Milwaukee Juneau is heading to the state tournament in Madison for the first time in program history.The No. 2 seed Pioneers (26-1) will face No. 3 Regis (22-5) in the Division 4 state semifinal game at the Kohl Center at roughl y 8:30 p.m. on Thursday.Head coach Torre Johnson Jr. is guiding his alma mater to its biggest stage yet. He spent the last seven seasons as Juneau's assistant coach before taking over the team last summer."It means a whole lot, especially being my alma mater, Class of '03," Torre Johnson Jr. said.Watch: Milwaukee Juneau basketball heads to first state tournament led by historic father-son duo Milwaukee Juneau heads to state for first timeHis graduating class set the previous bar for Milwaukee Juneau with a trip to the sectional finals, a peak that stood for 23 years."Always trying to visualize how it felt to be here, wishing that we could get here as players. So for me personally, it's going to be a real special moment and also cool to be able to coach your alma mater and to get to this moment," Torre Johnson Jr. said.The program has been on the rise over the last four years, going from an 11-11 finish in the 2022-23 season to just one loss this year (26-1)."I just wanted to make sure I put these guys in position to be able to show that we are a good team and be able to represent the city well," Torre Johnson Jr. said.The turnaround is fueled by Coach Johnson and his son, junior guard Dooney Johnson. Dooney Johnson is a Gonzaga commit and one of the top 30 recruits in the country for the Class of 2027, ranked at No. 28 by ESPN.The 6-foot-6 guard averages 27.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, shooting 43% on 3-pointers. He is now the school's all-time leading scorer."For me, that was always a goal with me and my son trying to put us in position to represent the city at the maximum at a high level," Torre Johnson Jr. said."It's actually really nice to have a father-son duo to go to state. He never did, so to make it past that point, for him to get that feeling to cut the net and stuff to go to Madison, it really feels great," Dooney Johnson added.When Dooney Johnson was asked if his father talks a lot about the days that he played for Milwaukee Juneau, he laughed."All the time, always a life story every day, always something, but it always helps us keep a better mindset and help a new forward through each game," Dooney Johnson said.The team also relies on 6-foot senior point guard Takis Tyler, who averages 17.7 points and 5.7 assists per game, and 6-foot-5 senior wing Jaden Hardiman, who averages 17.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game."We've been playing together since like second, third grade, and this is stuff that we've talked about as kids like a thousand points, state championships, city championships. So it's really just a dream. It was all a plan from the start," Tyler said.The team's motto this year is all about living in the moment."This moment is once in a lifetime, and you only get one shot, and especially with you being a senior. Its win or go home," Torre Johnson Jr. said."Everything we work on in practice, everything we do like after hours before hours. Just everything we've been working for is just to hold up that gold ball," Tyler said.This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.Its about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for TMJ4 on your device.Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.Report a typo or error ...read more read less