North's Wolske, Blomberg, Jewson arguably state's best ever trio

Over the years, Waukesha County has produced some brilliant baseball players. Just about every team, from Brookfield to Oconomowoc, has had several individual standouts.

Joe Randa, who played at Kettle Moraine, had a highly successful Major League career with the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates, putting together a lifetime batting average of .290. Sean Smith of Oconomowoc was drafted in the fifth round by the highly successful Atlanta Braves. Jim Barwick of Arrowhead went on to enjoy an outstanding career as a four-year starter for the Wisconsin Badgers.

The list is long and loaded with talent.

But no team in county history, and perhaps in the entire state, had three better players than the trio Waukesha North had in 1995, 1996 and 1997.

In 1997, Derek Wolske, Dave Blomberg and Ben Jewson capped off a three-year run for the Northstars that included two trips to the WIAA state summer baseball tournament, three straight league championships in the Southeast Conference and many postseason honors. Under coach Bob Hall, North went 80-20 those seasons.

"I've been around high school baseball for a long, long, time and I never saw three better baseball players on the same team than those three guys from Waukesha North," said Tim O'Driscoll, the recently-retired Hall of Fame coach from Arrowhead.

"I never could figure out who was the best of the three. They were all amazing players. You name it, they could do it. They pitched, they crushed the ball and they played great defense. They looked like grown men playing against kids."

All three were first team All-Conference picks three straight years, and all three were named to two All-State teams. As a group, Wolske, Blomberg and Jewson combined to bat well over .400 and hit almost 50 home runs.

Wolske and Blomberg, neighbors growing up, were both seniors in 1997 while Jewson was a junior. Wolske went on to have a highly successful four-year varsity career at Florida Tech in Melbourne, playing mostly third base and batting in the middle of the lineup. He batted .387 in his career at Florida Tech. and earned first team All-Conference his final two seasons.

Blomberg went on to a four-year career at Purdue University, playing second base his final two years and hitting second or third. He was a first team all-Big Ten selection his senior year, batting .350 that year.

After his senior year in 1998, Jewson was drafted in the 11th round by the Philadelphia Phillies. Only three other players in Waukesha County history were drafted higher (Smith, Randa, Ryan Rote of Kettle Moraine). Jewson played two years in the Phillies farm system before calling it a career.

"When you consider what those three guys did in high school and then carried it over into college baseball or the pros, you realize just how good they were," O'Driscoll said. "And imagine, those three guys all played on the same high school team."

Jewson played in the Appalachian League in 1998 for Martinsville and in 1998 in the Gulf Coast League for the Phillies. Both of those teams played in Rookie Leagues. In those two years, he played 57 games, 48 of them as a starting third baseman. He batted .261 in 1998 and .238 the following season.

At North, the threesome were interchangeable both in the field and at the plate. The trio batted in some combination of third, fourth and fifth. In the field, the trio pitched, played one of three infield positions (first base, shortstop or third base) and made sure everything went smoothly for the Northstars.

"We played a lot of baseball before we got to high school, and that helped us a lot when we got to North," Wolske said. "I don't know how many games we played together, but it was a lot. We had a lot of fun playing together. We had a great run in high school. It would have been nice to have gone to three straight state tournaments, but we got upset our senior year, and that hurt a little. It wasn't the way we wanted the season to end."

North made the state tourney in 1995 and 1996, falling in the first round in 1995 and in the semifinals in 1996.