TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
At the Merrill Varsity Boys Basketball game on Dec. 16, the Merrill Basketball Program also held their Second Annual Merrill Basketball Hall of Fame (HOF) Night.
Five athletes were inducted into the Merrill Basketball HOF, one for his coaching, although he was an athlete for Merrill before he became a Hall-of-Fame-worthy Merrill coach, and the others for their exemplary performance on the court as Merrill Bluejay players.
Bruce English was inducted into the HOF after serving as a Merrill High School (MHS) Basketball Coach for 33 years, from 1986 to 2019. Initially, he coached Merrill 7th and 8th grade boys traveling teams for three years and then he coached Boys Basketball Freshmen and JV and served as an Assistant Varsity Coach. He then coached JV Girls Basketball and was named MHS Assistant Coach of the Year in 2019.
Himself a 1972 graduate of MHS where he played basketball for Coach Don Kerr, English taught elementary Physical Education in Merrill until he retired in 2009. He is also a member of the Merrill Baseball HOF.
Jan (Wickman) Krystkowiak was a Merrill Bluejay Girls Basketball Player from 1979 to 1983. She received a lot of recognition for her contributions as a Bluejay and a great deal of individual recognition as a Junior and Senior in high school, as well. As a Senior, she led Merrill in scoring average at 13.5 points per game. After graduating MHS, she played college basketball at National College of Education in Chicago where she averaged 11.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, then played at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1984-1987 and led in scoring during the 1985-86 season at 12.0 points per game, among many other honors.
Joelene (Hanig) Weix, currently a teacher at Prairie River Middle School (PRMS) in Merrill, has been playing and/or coaching in the Merrill Girls Basketball Program for more than 40 years. Weix was a Merrill Bluejay Player from 1983 to 1987, during which time she earned a lot of recognition, some highlights being named a Channel 7 All Star, All State, and also a WBCA North All Star selection, all as a Senior. That year the Merrill Girls Varsity Basketball Team were the undefeated Champions of the Wisconsin Valley Conference (WVC) and Weix was named Most Valuable Player (MVP). She attended Western Illinois on a basketball scholarship where she played basketball for four years at Division 1 and was a four-year starter there and a two-time MVP. Her list of recognition there is also lengthy. Weix returned to Merrill and served as the Merrill Girls Assistant Basketball Coach in 1999 and then Head Coach from 2003-2007 and 2016-2020.
Erik Finanger played basketball for the Merrill Bluejays from 1974 to 1978. A three-year Varsity letter winner, he was named All Wisconsin Valley Conference both Junior and Senior year, a Channel 7 All Star Senior year, All State his Senior year, and also led the WVC in scoring Senior year. He averaged 17.0 points per game which gave him the second best average of any player in Merrill history, made him the number 10 leading scorer in WVC history, and made him the 9th all-time leading scorer in MHS history with 868 points. It was noted that Finanger was an excellent shooter, and if the 3-point shot had been in effect when he played, he would have had many more career points. Also named All-State in Football and Baseball, Finanger was offered a football scholarship to play for the University of Wisconsin Badgers, but declined that to attend Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where he lettered three years in basketball and two years in baseball.
The youngest of those named to this year’s Basketball HOF, Jordan Stine played on the Merrill Boys Varsity Basketball Team from 2001 to 2005. He lettered all four years and was WVC Honorable Mention, Second Team, and then two years First Team (by unanimous selection as a Senior). As a Senior he was also a Channel 7 All Star.
Stine is the all-time Merrill leading scorer in WVC history with 886 total points. He progressively increased his average points each season from a 9.9 average as a Freshman to a 20.2 average as a Senior, for an average of 15.0 points per game in his high school career. Stine also broke a 41-year-old school record as a Senior to become MHS’s all-time leading scorer, when he scored his 1,075th point (which broke 2021 HOF inductee Jim Langenkamp’s record of 1,074) and went on to finish his high-school basketball career with 1,124 points. Stine remains the third highest scorer in MHS history. He also still holds the school record for field goal percentage in a season at 66% (69-105) set during his freshman year of 2001-02, among other notable stats.
“This is our second group of Merrill Basketball Hall of Fame inductees,” said Troy Pieper, Merrill Varsity Boys Basketball Head Coach. “It’s a great group of Merrill legends.”
“It was a great night honoring them and showing them the appreciation we all have for what they gave to Merrill Basketball. It’s an honor to have such a rich history of basketball here at Merrill,” he said.
