May 13, 2026 – West Bend, Wi – The West Bend Baseball Association took a moment Tuesday night to introduce its 2026 WBBA Hall of Fame Inductees.
Erik Kraemer is a West Bend native whose love for baseball was forged on the Little League diamonds of his hometown at a Carl M. Kuss Memorial Field where he played for West Bend East High School Class of 1999.
That passion carried him through a four-year collegiate career and into 15 years of competitive play in the story Land O’Lakes Baseball League. As an outfielder at West Bend East, Kraemer was a four-time Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association All-Star Selection and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel All-Area Selection, a distinction that placed him among the finest high school players in the state throughout the 1990s. He was part of the greatest high school team in Wisconsin history.
The 1999 West Bend East State won a state championship and finished ranked in the USA Today Top 20. After graduation, Kraemer continued his career at Trayton College in Illinois before transferring into the University of Wisconsin Parkside where he remains among the program’s all-time leaders in nearly every offensive category. Following his collegiate career, Kraemer brought his talents to the amateur game, played for the Kewaskum A’s of the Rock River Baseball League and the West Bend Company and later West Bend 7-Up in the Land O’Lakes Baseball League.
In 2009, he became a player manager and led the team to a league championship in 2010. He retired as a player in 2012. In four seasons with the Kewaskum A’s and 11 seasons with the West Bend Company 7-Up, Kraemer had 712 career hits.
Kraemer has remained deeply connected to the game as a coach. Alongside future Hall of Fame member Curt Schroeder and WBBA Secretary Craig Larsen, he served as an assistant coach at West Bend East for four seasons under the legendary head coach Doug Gonring where West Bend East won a state championship and went to another. Today, Kraemer coaches his son’s West Bend Thunder Club U-12 baseball team, a role he has held for four seasons alongside future Hall of Fame member Ryan Rohlinger.
Ryan Rohlinger is the most decorated athletic talent ever to emerge from West Bend, a multi-sport prodigy who reached the pinnacle of professional baseball and stands as one of the most accomplished athletes in the history of not only West Bend and Washington County, but the entire state of Wisconsin. Rohlinger graduated from West Bend East High School in 2002.
His prep career was nothing short of extraordinary. Playing under legendary WBBA Wall of Fame coach Doug Gonring, he earned his first team all-state recognition in baseball, football, basketball and tennis and in his senior year a feat that had never been accomplished in Wisconsin prep history and in all likelihood will never be again. The WIAA named him the 2001-2002 State Scholar Athlete of the Year.
In football, he was first team all-state as a wide receiver in his sophomore season and as a quarterback in both his junior and senior seasons and still holds more than 40 school and state records, including the highest single-game receiving yardage total in Wisconsin prep history, 292 yards on 11 catches versus Wisco in 1999 and the 10th highest total passing performance, 28 for 50 for 474 yards versus Oconomowoc in 2001. In baseball, Rohlinger was Wisconsin State Player of the Year in 2002 and all-state selection each of his four years and a key contributor to two WIAA state championship teams at West Bend East 1999 and 2002, helping compile a four-year record of 110 wins against 21 losses. After high school, Rohlinger bet on himself, committing to Clarendon Junior College in Texas, earning junior college All-American honors after he hit .455 with 20 home runs and 91 RBI.
Rohlinger transferred to the University of Oklahoma, where he started at third base and served as team captain in 2006. That summer, he was named MVP of the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League Championship Series, helping the Yarmouth Dennis Red Sox claim the league title. Selected in the sixth round of the 2006 MLB draft by the San Francisco Giants, Rohlinger made his major league debut on August 13, 2008 and went on to play for San Francisco through 2011.
In 2009, he was recognized as the best defensive third baseman in the Pacific Coast League. In 2010, he earned a World Series ring with the Giants. His number 17 jersey was retired by West Bend East at a boys’ basketball game ceremony on December 23, 2008.
Rohlinger is a proud member of West Bend’s Miller Baseball family. His uncle, Willie Mueller of West Bend West, pitched in the major leagues for the Milwaukee Brewers. His cousin, Mike Mueller of West Bend East, pitched in the Atlanta Braves organization.
His brother, WBBA Wall of Fame member Adam of West Bend East, was an All-American at Concordia University, Wisconsin. And cousin Daniel Mueller was an All-American at Concordia University, Wisconsin. Ryan Rohlinger stands as West Bend’s greatest athletic product and an enduring symbol of what his community’s commitment to the game can produce.
Curt Schroeder holds a singular distinction in West Bend baseball history. He is the only person to have been part of three West Bend East WIAA state championship teams.
A gifted player, respected captain, culture standard bearer, and outstanding assistant coach, Schroeder has given as much to the game as it gave to him. A member of the class of 1995, Schroeder was a four-year starter and captain at West Bend East, winning a state championship in 1993 under WBBA Wall of Fame coach Gary Perkins. As the starting shortstop, he led the Suns to two conference championships and built a career resume that still appears in the school record books for hits, runs scored, and RBI.
He remains one of the finest players developed by the powerhouse program that Perkins built, Gonring sustained, and Schroeder led and modeled that culture. After West Bend East, Schroeder continued his career at Madison Area Technical College under legendary head coach Leo Kalinowski, helping lead one of the most successful teams in Madison College history. He won two national championships with the Wolfpack and finished there with a 72-19 team record.
He left Madison ranked among the program’s all-time leaders in hits, runs scored, and fielding percentage. His 984 fielding mark still stands as a program best. His success earned him the opportunity to play at the NCAA level for the University of Nebraska Omaha under head coach Bob Harrell.
Following his collegiate career, Schroeder stayed connected to the game through the adult amateur ranks, playing for Bob Bothe and Dave Donath with the Kewaskum A’s, one of the Rock River League’s most respected franchises and a longtime affiliate of the WBBA. Schroeder retired from playing after the 2002 season. For as remarkable a playing career Schroeder had, one could argue, his true calling was coaching.
As an assistant coach under Doug Gonring at West Bend East, Schroeder was on the bench for the Suns’ 99-2002 WIAA State Championship teams, teams that went 32-3 and 28-4 respectively, and a combined 31-1 in the North Shore Conference. Over his tenure as an assistant, West Bend East compiled a remarkable 168-38 record. His steady, knowledgeable presence in the dugout helped shape a generation of players, including two-state player of the year shortstop Ryan Rohlinger and Zach Walter.
Mike Staral was West Bend through and through. A graduate of West Bend West High School, class of 1976, he was a lifelong community servant and one of the most beloved figures in the history of both the city of West Bend and the West Bend Baseball Association.
Mike passed away peacefully on April 22, 2025 at the age of 66 after a courageous seven-year battle with ALS, but not before leaving an indelible mark on the city and its baseball community. Staral’s baseball legacy was cemented with a moment of vision. In 2011, he sat down with Craig Larsen and Cathy Lawton in a Fleet Farm parking lot and sketched out, on a white napkin, an idea that would eventually become the complete renovation of Carl M. Kuss Memorial Field.
That napkin grew into a multi-year, multi-million dollar public-private partnership involving the city of West Bend, the West Bend School District, and the West Bend Baseball Association. When the project stalled in 2019 and 2020, Staral rejoined the effort alongside former Mayor Kraig Sadownikow, Prudence Pick Hway, and Craig Larsen to keep it alive. The renovated field, which opened for play in May 2022, stands as a lasting monument to his vision and persistence.
Beyond baseball, Staral spent decades investing in West Bend in every way imaginable. He began his career as a tool-and-dye apprentice and retired as Vice President of Sales at Willard Tool Corp, a company his colleagues credited him with helping grow from a small garage shop into a significant enterprise known and respected worldwide. He served as Board President of Moraine Park Technical College, President of the City of West Bend Parks Commission, and held leadership roles with Friends of West Bend Parks, the West Bend Police and Fire Commission, and Little League, among countless other commitments.
He was also the longtime secretary of the West Bend Baseball Association, and in the WBBA’s transition from organization in infancy to the full-fledged institution it is today, it was Mike Staral who was credited for keeping the WBBA board train on the tracks. Those that knew him remember a man of unrelenting positivity. He was involved in everything Little League, the Police and Fire Commission, anything that meant something to the community, recalled Jeff Szukalski.
He was a great, great individual. During winter months, Mike could be found in Marco Island, Florida, where he was affectionately known as the unofficial mayor of the West Bend Snowbird community. His induction into the WBBA Wall of Fame is both a celebration of his life and a tribute to the truth of Jackie Robinson’s words, which the WBBA cited in his memory.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on the lives of others. Mike Staral’s impact on West Bend was immeasurable.
Jeff Szukalski is one of West Bend’s most recognizable and beloved community figures. An entrepreneur, civic champion and devoted sports enthusiast who has poured his energy and resources into organizations that support young people and the city he loves for nearly three decades. Szukalski opened Jeff’s Spirits on South Main Street in West Bend in March 1998, building it from a single storefront into Washington County’s premier independent beer, wine and spirits destination.
Guided by a philosophy of community reciprocity, supporting the community that supports him, he has made his business a hub of local life and consistent backer of causes ranging from the Boys and Girls Club of Washington County to charitable events across the region. The store hosts more than 100 events annually and has been featured in Wisconsin’s Uniquely Wisconsin documentary series. Szukalski has taught courses at UW-Washington County, Cardinal Stritch University and has been an active presence in his industry for more than 45 years.
His impact on the Carl M. Kuss Memorial renovation was decisive. Serving as a WBBA executive member during a critical period, he helped secure $1.1 million in donations in 2018 alongside Craig Larsen, Mike Staral, Kraig Sadownikow, and Prudy Pick Hway funding that put the renovation on solid footing. With the effort flagged again in 2020, he returned to the table working alongside WBBA leadership and city officials to see the project through to completion.
At the field’s reopening in 2022, his name was among those most closely associated with bringing the renovated ballpark to life. Before his West Bend chapter, Szukalski was a standout in Milwaukee’s competitive softball community, playing for the powerhouse team Copperhearth and affiliate Castaways. His local Copperhearth teams were among the dominant forces at the Thurston Woods Park and other City of Milwaukee teams.
Szukalski played for legendary sponsors John Sr. and Mary Cornick and John Cornick Jr. It is no surprise to anybody who knew the Cornicks that somebody like Jeff Szukalski would be so community first with his business. Many of those friendships from Milwaukee endure to this day with former teammates and opponents who have since settled in West Bend and Washington County. His induction into the WBBA wall of fame recognizes a man who has invested in West Bend athletics from the WBBA to the WBYFO and West Bend itself. With his time, his resources, and his heart.
We have three other inductees who are unable to be present tonight.
We’d like to recognize Darrell Washburn, Prudence Pick Hway, and Cathy Lawton for their contributions and congratulations to those three inductees.
The formal induction into the Wall of Fame will take place at the Diamond of Honor Banquet on Saturday, November 14, 2026 in West Bend.
West Bend, Wi – Eight new honorees will be inducted later this fall into the West Bend Baseball Association Wall of Fame. This honor is reserved for those who have made an extraordinary and lasting impact on the game of baseball in West Bend and the surrounding area.
Tonight features the first meeting of the season between West Bend East and West Bend West, along with the induction ceremony for the 2026 West Bend Baseball Association Wall of Fame class.
Honorees include:
Erik Kraemer – West Bend East, Class of 1999
Prudence Pick Hway – City of West Bend Private Sector – Leadership & Philanthropy
Cathy Lawton – City of West Bend Private Sector – Historian & Philanthropy
Ryan Rohlinger – West Bend East, Class of 2002
Curt Schroeder – West Bend East, Class of 1995
Mike Staral – City of West Bend Private/Public Sector – Leadership & Philanthropy
Jeff Szukalski – City of West Bend Private Sector – Leadership & Philanthropy
Darrell Washburn – Kettle Moraine Lutheran / West Bend Company 7-Up Baseball Legend
The induction will be publicly announced Tuesday, May 12, 2026, prior to the West Bend East vs. West Bend West Varsity baseball game, at 7:30 p.m.
This is a special moment when the West Bend baseball community, players, coaches, alumni, and fans, will come together to recognize and celebrate.
Click HERE to see the current members on the WBBA Wall of Fame
The formal induction into the Wall of Fame will take place at the Diamond of Honor Banquet on Saturday, November 14, 2026 in West Bend.
This evening will be a celebration of excellence, dedication, and love of the game. Details regarding the banquet, including time, attire, ticket information, and any requests we may have from you, will follow in a subsequent communication.
