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I want to nominate Wisconsin Madison for team of the year! The Madison ski team has had a great few years as a program, but I think this year was one of the best yet. I think the most impressive thing about the Madison ski team is the sheer size of the team and range of its skiers’ abilities. Madison brought 42 skiers to the Great Plains Conference tournament, many of whom were attending their first tournament ever! While at that tournament, we also had a number of our A team skiers place individually, and the team took second overall. There are plenty of teams with huge membership numbers, and teams with phenomenal top-level A teams, but I think what sets Madison apart is the ability to grow the sport both outwards and upwards!
I have to give this nomination to Sam Tasche! After a phenomenal senior season in all three events, Sam graduated and promptly moved to Japan to be a professional waterskier. Anyone who knows Sam will tell you that he lives and breathes waterskiing, be it show skiing or three event, and he will do just about anything for another 5 minutes on the lake. Safe to say, we were all incredibly proud and incredibly unsurprised when he announced his plans for post-grad, because if anyone was going to go pro, it was going to be him. He has a passion for the sport in every form it takes, and we can’t wait to watch him fly in his professional career.
I would like to nominate Sam Strachan from UW Madison for Outstanding Senior Male this year. He was an overall A team skier for his past few years on the team, and he was a key contributor to the team for his entire collegiate career. Where many skiers choose to specialize, I would classify Strachan as a true overall skier. He was a top skier in all three events, slaloming consistently into 22′ and 28′ off, tricking well over 1000+ points (he’s a two flip kinda guy), and this year at regionals he broke into the century club with a 100 foot jump! Sam Strachan has been an integral figure in Madison waterskiing for as long as he’s been on the team, and while we’re sad to see him go, we couldn’t be more proud of everything he has accomplished.
I want to nominate Jake Artang (Tango!) for the MCWSA rookie of the year. I vividly remember the first time I got to ski with Jake, he was one of the only freshmen to sign up for a 7 am set, and when I asked him what he wanted to open at, I did a literal double take. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but 32 mph at 22 off wasn’t it. I then proceeded to pull him all the way up to 36 mph/28′ off, at which point I texted six different people “Y’ALL ARE NEVER GONNA BELIEVE THIS FRESHMAN!!!” Tango proved to be a phenomenal addition to our men’s slalom team, shooting straight to 5th round, which is impressive enough, but I think the thing that impressed me most about him was his attitude. Most freshmen in his position would catch a bit of an ego, and I don’t know if I would blame him if he had. However, Tango is always willing to give and take advice, and he’s one of our most encouraging members on the team. He is always down to talk shop about slalom with anyone, and he has such a genuine love for the sport. This summer he is set to become certified as a boat driver and work at Swerve Ski School, where he plans to keep pushing the boundaries of his slalom career, and become an absolute three-event legend. I believe that Wisconsin Waterski has a bright future ahead of it if Tango is any indicator of what’s to come.
I nominate Keelie Plessner from UW Madison for hardest worker of the year! She was (and still is) our secretary, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to call her the backbone of the team. She scheduled and ran our meetings, both board and full team, and made car and packing lists for tournaments.She organized hotels rooms, rental cars, reservations and travel plans. Keelie was also one of our top recruiters this year, I can list at least a half dozen people who showed up at their first tournament because she encouraged them. It honestly might be faster to list the things Keelie didn’t do for us this year. There were hundreds of times in the past year where I’ve been incredibly grateful for her, but if I had to pick a standout moment, it would have to be Nationals. We arrived at the hotel in Louisiana, and were told that we didn’t have most of the hotel rooms we had reserved. Keelie worked with the front desk for well over an hour to get us into our rooms, and she did it with more patience and grace than I’ve ever seen a person display. On top of all her incredible administrative work, she skied A team for all three events AND became a certified team boat driver! Being a team secretary is a thankless job most of the time, and she absolutely deserves recognition for her hard work this year. We truly wouldn’t be the team we are without her.