Petermann breaks 40-year-old record
By Erik Buchinger
Trucker senior Tyler Petermann’s high school basketball career has ended, but he broke several records along the way.
Petermann is the seventh player in program history to score more than 1,000 career points and became the school’s all-time leading scorer in a 76-45 home win over Northland Pines in a WIAA Division III regional quarterfinal game on Thursday, Feb. 23.
Petermann set the record late in the game, which wound up being his final home game as a Trucker.
“After having some time for it to sink in, it feels pretty good because I put in a lot of hard work and dedication over four years,” Petermann said. “That record stood for 40 years, and I knew it would take hard work, dedication and obviously a lot of help from teammates and coaches.”
The original record was set in 1977 by Joe Mauel, who scored 1,343 career points with Clintonville.
Petermann needed 24 points in the game to tie the record and 25 to break it. He stayed in late in the game despite Clintonville’s big lead and set the record on a layup in which he was fouled on.
Petermann said the fans slowly understood what was about to be accomplished throughout the game.
“People started to know what was going on when they kept me in late in the game,” Petermann said. “Once they announced it, people knew for sure.”
Petermann said people were reminding him prior to the playoffs how many points he was to breaking the 40-year-old record.
“Toward the end of the season, I knew I was getting close to it,” Petermann said. “Prior to that, it hadn’t really crossed my mind. My coaches said this was a goal I could shoot for and reach it. Down the stretch of the regular season, our statistician let me know I was inching closer.”
Now that his high school basketball career is over, Petermann said he will miss the relationships he has made on the basketball court.
“I would say all of the great relationships I made not only with teammates but with opposing teams and players as well,” Petermann said. “I’ve met so many great competitors that I’ve grown close to over the years, and I’m never going to forget the great friends I’ve made on my team and other teams.”
Petermann will attend Michigan Technological University where he will major in Mechanical Engineering and might try out for the basketball team.