When you're 70 miles from Six Flags and about 100 miles from the Wisconsin Dells, what else can you do but build your own roller coaster.
JT Nejedlo and Aidan Deaven were normal bored teenagers one summer when they came up with the idea.
"We decided to build a roller coaster because it would be fun," said JT Nejedlo.
As you can imagine, it was easier said than done. But with a dad who used to be a physics professor, they were given the green light to try, and try, and try.
"One day we decided, oh maybe we should have it go off the tree house," said Aidan Deaven.
Deaven's dad came home to find the boys cutting a hole in the old tree house and putting together a track.
"We had a work schedule. We would get up at 7 a.m. in the summers and come and work on it," said Deaven.
Deaven was a freshman and Nejedlo was a sophomore when they started. It took years to get it working, and a lot of ribbing from their classmates.
"Got bothered at high school a lot like, 'Hey, when can I ride your roller coaster? When is it working?'" said Nejedlo.
Even their teachers didn't believe them.
"A lot of them were skeptical," said Nejedlo.
So what do you do once you build your backyard roller coaster? You ride it all summer, in the winter - you even learn to sink a basketball while riding it.
Then, you put it on your college applications.
Both of the teens used the roller coaster in their applications to University of Wisconsin. Nejedlo is now a freshman there studying business. Deaven will be there next year to study engineering. The school board is honoring them Tuesday for their backyard roller coaster.
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