The West Bend Current

Duos everywhere beware, these two math teachers are bringing their game.

Todd Hagenow and Christopher Susnik, math teachers at West Bend East High School, are best friends who like to walk together in the morning, then play mini basketball in the afternoon. Each day before school, Hagenow and Susnik take a stroll around and outside the school, then after school, the pair is part of a group of math teachers who play PIG basketball in the East math office with an inflatable basketball and a mini Bucks hoop from home.

This after-school event began when Susnik decided to bring a hoop into the office one day.

“It just turned into a thing that everyone wanted to play,” Susnik said. “It became our after school East math department meeting every day, a.k.a. code for we play PIG. We discovered we could do trick shots and started to name them. Now we keep stats and have a scoreboard and a trophy for it.”

Hagenow says this is the group’s third year of after school PIG.

“It’s definitely a fixture in the East math department,” Hagenow said.

The pair did admit, however, that they have gone through quite a few mini hoops since that first fateful day when this competition began. While no serious injuries have been reported, Susnik does claim that it can get pretty intense.

“We all have a pretty big competitive streak in us,” Susnik said. “At one point we were athletes, so we get to relive our glory days by doing this. Ms. Petersen (the assistant principal) has nicknamed the East math office the dorm room because of it.”

This competitive atmosphere is good for this math office in more ways than one.

“Essentially, it’s something that helps us deescalate after a long day,” Susnik said. “There is usually a lot of creativity and laughs. It has created a very good team atmosphere in the office.”

This year the department has played 106 games. At the top of the leaderboard is Todd Hagenow, with 42 victories. In a distant second place is Zach Lindberg, with 24 wins. Four other teachers have also tallied wins this “season.”

After school basketball isn’t the only hobby Hagenow and Susnik share.

“We walk outside every single day no matter how cold it is,” Hagenow said. “If it’s cold we take a shortcut. We have our paths.”

This friendship started nearly a decade ago and the duo is still going strong.

“We’ve been friends for about nine and a half years now,” Hagenow said. “We mostly bonded over common interests, like sports and that we both love ‘Dumb and Dumber.’”

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Top image: East math teachers Todd Hagenow (left) and Chris Susnik play PIG in the department office. Photos by Rylee Faehling, Current Staff.