Let's get it started!

The start of the school year is an exciting time of the year. Our fall sports teams are hard at work preparing for the start of their seasons (first home game---Lakeland women's soccer vs. Ripon College on Friday, Aug. 29 - 5 p.m.), but we also welcome back the rest of the Muskies teams. It is amazing to me how much paperwork goes into getting a team ready to play in the NCAA, but the information we share is focused on aiding our student-athletes to be leaders inside and outside of athletics. We are emphasizing the need for our entire department to be focused on the goal of being one cohesive group this year. We have 18 NCAA sponsored sports this year, but we are one team! I can't wait to see what the 2014-2015 Lakeland Muskies accomplish this year!

Compliance paperwork meeting for softball and men's volleyball

Another thing that I am always impressed with as our athletic seasons begin is the mentoring and guidance provided by our coaching staffs to students. I am so proud of the work they do with our student-athletes in practices and game prep, but, more importantly, in academic monitoring and preparation.  We never bring our "C" game to competition, and we certainly don't bring it to the classroom either!

Coach Dreyer's famous player binders promoting academic and athletic focus and success

Finally, you know I love our athletic teams, but I also love all that Lakeland has to offer. This past Sunday night, as part of the college's welcome week activities, I was able to attend the magic show of Mat Franco with my daughter, Emma, and youngest son, Sam.  If you are a fan of America's Got Talent, you'll recognize Mat's name as he is a semi-finalist on this season's show. Mat was awesome to meet, and really gave our students a great show. Let's hope there is a little magic with the Muskies this year!!!

Mat Franco with Emma and Sam

Getting Dirty!

I was 12 when I got my first job picking stones at Hoff Farms in neighboring Howards Grove. From there, I moved on to working on other family farms throughout my high school and college careers.  Those jobs taught me so many valuable lessons including rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty from time to time. As the following picture will attest, getting dirty, even as a vice president for athletics, is inevitable. I happened to find a little mud with our golf cart on our newly formed cross country course on campus today.



The results of a stuck golf cart on our XC course!

The ability to get out from behind my desk and work alongside our great coaching staff and student-athletes makes this job so incredibly rewarding.  Wrestling with a golf cart stuck in the mud on our cross country course was not necessarily the highlight of my day, but watching our women's soccer team practice on a dew covered field as a new day begins, or watching the men's team wrap up the day with practice in the evening makes all of the tough parts of the day melt away.



Women's Soccer



Men's Soccer

 

Finally, a thank you to the women's volleyball team for the ALS ice bucket challenge nomination this week.  For every Muskie win this year, I will be donating $1.00 to ALS research.  Many of our coaches and teams have been involved.  Here is the video link to my dousing!

 



 

 

The class of 2018 moves in today!  Here we go!!!  Go Muskies.

They're back!

Vintage LC football helmet

Today, we welcomed back our 2014 Muskie football team, which begins training camp practice tomorrow. Reporting days are some of my favorite days of the year. I get the pleasure of welcoming back our returning student-athletes, and meeting a new group of Muskies that we will get to watch compete for the next four years. Later this week, we will welcome our women's volleyball, women's tennis, men's soccer and women's soccer teams. I can't wait to see them all again!

Another great part about reporting day is seeing the fields and facilities prepped for practices. There is a certain beauty to a green practice or game field with a crisp white line running down it. Every athlete in an outdoor sport can appreciate a prepped field like this.

From the football practice field

There is some other field prep work occurring with our baseball and softball fields that started today. Both our baseball and softball fields are receiving some much-overdue work that will completely revamp  both infields and improve the pitching mound and bullpens for baseball. The softball field will get a walkway for fans, an extended and completed warning track, improved fencing, and new sod. Both projects should be done by the end of next week, and be ready for fall practice. We still have many more improvements to go with our outdoor athletic facilities, but we will get better each and every day.  Here are a couple of photos of the work that has started on the baseball field (updated photos to come). Softball field work begins in the upcoming days.

Prepping the base material and trimming the infield grass

Laser grading the infield

I'm so excited to see the finished products! Let's hope the spring weather for our 2015 spring baseball and softball seasons is as beautiful as the past couple of weeks!

Go Muskies!

Welcome to the Tackle Box

Greetings, Muskie Nation! 

Welcome to The Tackle Box - Muskie Athletics from the A.D.'s chair.  As Lakeland's vice president for athletics and wellness, I have the best job on campus...leading our athletic department and having a front-row seat to all of our 18 intercollegiate teams.  For those of you that do not know me, I am new to the A.D.'s chair, but I'm not new to Lakeland.  Here is a little bit about me, and my journey to the A.D.'s chair. 

I am a native of Howards Grove, and have fond memories of numerous trips to Lakeland's campus competing in UCC summer volleyball tournaments, refereeing youth wrestling tournaments and numerous fine arts events.  I even performed in my one and only theatrical production on the Bradley Theatre stage in high school.  After nearly a dozen years away from Sheboygan County, I found my way home in 2003 as Lakeland's admission director before becoming the vice president for student development in 2008.

I love NCAA Division III college athletics, and had the honor of being a three-sport athlete in high school before participating in football and wrestling at Carroll University.  Here is a photo from my sophomore year at Carroll.

My family and I share a passion for Muskie athletics and enjoy the successes of our student-athletes both in competition and in the classroom.  I hope this blog serves as your glimpse into those successes, but, most importantly, I hope it shares with you what I get to experience each day as the A.D. at the best school in the country.  GO MUSKIES!