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 Ken Bothof, Guest Columnist |
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Finally,
“we’re almost there already” is also a valid answer. We already
are competitive in many sports. And not far from doing it on a consistent basis
in others. Our men’s soccer team knocked off a Top 25 team in Wisconsin.
Our Nordic skiers have challenged for NCAA team honors. Even in a down year, the
men’s basketball team beat Butler and played some other big programs close.
Coach Borseth and the Phoenix women were a minute away from upsetting Texas, on
their home floor, in the Big Dance last spring. This University deserves the best. I think we’ve been successful in many ways, and are making progress. Quick reports: • The basketball season opens for the women’s team with a game versus the University of Oregon on Nov. 26th. We play an unbelievable home schedule against at least three Top 25 teams. We’re pushing season tickets and we expect you’re going to need them. The PSC was filled to capacity a number of times last year. We are also proud to host this year’s Horizon League Championships in Green Bay March 5–9. • Men’s basketball has its first exhibition game Sunday afternoon, Nov. 3. Our home opener is versus in-state rival Wisconsin! Coach Kowalczyk has been tremendous in building interest in his program. The season-ticket drive is going well. That’s the only way, now, to lock up a seat for the otherwise sold-out Badger game on Nov. 30th. • Swimming and diving had a big year last year, with both the men and women at the top of the conference... this year we have high hopes again. • Our academic profile has never been higher. The women’s basketball team was in the academic Top 10 for the third straight year (a first for any program in the nation!). Greg Babcock won a national award as the top Division I men’s basketball scholar-athlete. This past semester our 232 student-athletes posted a 3.15 grade point average, with two dozen 4.0's. (They have also contributed well over 1,100 hours to community service, supporting the Special Olympics, Girl Scouts, hospice care and area food pantries, among others.) aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTOP OF NEXT COLUMN |
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The Phoenix Fund Annual Fund Drive enjoyed tremendous success. The community leaders
have done a wonderful job helping us reach and now surpass our goal of $250,000.
We’ve also done something new in bringing various groups (the former Cage
Club, and others), under one umbrella. On the challenges side, the Phoenix Sports Center is an issue for the entire campus, of course, but it hits home hardest for us. We have run out of office space and now have two coaches together in several offices and no offices for some. We have teams that cannot practice on certain days because their locker room or (if they are lucky enough to have one) team room is being used by visiting schools. The PSC was built when we had eight sports programs and 500 students living on campus. We now have 15 sports programs and 1,700 students living on campus. It’s gratifying to hear there is growing support for addressing this campuswide need. I’m very optimistic. We have excellent leadership of our University. We have a dedicated, hard-working administrative staff. We have a supportive and committed coaching staff. We have a community that understands the importance of fundraising to support scholarships for our student-athletes. We have a community and media that want our programs to succeed! They have tasted success in the past and want to enjoy that success in the future. We can all get what we want by working together. In closing, I’ll take a page out of Chancellor Shepard's playbook and invite your feedback. Feel free to approach me at a game, or e-mail me at your leisure at BothofK@uwgb.edu. I really do want to hear your suggestions for making Phoenix Athletics a part of our community. Sincerely, |
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