Hooked on HOOPS
"If you got good people around you, you will be good, because they won't let you fail." - Mike Mayfield
Matt Daniels
Issue date: 1/27/10 Section: Sports
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Once basketball season begins, Mayfield joked that he says goodbye to his wife until the season is over. It's easy to acknowledge when hard work and long days are needed, but it's another story to be able to go through and actually put in the work. Mayfield is one of those special people that finds a way to put in work beyond the typical eight-hour day, year in and year out.
"Here our motto is you're only as good as the hard work you put in, and that is recruiting," said women's head basketball coach, Jessica Pelzel.
Pelzel is grateful to have the always-personable Mayfield as an assistant coach. During the school year if Mayfield is not at work, basketball practice or at home with his family, there is only one other place he will be found. That place is on the road, recruiting basketball players for Madison Area Technical College.
The two most recent recruits that Pelzel gives full credit to Mayfield for bringing to Madison College are first-year guards Thresia Elskamp and Morgan Lass. The two former Potosi High School guards jumped right into action for the WolfPack and have both made an immediate impact on the court this season.
Elskamp has started every game this season (19) and leads the team in rebounds (108) and steals (56). She is third on the team in scoring, averaging 8.7 points per game. Lass is a key reserve for the WolfPack averaging 6.6 points per game and is shooting 78.4 percent from the free throw line. She came up big in the WolfPack's 63-61 victory on Jan. 5 over Milwaukee Area Technical College by scoring a game-high 22 points.
There is so much value that Mayfield brings to the team according to Pelzel and she feels that he can't be paid enough for all of the recruiting and hard work he does. He goes to all sorts of high school sporting events from basketball games to volleyball games to track events looking for athletes. Sometimes he even gets to the games early enough to watch the junior varsity events. "He knows everybody, everywhere," Pelzel said, when it comes to recruiting.
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