Radtke, River Valley alumni, wrestles at UW-Platteville

When junior wrestler Caleb Radtke, a River Valley High School graduate and son of James and Jaime Radtke of Spring Green, was in the process of choosing a school to wrestle at, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point was high on the list due to his uncle wrestling for the Pointers. The University of Wisconsin-Platteville was on the list, but Radtke wanted to get away from home and the Spring Green native felt it was to close. “I was looking at UW-Stevens Point quite a bit,” Radtke said.  “My uncle wrestled there and had talked to me about that a little bit, but ultimately I decided to major in engineering.  At first, I didn’t want to go to UW-Platteville because it was so close to home and I wanted to get a bit further away.” Even with the proximity of UW-Platteville to Radtke’s hometown, the reputation of the Pioneer engineering department was too good to pass up and the 2018 RVHS alumnus committed to head wrestling coach Michael DeRoehn and the Pioneers. “I knew I wanted to be an engineer,” Radtke said. “I am glad I made this decision.  It is a great place and choice for me to commit here.” Radtke, who is in his third year of school and majoring in environmental engineering, spent the past summer completing his second summer internship for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT). When people hear WisDOT, they may cringe a little and think of the long wait they may have to renew a driver’s license or pay a fee for new license plates at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).  But WisDOT is much more than running the DMV and roads around Wisconsin. Radtke inspected the culverts around the southwest part of the state for damage and plugs that may cause back up to water flow. He also inspected flowing waters, streams, rivers and creeks to document any change in their route from erosion.  The waterfronts are checked every two years and documented.   “I really enjoyed the stream bed profile mapping,” he said. “I always thought it was really cool to go out and take all that data and then come back at the end of the day and enter the data into the excel spreadsheets that they had.” WisDOT and UW-Platteville have a strong tie. A good number of employees are alumni, including Southwest Region Operations Chief John Steiner. Steiner graduated from UW-Platteville in 1990 with a civil engineering and transportation degree. Having graduated from UW-Platteville, Steiner knew the type of education Radtke was receiving, but it was Radtke’s attitude that stood out the past two years.  “He is a good worker; you can just tell he is very interested in the work,” he said. “I haven’t worked with him much this year, but the prior year and few times this year he always seemed to have a good attitude and ready to go for the day. He made it easy to work with him.” Radtke’s approach to the internship and life in particular can be traced to the lessons he learned in the wrestling room at UW-Platteville. “Coach (DeRoehn) is always talking about a great attitude and a hard work ethic,” he said. “It is a great opportunity to be on the job site and continue working. You come in and see some interns are dragging and they act like they don’t want to be there, and that isn’t fun to be around.” Another trait that Steiner saw in Radke was the ability to take instruction on what needed to be done and then get the job done the correct way.  “He would come in and we would explain or give the him instruction on what needed to be done,” he said.  “If Caleb didn’t know something he would ask. He wanted to do it right; he knew what we needed to have done and he would just go out and really perform on that stuff.”  One of Radtke’s classes this semester is building off the stream flow documentation he performed over the summer. “Environmental engineering is a class I am in right now,” Radtke said.  “I have learned a lot more about stream flow and what some of the pollutants are in stream flows and how to reduce some of those pollutants. It has been really interesting to learn as I didn’t realize some of those things from working at the DOT.” Being an environmental engineer; Radtke approached Steiner and his supervisors about the opportunity to work more on the environmental side.  “He was very respectful when he asked,” Steiner said.  “He said ‘if I can’t do it, that is fine,’ but he was very easy to work with and we did give him some work in the environmental side and he was always very appreciative for what we did.  We were really glad to have him come back the second year because we knew what kind of worker he was.” Steiner said that in the two summers Radtke and the other interns inspected close to 7,000 coverts and pipes. “That is a lot of driving and stopping, getting up and down the bank to get to the pipes,” he said. “They did a great job for us.” As one of the few returning interns for a second summer, Steiner and the WisDOT put more responsibility on Radtke’s shoulders. “When they would go out to inspect the flowing water; they would have to take a boat,” he said. “It was just a rowboat but they had to haul it on a trailer and drop it in the water. Caleb kind of lead the other students who had not done that before and was kind of in charge. We gave him a lot of leeway because he was responsible enough to take a state vehicle and a state boat and get the job done and return every day with stuff unscratched, and followed safety guidelines. He was a responsible young man that we put a lot of trust in.” As Radtke focuses on finishing his degree, he knows how he would like to use it.  “I would really like to end up doing something with wastewater treatment, either for a private company or directly with a township or city,” he said. Steiner and the DOT have a vision for Caleb as well. “I hope we get the opportunity to hire him when the time comes. He is just one of those kids we know would be a good worker for us and really for anybody that does get him.”