Wisconsin
Fresh off the Rose Parade, meet the Wisconsin champion Greendale High School Band
In a village near Milwaukee, a high school marching band reigns supreme.
For 20 consecutive years, Greendale High School has won the Wisconsin School Music Association State Marching Band Championship in their division. And they’ve recently been recognized for their achievements by the Wisconsin State Legislature.
The school’s student body is around 900 students, and 200 of them are in the band. Members have performed in spectacles like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and most recently in Pasadena, California before the Rose Bowl.
News with a little more humanity
WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” newsletter keeps you connected to the state you love without feeling overwhelmed. No paywall. No agenda. No corporate filter.
The band plays popular songs crowds would recognize, from Disney’s “Frozen,” to Beyoncé to NSYNC’s 2000 hit “Bye Bye Bye.” There is a color guard and even a singer. Dozens of students march and play with precise choreography.
“Ultimately, we’re in the entertainment business,” band director Tom Reifenberg told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
When Reifenberg started at the school in 2001, there were just 85 students in the band. They had never won a championship prior to 2000. He thinks the key to success is a philosophy that might sound uncommon in youth activities culture that prioritizes specialization and singular commitment.
First, there are no auditions — anyone can join the band even if they don’t play an instrument. Next, Reifenberg ensures that students in the band still have time for other extracurricular activities. He wants it to be a low enough commitment that students can still work or play tennis.
“Our philosophy is that we want you to do all those things because you’re in high school and should have a great high school experience,” he said.
Reifenberg and high school senior clarinet player Liliana Ramos spoke with “Wisconsin Today.”
The following conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Kate Archer Kent: Tom, you really make these events into full scale performances. It’s more than playing music. Can you describe what a show might be like?
Tom Reifenberg: If you go to a variety of high schools in Wisconsin, you’ll see anything from a halftime show of Beatles music to a really competitive show that is more artistic in nature. And we always try to do both. We try to appeal to anybody that’s showing up on a Friday night watching halftime. So for example, this year we did some music from “Frozen,” we did some music by Beyoncé . It’s something that anybody at the Greendale High School stadium will latch on to. But then we also mix that with some of the artistic elements that, in the competition circuit, a judge is going to look for.
KAK: Liliana, what drew you to the marching band?
Liliana Ramos: My older cousin was in the marching band and I saw that she got to travel a lot. And she made a lot of important friendships that she still has to this day. So that kind of drew my attention, because that’s something I was looking for heading into high school.
KAK: Liliana, does the crowd break out in song along with you? Or what is that energy like with your crowds?
LR: You can see students or families get really excited when they hear a popular song that we’re playing. Or at the end the crowd just feeds off of our energy and everyone’s pretty hyped and happy about what we just put on.
KAK: Tom, how do marching bands like Greendale get involved in performing in these really big spectacles like the Rose Parade or Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
TR: There’s an application process for these big events and it’s always hard to get into your first one. But once you’re in, you’re in. Because these organizations want groups that they can trust and rely on to do a good job.
Like the Rose Bowl’s Tournament of Roses, for example, they say, ‘Once you’re in our family, we embrace you and you’re part of the Tournament of Roses family forever.’ And that’s true. Pulaski High School, up by Green Bay, is another school that has been in multiple times.
It’s important for us that we still have to keep up our performance level and have a certain number of students in the program. They want bigger groups there because the parade itself is so big and the stands are so big, they need groups that can put out a good amount of sound.
KAK: Liliana, On New Year’s Day, you were in soggy Pasadena, California. I was watching the TV on my warm and dry couch, and just feeling sad and happy for all of these band members who were trying to do their best in those conditions. What was it like?
LR: Honestly, I had a lot of fun. It was different, because not a lot of people can say they’ve marched in the Rose Parade while it was downpouring. I think it made the energy a little higher for us because it’s different.
TR: What Liliana just said with the energy, it was phenomenal. You could tell at first, when the rain first started everyone was like, “Oh no, we have to do this in the rain.” But then it was just like “We’re here. Let’s do it. Let’s bring it.”
And I think our kids brought that energy and also the crowd lining the parade route for the whole 5.5 miles gave that energy back to us, which was really cool.
We were worried at first that maybe the Pasadena locals might not come out because they come every year and if it’s raining maybe they won’t be there, but they were there in droves and it was awesome. I wouldn’t have changed the rain part for the world to be honest.
KAK: Tom, there’s also a big financial commitment for families with performances like these. What is fundraising like for the marching band?
TR: We do a lot of individual based fundraisers so that families can choose what they participate in and what they don’t participate in, because like any other organization there are families that can just write the check but then there are some that have to fundraise every last cent.
What’s fortunate about Greendale is the community support is phenomenal.
KAK: Liliana, when you’re out fundraising how supportive is the community in donating to the marching band?
LR: The community wants to see us succeed so I feel like that’s what urges them to help donate. I would say Greendale’s a very tight knit community as well. So everyone is extremely supportive of the band.
KAK: Liliana, for a student who is not in marching band but plays an instrument: Do you have any advice?
LR: I would tell them to join the band because you’re going to make some lifelong friends. You spend so much time with these people at rehearsals and competitions and trips. So do it, because nothing bad can come out of joining band.
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shares his biggest spring takeaway
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shared his biggest takeaway from the spring following the Badgers’ four-set win over Northern Illinois.
MADISON – Kelly Sheffield has coached All-Americans, national players of the year, national champions and future Olympians in his 13 years as Wisconsin volleyball coach.
So Sheffield’s unique praise of Decelise Champion – a star pin-hitter from Puerto Rico who committed to the Badgers last fall – carries a lot of weight.
“Her highest-end potential is certainly as high as about anybody we’ve ever brought in,” Sheffield said. “She’s got a lot of work to get to where she’s capable of, and that’s on us as coaches and on her to help reach those dreams and goals. But when you’re watching people around her age, she’s different.”
That work is beginning earlier than initially expected after Wisconsin announced that Champion will reclassify from the 2027 recruiting class and join the Badgers as a freshman for the 2026 season.
Champion – currently 16 years old and turning 17 in September – will arrive with a resume that includes experience on Puerto Rico’s senior national team and the elite Italian club Volleyro Casal de Pazzi. That’s all while being strong enough academically to earn a GED degree and the necessary NCAA waiver for a few missing core classes.
“What made it really a lot better is that all of her grades at the different schools she’s been at have been fantastic,” Sheffield said. “She’s an excellent student. Was crushing it at a really, really good academic school in Italy in her third language.”
The timing of the June 12 announcement accounted for the second-last open roster spot for the 2026 season, but Champion and UW’s efforts to make the reclassification possible go back much earlier than that.
“We’ve known she’s wanted to do this since February,” Sheffield said. “We told our team in February that was the plan. And then we didn’t let anybody know publicly until she was done with her season. She just didn’t want to be a distraction for her team.”
Badgers have even more competition at pins
Wisconsin already had plenty of competition at the pin-hitting positions before Champion’s move to the 2026 class.
Grace Egan had a major role on the 2025 Final Four team, and Eva Travis had an impressive spring after transferring from UC-Santa Barbara. Others include Grace Lopez, Madison Quest and the highly-touted freshman duo of Halle Thompson and Audrey Flanagan.
Even with the upcoming addition of one more pin-hitter – and one with such a high potential – UW did not lose any players in the spring transfer portal cycle. Even the idea of someone leaving seemed outlandish to Sheffield.
“If they’re just going to get up and leave because somebody came, I would say that that person is probably chicken s—,” Sheffield said.
Sheffield’s praise of Champion’s proposal obviously does not come with a guarantee of playing time either at the crowded pin-hitting positions.
“I would say, yeah, she does have a chance of being out on the court for us this year,” Sheffield said. “But we’ve also got some other really talented people that play the pins.”
The outside and right-side hitters already on UW’s spring roster will have at least one key advantage over Champion in her freshman season – time.
Egan, Lopez and Quest are returning players (although Egan and Lopez spent their spring recovering from injuries). Travis, Thompson and Flanagan all enrolled in time to spend the spring with the Badgers and impressed in UW’s spring matches.
Champion’s arrival, on the other hand, will follow her participation in an Olympic-qualifying event for Puerto Rico. Sheffield expects that to be Sept. 2, which is the day before fall classes begin and already after UW’s first four matches of the season.
“She’ll be drinking out of a fire hose early on, no doubt about it,” Sheffield said. “Even though she’s been playing with her senior national team this summer, it will be a lot of things coming at her in her secondary language at 16, so there’ll need to be some patience along the way.”
His advice to Champion when she was on campus earlier in June was to “be where your feet are.”
“When she’s with her national team – even though we will have started our preseason, playing matches – don’t worry about us here,” Sheffield said. “Be where your feet are. Be the best you can be for your team there. … Then when you get here, you’re not thinking about your national team.”
Champion’s NCAA eligibility clock starts earlier
Champion’s reclassification comes with the drawback of beginning her NCAA eligibility one year earlier in her volleyball career.
Had she stayed in the 2027 recruiting class, she theoretically would have begun her college career shortly before her 18th birthday and exhausted her eligibility at age 22. Instead, she will begin her college career shortly before her 17th birthday and likely exhaust her eligibility at age 21.
Those scenarios take into account the NCAA Division I Cabinet’s unanimous approval on June 23 of a new eligibility model that will give players five seasons of eligibility in five years. (That replaces the current system with four seasons, redshirts and other waivers.) The NCAA noted that its decision is not final, however, until the meeting concludes on June 24.
“We’re certainly excited to have her this year, but if you kind of think over the course of five years, it’s probably worse for us that she comes a year early,” Sheffield said. “You expect her to be better at 20 and 21 than what she is at 16 or 17. … It really wasn’t something that we were pushing for, but she was ready.”
Of course, volleyball at age 16 or 17 looks different for someone like Champion who has been competing against much older players as a senior national team member and studying halfway across the world from her hometown of Dorado, Puerto Rico.
“When you talk to her, she doesn’t come across as somebody who’s 16,” Sheffield said. “She’s very mature, very easy to talk to, very driven. She’s independent. … She’s had a lot more life experience than most people her age, and that certainly comes across when you’re around her.”
Wisconsin
Cult-classic filmed in central Wisconsin returns to big screen, with enhancements, this weekend
STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – A giant spider isn’t actually invading central Wisconsin this weekend.
But an enhanced, big-screen version of the cult-classic 1975 film The Giant Spider Invasion is crawling back into local theaters — and it’s bringing some central Wisconsin nostalgia with it.
The movie was famously filmed in Merrill and Stevens Point, and the updated 2026 release adds enhancements designed for a modern theatrical experience.
What’s new in the 2026 enhanced version?
Executive Producer J.B. Thompson says the team took the original 1975 film and enhanced it for the big screen in 2026, giving audiences a refreshed way to experience a movie that’s long been a Wisconsin oddity — and a point of pride.
Actor and Producer Dan Davies is featured in newly filmed scenes created specifically for this updated release.
Stevens Point’s role in the original film
While much of the film is associated with Merrill, Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza says Point also played a major role in the production — another reason the film’s return matters to local history buffs and movie fans alike.
Why does this movie still capture attention 50 years later?
Whether it’s the over-the-top creature feature story, the uniquely Wisconsin filming locations, or the nostalgia of seeing familiar places on screen, the group says the film’s staying power is real — even five decades later.
Screenings this weekend
The enhanced version of The Giant Spider Invasion is set for local screenings this weekend in Central and North Central Wisconsin. To purchase tickets for showings in Stevens Point, Marshfield or Waupaca, click here.
Click here to download the WSAW news app or WSAW First Alert weather app.
Click here to submit a news tip or story idea.
Copyright 2026 WSAW. All rights reserved.
A Wisconsin man has been arrested in Colorado in connection with a fatal north suburban hit-and-run earlier this year that left a 50-year-old woman killed.
According to the Winthrop Harbor Police Department, Travis Kern, 35, of Pleasant Prairie, turned himself into police in Lakewood Colorado on an arrest warrant. Kern was charged with two felonies, police said, and remains in custody in Colorado pending extradition proceedings.
About 11:10 p.m. on February 26, a pedestrian was struck in the 1400 block of Sheridan Road in Winthrop Harbor by a driver of a vehicle heading northbound. The vehicle then fled the scene, police said.
The pedestrian, later identified as Shanna White, 50, of Waukegan, was transported to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.
According to court documents, Kern’s next scheduled court date is set for July 22.
-
Connecticut1 minute agoBear Attacks Avon Resident’s Dog: Report
-
Delaware4 minutes ago16-year-old boy killed in Wilmington, Del., shooting Monday night, officials say
-
Florida10 minutes agoWhat is the Tartan Army? Scotland’s fans take over South Florida
-
Georgia17 minutes agoMeth, fentanyl seized before reaching Georgia, North Carolina streets
-
Hawaii19 minutes agoMost Americans Don’t Realize Hawaii Had a Royal Family—Until They Visit This Palace
-
Idaho25 minutes agoIdaho angler reels in record 43.25-inch lake trout at Payette Lake
-
Illinois31 minutes agoBeckman’s new Illinois Polymer Maker Lab commissions first instrument
-
Indiana34 minutes agoBody of teen recovered from Lake Michigan after search near Indiana beach
