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While pure on-the-water talent is something we’d all love to be blessed with, sometimes it takes painful fall after painful fall to make progress as a skier. On top of that, the only way we can all enjoy the benefits of tournament weekends is due to the work that team captains, coaches, board members put in each and every season.
Who did you see putting in the most effort for themselves or their team this year?
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln would like to nominate Mandy Lawson for the Hardest worker award. She has done a lot of work for our team behind the scenes. She was instrumental in the planning of all of our tournaments. Much of Mandys work, you would not know she completes. But you would sure know if she didn’t!
Ben Levine (Ohio State)
I’ve said it many times, Ben Levine is one of the hardest working skiers I have ever met. He is the type of skier to drive from Pittsburgh to Columbus, just to learn how to drive a boat so his team can have more water time. This year, he spent another summer training at Bennett’s, and became a solid all around skier for his team. Ben was able to 3-event at Ohio State, a team notorious for having skiers focus on one, maybe two events. His slalom PB improved to 4@34-15, tricked over 600pts multiple times, and put up good jump scores when his team needed it most. Off the water, Ben is someone who can always be depended on to judge, work on a new rating, or help out with whatever needs done at the lake.The Mandator has been one of the most dedicated workers in water skiing and collegiate skiing alike. If you don’t know Mandy Lawson, she is always busy in one way or another. Either helping the team, helping coach practice even though she couldn’t ski herself, or always doing some sort of judging or scoring. Her help is one of the biggest reasons why tournaments run smoothly. She was the Tournament Director for Husker Ripfest in the fall, creating the largest waterski tournament hosted in Nebraska. She’s worked tirelessly on ratings she got her assistant scorers, judges, and safety ratings. She is currently sitting one tournament and one test away from getting her regulars (which is a feat and a half if you haven’t tried to get yours). Even though she wasn’t able to ski this fall because she had multiple torn ligaments and required surgery post season, she still put herself in the ski to slalom at Regionals. Because she skied and put-up huge team points, she emphasized Nebraska’s first ever ticket punched to the Nationals tournament. At Nationals she skied again, also putting up big slalom points for the ladies. We don’t deserve the selfless dedication of this crazy woman and are forever thankful she’s a Husker!
I nominate Cal O’Callaghan for the hardest worker award. Cal spends all their time skiing, pulling sets, helping others, coaching, and anything else related to being on a collegiate ski team. Cal attended every ski event with enthusiasim and dedication. Cal always took the time to send every Women’s skier, A and B team, of the dock while also providing them with equipment and coaching. Furthermore, Cal judged events and made sure the tournaments ran smoothly. There was never a moment Cal wasn’t busy at tournaments.
I would like to nominate Michigan State’s Alaina Barnhart for the hardest worker. When Alaina joined the team last year, she had never slalom skied, trick skied, or jumped before. She can now run the course, do a couple tricks and she is one of our top women jumpers. Alaina doesn’t have a ski course at her house, but she works hard to finds several connections and ways to constantly be improving her skiing at home and when she is here on campus. She attends camps and trips that our team takes so she can ski as much as possible. Alaina works hard during practices and during the season, on and off the water. Alaina’s hard work can be seen just from comparing her stats when she joined, to her stats now. Off the water, Alaina is always providing input to make our team better. She works hard at recruiting events and comes up with many ways to fundraise for our team, all for her love of collegiate waterskiing!
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