Wenig enjoying her senior season at UW-Oshkosh

OSHKOSH - The last three seasons the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh women's basketball team won 11 conference games and beyond that hadn’t experienced a winning season overall since 2005-06.

The Titans made a switch at coach after last season, bringing in Brad Fischer, a former assistant at UW-Parkside. Fischer has turned around the program, leading the Titans to a 17-4 overall record entering Wednesday’s game against UW-Stevens Point, and in the process made Megan Wenig’s final season a memorable one.

After three difficult seasons Wenig, who starred at Oshkosh West, is having a blast in her final season, thanks in part to her new coach.

"We were excited for a fresh start; anything would help at that point,” Wenig said. “Since he came in we're more prepared than we've ever been for all of our games; practices are run efficiently."

Fischer is a big reason for the Titans' success this season, but he said one of the draws to come to UW-Oshkosh was the point guard he had in Wenig.

"That was one of the attractions for this job; at least for one year we would have a good point guard to help lay the foundation for what we try to build here in the future," he said.

Wenig has played basketball most of her life and always enjoyed the time on court, but during her college career she considered quitting. Her experience during her early years of college with losing more than winning and other issues made her think about not completing her career.

"That was a really hard three years,” she said. “Even coming to practice every day and sometimes with the losing and some other things that were going on, it was just hard to fight through it all."

Wenig pressed on and then Fischer arrived and now the Titans are chasing their first Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title since 2006. This is what Wenig is used to, winning.

During her high school career, Wenig not only scored 1,148 career points, she helped lead Oshkosh West to the Division 1 state title game in 2008, where it lost to Milwaukee Vincent, and the next season West reached the sectional finals.

She has kept pace individually at UW-Oshkosh, becoming only the fifth player in program history to record 1,000 career points and 250 assists.

“I think 1,000 points is a consistency thing to me,” Fischer said. “You have to be good from the start; you can’t start your junior year and average 18 points per game. Obviously, she’s done a good job from the start of her career.”

Maybe Wenig’s college career wasn’t everything she dreamed of early on as far as team goals, but her eight years playing high school and college basketball in Oshkosh has been terrific.

The modest Wenig would never boast about her accomplishments, but she doesn’t have to. If you’ve paid attention, you know Wenig has left a mark few have in her home city.

"She's going to leave a pretty good mark on Oshkosh and I'm proud of her for that,” Fischer said. “To be able to stay in your home town; again when everyone knows that you're good and expects you to be good all the time and be able to handle that pressure, I think she's done a great job."

Follow Doug Ritchay on Twitter @dougritchay

doug.ritchay@wluk.com