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What team had the biggest improvement, the largest growth, or posted massive scores? Nominate a team below, and let us know why you think they deserve the award!
University of Akron
I took over as president of the Waterski Team at Akron last spring. Since then we’ve more than doubled the amount of people on our team, filled out a full tournament roster for the first time since the team came back 3 years ago, and came desperately close to making the Regional Tournament losing out by 175 team points. We did it all this past year. We fundraised by working in our community, and hosting fun events off the water and managed to pay for tournaments and practices with zero school support beyond signing off on our eligibility papers, we connected with lake owners in our area to find opportunities for people to learn how to ski, and even converted a few wakeboarders to skiers. Thanks to the hard work of this past year, next season will be the first one in decades where there will be no question about Akron’s ability to field a full roster. I am so proud of what my team accomplished over the past year, and I cannot wait to see how they grow and become a real threat in tournaments in the future.
I nominate the University of Wisconsin-Madison team.
The UW-Madison waterski team has had significant growth as a team on and off the water this season. After a year off due to the pandemic, the UW-Madison team’s hard work to increase financial security and membership paid off. The team profited from the sale of their 2005 Mastercraft Prostar to purchase a new 2014 Centurion Carbon. The team had a significant increase in membership, with a 78% increase in new club members. This increased membership led to growth within the MCWSA as the UW-Madison team brought over 40 members to the Hawkeye Skifest, Jacob Kaufmann Memorial Classic, and Great Plains Conference Championship tournaments, exposing and instilling a love for three event skiing for many members that will last a lifetime. About halfway through the fall, the boat suffered damage but this did not hinder the continued improvement of the team. The team reached out to supporters of the club and found other ways to practice this season including private lake time, hosting “ski camps” at member’s lake houses, and taking sets with alumni. This season, the team placed first at Hawkeye Skifest, Jacob Kaufmann Memorial Classic, and Great Plains Conference Championship. The team went on to win 1st place at Midwest Collegiate Regionals, which landed the team a D1 spot at Nationals where the team took 7th. This team is one that truly loves water skiing for water skiing. The boat upgrade, membership growth, MCWSA expansion, and tournament performance warrant why UW-Madison deserves to be the team of the year.
I am nominating the University of Michigan for Team of the Year
This is my third year on the University of Michigan’s Waterski team and my third year serving on the executive board. Throughout my years on the team, I have noticed exponential growth and progress during our on-season and our off-season. This year, due to COVID-19, our team lost the beloved boat lease that we depended on for many years. In this experience, we created a boat committee to search for our own boat and raise money towards buying it. Through mostly word of mouth, our team succeeded in raising enough money through the creation of a boat lift fundraiser and expansion of our alumni network to afford a boat for our largely expanding team. In the first few weeks of school, our team always sets up a table at UMICH’s campus-wide club fair. This year, our team had over 350+ people sign up for our interest list with our mass meeting location getting overflowed with potential newbies (a lot of gals!) wanting to learn more about the waterski community. It was extremely cool with that to have one of our first female presidents ever lead our team with positivity and open arms. Besides purchasing our first boat and having extremely successful recruitment, I am most proud of my team’s work on the water. I have never seen so many new members willing to go off big red and get out of their comfort zone completely with a sport they have never even seen before. At our first tournament of the year (Allentucky) we got first place and had many members on the podium for the first time. We had a huge turnout at our next tournament (Ripfest) where our team received first again and later qualified for D2 Nationals, largely through the support of our amazing captain. In Baton Rouge, our team got first for the first time in Michigan Waterski HISTORY with all members stomping their jumps and multiple PB’s. My heart has never been so full for this team as I believe it is one of the most inclusive and welcoming communities that I have personally been a part of. Our older members are so willing to teach our newer members the basics of waterski and never fail to hype up even the smallest successes such as getting up on a ski. I truly believe that this team brings out the best in people and is making a big impact on our community and MCWSA as a whole.
I’d like to nominate Iowa State!
The members of Iowa State’s team are the unsung heroes of 2021 Collegiate Nationals. Their entire team missed school and came down to Bennett’s early, and spent 5 days doing allllllll of the manual labor that was needed to set up the tournament- Hammering in stakes and hanging a million banners, cleaning up trash, power-washing buildings and signs, picking and cutting thousands of stickers, assembling goody bags, weed eating, the list goes on and on. They did it all with a smile, and were such troopers as they were assigned one task after another. Their passion for collegiate waterskiing and dedication to helping the sport grow really shined through in those moments! What also really impressed me about their team was their determination to qualify for nationals this year. After loosing one of their star skiers to an injury, they doubled down on practice to help some of their alternate skiers fill those gaps and put up some crucial scores for the team. It was a full team effort to make nationals and I’m so happy they were able to succeed! Lastly, regionals spirit award winners. They definitely earned that and deserve to be in the running for Team of the Year!
University of Cincinnati
This is my first year on the university of Cincinnati ski team. Over my first year we have grown to be so much more than just a team but a tightly knit family. We have really learned to sharpen each other’s waterski skills and help people to grow personally and professionally. For example I have gotten internships and jobs from my relationships with people on the ski team. We were also able to make it to nationals this year and share the accomplishment together, this will always be one of my favorite college memories. Some of my favorite memories with the team are volunteering at Ampuski, late night food after practices, and skiing during the off season!
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