John Wilhelmson can forge on as a physical education teacher at Tremper High School knowing he is the greatest at two things.

Wilhelmson stepped down as Tremper varsity basketball coach Tuesday after 11 seasons.

Undoubtedly, Wilhelmson leaves the post as the greatest basketball coach in the 45-year history of the school. If his 166 victories, .651 winning percentage and eight sectional appearances don’t make him Tremper’s best, this does: He is the only coach to take Tremper High School to the State Tournament.

Case closed.

Wilhelmson took the 2001 Trojans to Madison. It was the first appearance by a city school at State since 1951.

“Willy,” as he is affectionately called by the Sports Department, also hangs up his whistle as the greatest at another thing: Reporting scores.

This guy was an absolute wiz at phoning in his result to the Kenosha News. It didn’t matter if Tremper won or lost or was at home or on the road, our phone would jingle about five minutes after his game with Wilhelmson ready to go.

What followed was two concise minutes of box score reading. If every coach handled their result the way Wilhelmson handled his, our world would be a better place.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: On most nights, we don’t care who wins or who loses. We just want the phone calls. I appreciated the fact that Wilhelmson understood that.

Oftentimes, these calls got interesting.

In December 2000, I thought I was answering the phone for a typical early season basketball result.

What I got instead was a coach who told us like it was, which is a rarity. Some coaches are leery of what they say to us for fear of upsetting parents, players, administrators or referees.

Not on this night.

Wilhelmson was steaming after Tremper lost a game at Muskego.

“We were homered,’’ Wilhelmson fumed. “I’ve never said that before and I hope to never say it again, but the officials cost us the ballgame.

“We’re trying to win a conference championship and things like this don’t help matters much. It was an ugly situation and we have it on film to prove it.’’

Wilhelmson never made excuses, so for him to bring this up, unprompted, gave it instant credibility in my mind. Usually, coaches then say, “I don’t want any of this paper.”

Wilhelmson didn’t say that so I asked: “Is this on the record?”

“Yes,” he said.

Wow!

Thanks, John, for that and for your cooperation over the years. As a parent who just sent his first child off to college, I certainly can relate to your desire to spend more time with your family.

However, if you see something interesting during the season, don’t be afraid to call!

David Marran can be contacted at dmarran@kenoshanews.com