“He rebounds well,” said Waleskowski, a 2004 UD graduate who ranks 19th in career scoring with 1,515 points. “He goes after it hard. He’s also just 7. I try to teach him the game. It’s not about winning.”
Waleskowski’s whole family will be proud of him this weekend as he’s inducted into the Dayton Athletic Hall of Fame. He and other inductees will be introduced during halftime of the 7 p.m. game against Richmond on Saturday. The honor comes 10 years after Waleskowski’s senior season when he helped lead the Flyers to their second straight NCAA tournament appearance.
“The NCAA tournament appearances, the opportunities we had to win championships, whether in the league or the tournament we won in Maui, the fact that every night I got to play in front of 13,500 people, it was a crazy experience,” he said. “I’m kind of speechless about the whole thing. I go back and see how it is. Now I see the other side of it. I’m rooting as a fan.”
Waleskowski now lives in Cincinnati and works as a service manager for Cintas, so he comes back to UD often. He has appeared several times this season on Flyer Feedback, the postgame show on WHIO 1290.
Joining him in the class are:
• Christi Hester Mack: The 2000 graduate ranks 11th in career scoring with 1,268 points. She led the Flyers scoring as a freshman (14.4) sophomore (13.7) and senior (15.1), but played only 14 games as a junior because of a knee injury. She's married to Xavier head coach Chris Mack.
• Pepper Wilson: The late Wilson was UD's first sports information director and is already a member of the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame.
• Butch Zimmerman: A 1958 graduate, this quarterback led UD to its only winning season (1957) between 1953 and 1965. He was also a placekicker and punter and pitched and played center field for the baseball team.
Baseball: The Flyers fell to 3-6 with three losses at the Austin Peay Classic last weekend: 8-5 to Austin Peay State, 16-1 to Xavier and 11-5 to Bradley. Dayton plays at Wright State at 4 p.m. Friday.
Softball: Dayton (4-10) went 1-3 at the Elon Phoenix Tournament with their one win coming Sunday, 15-7 over Coppin State. The Flyers play six games at the Colorado State Classic in Fort Collins, Colo., from Friday to Sunday.
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