STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – SPASH honored the best of the best at Sentry World in Stevens Point on Saturday. The school’s class of 2025 hall of fame inductees are getting the recognition they deserve.
This year’s SPASH Athletic Hall of Fame class is headlined by SPASH’s only championship hockey team, led by ‘Captain America’ himself, NHL All-Star and Team USA Captain, Joe Pavelski.
Pavelski was inducted into the U.S.A. Hockey Hall of Fame just a few weeks ago. Now, he is back in his hometown, where he will be cemented with his Panthers teammates, as some of their high school’s greatest ever to grace the ice.
“You laugh, you know, there’s a few little changes, but deep down all the guys are the same,” Pavelski said. “You just really get to kinda look back and enjoy some of these stories that are coming out, and it’s been a while for some guys, and to really get us together, you know, it doesn’t happen every day, so we’re gonna enjoy it.”
Pavelski’s high school coach, Jack Stoskopf Jr., has been hoping the Hall of Fame’s selection committee would pick his championship team to be inducted.
Stoskopf said there was a reason for his team’s success, and it is the reason they’re still the only championship team in school history.
“Well, one of the reasons I believe we were truly successful,” Stoskopf said. “It wasn’t the most talented team I’d ever coached at SPASH, but it was a true team, and that came down to the really good leadership that we had from Joe Pavelski, Shaun Kraskinski, and Mark Lutz. Those three guys really led this group through. That’s a huge, key, important ingredient you have to have to be successful in high school sports.”
Not only are ‘Pavs’ and his team going into the Panthers’ Hall of Fame, but Joe’s uncle, Pat Pavelski, is also getting inducted into SPASH’s Hall of Fame as a baseball player.
“You know you come back here, special day you know, going in with our team and some of the guys that are here, and then throw on top of that, Pat is going in as well,” Joe Pavelski said. “It’s a special day for our family, I think, and for this group, and you get to come back home quite a bit and tie it all together in a night like tonight, it’s special.”
Pavelski is now coaching in the state’s capital after his NHL retirement. So we asked, could he eventually coach his hometown team?
“Haha. I gotta team right now, maybe we’ll go from there,” Pavelski said. “You never know what’s going to happen, but we’ve definitely enjoyed our time down in Madison.”
SPASH’s hockey team came close to getting back to state last season. Coach Stoskopf says the Panthers’ tradition of winning can be an example to help the current team find success once again.
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