Matt Rukamp steps down as Green Bay Southwest baseball coach

4 days ago 2

Matt Rukamp grew up in De Pere, played baseball and hockey at De Pere High School and still lives in the community.

But he has put in plenty of hard work as both a teacher and coach to help Green Bay public schools.

Somebody else will have to take over the task of leading the Green Bay Southwest baseball team. Rukamp is stepping down after six years.

When he took over at Southwest – he’s also a highly regarded social studies teacher at the school – he believed he’d be coaching the Trojans for a long time.

“It kind of started some days after some of our games, staring at the lights of the field,” said Rukamp, who will continue to teach at Southwest. “Talking with my assistant coaches just about my own standards and things I was hoping for the program. We look at all things we are able to do ourselves, the things we are able to get out of our players and staff and just the additional help we need in order to build a successful program.

“It takes a village.”

Green Bay Southwest baseball coach Matt Rukamp has stepped down after six years.

Matt Rukamp hopes for more commitment moving forward

Rukamp was appreciative of the players and their families. He felt lucky to have so many good ones.

Still, whether it was fundraising, working concessions, the scoreboard or any little things that make a program thrive, he wasn’t getting the type of participation he wanted from enough people.

“You need that support,” he said. “You need the families to invest. You need the kids to invest. You need more commitment. That’s one of the struggles that Southwest is facing overall, is lack of commitment.

“I’m part of the problem now because I’m leaving, but one of the big things I was hoping for all the Green Bay schools is that they just need coaches to be more committed. They need to be here. I put in the six years. I felt like I gave everything I could to a point, and I wasn’t making the progress that I wanted unfortunately. It’s no fault of anyone. … I enjoyed the heck out of my six years here. It’s going to be something that will help me grow.”

Rukamp started his coaching career in 2009 as an assistant for the freshman baseball team at West De Pere. From 2014 to 2018 he was an assistant at Fond du Lac under the legendary Marty Paulsen but left after landing a teaching job at Green Bay Preble.

Rukamp took over as the Green Bay East/West coach in 2019 before arriving at Southwest.

The Trojans went 9-18 last season, losing to Pulaski in a WIAA regional.

Southwest has struggled to compete against the top programs in the Fox River Classic Conference and has not had a winning record since 2018.

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The situation isn’t unique.

The four Green Bay public schools – Preble, East, West and Southwest – have had little success in several sports in recent years.

The last time a football team from one of the schools made the playoffs was 2019.

West and Southwest don’t have a girls varsity basketball squad because of low numbers.

The last time a boys basketball team made state was East in 2000. The last time a girls team did was Preble in 2003.

There certainly have been success stories, including the Preble baseball and softball programs.

What’s it going to take for baseball success at a school like Southwest, to find a way to compete against the likes of Bay Port, De Pere and West De Pere?

“One of the big things we are lacking on the west side of Green Bay is a youth program,” Rukamp said. “I didn’t think I was the person to give the time and commitment that was needed to build west-side baseball. We had a number of families that ran the west-side little league and then their kids got older, went to high school and graduated. There just weren’t the families there to take over.

“I really wish Green Bay would move toward something De Pere has. It’s not an east-west thing, it’s De Pere Youth Baseball. Everyone is included. They have two separate school districts. Green Bay is a big community, but it needs to have one unified program. You can get more parents involved. It doesn’t have to be an east side vs. west side thing, where I think some people think that. It’s not Preble vs. Southwest. It’s not Southwest vs. East or Preble vs. West. We should all be working to build solid baseball across the board. We can all be better.”

It also can be difficult for many of the programs to retain good athletes. Some go to other schools to play.

“We just need families to stay,” Rukamp said. “We’ve been losing potential athletes to area schools. It’s hard as there is no room for growth with our zone landlocked. Every family has the choice, but there are so many opportunities in the GBAPS, and I think sometimes the families that leave don’t end up getting what they envisioned.

“I had two kids using our cages this summer and asked where they went. (They said) Bay Port but lived a few blocks away. It’s almost like we have to start recruiting our own kids. Just another challenge we are facing.”

Matt Rukamp to return to West De Pere

It remains to be seen who will take over for Rukamp at Southwest. He would love to see his assistant and good friend, Brock Larson, get the job if he wants it.

Larson is a 2007 graduate of West De Pere, a teacher at Southwest and has been with Rukamp his entire tenure.

Rukamp is returning to his roots as an assistant at West De Pere. He will work alongside longtime coach Joe Rukamp, who happens to be his uncle.

Uncle Joe has been an important part of the West De Pere program for decades and has won multiple Division 2 state championships as the head coach.

“It’s something I don’t think a lot of people get an opportunity to do,” Matt said. “When I was a young player in De Pere, during my middle school years and Joe was an assistant over there under Sean Gibbons (at West De Pere), he would drive over in his little Chevy Beretta and pick me up and bring me to open gyms on Sunday nights.

“We’ve had some pretty good battles on the field, Joe always getting the best of me. We’ve had some pretty close one-run games. It’s good. It’s something where they do a lot of really good things there, and I want to continue to learn and develop.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Matt Rukamp steps down as Green Bay Southwest baseball coach

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