Bay's Gymnastic Dynasty Built on Tradition

When you think about sports dynasties from Wisconsin, the first that come to mind are probably the Packers teams from the ‘60s, the Bucks in the early ‘70s or maybe the Brewers in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

 You probably don’t think about Whitefish Bay High School’s gymnastics team.

 But you should.

 The Blue Dukes have been a perennial powerhouse since the mid-1980s thanks to a consistent approach that would make any "Fiddler on the Roof" fan proud.

 “Whitefish Bay is a school big on tradition,” head coach Mary Liniewski said. “With that, the kids really bond and they really fall into the system we have in place.

 “It’s kind of like football and you believe in the West Coast offense; we have our own strategy that for years we’ve been doing and it works. Those same strategies (former coach) Bob (Bradley) put in place, we still use. It’s just a well-oiled machine that way.”

Bradley, who is somewhat of a gymnastics coaching legend in Wisconsin, was the first coach for Bay. He passed the reins on to Liniewski in 1993 and the program didn’t miss a beat.

Liniewski said that only having two coaches in school history is part of the reason that makes Bay so successful.

“Whitefish Bay has had two coaches in its history,” Liniewski said. “A lot of other programs, every couple years they have a new coach. There’s a lot of continuity and philosophy that we carry in year-in and year-out.”

That continuity has led to tremendous success in the gym. The Blue Dukes have won five state titles, won conference the past two years and haven’t lost a sectional championship since 2000

The team made it to state and either won it all or took second so many times that the athletic department said it was getting too costly to continue making a banner each season. Instead, the school now adds the year to a giant sign at the entrance of the gym that might as well say, “We’re really darn good at gymnastics.”

Perhaps the most impressive part about Bay’s success is that they do a large part of it against schools with much higher enrollment. The Dukes student body of just under 900 places them into Division II as far as sports go. However, Bay competes in the North Shore Conference against D-I schools like Nicolet and Homestead.

Not only that, but many schools combined their talent into a monster of a program like Germantown/Menomonee Falls or Franklin/Muskego/Whitnall/Oak Creek, the latter making up a talent pool of about 6,000 students.

Part of the reason Bay is able to maintain their success despite going against goliath school combinations like that is their gymnastic-specific gym.

“We have the best facility in the state of Wisconsin, by far,” Liniewski said. “We’re the only school in the state that has a pit, tumble track; we’ve got a strap bar…two-bar sets, an Olympic floor and all the equipment stays up year round.”

All that success hasn’t gone to their heads, however.

“The whole team is very sportsman-like,” Liniewski said. “At the Arrowhead meet we won the sportsmanship award. At the state meet a few years back we won a sportsmanship award.

“Our girls are so close and so cohesive, but it’s also because that’s part of tradition at Whitefish Bay. We’re not the kind that are going to be arrogant and just go out there and think we can behave in that fashion. That’s just never been part of our philosophy.”

Whatever their secret is, Bay is off to another hot start this year as they are currently 5-0 at the midway point of their season.

Liniewski said this year’s squad is just as talented as any in years past and they’re in fine form to avenge their second-place finish at state a year ago.

After all, that’s what dynasties do; they just win.