playing together for a long, long time.
“They met at Bellin gym when they were four years old and I saw Matt in the corner. I said, ‘hey he looks like a good basketball player.’ We got to know them and we started playing right then. That connection’s been since they were very little,” Mark said.
Playing in the state tournament for the pair is a dream come true, something they’ve talked about since they were young.
“We’ve had plenty of conversations about what this moment would be like,” said Imig, who will play at UW-Oshkosh next year. “To live it out and win that sectional final – we both had some conversations and we were like, ‘Man. We really did it.’”
Friday’s game against Pewaukee will be bittersweet. Imig and Tomashek play AAU ball with Ashton Janowski and Josh Terrian who play for the opposing squad.
“Me and Marcus talk to those guys as soon as the seeding came out and said, ‘we’re really playing each other,’” said Imig. “We’ve had conversations with them too, saying there’s a possibility we play each other at state. It’s going to be a weird feeling but it’s for sure going to be fun.”
But that can have its benefits according to Marcus Tomashek.
“We know their tendencies,” said Marcus. “We know what they like to do, so it's going to help us out a little bit.”
Having his sons play for the team, Mark has coached a lot of the seniors since they were young and this upcoming weekend it will be for the last time.
“I grew up with them. I coached them youth baseball, youth basketball, youth football – we’ve known these families since they were five years old. There’s such a huge connection. It’s a lifelong friends with all these people. It’s kind of unique in that aspect, I think,” said the head coach.
The Jaguars take on No.1 Pewaukee at 1:35 p.m. on Friday.
