Sports
The four Pointer seniors Jerome Wotachek, Pete Rortvedt, Bryan Beamish and Khalifa El-Amin with the WIAC Championship plaque.
Pointer’s senior forward named to NABC Division III All-District Team
The Pointer
nmeye177@uwsp.edu
The Stevens Point men’s basketball team has more to be proud of this year. Senior forward Pete Rortvedt has been selected as a 2009 member of The National Association of Basketball Coaches Division III All-District team.
Deserving players are selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC. The honor places Rortvedt among the top student-athlete basketball players in the country. The selection makes him eligible for the State Farm Coaches’ Division III All-America team, selected by the NABC.
Rortvedt finished his last season with the Pointers proving he was a master of shooting beyond the arc. He ended his Pointer career as the school’s all-time leader in 3-pointers with 302. He also attained school records for most 3-pointers in a game with nine, and most 3-pointers in one year with 95.
Rortvedt finished the season as the team’s second leading scorer, averaging 12.9 points per game with 1,453 points in his college career, making him the school’s ninth leading scorer of all time.
According to Rortvedt, basketball has meant more to him than any number on a stat sheet or in the records.
“Basketball has been awesome; sports are so much more than simply the skills you develop on the court or field,” said Rortvedt. “You create tons of friendships and bonds with your coaches and teammates and it really teaches you life lessons.”
One such life lesson was time management. According to Rortvedt, basketball taught him to organize his time and taught him how to have a strong work ethic, both on and off the court.
A broadfield social science major and history minor from Hazelhurst, Wis., Rortvedt has had basketball in his life for a long time. His passion for the game began at a young age not in Wisconsin, but in Iowa. His dad was the basketball coach at a small school there when he was young, which gave Rortvedt access to a gym whenever he wanted.
“My mom worked nights at the hospital so I would go to the gym with my dad for practice and it stuck with me,” Rortvedt said.
Being in the gym with his father is where Rortvedt began to develop the skills that would define him as a player, not just his ability to shoot the long ball. Growing up with a coach in the house allowed him to develop the knowledge of the game that enabled him to not just think, but to see and feel the game.
Of all the memories Rortvedt has of playing basketball, he views this season’s conference championship win as his favorite memory of all.
“We were very close as a team and were picked third behind Platteville and Whitewater,” said Rortvedt. “We ended up going 14-2 and showing people what we were capable of as a team.”
The Pointers finished conference champions but fell short of advancing beyond the second round in the NCAA Division III tournament, losing by three points to top-ranked St. Thomas.
Now that his basketball career with the Pointers is over, Rortvedt is focused on school and enjoying the new amount of free time he has. When he’s not hitting the books, Rortvedt enjoys fishing and simply being outdoors, but only in the summer.
“Once the summer starts I love to fish and be outside doing just about anything,” said Rortvedt. “I am not a fan of winter so I do as much as I can in the summer.”
Rortvedt will stay at Stevens Point for one more year in order to finish his degree. The Pointers will need to replace Rortvedt along with four other seniors next year.
