PHS varsity softball coach Billi Vertz gives a high five to Class of 2024 graduate Cassandra Benberg. (Aaron Sperduto photo)
Billi Vertz is retiring as Pulaski High School girls softball coach after a successful 20-year run as head coach at PHS and 26 years in coaching.
“I have had the pleasure of watching Billi Vertz compete in softball as a player and a coach,” said PHS athletic/activities director Janel Batten. “No matter on the mound or in the third base coaching box, Billi Vertz is a true competitor with a passion for softball and grit and determination like no one I have ever met, Batten said, noting she has had the pleasure of working with Vertz during the last half of her coaching career. “During that time, she has won conference titles and led teams to state but none of these moments compare to the athletes' lives she has touched and changed along the way.”
Prior to her coaching career, Vertz was the starting pitcher for the Ashwaubenon Jaguars and led the team to three straight state titles from 1992 to 1994.
Vertz served as an assistant coach for one year at Kenosha Bradford. She served as head coach for a year at Racine St. Catherine High School and was a PHS varsity assistant for four years prior to her head-coaching tenure. Vertz also served two years on the Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association board of directors.
Cassandra Benberg, a 2024 PHS graduate, who will play collegiately at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa, credited Vertz for helping her growth as a player and person.
“Coach Vertz provided me with the first form of formal softball coaching I ever had. I began my softball career here in our Pulaski Softball Youth Organization, so needless to say she has been present in both my softball and personal life for almost 15 years now. Reflecting on my Pulaski softball career now as a graduated senior, I owe so much of it to Coach Vertz and her family. Not only was she always involved, but her whole family represented all it meant to be a part of Pulaski softball from the beginning, and I think everyone should know how all in they were for us girls for her entire duration as a coach and leader for this program.”
Through the Pulaski Softball Program, Benberg was able to find a best friend in her daughter, Morgan, and her family, she said, is like a second of her own. “Coach also pushed me to try out for my club team Velocity, which she began coaching, after my freshman high school softball season, which resulted in my ability to find Indian Hills and play at the next level. I would undoubtedly not be where I am in my softball career today without Coach Vertz in it.”
If Vertz ever asked Benberg to be a part of a new softball/coaching adventure that she truly believed in, she would not hesitate a bit. “She has the wonderful ability to grow and mature young women into great ball players, and, more importantly, great people.”
Under Vertz’s tutelage, PHS has had 100 student-athletes named as all-conference players, 43 first team, 27 second team and 30 named as honorable mention. Fifty have made all-district teams, five first team all-state, six second team all-state and seven were named as honorable mention. Sixteen players participated in senior all-star games. One student received a national sports scholarship, one was named Gatorade Player of the Year and one made the All-Wisconsin Team.
Naturally, those players helped bring about great team success. Vertz’s record as a head coach is 306-92, which includes three conference championships, nine regional championships, nine sectional appearances, five sectional final appearances, two sectional championships and two state tournament appearances where the Lady Raiders advanced to the semi-finals each time.
With all that success, Vertz knows many should share the credit.
“I am thankful to my partner, Chris Vertz, and my two children, Easton and Morgan, for supporting my coaching passion. Without my family's support, love and encouragement, I wouldn't have been able to coach, teach and have a healthy family life as well.”
She is also grateful to all the high school coaches especially Jenn Heck and Mallory Lichon, youth coaches, Pulaski Softball Organization, our current athletic director Janel Batten, and Greg Derricks and Rick Kubiak (Buildings and Grounds crew) and Clay Reisler for “sharing their talents, time and commitment to excellence in all that they did on a daily basis to make Pulaski softball great.”
Lastly, she is grateful to the student-athletes she has coached. “Feeling the love for the game and passion the Lady Raiders brought on a daily basis is contagious and breeds positivity and a can-do mindset regardless of game. My family and I are also proud to say we live in the unique community of Pulaski. Our community rallies around our youth and I'm looking forward to seeing the program's future success.”
As she leaves coaching, Vertz plans to spend time supporting and watching her son, Easton, play baseball at UW-Stout and her daughter, Morgan, pitching at the University of Northern Iowa.
“We will miss Coach Vertz at the helm of this fantastic program she has built, Batten said. “We hope this is not ‘goodbye’ rather, we will see her back here again soon.”