Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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More to love than affection, more to aces than poker

At the rear end of the Badger Herald’s offices sits the sports desk and the opinion desk, no more than three feet apart. And so, during my three semester stint at the editorial page — which will draw to a close with the publication of this newspaper — I have enjoyed many an opportunity to chat with the eight different sports editors who have tended to the all-popular section since I first took up residence in the office. While they would frequently choose to — at least out of courtesy — indulge my ramblings about politics, equally often I would listen as they carried on about one collegiate sport or another.

Other than NCAA football and basketball — both of which I am a fan, like any good follower of Bucky — I must admit to having never found an interest in any of Wisconsin’s various varsity sports. When the crew team would come up in conversation, my eyes would roll. If hockey was the topic, I’d scramble to find some urgent e-mail to tend to. And if the discourse ever breached track and field, I’d seriously contemplate hiding under my desk.

But early this semester, almost out of a sense of ironic humor, one of the sports editors asked me to sacrifice a weekend and cover a couple of women’s tennis tournaments for the paper. Despite being entirely sober at the time, I agreed. And some three months, 20-something articles and 1,800 miles later, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

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I can’t speak to any other varsity sports and must admit to still making a beeline for the bathroom when the topic of men’s golf is raised, but I can say nine of the most interesting, wonderful and hard-working young women on campus practice just about daily at the Nielson Tennis Stadium, and their head coach is a woman who would easily be among the most positive figures in any student’s life.

I’ve always known preconceptions to be dangerous, but I was still shocked as each of mine here quickly crumbled. This is not a team of self-righteous scholarship-gropers having their hands held by tutors; it is a squad of humble, hard-working young women who recess to the campus’ various study hubs after the end of grueling regular practices. Each player has her own personality, some more diverse than others, and yet the squad could not be more tightly knit.

But perhaps most notably for the campus at large, their matches produce some of the most intricate, beautiful and skillful play around. Crowds never grow as large as they should, and yet admission is free to see a group of dedicated athletes serve, return, spin and handle a tennis ball in a masterful fashion on a nearly weekly basis.

I have long been mortified by the cost of women’s athletics — the aforementioned free ticket stub leaves this team in the “non-revenue” category for sure — and yet must admit to having come to an epiphany somewhere between Penn State and Indiana while following the squad on the road one weekend: financially, it is just another club.

One need only go to a single Student Services Finance Committee meeting (something I have done all too often) to see how nauseating the sums of money carelessly thrown about to the countless no-name student groups are. One student group actually notorious for creating negative sentiment on campus litters more than a quarter million dollars every year.

And yet here is the women’s tennis team, using already existing facilities for practice, employing only a handful of people and actually making the drive all the way to Ohio State so as to not squander airfare. In an era of Title IX mandates, could one fathom a finer, more productive way to keeps the books balanced? And for an experience that will forever mold nine young students’ lives, is this really a lot to ask?

Indeed, somewhere in the gut of those 21 matches, the squad managed to open even my eyes.

So to Katie, Caitlin, Lindsay, Kaylan, Nicole, Chelsea, Lexi, Madison, Nicole, Erin and Patti: Thank you.

Mac VerStandig ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in rhetoric. As his stint on the Herald editorial page draws to a close, he would like to offer a special thanks to the dedicated staff of opinion writers who make his life such a joy; Zach Stern for challenging him and taking care of him at the same time; Cristina Daglas for leading so well by example; Drew Hansen, Kari Bellingham and Jake Leonard for doing the same and Paul Temple and Eric Cullen for taking the risk 18 months ago.

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