Two jobs conflict happily for Nicolet's Weisse

Glendale - Brian Weisse loves both his jobs.

But sometimes one can get in the way of the other.

He's a teacher at Milwaukee's Ronald Reagan High School by day, and in the evening and on weekends in the fall, he's the boys soccer coach at Nicolet.

Normally the two would never conflict except that the Ronald Reagan Huskies had a spectacular soccer team this fall, flirting with the state's top 10 in several weekly polls with a 22-2-1 record, winning the City Conference championship.

It was in that last item on the agenda that Weisse and Reagan ran into a little bit of conflict, and his team endured a 5-3 loss to Reagan in the regional final Oct. 13.

Because at the beginning of the year, Weisse's 7-11-2 "try hard" squad had dropped a 4-2 decision the Reagan, and since Weisse knew that the two teams were in the same WIAA sectional, he was itching for a rematch.

Sure enough, the seeding gods put the pair in the same regional bracket. Nicolet beat Riverside, 1-0, in its semifinal, and Reagan powered past Washington, 9-0.

Weisse couldn't wait, and he also knew the reception that was waiting for him at Reagan.

"Ever since the opening season loss to Reagan the team (Nicolet) and I were eager to get another opportunity to play them," said Weisse. "We felt like the run of play was in our favor (that first game) and that we had missed opportunities that night. … I had to push for the sixth seed (in the sectional) so we could get the opportunity to play Reagan again.

"(After the regional semifinal) the next day at Reagan the announcements told the student body about the Thursday matchup and there were some comments in the hall about how Reagan would win and the like. It was fun to have such a match to bring the student body and the staff together, albeit against me, to support soccer."

The game itself did not disappoint in terms of energy or excitement as the high-scoring Huskies, behind surprise scoring star Sam Paul (two goals in the first 12 minutes) roared out to a 4-0 lead. But Nicolet got a goal with only seconds left in the first half from Dan Carpenter to cut the margin to 4-1.

Reagan stayed back and chose to defend much of the second half, and the score remained 4-1 until the eight minute mark. That's when Nicolet struck twice within five minutes behind Mike Yarmulnik and junior captain Collin Gruener to close the gap to 4-3.

But the euphoria was short-lived

"One minute later, Reagan scored to finish the match," said Weisse. "I will not lie, it really stunk losing to Reagan twice this season."

Weisse was very pleased with the effort of senior defender Mike Goldstein on Reagan star Cheenju Shong, limiting Shong to one goal and one assist, and he was exceptionally pleased with his team's tenacity in the face of a big deficit.

Weisse later felt a little sad when he saw that Ronald Reagan lost 4-1 to Nicolet's North Shore rival (and league champion) Whitefish Bay in the sectional semifinal. Weisse had to miss the game because of parent-teacher conferences but ran into coach Tim Magner after the game.

"He was very excited about the past season and sad for it to end," he said, "but he was a proud coach."

As is Weisse.