Solochek:?After this weekend’s spring football game, we will enter a strange void in collegiate athletics that many other schools don’t experience.
While most universities have a baseball team to appease their appetites during the first few months of spring, at Wisconsin, we must look onto the next thing, which is football season.
The spring football game only gives us a taste of the football season we have known to come to love in the fall. The game day atmosphere, the rush walking into Camp Randall and the sounds of a football Saturday are unparalleled and sorely missed during the dog days of summer when we cannot get our fill of Badger sports.
Sure, many may long for basketball season, but when the Grateful Red first congregates at the Kohl Center, it means winter is approaching, a season we dread as much as losing the Paul Bunyan’s axe to our neighbors to the north.
But the rivalries and traditions football brings are unparalleled. No other sport has a following that football has. Many people make a day out of a football Saturday, while most other sports on campus take up a few hours. There is no other event that requires as much preparation, whether it be cooking or otherwise, than football.
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As the professional baseball season begins, we must remember the first game day is just a few months away and will be the most anticipated event on campus this fall.
Braun:?Ben, I like football as much as anybody, but when the grass is green and the birds are chirping, somehow, I miss the ice.
Well not really. I wouldn’t exactly call myself a cold climate guy, but when it comes to sports I wish were still around right now, call me Iceman.
The Wisconsin men’s hockey team playing through adversity all year long was a thrill to watch game after game. NHL-bound defenseman Jamie McBain dazzled throughout the entire season, and we saw a team go from the cellar of the WCHA to a near miraculous comeback into the NCAA Tournament.
That was great, but don’t forget the women.
Possibly the best team in Wisconsin history, the UW women’s hockey team dominated everybody. They didn’t face adversity like the men did, but who cares? When you win the national championship, I think that makes up for the lack of competition.
Senior goaltender Jessie Vetter swept pretty much every award, including the Patty Kazmaier, which makes her the best player in women’s hockey.
Seriously, when was the last time we had the best player in any sport? Oh yeah, Ron Dayne. In the year 1999. If you want to talk about football, then those are the years I miss, not this past year’s excuse of a football team.
So the spring football game is right around the corner, but while we might long for the hours of pre-noon drinking and slow motion wave, just remember what we’re actually missing — success. That’s hockey, and that’s something I can’t wait for.
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