Rick Rosinski wasn’t out of a job for long. Three months after he was forced out as the boys basketball coach at Green Bay Preble, Rosinski recently was hired as the new leader at Shawano. He will replace David Ambrosius, who spent more than a decade with the program. Rosinski spent the last three seasons at Preble after coaching Green Bay East for 20 years.
His tenure with the Hornets ended May 7 when he submitted his resignation. Preble’s administration never gave a reason for Rosinski’s departure and did not hire him back after he rescinded his resignation four days later. Rosinski received overwhelming support from parents and players within the Preble program, some of whom claimed Rosinski was the victim of an overzealous parent. Along with speaking at several Green Bay School Board meetings on his behalf, they submitted a petition that had more than 100 signatures in support of Rosinski. Preble still showed no interest in bringing him back. After interviewing a handful of candidates in early June, it named former University of Wisconsin-Green Bay guard Steven Baker as his replacement. Rick Rosinski wasn’t sure he wanted to coach again Rosinski’s return to the sideline started on a beach in Texas during the first week of August. He received a phone call from Jim Hayes, his longtime trusty assistant with both the Red Devils and Hornets. Hayes informed him that Shawano had an opening. Rosinski told him he wasn’t sure he was interested in coaching again. Hayes told him to think about it, and Rosinski told Hayes if he wanted to do some legwork he could make a few calls. Everything came together rather quickly. Rosinski submitted an application and had an interview with the hiring committee within a span of about 10 days. He still had reservations after the interview. Did he really want to do this? Did he want to put in all the time? Any concerns he had vanished after he met with Shawano athletic director Kayla Brendemuehl for more than one hour. “Just going over questions and stuff, and every single thing that I asked her, she was on the ball,” Rosinski said. “I knew this was one of those people that has it together and is a top-notch AD. That’s kind of what sold the deal. You don’t find a lot of people like that over the years of doing this. “It kind of reminded me a little of [East AD] Steph [Mathu] and [former Preble AD] Dan [Retzki]. You ask them a question, and boom, they are giving it to you. That’s what sold it right there. If she would have been, ‘Oh, I’ll get back to you.’ No. But she was pinpoint. Boom, boom, boom, boom. There was no hesitation. That shows you right there that you have someone in charge that is going to be able to support you in this process of coaching.” Another reason he took the job turned out to be because of former Preble and UWGB star Tony Bennett, who left Rosinski a lengthy message. "What he said really hit home with me," Rosinski said. "He is such a great human being, it's hard not to take his advice. He told me, 'Something good will come your way, I believe this job is it.' "How cool was that of him to call me? It was unbelievable. Just a humble, humble high-character person."
Rosinski, who retired from his teaching position at East before the school year, had been part of the Green Bay Public School system for much of his life. He played football and basketball at East before graduating in 1987 and then served as the junior varsity assistant for the boys basketball team a few years later. He started teaching at his alma mater in 2001 and was hired by the Red Devils as the varsity boys basketball coach in May 2002 after serving as the freshman coach under Kevin Phillips the year before and as a coach at Washington Middle School the previous six years. Rosinski stepped down before the 2022-23 season for family reasons and served as a volunteer coach at East for J.D. DeVault – who played for Rosinski in the early 2000s – before taking over at Preble in 2023-24. But such a long relationship with the district did not end in storybook fashion. “I mean, I coached for 38 years in that district,” Rosinski said. “I gave everything I had, from when I was 18 years old to learning how to coach basketball with some very good people like Steve Kestly and Todd Dickinson and guys like that. Along the way, you are going to make mistakes, but you learn from them just like everyone does. “You put 38 years in, and you get one person that thanks you for everything you have done for the district. [Board member] Alex Mineau was the one that thanked me. That’s a souring thing, because to me, it shows you that there is no connection with athletics in that district. That’s the most difficult piece of this to swallow.” Rick Rosinski gets fresh start at Shawano Rosinski will take over a Shawano team that went 9-16 last season and finished seventh in the nine-team Bay Conference. There is a lot of work to do and little time to do it with the first day of practice set for Nov. 17. Rosinski has not even had contact with any of his players yet, but the hope is that by the end of the season the team can be playing well and perhaps win a tournament game for the first time since 2023. The Hawks will return their top three scorers and six of their top seven. The list is highlighted by the senior duo of 6-foot-7 forward Jackson Nordin and 5-11 guard Will Verkuilen. Nordin averaged 17 points and 7 rebounds last season while Verkuilen averaged 15.4 points, 2.7 assists and 1.7 steals. Both were honorable mention all-conference selections.
Along with all the returning players and Rosinski, Shawano will have another key piece joining it. As always, Hayes will be next to Rosinski on the bench. “Him and I have been locked at the hip since I was 13, him being my coach,” Rosinski said. “The only way I would have even thought about doing this was if he was to come with me. He is one of those guys who does all the stuff behind the scenes that you don’t see. The little things that are so time-consuming, from the stats to the book to film. People just don’t see how much time that is, and he’s good at all that. “Just the relationship we have personally, that’s what makes this kind of an easy thing to do. … He was probably the reason I got this job. He was the driving force behind going for it.” This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Former Green Bay Preble, East basketball coach Rick Rosinski hired at Shawano