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The following profiles appeared in the 2011 edition of the popular Baseball Wisconsin Yearbook. The 2011 Baseball Wisconsin guide is published by the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association. You can order it from their website at BaseballWisconsin.com.

JOSH GRUENKE -- SHEBOYGAN SOUTH
by Joe Waite

“Josh Gruenke is one of the nicest kids I have ever had the pleasure of coaching,” said Sheboygan South head coach Craig Kloes.

Kloes has had some great players at South, but Gruenke might be the best.  Named 2nd Team All-State last year as a junior, he hit .500, going 47 for 94.  He drove in 27 runs and stole 20 bases.  Of  his 47 hits, he had five doubles, two triples, and four homers.

Obviously he is a great baseball player, but what sets him apart is his character.

“I have seen great baseball players, but Josh is more than that, he is a great person.  He is compassionate and caring on and off of the field.  He has his head on straight, is driven to succeed, and is wise beyond his years.  To top it off, he is the ultimate team player.  He does whatever the coaching staff asks of him, is a leader and has the respect of his teammates,” Kloes said.

Gruenke is a kid that everybody is proud to know.  He played football and enjoys playing basketball though he doesn’t play for the South basketball team.   He loves to travel...he went to the Carolinas last year and has the West Coast tabbed as his next trip.

His hobby is to coach Little League baseball in the summer.  It’s too bad Norman Rockwell isn’t still alive... Gruenke would be the perfect model for one of his ‘All-American Boy’ type of paintings!

Gruenke is a great student as well.  His goals, in addition to going to the State Tournament, is to be his class valedictorian.

“After that,” he said, “I’d like to graduate from college, get a good job, and raise a family.”  He’d like to be either a physical therapist or possibly an athletic trainer.  Valpariso and Minnesota are couple of schools that he is interested in.  He definitely wants to play baseball at the collegiate level.

But before that all happens, it’s baseball that is on his mind.

With Josh Gruenke hitting in the three-hole, he’ll need teammates like Tyler Hoffman (.444 last year) and Brady Callahan (.354 last year) to again have big years as well if they are going to surprise the pundits and win the FRCC.  Gruenke will also be South’s top pitcher.  He had three wins last season and an ERA of just over three.

Sheboygan South had a good season last year, finishing one game short of 20 victories and one game out of first place in the Fox River Classic Conference.  They are picked fourth this year in the league, the same place they ended up last year.  

With a team leader like Gruenke and a great young coach like Kloes, don’t bet against South proving the pundits wrong.
by Joe Waite


JORDAN JESS -- RIPON
by Joe Waite

Jordan Jess burst on to the Eastern Valley baseball scene as a sophomore and has never looked back.  He posted a 1.90 ERA that year in 48 innings of work...this in a program that is one of Wisconsin’s best middle-sized school baseball programs.

An injury had prevented him from pitching varsity as a freshman.  He played right field for the Tigers that spring.

Dan Jonas, the head coach in Ripon, has seen a lot of good baseball players during his 17 years at the school...but Jordan Jess might be the best.

“Jordan is an intense competitor and very coachable,” Jonas said.

Toward the end of last spring, the hard throwing lefty  was hitting 90 miles per hour on the radar gun.  What makes him special, however, is that he has outstanding control--especially with his off-speed pitches.  As a junior, he pitched 48 innings and punched out 110 hitters, an average of  2.25 per inning.  He walked only 15 batters.  Opposing hitters might as well get up there, close their eyes, and flail away.... though some great hitters in the Eastern Valley will look forward to the challenge of batting against one the state’s best pitchers.

His career stats to date are a 1.90 ERA, 160 strikeouts versus 45 walks.

Jess was busy this summer with his achievements at Ripon and playing for different summer programs.  That landed him a scholarship to Minnesota, where he’ll pitch for the Gophers in 2012.  “Thank God Wisconsin doesn’t have a basebasll program or I would have to cheer against him,” coach Jonas joked.  A good student, he has a 3.5 GPA and is a member of National Honor Society.

Jonas understands exactly why the Gophers want Jess.  “He ranks as one of the best kids I’ve ever seen, both off and on the field.  Minnesota got an outstanding player and  young man that I think will be pitching in the Bigs someday,” he added.

Jonas is 6’2”, 210 pounds.  A lefty, his career batting average at Ripon is a whopping .420.  He also plays basketball for the Tigers.

Jess is a diamond-rat.  He’s played in tourniments in Cooperstown, Las Vegas, Georgia, Missouri, and every Midwestern State.  He got to play in Wrigley Field last summer in a Classic Tournament for a Cincinnati Reds Scout Team.

Between his sophomore and junior seasons, he helped Ripon win an American Legion State Tournament.  He was a 2010 batting champion and a member of the All-Tournament Team at this year’s Legion State Tournament.

“He’s one of those players you have to tell him to rest and not throw a ball, or he would never stop,” Jonas said.  

That is the only thing that prevents him from being  unstoppable at this point.