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Feature Article from The Whitewater Press - Summer/ Fall 2010 www.thewhitewaterpress.com 
by Tom Fick: Sports Information Director (SID) @ UW-W
Today, UW-Whitewater athletics has established a place among the elite programs in Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Those words are easy to type or read, but they took a lot of work to earn. Here’s why the Warhawks are considered a premier intercollegiate athletic program.
UW-Whitewater won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference All-Sports Trophy. The Warhawks won the men’s competition, placed second in the women’s, and were the overall champions. UW-W will also finish among the top fifteen Division III schools in the country when the national all-sports standings are announced later this month. And by the way, UW-W athletes were also successful where it really counts, recording a 3.02 (4.0) cumulative grade point average in the classroom.
The success of this past year is the result of increased expectations of the athletic department as a whole,” UW-W assistant director of athletics Bob Lanza said. “It increased five or six years ago when football elevated us to a national level of recognition and competition, and that has spread throughout the department in terms of their expectations each year. The focus now, throughout the department, is to compete on the national level. We might not always reach the finals, but the fact that those are the expectations and possibilities has really changed in the department. “
The school year started off with football earning its second national championship in three years. The team won its fifth consecutive Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and advanced to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, the Division III championship for the fifth year in a row. Men’s soccer won the inaugural WIAC championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA III championship tournament behind the all-region play of Whitewater native Luke Buchholz. The cross country teams sponsored a conference-wide used shoe drive for One World Running, an international aid organization, and hosted the WIAC championship on a new course on campus. Women’s soccer earned a coveted Ethics Award from the national soccer coaches association. Volleyball kept rolling along, going 19-1 at home and 31-7 overall in earning the squad’s eighteenth consecutive NCAA III tournament appearance after winning the WIAC Tournament.
That was merely a warm-up for the cold of winter, where women’s basketball won the WIAC championship and, for the third straight year, advanced to the NCAA III tourney. UW-W went 21-8 behind WIAC Coach of the Year Keri Carollo. Ditto for the Warhawk men, who won the WIAC, also advanced to the second round of the national tourney, and also earned Pat Miller league coach of the year honors. Austin Bautista earned all-America honors at the national wrestling championship for the third straight year as the team finished second in the WIAC and twenty-third nationally. Women’s gymnastics won their WIAC crown and finished third nationally. Justine Weyer won the NCGA vault title, her school record eighth national finish. Head coach Jennifer Regan was named WIAC Co-Coach of the Year while mentoring three gymnastics association Scholar Athlete awards. Women’s bowling qualified for their national championship and placed six team members on the national coaches’ association all-academic team.
“Academically we’ve been able to go above and beyond the general student body population with our grade point average so we’re excelling on both our athletic arena and in the classroom, and I’m glad that’s a rich tradition and history that we continue to build upon,” said assistant director of athletics and senior woman administrator Amy Edmonds.
“We continue to be successful in the classroom, and the records show through the years that our athletes achieve higher numbers than the rest of the student body in terms of graduation rates, grade point averages, and retention, which is an emphasis on our campus,” Lanza added. “Being involved in athletics gives students a group to identify with and a sense of belonging immediately when they come on campus because they’re part of practice or conditioning groups so they have peers to interact with. It’s all part of the big picture in terms of success.”
And it just kept on rolling in the spring. Women’s tennis, 23-6, won its third consecutive WIAC championship, earned another trip to the NCAA III tourney. Team received national Top Scholar Award with 3.61 GPA behind WIAC Scholar Athlete Ingrid Stensvaag. Sara Poppe and Shelby Demos earned all-America honors for women’s track and field, and the men finished ninth at their national indoor championship with Buchholz, again, earning all-America recognition with his fourth place in the high jump. Men’s tennis went 22-10 and also earned a national tournament berth. Amanda LeBeau earned WIAC Scholar Athlete and national Academic All-America awards in softball, which went 31-15. The last home event was the Warhawk baseball team, the WIAC champion for the seventh time in eight years, advancing to the sweet sixteen of the NCAA III tournament behind WIAC Coach of the Year John Vodenlich.
The spring gave UW-W a chance to show off its facilities, considered among the best in Division III. The university hosted the WIAC Baseball Tournament, a NCAA men’s tennis regional, a NCAA women’s softball regional, and a NCAA baseball regional on two weekends in May.
“I always like to reflect when I went to school here,” Edmonds noted. “We didn’t have the beautiful Kachel Fieldhouse we have now, the weight room as it currently exists -- when I was here it was crammed into half of gym four, which is now the volleyball arena. To see where we were and where we are now is just amazing. It’s a testament to what the institution wants to continue to build upon. It’s great to have that support institutionally, including with student groups, is just phenomenal. Not too many schools can say that. With the baseball and their turf and lights, the scoreboards we have in all our facilities, the changes at track and soccer, the renovation that is continuing at softball -- it’s just truly exciting. When we hosted those events in May it is amazing to hear what the schools say when they come here. “
We hope to be able to give you insight into each of these areas; winning teams, superior facilities, interaction with the community, and success in the classroom in future columns. In the meantime, if you want to keep up with UW-W intercollegiate athletics visit us on the web at www.uwwsports.com
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