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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!
I would like to nominate Southern Illinois University for the Team of the Year Award. I have had the privilege to watch this team grow over the past two years that I’ve been a college student, and I have to say this team was great to watch this season! The improvement in all the athletes showed NUMBERS this year especially since they were able to make it nationals for the first time in club history this past season. Not only were they a great team on the water, but they were great people as well. They were a very humble, and fun group to be round this season at every single tournament. Vote SIU for team of the year because they are MOST deserving of it.
I truly believe that SIU (Southern Illinois University) deserves to be Team Of The Year. When I joined the team my sophomore year we barely made it to regionals, only qualifying because the team above us had failed to get all of their paperwork in. Just three years later we qualified for nationals, taking 8th at regionals, and placing 5th at D2 nationals!! This was our team’s #1 goal and it finally came to life, making university history on top of it because SIU had never qualified for nationals in the 40+ years of being a team. SIU also hosted it’s first tournament in 15 years last spring! We had to completely rebuild a site that had been abandoned for over a decade, including new courses and restoring our jump!
We have had to overcome more obstacles and hurdles than any other team: just four years ago we had three active members, no team boat, no trailer for travel, no ski lake to practice at, and some of the furthest drives to tournaments with our average drive being about 6hrs – but we always showed up. We’ve received amazing help (shout-out Dean Chappell-IL, Bob Harris-KY, Jeff Meyers-IL, and Dave Adams-IL), but for the most part SIU has been the underdog in just about every aspect of the game, and we’ve fought our way to the top becoming one of the strongest and healthiest teams in the Midwest. Go Dawgs
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