Today is Friday, May 3, 2024
UW-Whitewater Athletics on July 25 announced via Twitter that they are mourning the loss of student-athlete Derek Gray, indicating he passed away “playing the game he loved.”
Gray played two seasons with the Warhawks and was named a first team All-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honoree this past season. He was also a standout player during his high school career at Madison La Follette.
Gray, a psychology major, passed away unexpectedly on July 24, 2022.
The UW-Whitewater flag will fly at half-staff on Friday, July 29, 2022, in Derek’s memory.
Update 7/27/22: Comments from Coach Pat Miller may be found in this article on Fox47 here.
United Hoops is holding tryouts for the 2023 AAU Girls Basketball season in late July; see photo for details. The program was founded in 2020 and this past season offered teams for the graduating classes of 2024, 2027, and 2029. We intend to add teams at the 2028 & 2030 age levels in 2023. Our teams are composed of athletes from Cambridge, Deerfield, East Troy, Elkhorn, Fort Atkinson, Jefferson, McFarland, Milton, Stoughton, and Whitewater and we hope to add athletes from more communities to our program in the future. The 2029 team finished 2nd at the Blizzard Battle in Appleton, the 2027 team were tournament champions at the JAG Select Spring Showcase, the United Showdown, and the July Jamboree, while the 2024 team finished 2nd at the United Showdown and Cheesehead Challenge and 3rd at the WI Xtreme Summer Challenge. Teams practice in Cambridge and/or Whitewater while participating in 7-8 tournaments as the season runs from mid-March thru the end of July. Our focus as a program is skill development while preparing girls for high school basketball and providing our high school age athletes opportunities to compete in NCAA certified events during the live recruiting periods. For more information, please visit our website at www.unitedhoops.net. Tryout information is posted at www.unitedhoops.net/tryouts.
Per an article in the July 18 Watertown Daily Times, Eli Crogan, [who coached men’s basketball at UW-W from 1970-74], and whose Hall of Fame coaching career for boys basketball included 22 seasons at Watertown High School, passed away at the age of 87 on Saturday.
Crogan suffered a stroke on Tuesday and died from complications according to his son, Craig.
His coaching career spanned 42 seasons and included several schools: Soldiers Grove (now North Crawford), Fennimore, Watertown, the men’s team at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Wayland Academy. His teams won 562 games and lost 320. This included 15 conference championships, 13 regional championships, two sectional championships and three trips to the state tournaments.
He was inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1996.
Editor’s note: The following press release was provided by Big Radio.
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Department of Intercollegiate Athletics signed a two-year agreement with Big Radio to air Warhawks football games on 105.9 FM The Hog in Janesville beginning with the 2022 season.
“We are thrilled to partner with Big Radio and 105.9 The Hog to bring Warhawk fans audio coverage of all football games for the next two years,” UW-W Director of Athletics Ryan Callahan said. “UW-Whitewater football is a staple of our campus community, and we believe this collaboration will enhance the profile of the university and bring fans high-quality coverage of this nationally-renowned program.”
All home and away games during the 2022 and 2023 seasons will air live on 105.9 The Hog, which airs in Southern Wisconsin with coverage as far north as Madison and as far south as Rockford, Ill.
Game broadcasts will also be available online at 1059thehog.com and on the Big Radio App, which is available for download on Apple and Google Play devices.
“At Big Radio our commitment to local sports in our communities is unmatched,” Big Radio CEO Ben Thompson said. “We are thrilled to be the new home of UW-Whitewater football and further expand our commitment to sports.”
Big Radio Sports Director Josh Golberg, a UW-Whitewater graduate, will handle play-by-play duties and will be joined on the broadcast by color analyst Bill O’Leary, a linebacker for the Warhawks from 1970-71. O’Leary served as head football coach at both Janesville Craig and Milton.
“Getting the opportunity to broadcast games for one of the top Division III programs in the country as an alumnus is thrilling on both a professional and personal level,” Golberg said. “Bill and I will try to bring as much energy, knowledge and entertainment as we can in support of the Warhawks.”
UW-Whitewater, a six-time NCAA Division III national champion, begins the 2022 season Sept. 3 at St. John’s (Minn.). The team’s home opener is scheduled for Sept. 10 against Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas) for a rematch of last season’s national semifinal.
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