The dark scuffed up battle-tested 45-gallon Rubbermaid trash can in the River Falls' Wildcat home dugout was jam-packed during the first outdoor team meeting of the baseball season.

Head Coach Ryan Bishop purposely left it full before his team's arrival. 

"It served two purposes," said the veteran Wildcat head baseball coach entering his 26th year. 

Like a parent waiting to see if dirty dishes will be picked up by their teenager, the first purpose was to see if any of the players would notice it was full and take care of what needed to be done, without being asked. The second reason was to use it as a talking point about accountability.

"When we're aware and see things," said Bishop, "we have to act on them."

You see, one man's trash can be another's treasure.

While some coaches may see their senior varsity players barking out clean-up duties to the freshmen and sophomores as leadership, Coach Bishop recalled then-senior Michael Krueger during the 2021 season.

"It was one of the most game-changing things he did leadership-wise his senior year for that team," said Bishop.

Krueger, the best player on the team and most respected, could have easily commanded the JV guys to pick up the trash in the bus upon arrival from their early season contest. Krueger, who would go on to a stellar football career for the UWRF Falcons on the football field, started picking up all the trash himself.

"And then some of the other seniors started to and then the juniors followed," said Bishop. "Within seconds, Michael Kreuger had everyone on the bus picking up all the trash and he didn't say one word or give one order. That’s leadership."

Picking up trash and doing your part at First National Bank of River Falls Field embodies the real-life "I Got You" mentality Coach Bishop tries to instill in his team every year.

This year's Michael Krueger may just be senior pitcher Auden Pankonin. The one glaring difference, however, is that Pankonin has a 95-mph fastball and is the most recruited baseball player in school history. 

"Throwing the ball hard is a dime a dozen right now," said Bishop. "But Auden has those other two things that make him a three-headed monster on the mound."

The other two intangibles Bishop is referring to are Pankonin's head and heart.

"That's the thing I'm excited about because Auden is open to grow in that department," said Bishop. "He's a true student of the game on and off the field. It's fun to watch how he goes about his routine."

"The only thing that stays consistent in baseball is your routine,” said Pankonin “This year, I'm looking at hitters' swing paths. If it's an upward swing path, I'm throwing low and away and just knowing how one pitch plays off another pitch. It's just about watching how hitters react."

Last June, the Wildcats were squaring off against Hudson in the Section 1 tournament and a chance to punch their ticket to the state title round. Pankonin was on the mound and was staked to a 6-0 lead in the second inning. The Raiders scratched across two runs in the bottom of the second. In the fifth, a tough play off a slicing lazy duck fly ball behind first base hit the heel of the diving fielder's glove for a hit. A rough call by the home plate umpire that could've been strike three, instead, turned into a walk on the next batter. Pankonin didn't say a word, but the tightness of his body language and the glare in his eyes were a dead give-away he was going to try and break the radar gun and throw it as hard as he could, a natural reaction for any 17-year-old competitor in a big game.     

He walked the next batter and Hudson plated three runs in the fifth enroute to a 7-6 victory and an eventual state tourney berth for the Raiders.  

"All those moments add up and I've learned to wash a bad play or bad pitch out of my brain and just focus on the next pitch," said the University of Nebraska-signee.

Pankonin pitches in the present tense now, but he’s always had an electric arm. During his sophomore year, he received a pars fracture, which is a stress fracture in a narrow bone connecting two vertebrae. It's a common injury, but Pankonin was out of action for his 10th grade season.

"All the recruiting died down and all the colleges talking to me stopped," said Pankonin.

After his junior high school season, now standing 6'3" and weighing 205 pounds, Pankonin was at a high school showcase event in Cartersville, Ga. Pankonin, healthy and throwing harder than ever, wowed those in attendance and signed with the University of Nebraska in the fall.

"Everything was awesome on the visit," said Pankonin. "There was really nothing to not like about Nebraska for me."

At Chicago’s Prep Baseball Report showcase in late February, Pankonin was routinely reaching 95 mph on the radar gun in front of 20 major league scouts. He signed with an agent to help navigate NIL (name, image, and likeness) opportunities and speaking with major league teams before the June MLB draft.

"That really sparked my attention and made me realize that this could be something in the near future," said Pankonin. "But I'm staying in the present. I'm focused on this season with my friends. We're ecstatic about the season starting."

There will be major league scouts and radar guns galore focused on Pankonin’s Wildcat starts this spring.  

"Auden is a real sight to see," said fellow senior teammate Quentin Anderson. "It's almost like the ball teleports from his hand to the plate. It's like a missile. I'm so glad I don't have to hit against him. I'm glad he's on our team, that's for sure."

"Every pitch he throws just moves around so much more than anything I've ever seen in person," said senior Ricco Albores.

"Those two (Anderson and Albores) don't have all the accolades and stats," said Bishop. "But they make our program better and they do it without knowing. We, as coaches, learn from guys like that."

Anderson played JV2 his freshman and sophomore seasons and made the JV team his junior season. Anderson said his dad, Denton, would take him to watch Wildcat varsity games as a young kid and Anderson said his dad asked him, pointing to Coach Bishop, "Is that who’s going to be your head coach one day?"

Young Quentin quickly and confidently replied, "Yes!"  

"It's all about failure, you have to reach failure before success,” said Anderson. “I've learned that very early on and through my years playing baseball. Success for me is making the team. It's an honor to play with these guys. I'm finally here and able to play under the varsity RF logo. I knew I was going to make it happen."

"There's nobody better to rep the RF logo than those two guys (Albores and Anderson)," said Bishop.

"Coach Bishop never lets things like cleaning up trash and keeping our ballpark clean go unnoticed," said Albores. "He’s very big on how can we help out and how can we be better in our community. It does all transfer back to the baseball field and I see what he's doing. We know we can't take a play off and we're all holding each other accountable. We're trying to win games together."

While Albores was finishing his interview, Pankonin and senior Brooks Rivard were tightening screws on two new pitching L-screens right out of the box. Two other players grabbed the ripped-up boxes on cue as they hit the cement. Two other players picked up aluminum cans from the raucous UWRF crowd. Their destination was the trash and recycle dumpsters behind left field.  

Because one man's trash is another man's treasure.