Congrats to the 2026 Rock River Hall of Fame inductees shown below. They were honored at this year's Rock River League Alumni Assocation Banquet on Saturday, October 17th at the Lions Hall in Clyman.
Back Row; Ron Bartels VP, Lee Kaul HOF, Daniel Kuehl Posthumous HOF (accepted by son Jordan Kuehl, Kyle Krueger Rock Diamond Award, Steve Lehman President
Front Row: Brandon Egnarski HOF, Ken Vlasak HOF, Tom Salmon HOF, Bob Schulz Secretary/Treasurer
2026 Hall of Fame Inductees
Brandon Egnarski - Neosho
Lee Kaul - Rubicon & Neosho
Tom Salmon - Rubicon
Ken Vlasak - Rubicon, Neosho, Slinger
Posthumous Hall of Fame Inductee
Daniel Kuehl - Hustisford
Rock Diamond Award Winner
Kyle Krueger - Clyman
Hall of Fame Bios
Brandon Egnarski - 37 is a Computer/Business teacher at Waukesha West High School and lives in Elm Grove, WI. Brandon was a catcher for the Neosho Rockets from 2005-2021. Brandon’s top achievements include winning the RRL Grand Championship in 2016 with Neosho. He helped Neosho win the Southern Division Championship in 2011, 2012, 2014,2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020. Brandon was RRL MVP in 2021. He was team MVP in 2019 and 2021. He was named to the Southern Division All League Team in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 201 and 2021. He was also names RRL All Star Game MVP in 2017. For his humorous incident, Brandon chose this true story. “I’ve been guarding the family jewels with the exact same athletic cup since little league. At this stage in its lifecycle, calling it an athletic supporter is completely inaccurate. It really just functions as an emotional support cup. When I joined the Rockets in 2005, Troy Unertl discovered the ancient lineage of my groin guard. Troy made a fateful vow that if the Rockets ever win the Grand Championship, I will chug a beer out of that cup. Fast forward 11 long sweaty seasons to 2016. A pop fly cuts through the air, Matty O’ Rourke squeezes his glove and we are RRL Grand Champions. Amidst the ensuing celebration, Troy proceeded to be a man of integrity. In a glorious triumph of honor over hygiene, he took my battle tested crotch chalice and chugged down a cold one. Victory had never tasted so sweet!”. Brandon’s top opponents were Casey Simon – Hustisford, Matt Sabel – Lebanon and David McFarland – Clyman.
Lee Kaul - 45 is the owner of Kaul Exteriors LLC and lives in Allenton. Lee was a catcher for the Neosho Rockets from 1995-2000 and the Rubicon Red Sox from 2001-2016. Lee’s top achievements were winning 5 Championships in his first five years with Rubicon. Lee was also an All-League Catcher at least six times. Lee chose the following incident as his humorous story. “There have been countless memorable and humorous moments throughout my years playing with Rubicon. One that stands out was when Chris Rowolt and I were feeling the effects of the previous night’s festivities and somehow still managed to make it through the day. To play a joke on our coach, Matt Marvin, Chris and I both called him and told him we were sick puking and too miserable to make it to the game that day. If you know Matt, you can imagine how unimpressed he was. His mood didn’t improve much when we finally rolled in at 1:00 for a 1:30 game. With barely enough time to warm up, we somehow managed to pull it together and beat Kewaskum, a team that was equally as talented as we were. And for the record, we weren’t completely hung over. At least not any more than what was considered norman for us back then. After the win, feeling quite proud of ourselves and our questionable pregame preparation, we headed straight back to the bar to celebrate”. Lee’s top opponents were Chris Morgan – Oakfield and Jim Ziegler – Kewaskum.
Tom Salmon - 68, is retired and lives in Sheboygan Falls, WI. Tom played for Rubicon in 1972, Neosho from 1973-1979 and Slinger from 1980-1988. Tom pitched and played 1st base, 2nd base, third base and right field during his career. Tom’s outstanding achievement was being part of the Grand Championship teams in 1983-84 with Slinger under the guidance of Hall of Fame manager Dave “Butch” Zimmerman. We had numerous current Hall of Famers on our team. Tom shared the Northern Division MVP Award with Mike Urban of Oakfield in 1981. Tom also participated in 3 or 4 RRL All Star Games. Tom’s humorous incident wasn’t really funny at the time. In my first game in the league in 1972, I was a 15-year-old kid playing second base for Carl Heimerl’s Rubicon Red Sox. I was very nervous, being my first game. What they say about “the ball will find you” was certainly true that day. One of the first batters in the game hit a major league pop up right towards me. Everyone knew it was my ball to catch. Since I had been playing youth ball, and had some experience, this should have been no problem, right? The ball landed about two feet behind me. I never touched it at all. I wanted to disappear, and what made it worse was my older brother Butch was pitching. Tom’s top opponents were Ross Roeseler of Hustisford and George Swanson of Clyman.
Ken Vlasak - 60, is a Senior Field Claim Representative for Acuity Insurance and lives in Slinger. Ken pitched for the Slinger Rams and stingers from 1984-2000. Ken feels that his longevity was his main asset. “Having to follow a legend in Jay Lenstrom and doing a yeomans job. I played the game hard and was intense but was able to share a beer with the other team after the game” This wasn’t really a humorous incident, but it was memorable. In a game against our nemesis Oakfield, one of there fans was giving it to us all game. There was a pop fly near the fan. Words were said and a brawl started with several players. Ken’s All Opponent team included Doug Gonring pf Kewaskum, Craig Semler of Rubicon and Terry Koth of Kewaskum.
Dan Kuehl - from Hustisford, was a great fan and supporter of local amateur baseball, especially the Hustisford Astros. You always knew when Dan was in your ballpark. He loved cheering for the Rock River League teams in this area, and enjoyed the festivities after the game almost equally as much. Dan was the son of RRL Hall of Fame pitcher Dave Kuehl.
Kyle Krueger - 42, has been a member of the Clyman Canners of the Rock River League since
2001 . Kyle's playing career spanned 15 years playing full time, with the final 9 years as
player/manager. He was a utility player for the Canners, with appearances at 1st, 2nd and 3rd base,
outfield, catcher, and pitcher. During his first three seasons as manager, the Canners won three
consecutive Rock River League Grand Championships in 2007, 2008, and 2009.
When Kyle's playing/managing career ended he took on a role behind the scenes helping the team
operate. This included running the Clyman Canners Pig Roast that he helped to start in 2012. This
year marked the 13th Annuat Pig Roast and sees annual attendance above 1000 peopte coming to
support the Canners and the park improvements. In 2017 the Clyman Canners adopted the Village
of Clyman Littte League to provide a more stable foundation for their program. Under Kyle's
leadership, the program has grown from 23 kids and 3 teams, to now 150 kids and 13 teams in just
eight years.
Currently, Kyle's involvement with the Clyman program is that of director and oversees the Little
League and the Canners. The Clyman program has hetped to generate nearty $350,000 worth of
improvements at Viillage Park in Clyman the last eight years and has taken on a dual purpose of
both providing high quatity baseball, but atso that of a service organization and giving back to the
community.
He graduated from Watertown High Schoot in 2001 and was lucky enough to play for WBCA Hall of
Fame coach Rusty Tiedemann. ln addition to Rusty, he had John Stueber, Tim Mommaerts, and Tim
Ladron all as coaches during his time as a Gosling. Atl. of these men were integral in the history of
the Clyman Canners program and helped to guide Kyle as a coach, teacher, and player. They are
also Rock River League Hall of Famers. Following high school, he attended the University of
Whitewater and studied Physicat Education and coaching. He began his coaching career at
Watertown High Schoot assisting Mommaerts and later Tiedemann. Following that, he was an
assistant for another Rock River League Hall of Famer in Lynn Hetd at Whitewater High School. Kyle
was the Juda Head Coach for three seasons before spending five seasons as a varsity assistant
coach for the Watertown Softball program.
Kyle taught 14 years totat with stops at Juda followed by Watertown. He is currentty a Production
Supervisorfor Glory Global Sotutions located in Watertown. Kyle currently resides in Watertown
and is married to his wife Nikki. Together they have two children Elllie(l0), and Grayson(8). They are
both members of the Clyman Little League program where Kyle is helping to coach both of their
teams.
lt is an extreme honor to be nominated for this award and to see some of the names that have
come before me is quite humbling. As a kid, our famity spent every Sunday fottowing the Watertown
Cardinals and traveling to different RRL parks to support. Those guys seemed bigger than life at
that point and being involved in the league coming out of high school was a big deal for me. To be
asked to play with Clyman, who was full of many of my childhood idols and many of my coaches, it
was a no brainer. The impact that the team and program has had on me both personally and
professionally has helped to guide my course of life and I am very grateful for the opportunity they
presented over 20 years ago.
