Sports

Congratulations are in order for Mr. Paul Majors! Majors was named the 2024 Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association District 6 Wrestling Assistant Coach of the Year. This is an award voted on by the WWCA Coaches in District 6 which includes the area from Clinton, north to Markesan, to Fond Du Lac, to Mukwonago, and to Lake Geneva.

Mr. Majors has been involved in the wrestling program as a volunteer or paid coach for over 20 years and is very deserving of this award. The student-athletes love how well he connects with them and the advice about not only wrestling but more importantly life that he provides. Congratulations, Coach Majors. Job well done!

Article and Photos Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org

Whitewater High School Booster Club auction event on April 27th at McGrath’s in Fort Atkinson.  Tickets are $30 apiece and include food, a drink, a live auction, silent auction/baskets, money raffle and most importantly a great time! Please consider purchasing one or two, the proceeds go to supporting the Whitewater High School Athletics Booster Club. You do not need to be present for the cash raffle. Get ahold of any Booster Club member for tickets! Also sold at the door. Thank you.

Editor’s note: The above announcement was provided by the WHS Booster Club.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Warhawk Athletics will hold a Parade of Champions Wednesday, April 3 at 3 p.m. The parade, led by the Whitewater Fire Department, will honor the 2023-24 UW-Whitewater Men’s Wheelchair Basketball Team, along with individual national champions Christian Patzka (men’s track and field), Shelvin Garrett II (men’s track and field) and Hayden Gough (women’s gymnastics). 

Parade Information

Start: Perkins Stadium at 3 p.m. 

Route: From Perkins Stadium down Warhawk Drive, east on Starin, south on Prairie, east on Main Street and will loop through downtown Whitewater before returning to Perkins Stadium on Fremont Street

2023-24 UW-Whitewater Men’s Wheelchair Basketball

The Warhawk men’s wheelchair basketball team claimed the 2024 National Wheelchair Basketball Association title with a 74-67 victory over Arizona on March 16 in Marshall, Minnesota. The title is the 14^th national championship in program history. Six current or former Warhawks – including head coach Jake Williams and student-athletes Talen Jourdan and AJ Fitzpatrick – will represent the university as part of Team USA men’s wheelchair basketball at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games this summer.

Christian Patzka

Christian Patzka (Black Earth, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) won the 5,000-meter title at the 2024 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 8. He recorded a time of 13:59.92 – winning the race by just four-tenths of a second in a thrilling finish. 

Shelvin Garrett II

Shelvin Garrett II (Beloit, Wis./Memorial) brought home the national title in the men’s triple jump at the 2024 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 9. His mark of 15.97 meters broke the UW-Whitewater program record, set the facility record and meets the minimum standard for the 2024 Olympic Trials. 

Hayden Gough

Hayden Gough (Dallas, Texas/Dallas International School) captured the individual national title on the uneven bars at the 2024 National Collegiate Gymnastics Association Championship on March 23. Her mark of 9.85 is the second highest in program history. Gough is the seventh national champion on the uneven bars in program history and first in the event since 2016. 

By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information
UW-Whitewater

Click here for the schedule.

The 2024 schedule features six teams that were ranked or received votes at the end of the 2023 campaign including UW-La Crosse (4th), John Carroll (20th) and UW-River Falls (24th). UW-Platteville, UW-Oshkosh and Mary Hardin-Baylor all received votes in the poll. The Warhawks were ranked 5th in the final D3football.com poll of 2023.

The Warhawks will open the 2024 campaign at home against John Carroll University on September 7 at 1 p.m. UWW defeated the Blue Streaks 27-23 on the road last season. UW-Whitewater will follow with a first-ever meeting with Roosevelt University in Arlington Heights, Illinois September 14 before wrapping up the non-conference slate at Perkins Stadium against Mary Hardin-Baylor on September 21. The Warhawks will celebrate the alumni during the UMHB game that is scheduled for a 1 p.m. kickoff. 

After a bye week, the Warhawks return to action with the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener against UW-Oshkosh on October 5th. That contest has been designated as UW-Whitewater’s annual Family Fest. 

UWW will head to Menomonee for a meeting with the Blue Devils on October 12 before returning home for another “Friday Night Lights” game. The Warhawks will host UW-Stevens Point Friday, October 18 under the lights at The Perk at 7 p.m. 

UW-Whitewater is back on the road headed to Platteville on October 26. The Warhawks will celebrate Homecoming and the Hall of Fame in the team’s regular season home finale against UW-River Falls on November 2. UWW wraps up the regular season with back-to-back road games at UW-La Crosse (November 9) and UW-Eau Claire (November 16). 

By Chris Lindeke 
Marketing and Communications Manager
University Marketing and Communications
UW-Whitewater

Two coaches of NCAA Division I men’s basketball programs with ties to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater will lead their teams Thursday night in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

Nate Oats, who worked as an assistant coach for the Warhawk men’s basketball team from 2000-02, will lead fourth-seeded Alabama against top-seeded North Carolina in a West Region semifinal at 8:39 p.m. in Los Angeles. The game will air live on CBS.

TJ Otzelberger, who played for the Warhawks from 1999-2001 and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the university, coaches No. 2 seed Iowa State, which takes on No. 3 seed Illinois at 9:09 p.m. in Boston for an East Region semifinal.

Oats helped the Warhawks win back-to-back Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season championships as an assistant coach. He worked under head coach Dave Vander Meulen during the 2000-01 campaign and under Pat Miller for the 2001-02 season.

Otzelberger was a member of the 2000-01 title winning team. He graduated in 2001 with a BBA in general business and an M.S. in curriculum and instruction in 2004.

Salem, Va. – University of Wisconsin-Whitewater senior forward Aleah Grundahl has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Jostens Trophy – awarded to the top player in Division III. 

The Jostens Trophy
This marks the 26th edition of the Jostens Trophy, presented annually by the Rotary Club of Salem, Virginia. The Jostens Trophy is designed to recognize the most outstanding men’s and women’s Division III basketball players of the year. The awards focus on three major criteria: basketball ability, academic prowess, and service to one’s surrounding communities. The Jostens Trophy models the Rotary International motto of “Service Above Self” by recognizing those who truly fit the ideal of a well-rounded Division III student-athlete. 

In addition to the Trophy, the Woolridge Scholarship, a $1,000 donation, will be presented in the names of the winners to their institutions. The scholarship is named after Dan Woolridge, a Salem Rotarian and the retired commissioner that founded the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, for his long-time dedication to Division III athletics. 

The winners were chosen by a 29-person national selection committee composed of current and former athletic administrators and head coaches, past Jostens Trophy recipients, and select members of the Division III media. 

Aleah Grundahl
Grundahl, a native of DeForest, Wisconsin and product of DeForest High School, is the most-decorated basketball player in UW-Whitewater history. She has been a force since she first stepped foot onto the floor in a Warhawk uniform – starting in every game she was available for during her five-year career. Grundahl’s list of accolades and the heights she has led the UWW program to is nothing short of extraordinary. 

“Aleah does it all – it’s not just basketball – she is the total package,” said Head Coach Keri Carollo. “Aleah is not only a phenomenal player, she is a great teammate, a fantastic leader and an amazing person.”

Grundahl, a two-time captain for UWW, has focused on team success throughout her career. She led the Warhawks to three Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles (2020, 2022, 2023), a league tournament title (2023) and five NCAA Division III Basketball Tournament appearances (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024). Those five appearances include runs to the national title game (2022), the Elite 8 (2024) and the Sweet 16 (2023). 

Individually, Grundahl has accomplished a number of “firsts” and broken several records along the way. She is the first to be named the WIAC Player of the Year three times (2022-24) in league history, the first UWW basketball player to garner six All-America honors, and the first in UW-W history to receive the Jostens Trophy. Grundahl became the all-time leading scorer for UW-Whitewater and the WIAC during the 2023-24 campaign with a career total of 1,952 points. In addition to scoring records, Grundahl holds numerous top 20 marks in the program and WIAC record books.  

The list of individual accolades continued to grow throughout her career despite her humble personality and team-centric mindset. Grundahl was selected as the league’s Newcomer of the Year in 2020 and has been selected to the All-WIAC squads all five seasons. She has earned Region 9 Player of the Year honors twice from D3hoops.com, was the 2022-23 UW-Whitewater Student-Athlete of the Year and was honored as the Athlete of the Year by the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association. On the national stage, Grundahl is a six-time All-American earning honors from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and D3hoops.com three times each. A two-time WBCA All-Star, Grundahl’s jersey has been hung at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Ring of Honor for the last year. 

Equally as impressive is Grundahl’s list of academic accomplishments. She was named the WIAC Judy Kruckman Scholar-Athlete of the Year for women’s basketball – an award that also focuses on athletics, academics and community service. Grundahl is a five-time Chancellor’s Scholar, five-year honoree on the WIAC’s Scholastic Honor Roll and has been recognized on the Dean’s List her entire collegiate career. 

In service to the university and surrounding community, Grundahl is a four-year member of the UW-Whitewater Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, a volunteer at Fairhaven Senior Services and has been student and substitute teaching this academic year. 

Grundahl will graduate with a degree in Elementary Education with a certification in Adaptive Education in May. 

“Aleah is the epitome of a Division III student-athlete,” noted Athletic Director Ryan Callahan. “Her career accomplishments in basketball – especially while student and substitute teaching this season – along with her success in the classroom, strong leadership qualities and community involvement put her in a class of her own.”