Brevin Pritzl: Emerging Badgers’ star has local roots

March 1, 2018

By Ed Byrne The Brillion News

There have been a few basketball players who have emerged from northeast Wisconsin to become big time collegiate stars with the University of Wisconsin Badgers.

There was Sheboygan’s Sam Dekker, and there were Appleton’s Dave Mader and Brian Butch.

Now, there’s another player for local Badger fans to connect with, and it is redshirt sophomore Brevin Pritzl, who played high school ball at De Pere.

Photo credit: Wisconsin Athletics

But if the Pritzl name sounds familiar in our area, it should. Brevin’s dad, Brian Pritzl, grew up in Cato, was a star guard at Valders High School, and played three years at St. Norbert College under Romie Kosnar and Mike Heideman.

These days, Brian is a market research executive with A.C. Nielsen who puts an inordinate amount of miles on his car, following Brevin and the Badgers.

Brian picks up his parents, Ed and Ann Pritzl, in Forest Junction and they head to Madison to see Brevin and the Badgers.

Brevin sat out the 2015-16 season – when he was a true freshman – after fracturing his left foot.

The all-time leading scorer in De Pere High history, he is emerging as an offensive threat for the Badgers in what is undeniably a rebuilding year.

On Monday of last week, Pritzl scored 20 points, including two overtime threes, to lead Wisconsin past Minnesota 73-63. Then on Thursday, in Illinois, Pritzl scored 11 points in the Badgers’ 70-64 win over Northwestern.

He hit the key shot of the game – a three-pointer that gave Wisconsin a 68-64 lead with 29 seconds left.

People are learning how to spell both “Brevin” and “Pritzl” – something everyone in Valders already knows how to do.

Please see the complete story in the March 1, 2018 edition of The Brillion News.