While fans across the country were caught up in the Heisman hype this weekend (the voters got it right this year, by the way), Bret Bielema and the Wisconsin Badgers offered fans a closer, more personal look at their football team.
At Friday’s inaugural Wisconsin Football Awards Show, several awards were presented, including Team MVP, Rookie of the Year and the Badger Power Award. While the awards were a nice way to acknowledge the players’ accomplishments, the personal, heartfelt speeches and interviews really made the newly developed event worth attending.
Along with coaches, coaches’ wives, media and fans, the parents of many of the members of the football team were in attendance, making the event even more personal as the award winners spoke after earning recognition for their efforts.
Two sets of parents did more than just watch the event, however, as they were interviewed onstage by co-host Mike Lucas, who does radio color commentary for UW football games.
It was these interviews that really allowed fans to get a closer look at the personal lives of the players, as well as learn more about the team’s two defensive captains.
First, Anthony and Dawn Schofield sat down with Lucas to discuss the accomplishments of their son, O’Brien Schofield. The interview fit well with the family and senior theme that was emphasized on the night, and offered some insight on the development of the UW senior defensive end and captain.
“O’Brien always wanted to be the one on top,” Dawn Schofield said. “I’ve always encouraged him to give 110 percent and never give up whenever he’s participating in any type of sports.”
She added she “most definitely” gets excited when she sees her son bearing down on a quarterback or getting ready to make a tackle for loss in the backfield.
Dawn Schofield also offered an anecdote about her son’s homesickness as a freshman.
“I think his freshman year I saw O’Brien every weekend,” she said. “I had to encourage him although we were not far away, that he could not come back home.”
Luckily for the Schofield’s and Badger fans, O’Brien got over his homesickness and has since developed into one of the best defensive ends in the country, despite joining the Wisconsin football program as a linebacker.
Anthony Schofield also noted that his experience in the military is something that has helped him encourage his son in football and in life.
“Within the military, you’ve got to have that discipline, attention to detail and you’ve also got to understand that all days are not going to be good days,” he said. “I’ll constantly talk to O’Brien about that in regards to football. You have to discipline yourself at all times, regardless of how bad you want to go back there and get the quarterback.”
The elder Schofield mentioned some advice he offered to his son.
“I told him, ‘Don’t look back.’ And also, if he does, I’ll put him in the military.”
Later in the evening, the parents of Chris Maragos — Nick and Cindy Maragos — joined Lucas on stage to discuss their son’s journey from high school to the University of Wisconsin.
When asked about the advice they gave him as a senior in high school, Cindy Maragos echoed the faith that is such a large part of Chris’ life.
“We said, ‘Chris, you’ve just got to follow your heart, go to the best school that you can go to in the division that you want, see what happens and leave it in the Lord’s hands,” she recalled.
As Lucas continued the interview, he asked about the one thing on everyone’s mind when talking about Chris Maragos: the journey from redshirting and playing wide receiver at Western Michigan to sitting out a year and starting at free safety at Wisconsin.
In discussing Chris’ decision to transfer from Western Michigan to Wisconsin after his redshirt freshman season, Nick Maragos was candid about how he felt at the time.
“I thought it was a year too late,” he said. “I was hoping Chris would come a year earlier. But he made that decision, stepped up like a man, moved out and said that he was going to come here. He wasn’t really respected the way that he wanted to be at Western Michigan.”
When he did transfer to Wisconsin, things did not really go according to plan. Maragos never got a chance to play wide receiver at UW, but it worked out well in the end.
The Racine native switched from wide receiver to safety and brought with him a large contingent of fans, known as the “21 Club.”
As a senior, Maragos was named captain, something that meant a lot to him and his family.
“I still have the text message on my phone,” Nick Maragos said. “It was one simple text: ‘I got captain.'”
On a Wisconsin team that made one of the biggest turnarounds from one year to the next in 2009, Schofield and Maragos were two of the most important factors as captains of the defense.
Without guidance from their parents, however, they would never have been in the position to lead the University of Wisconsin football team in the first place.
Jordan is a senior majoring in journalism and political science. Have a story to share about the 2009 Badgers? Enjoy this year’s senior class for football as much as Jordan did? E-mail him at [email protected].
