Ferguson and Aiken Kann are fine examples for future Germantown Hall of Famers

Retired teacher and coach Dennis Kloth couldn't help but notice that when the PA announcer was reading off Jackie (Aiken) Kann's copious and impressive list of accomplishments during Germantown Athletic Hall of Fame ceremonies at a recent home basketball game, that she appeared a little nervous and embarrassed.

It was maybe because she was feeling a little bad for fellow inductee John Ferguson.

"I mean, they read the list of John's accomplishments and they were plenty impressive in themselves," Kloth said. "Then they started reading Jackie's and it was almost twice as long. I think she actually went over and talked to John about it afterward."

But neither she nor Ferguson have anything to be embarrassed about as they are both indicative of the high caliber of athlete that Germantown has produced throughout its history.

Ferguson (class of 1988) was a supremely talented multisport athlete with a facility, ease and coolheaded manner that allowed him to stay calm no matter what the situation in football, basketball, track and baseball.

His best sport was track, where he held school records for years in both the high jump (6-7) and pole vault (14-4). He was also a three-time captain and two-time all-state selection in the sport. He was also a starting guard for some fine Warhawks basketball teams in the late 1980s.

He attended UW-Whitewater where he was a decathlete for the track team for two years, earning team captain and most improved honors. He graduated with a degree in marketing from Whitewater and lives Germantown with his family.

"John just never got shook up," said his longtime Germantown track coach Jack Stiever. "I think that was because he never had time to worry about things, because he was always running from event to event. He never got inside his own head too much. Just very cool, very self-confident. A real pleasure to coach."

"John was pretty much a natural at almost anything he did," Kloth said. "He could run, he could throw, he could jump and he was also a heck of a nice guy, too. I had him in freshman Algebra and he was a good student, too.

"It was funny, my kids played pickup games with John and his brothers (Jim and Joe) but none of the guys could ever catch John (laughs)."

Cornerstone for softball

Aiken (class of 1993), meanwhile, was also a multisport athlete, doing well in volleyball and as a point guard in basketball, but more importantly, becoming ground zero for all the softball superstars that were to follow her in the Warhawks' storied history of the sport.

There may have been no Katie Maschman, Kristin Lovering or Mollie Kaebisch without the hard-slugging catcher Aiken, who helped lead Germantown to its first conference championship in softball in the early 1990s, earning all-state recognition twice and all-conference honors four times.

She still holds many Germantown season and career offensive records.

But it was at NCAA Division 2 UW-Parkside where she really blossomed, becoming a multi-time first-team All-American in softball and twice named to the NCAA All-Tournament team, leading Parkside to a cumulative 222-41 record in her career, including back-to-back 60-plus win seasons and two conference titles.

She still owns seven individual season records and seven career marks at Parkside. The latter including hits, home runs, extra base hits, RBI, batting average, slugging percentage and total bases.

Aiken Kann has been inducted into the GLVC Conference Athletic Hall of Fame and is also in Parkside's Hall of Fame as well.

To cap things off, after graduating with degree in marketing from Parkside, she played Women's Professional Fastpitch with the Georgia Pride for a time before settling down back in Germantown where she is expecting her fourth child.

"There wasn't a lot of club softball back then," said former longtime Germantown softball coaching legend Rich Anderson, "so she came up through the Little League, but you could just tell that she was a player from day one. She caught for us and she was always a powerful hitter.

"We would play on slow-pitch (softball) diamonds back then with longer fences and even though she had to run out a lot of her home runs, there were times she still hit them out. You should ask Dave Keel (longtime coach of Germantown rival Homestead) about that one she hit at Thiensville Park (laughs)."

Keel laughs at the story, because he had to leave in the middle of the game because his wife, Pam, was giving birth to his daughter Amy, and so he never saw that particular home run.

"I got the call that she (Pam) was going into labor and off I went but before I did I told my assistants that whatever they did, they should not pitch to Aiken," he said, "so what does she do, she hits the dang thing so hard, that I still think it hasn't come down yet. My assistant said 'We (the outfielders) were way, way back and she still hit it over our heads.'

"It turned out to be a great day though. My wife gave birth to a beautiful daughter, and I think we still won the game despite the fact that Jackie hit the shnotsky out of the ball (more laughs)."

"Jackie just had this nice little uppercut of a swing that she was able to work on at Parkside," added Anderson, "and she had such great natural power. She just has some outstanding accomplishments."

Both she and Ferguson did, no matter how long it took to read.

So many to consider

Kloth and Stiever, who are now among the leaders of the Germantown Hall of Fame committee, would like to honor even more athletes and coaches in the future. Current rules limit it to just two inductees (one man and one woman) each year.

"We have so many great people out there, especially on the coaching side, who need to get honored," Kloth said. "I wouldn't mind playing a little catch-up and induct a few more each year."

Based on Ferguson and Aiken Kann's example, that probably wouldn't be a bad idea.