By MIKE BEACOM
of The Gazette
Brad Soderberg was an integral component of several of the area's most memorable teams and contests. Soderberg was a standout on the football field in high school and, as a member of Stevens Point Pacelli's varsity basketball squad from 1978-80, helped the Cardinals compile a 39-9 record.
Longtime local fanatics of basketball most likely remember him for 1984 when, along with a strong University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point basketball squad that included Terry Porter, made a run at the Division III championship.
Soderberg's cherished memories though, aren't consumed with overtime heartbreaks and national tournament success, but rather simpler times when basketball games were played after school and flag football meant wearing socks in your pockets.
"There wasn't a night that went by where we weren't playing hockey or football in someone's backyard or baseball in the St. Stan's parking lot," said Soderberg. "That's when I had the best time of all - no parents, no refs and if a kid got mad and took his ball home with him, that was the end of the game."
Soderberg sharpened his well-rounded athletic abilities on streets in northern Stevens Point that recently were wiped away when St.Michael's expanded its parking facilities.
In the back lots of friends' homes like the Orella, Jajewski and Haka families (brothers John and Chris now assist the Stevens Point Area Senior High School football team), Soderberg spent his afternoons and evenings playing whatever the season fashioned.
His appetite for sports was also fed by his father Don's commitment to coaching basketball and football. At an early age, Soderberg received a first-hand education of the fundamentals of sports.
"From the time he could walk, he would come with me to the gym," said Don. "I noticed at a young age that he was someone who was interested in sports, was very competitive and worked very hard."
While Don was instructing Pacelli's basketball players, he would watch in amazement as Brad, then barely in grade school, followed along with every drill on a side court.
"It was the darndest thing you'd ever saw," said Don.
By the time Soderberg reached high school in 1976, he had developed a disciplined attitude that he carried with him during the off-season, in practice and when it was game time.
His freshman basketball squad went undefeated for the 1976-77 season, foreshadowing the group's dominance of the Central Wisconsin Catholic Conference in coming years.
As both quarterback and defensive back of Pacelli's football team, the undersized Soderberg received the respect of area coaches when they named him back of the year as a junior and senior.
Don was an assistant coach in football at the time, in charge of the offense.
"Defensively -- he was a hitter. He was not afraid to stick his nose in there," said Don.
"That was my favorite sport when I was in high school," said Brad. "I loved the contact and I loved the Friday night games."
As a three-year starter on the varsity basketball team, Soderberg was not the team's top point producer (he scored 461 points during those years).
"I had really good teammates all through high school," said Soderberg.
Playing for his father, Soderberg accepted his role as the team setup man on offense and defense.
"(My dad) was a task master," said Soderberg. "We played well-disciplined basketball. The way dad coached the game-there's a right and a wrong way to play and you played the right way all the time."
Soderberg played the game the right way by playing unselfish offense and intelligent defense.
He led the team in assists in his last two seasons, setting the Pacelli record for 129 assists his senior year.
"He wasn't called on to score a lot, but he was really an outstanding leader," said Don. "He really had a handle on what we were trying to do offensively and defensively."
Soderberg was also named to the CWCC all-conference team as a junior and senior and in his final year shared the team and conference player-of-the-year awards with teammate Owen Glodowski.
In three years, Soderberg received 10 varsity letters from football, basketball and baseball.
His aspirations after high school were to play basketball for coach Dick Bennett at UW-SP. But Bennett was honest with the hometown prospect, telling him his playing time would not be as significant as it would be at another school.
Soderberg chose Bob Gillespie and Ripon College for his first two seasons of college basketball, where he earned first-team All-Midwest Conference honors as a sophomore.
Although Soderberg had no intent to transfer from Ripon when he first enrolled there, when the opportunity to transfer back to Stevens Point was put before him in 1982, he took it.
"I always had it in me that I wanted to play for coach Bennett," said Soderberg.
During the 1982-83 and 83-84 seasons, the Pointers compiled a 54-8 record, earning a trip to the National Athletic Intercollegiate Association (NAIA) tournament both years.
As a junior, Soderberg started 23 of 24 games, scoring 6.1 points and dishing out 3.9 assists a game.
The following season, Soderberg's numbers were nearly identical, and he started all 32 games. He earned a spot on the first-teams for the All-Wisconsin State University Conference and NAIA District 14.
The defensive-minded Soderberg was a perfect fit for a Bennett defensive unit that was recognized as 1983-84 Division III's finest, allowing just 48.7 points per game.
"I would definitely say my forte was playing defense and setting up the team defense," said Soderberg. "I sure worked a lot more on my offense than my defense. But when you have a guy like Porter on the floor, you're foolish not to get him the ball."
The team took its fans on a journey that finished with a tough 48-46 overtime loss to Fort Hays State in the NAIA title game. Soderberg was given the tournament's hustle award for his play.
Soderberg remembers those games well, but, like his childhood, treasures the more common, yet to him, more meaningful moments when the crowds and cameras weren't around.
"The things I remember most about my time playing at UW-SP were the players I played with more than the games," said Soderberg, who recalled the team's ritual shirts/skins matches every Sunday through Thursday night in Berg Gym. "I really enjoyed the competitiveness and camaraderie of those games."
Before his college career was over, Soderberg knew he wanted to continue with basketball as a coach. It was something he had known he wanted to do for a very long time.
Bennett suggested to him that he enter the college ranks as soon as possible and, after coaching UW-SP's junior varsity for a year, Soderberg received an assistant coaching job at Colorado State.
Since then, he has been an assistant and head basketball coach at every collegiate level and recently took a position as an assistant at the University of St. Louis.
"It's been more than I ever anticipated at this point and I'm still not 40 years old," said Soderberg.
Panelists remember him most for the way he carried himself as an athlete.
"Soderberg was solid in all the sports he played," said one panelist. "He was totally under control at all times and was a leader for the teams he played for."