Sconnies Speak

Category: feature

  • Built For The Long Run: How Kylee Raftis is racing towards the next level

    By: Matthew Kane

    In the final miles of the 2025 Boston Marathon, Kylee Raftis felt like her legs were going to fall off. As the pain of the Newton hills set in, the last 800 meters became an excruciating blur. However, Raftis held true to her goals. 

    The idea of being the first Canadian to cross the line on Boylston Street and setting a new personal record remained locked in her mind.

    “In a marathon, people say 90% is mental. Even if you are in the best shape of your life, it really depends on your mental performance that day and how much you want it and how much you believe in yourself,” Raftis says.

    On that day in particular, it was Raftis’ own belief coupled with her talent and extreme dedication to her sport that made the difference. These factors helped Raftis cross the line in 2 hours and 34 minutes, a four-minute personal record, making her not only the first Canadian woman to finish the race, but the 28th woman overall.

    This accomplishment marks another notch in Raftis’ belt that has quickly been replaced with larger goals for the three-year marathon runner.

    For most Boston marathoners, the crowd at Copley Square marks the culmination of months of preparation. For Rafti,s it is only the launch pad.

    “This is just the beginning of my career. I still have ten to fifteen more years of this,” Raftis says.          

    This year’s Boston Marathon was unlike anything Raftis had experienced, this time running in Puma’s new Project 3 program.

    Project 3 allows amatuer marathoners the chance to prepare for race day in the same way Puma’s elite runners do. Providing their athletes with access to coaches, nutritionists and Puma gear, the project aims to set runners up to break records.

    Running with professionals for the first time, Raftis made sure to have fun with the race and enjoy the experience despite the goals she had prepared.

    “I definitely felt like an underdog, and I had nothing to lose,” Raftis says, “A lot of these girls are former Olympians, and this is their job. They are literally pro runners, pro athletes and have contracts with shoe brands.”

    This mindset not only ended in a personal record on race day, but Raftis also finished as the first Project 3 female athlete, earning incentive rewards and surprising herself in the process.

    This race marks the third Boston Marathon and sixth marathon overall for Raftis. The 26-year-old’s marathon path started three years prior, following a five-year track and cross country career at Boston College.    


    Raftis explains how different a marathon is compared to anything she faced in her college career. Mainly a steeplechase runner with experience in the mile and 3000-meter events, Raftis did not always get the chance to show off her endurance abilities.

    Raftis reflects on her collegiate experience and mentions how she never experienced a national championship race appearance, something that ultimately fueled her drive to find the event that suited her style.

    “I always knew I had more in me. I just had to find the right event, and that is obviously the marathon for me now,” Raftis says.

    Training for the marathon presented a new chapter in her running journey, allowing for a fresh start while posing new challenges. 

    Raftis’ training process is a careful balancing act that has become increasingly more difficult, juggling her strict regimen with a full-time job.

    Logging over 40 hours a week at a new position that started this calendar year, Raftis had to adapt to an intense training schedule in order to allow her usual three-to-four-month marathon preparation leading up to Boston.

    As a result, most of her workouts are carried out in the evenings, with more challenging sessions on the weekends.

    “I just try to structure my days properly and also listen to my body,” Raftis says.

    The structure she references takes many forms from supplements and food intake to achieve proper nutrition, to meditation in order to prepare her mental fitness.

    Above all else, Raftis stresses, “Recovery…recovery is the number one at the top of my list because if I can not recover, I am not going to be able to train and push myself.”

    While Raftis’ student-athlete background helped her with the transition, training on her own proved to be another adjustment, something Raftis would recognize this year especially, battling the conditions of a harsh winter in Toronto.

    “Not having a team to fall back on was something I really missed during those challenging times,” Raftis says, “…Having such a supportive group of women to train with and see almost every single day at Boston College was always very encouraging. We always uplifted and motivated each other.”  

    To combat all of these roadblocks, Raftis stays focused on her goals that drive her passion for the sport. Ambitious goals are a major key to Raftis’ success, holding her accountable and allowing her to have something to strive toward.

    “For me, it keeps me going, especially on those days where I lose motivation. It just reminds me that this is what I want so badly, and it kind of creates a fire under me,” Raftis says.

    After a much deserved two week rest period, Raftis is right back to her training schedule with sights set on the Berlin Marathon in the fall.

    Testing her skill set for the first time in Europe on the flat course of Germany’s capital is a challenge Raftis meets with great enthusiasm, with the goal of running a 2:30:00 firmly on her radar.      

    Over the course of her now thirteen-year running career, Raftis has entered an entirely new category of competition. With aspirations for the Olympic Games far in the future, Raftis is only focused on her next step, trusting her process and herself.          

    “After every marathon, as much as it hurts and it’s painful in the last couple of kilometers, I know I have more in me,” Raftis says, “So with more training, I think I can get to that next level… I just ultimately believe in myself.”

  • From Terre Haute to Team USA: Jason Swarens’s Big Throws and Bigger Goals

    By: Haley Cohen

    Jason Swarens was just a normal sixth-grade kid from Terre Haute, Indiana. He was like any other middle schooler trying out different sports to see which he felt was the best for him and what he could excel at.

    As he tried these various games, Jason found one sport where he felt like he could see himself being the best: shot put. Little did anyone know that Jason Swarens, that sixth-grade kid going through trials at track and field practice, would go on to be the 2020 Indiana Garage Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

    Now, he has carried over that success to the collegiate level, where Swarens was able to represent his home country on the world’s biggest stage. 

    College athletics is something that is not uncommon in the Swarens family.

    Both of his grandparents were students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His grandmother was a part of Wisconsin’s dance program and his grandfather participated in both football and track and field. His mother and her three siblings went on to also compete at the collegiate level, with each of them making their own path and working hard to reach their goals. This hardworking, goal-oriented mentality is what Swarens grew up around, which can be seen through the way he holds himself and his dedication to succeed.

    Swarens is now in his fifth year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is not only an incredible athlete, but also a smart, hardworking student majoring in mechanical engineering, with that goal-oriented mentality fueling his multi-faceted dedication.

    Swarens was able to represent Team USA at the Under-23 meet in Costa Rica and earned a spot as a Big Ten champion and a national runner-up. He most recently broke the University of Wisconsin-Madison school record with his 21.37-meter throw. All of these awards and titles are because of his drive and determination to be successful in whatever he does. 

    However, achievement is not the only reason Swarens loves shot put. Throughout his throwing career, he has traveled all over the United States and the world, making a significant number of connections with teammates and coaches from a variety of backgrounds. Every meet and practice has become more than just an event because it has shown him different cultures, giving him the opportunity to develop not only as an athlete, but also as a person. 

    Unfortunately, with the accomplishments, there have also been obstacles in Swarens’s path, namely injuries. Every athlete knows injuries come with playing sports. They are extremely frustrating and not only a strain on someone physically but mentally as well.

    In shot put, the motion itself demands explosive throws, which can cause persistent injuries. Those setbacks can mess up practice schedules and keep an athlete from even competing in events. For a dedicated athlete like Swarens, who thrives on routine and strength, those interruptions that injuries can cause are the worst part of the process.

    Swarens has been throwing for 10 years; he knows a thing or two about the sport and all the training and preparation behind it. What have been some of the main takeaways he’s discovered from the countless hours of practicing shot put?

    For the Big Ten champion, it’s all about approaching everything with discipline and precision. Swarens believes the effort that one puts into working on themselves outside of throwing is just as important as practicing the actual action of throwing.

    What exactly does that work entail outside of throwing? It’s the working out in the weight room, keeping up with recovery sessions, and focusing on academics in the classroom. All of these factors go into setting a college athlete up for success.

    For Swarens, it is not just about throwing far; it’s also about giving your all in every way you can in order to be the best athlete that you can be. Skipping class and giving half-hearted effort at practices and workouts can catch up quickly.

    Throughout Swarens’s career at Wisconsin, he has set himself apart, not just by his performance, but also by his attitude and mindset on success. His coaches have appreciated his dedication and commitment to personal success. His teammates have seen him as a trustworthy and motivated athlete. Shot put is a sport that is measured by inches. For Swarens, that success is not just because of natural talent, but also due to his ability to show up, achieve, and improve.

  • House vs. NCAA Settlement: The Death of the Walk-On and How Certain Programs Look to Keep Themselves Afloat 

    By: Trey Kenas

    Five. Thousand. Athletes. A number so staggering leaving one to even question what the total could possibly represent.

    That number stems from the settlement of the House vs. NCAA case, a landmark class-action lawsuit, which involves the NCAA agreeing to pay college athletes nearly $3 billion for the retroactive use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. This agreement also shifted how teams are structured, moving away from scholarship limits and towards roster limits, which makes those walk-on and partial-scholarship athletes pay the ultimate price: cutting them from the team.

    So what does 5,000 represent in totality? It means that 5,000 male and female collegiate athletes, who have spent their entire lives up until this point chasing a dream and an opportunity that could be considered once-in-a-lifetime, will be or already have been asked to step down from attempting to climb the ladder.

    Instead, they’ll have to choose either to pursue their dream at another university or be done altogether. Many athletes who have spent the majority of their lives playing their respective sport will now look to redefine themselves as humans as they prematurely move into the next chapter of their lives, while coaches who have lost depth in their roster will look to redefine their programs in order to keep them afloat. This is the story of the death of the walk-on.

    Oliver Ehrhardt, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was a member of the rowing team before being cut, was one of the many athletes impacted by the new roster ruling.

    On the flip side, Ehrhardt’s head coach at Wisconsin, Beau Hoopman, is now forced to revamp his program after the NCAA announced it will eliminate his roster by more than half, taking the original 90-man cap and trimming it down to 40.

    The implementations of the new NCAA scholarship rules and roster caps are set to be initiated at the start of the 2025-2026 academic year.

    In the case of walk-on Oliver Ehrhardt, he faced reality sooner than he would have expected. Ehrhardt got cut from the program in the fall of 2024, which he believes was due to the roster sizes shrinking.

    Prior to arriving on campus, Ehrhardt was uncommon in comparison to other rowers on Wisconsin’s men’s rowing team, having come into college with rowing experience at the prep level. Very few, if at most a couple athletes, currently on the roster had rowed at the prep level, which Ehrhardt believed to be a separator in that regard.

    The walk-on spent two years at Kent School, a private college preparatory boarding school located in Western Connecticut. However, that added edge proved to be insufficient at the end for Ehrhardt, who was subsequently cut from the roster.

    “It was kind of weird”, Ehrhardt shared. “We did one last erg (ergometer) test and then he (Coach Hoopman) brought out the roster board and I wasn’t on it. I first thought to myself: ‘what should I do?’ Rowing has been a part of my life for the last five years and I thought I could do it more competitively at the collegiate level, but unfortunately I couldn’t.”

    Ehrhardt initially pondered becoming a manager. But, there was a significant downside: he wouldn’t be able to row at Wisconsin again.

    “Being a manager means you can practice with the team and work out with them, but you can’t participate in any races”, Ehrhardt clarified. “On top of that, once you’re a manager, you can’t try out for the team again”, Ehrhardt said.

    The program also offers a practice player position, where individuals can stick around and practice with the team. This opportunity acts in unison with the team manager role, prohibiting the athlete from being able to compete in events. However, unlike a manager, a practice player does have the opportunity to try out again the following year and potentially earn themselves a spot.

    However, for Ehrhardt, it was time to be done.

    The walk-on opted to step away from the program for good, noting it was “definitely sad at first” and “bittersweet.” But, it also signaled a new beginning for Ehrhardt, allowing the walk-on time to begin focusing on other aspects of his life, such as school.

    While he doesn’t regret much from his time on the rowing team, Ehrhardt wishes UW Athletics had been more upfront with what was going on.

    “I think the biggest thing missing from this experience was transparency”, Ehrhardt said. “Long story short, we didn’t really know what was going on the entire time, and Coach Hoopman told us our fates were in the hands of the UW Athletic Department.

    “It felt like Coach Hoopman was the middle man in all of this and knew [some of] what was going on, but not all the details. Regardless it would have been nice to have a representative from the Athletic Department come and talk to us, but that wasn’t the case.”

    As Ehrhardt has now been away from the sport for close to eight months, his responsibilities with the rowing program are old news.

    That’s the opposite for Beau Hoopman, who understands this is just the beginning of a new journey that entails reshaping and keeping a program competitive that has been around for 150 years.

    With that, the two biggest hurdles Hoopman will face with the new changes will be recruiting and funding, with the latter being the more challenging.

    “With last year being our 150th as a program, we haven’t needed alumni up until this to help with funding. Since we’ve been riding the Rose Bowl hog, and as a non-profit, athletes weren’t being paid until recently, so you were able to fund your programs”, Hoopman said.

    With NIL now in the picture, this is no longer the case.

    “Revenue that’s generated by football is going back to football. Revenue that’s generated by basketball is going to basketball. The Olympic sports like us don’t generate revenue for the athletic department, so we’re going to have to figure out what we’re going to do to stay competitive”, Hoopman said.

    This is the struggle faced by many programs, such as Hoopman’s, who are digging into the phonebooks, calling up not only notable former alumni, but also general UW-Madison alumni and just general Wisconsinites who are eager and willing to help out the program by any means. Hoopman shared that the initial response from the alumni and general public has been incredibly positive.

    “We have a legacy fund that helps to endow the program. We have a goal of $50 million and are currently at $9 million just from last fall. We have a group that’s trying to raise money for NIL and recruiting, and are sitting at a good spot at the moment.”

    While the foundation for the financial support has been drawn out and executed thus far, the strategy behind upholding a consistent competitive roster is still a work in progress for Hoopman.

    As noted, the head coach lost over 50 roster spots in the House vs. NCAA settlement. Historically, Hoopman and his staff would send out approximately 1,000 letters to kids in Wisconsin and Minnesota to get them to come down to a camp and check out the sport. With the roster size reduction, the coaching staff feels the need to go in a different direction.

    “When you have a bigger pool, you have more guys to select from. That is now gone,” Hoopman said. “For the amount of time and resources it takes to cultivate those camps and lists of kids that are novices, the effort you put in for .01% return is not worth the time, especially if the kid ends up joining the team and they suck or they quit.”

    Athletes quitting during the season was not always a great worry of Hoopman with the 90-man roster size and his next man up mentality. But, with the roster officially sitting at 40 now, the head coach must find the right athletes and not miss on talent. This presents a tricky situation from multiple facets.

    To begin with, the Wisconsin men’s rowing team rarely gets commits from athletes who had rowing experience before coming into college. This is largely attributed to the fact that the rowing team doesn’t offer scholarships, turning away higher prospects to Ivy League and West Coast schools who are able to fit that niche.

    “It’s like buying a diamond ring,” Hoopman said about the recruiting process. “These guys (coaches who are able to offer scholarships) just go to the jewelry store. We go to the mine and find a bunch of slag and sift through it and try to find a raw piece of material. And then we compress it into a diamond. That’s what we do.”

    Given how Wisconsin had recruited preceding the new roster ruling, this puts Hoopman in a difficult situation. Opportunities to develop rowers over time have, in many ways, fallen out of reach. With the smaller roster size, there is now less margin for error.

    “We’re not recruiting guys like Cal does. We get guys that want to be here, but sometimes the guys that want to be here aren’t good enough”, Hoopman acknowledged. “20% of the kids we recruit are worthy varsity athletes. When you limit how many guys you can have in the squad, you have to hit on every guy. That’s the hard part about going down to 40. You can’t miss, because if you miss on a class now, you’re going to be slow for 3 years.”

    While the head coach continues to look for ways to sharpen his recruitment, he has also realized that there is practically no margin for error in regard to maintaining your roster. Hoopman can’t afford to lose rowers, as the consequences of not having enough rowers is that you won’t get a shot at the national championship. This, in itself, is Hoopman’s greatest fear.

    “If we have four guys quit next year, everybody goes to our national championship, everybody on the roster,” Hoopman shared. “If eight guys quit, we will have a hard time boating three eight’s, and three eight’s is what scores points. If you don’t have three eight’s, the likelihood of you getting invited to the national championship is not good, because they’ll take a team that has three eight’s. That’s what I worry about, being a victim of our own attrition.”

    While Hoopman doesn’t necessarily have all the answers at the moment, he knows that if there’s a will, there’s a way. He was a former Wisconsin rower himself who ultimately earned himself a spot on the Olympic team, capturing a gold medal at the 2004 games in Athens.

    But, Hoopman wasn’t an elite rower to begin with during his rowing days. He was initially towards the bottom of the roster when he arrived on campus and had to work his way to the top. Creating a habit of resiliency along his way to the top as a rower, Hoopman will now have to lean into it as a coach as the dawn of a new era begins: one filled with great uncertainty, but even greater hope.

  • Confidence through Compartmentalization: The Story of Ben James

    Author: Francesca Dowd

    Golf is a cyclical game. Many like to say 90% mental, 10% physical. Your mental game affects your golf, and your golf game affects your mental state. How can one be expected to control that?

    The answer is a glittering vision of a trophy. This trophy has found its place in your hands, the hands that have just finished playing through the dirt and sweat of the final round. Your heartbeat is climbing down from its record high during your last putt’s approach to the hole. The slight shake of your wrists sends a signal to your psyche that you gave it your all.

    For the first time in your life, you are able to see yourself. Not in a mirror, not in the roster headshot next to your scorecard of the day, not in the ‘I wish my mom didn’t still have that photo of me on her fridge’ way. You are able to be on the other side of the famous photo displaying the last hole of a prestigious course. You see you, and you see the trophy sitting in your hands.

    Ben James, one of the most promising features of the young golf landscape, can control his mental game. He spends at least one day a week in a moment of isolation. He requires a bed to lie on, a room alone, relaxing music, and his mind. Inside the same mind, he sometimes needs all his strength to fight against, he finds a way to exercise tranquility.

    “I imagine myself being successful at whatever I want to do for that week,” James said about his routine. “It might be golf – I might have a tournament coming up – so I’m imagining myself holding a trophy up at the end of the week. Or it might be a final. Or imagining myself having a good week in lifts. I try it on a Monday or Tuesday – put some headphones in and envision being successful in what I have going on that week.”

    Within the first two minutes of our conversation, he had accomplished every professional athlete’s dream: remind and relay to the public that, contrary to popular knowledge, they too are humans. James has been in the international golf spotlight since his remarkable win at the U.S Kids World Championship at age 10, but that doesn’t exempt him from his history exam on Thursday.

    At only 21 years old, he has already established himself as an incredibly accomplished athlete. Currently, he is ranked third among amateur golfers worldwide as a junior representing the University of Virginia.

    In his freshman season, he set the school record high of five individual tournament wins, earning him the 2023 Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award, while becoming only the second Cavalier to receive the honor. He also became the first golfer in UVA history to earn First-Team All-American status as a freshman, a recognition he has now earned twice.

    James just recently broke the all-time record for Career Top 10 Finishes at Virginia, with his 24th at the 2025 ACC Championship – a testament to both his consistency and dominance. Having had an incredible imprint on the golf world even prior to his collegiate career, he continues to shatter records at one of the most prestigious golf communities in college and is poised to make a significant impact in the professional realm.

    Yet, as with many athletes who dedicate their lives to sport, James faced hardship following a run of victories.

    The summer following his outstanding freshman season was objectively the lowest point of his career. He was underperforming and failing to make cuts, with looming pressures of the highly anticipated US Amateur tournament and the Walker Cup on his shoulders. His mental game was slipping. He knew there was a disconnect between the mind and the body when the strongest physical aspect of his game, his drive, was abnormally poor.

    He would arrive at the tee box just as he had done for the majority of his life – but his mind would race with stress and discomposure, so his body would swing in an unfamiliar and uptight motion. The drive would land less than ideally. Through this style of play, his statistics began to drop, and his mental strength began to retreat.

    James forced himself to isolate. He spent time in a quiet, calm cabin surrounded by people who would reinvigorate his love for the game. His focus was to get his mind off the world, and ironically, back into golf. This meant that he abandoned the thoughts of rankings, scores, competition, and wins. He let his mind wander instead to an informal place, a place that allowed him to play golf out of passion and thrill-seeking adventure. He was determined to improve his play in isolation because he genuinely sought the fun.

    When speaking of this time with his high school coach, Keith Kaliszewski, he was reminded of an instance he realized James boasts a unique ability to detach from the competitive nature of golf. Kaliszewski had given the team the day off from practice. The weather wasn’t great, and he deemed it to be well-deserved. He felt it necessary to give his athletes a break in order to remind them, especially James, that off-days were a necessary condition of success in sport. Spring break was coming up, go see a movie he thought.

    Kaliszewski was baffled to find out that James took this as an opportunity to do the unusual: play golf. He traded the normal practice facilities, including the country club, for the under-run and in dire need of better management public course down the road from school. James and some of his buddies – zero of whom were adept golfers – decided the best way to spend a less-than-lovely Tuesday afternoon was playing a round.

    It’s inferred that this was a rather informal trip, as teenage boys piled into a car straight off the bell from European history does not necessarily entail them wearing polos and sponsor-laden visors. The banter, the company, and the objective allowed James to make a distinction between his enjoyment and his dedication to reaching professional-level sport.

    Of course, this wasn’t able to limit his talent. In this one-off trip to the Sleeping Giant course, James accidentally shot the course record. His scorecard still hangs on the wall of the stained green carpeted clubhouse that smells of your grandfather’s old cigarettes. Seriously, my 88-year-old grandfather has been playing here with his high school buddies every sunny day since the 9th grade – they did not hold the previous club record.

    James possesses an innate ability to enjoy the game. Within this lies the ability to recognize when he is not. The summer following his freshman year brought a shift in enjoyment, which contributed to the mental conflicts on the course. In his words, he just wasn’t having fun.

    Of the group from Ben’s record round at Sleeping Giant, one seemingly unprofessional, collar-most-likely-unbuttoned-at-all-times friend, was able to offer James an escape. Vincent Landau and Ben James were classmates at Hamden Hall Country Day School. A year after graduation, perhaps a touch more mature, the pair met for another round of golf along the scenic coast of Connecticut.

    The course was nestled in the quiet woods of Branford, with towering oaks framing each fairway. Encompassing the greenery was a strikingly blue horizon and bobbing sailboats glistening in the afternoon light. The sea breeze met the still air of the course, promising a calm and cool energy. This scene vastly contrasted that of the unkept, down-the-road-from-school course, as well as the expectation-fueled competitions James was most in tune with.

    The two were lightheartedly “shooting-the-sh**t” when talks of the US Amateur Tournament came up. Unbeknownst to Landau, this was around the height of James’ upsetting summer season. In what was described as a joking manner around the tee box, the two settled on Landau caddying for James at the 123rd US AM at Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado. Landau had never caddied before. James was aching to get his semi-professional heart back into the game. It was a recipe for, surprisingly, success. 

    The tournament went ecstatically well for golf’s new Beavis and Butt-Head. James rediscovered his center of gravity in the game, leading to his best finish at the tournament in his advancement to the semifinals. His mind and his body connected through the remarks, or lack thereof, of the caddy by his side. Landau, who came to be known as ‘Vinsanity’ by James’s family and friends that weekend, described his role as expectation-less.

    “That’s the thing, he wasn’t looking for experience in the golf caddying area. He was looking for something to keep his mind off how serious it was. He was asking for a friend, not a colleague.”

    Cherry Hills was littered with a frenzy of media, eager fans, and the top 312 amateur golfers. Yet the pair found a way to make it their own bubble. No conversations of substance, no conversations of pressure, no conversations of golf. Their laughter overcame the whispers of the tall grass around the course. That was until their steps reached the ball.

    James would then flip his routine switch, while Landau became less of a caddy and more of a witness. He and the world watched as James’ shoulders rolled back, jaw set, and eyes calculated his line. His gaze would then lift to the sky for a brief, almost sacred, pause. It would return striking and deliberate, settling back on the green just before the stroke. He became almost meditative – his grip wasn’t tight, but focused. Then, he shot successfully. Multiple times. Landau deserves a sliver of professional credit as he was, in fact, responsible for cleaning the clubs.

    With each immature joke, composed breath, and ritualistic practice, James rebuilt the unique confidence that had always set him apart. He brings an energy to the course that parallels the top professionals, exuberantly confident within the mind while externally unpretentious. Those who are lucky enough to play with him, from his lifelong coaches to some of his closest competitors, remark on his radiating confidence as wildly intimidating.

    “As soon as you get paired with him, and you get out there, it’s like ‘uh oh, I’m in trouble,’” said Coach Kaliszewski. “He’ll hit his first shot, and then he just takes off walking, and you are staring at his back most of the round. It’s all subtle stuff. Absolutely none of it is rude, or unfair, or unsportsmanlike. He’s just confident. He is never slouching; he is never lagging behind. He is always just out there doing his thing – so good luck keeping up with him.

    “This style of control is not talent alone, it is a mindset; it is a mantra. The difference in the level of play comes from the mental process within a shot, is your mind telling you don’t mess this up or I’ve got this shot? For James, it is always the latter. Tell yourself your beliefs 100 times when you are out there. Confidence over everything. If there’s a tight fairway – maybe around the 18th hole and it’s super important – I’m thinking I really need to get this in play, I’ll tell myself, ‘I am going to this fairway.‘ I’ll repeat that to myself about 10 times before I hit a shot, 9/10 times it goes the way I like.”

    His positive accounts on the course, married with his dedication on off days, are guiding him toward mastery of his mental game. But James will always say there is room for improvement. This humility is stitched into the seams of his routine, keeping him grounded even as his performance soars.

    He has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. He has felt the silencing pain of missed cuts, the mental cartwheels no one else was able to understand, the wins and his face plastered on NBC sports, the noise of expectations, the rush of a playoff-winning putt. It was within these moments that he gained Stoic skills. Moderation and Meditation are where his heart lies. His mental practice and his ability to find the balance between pure passion and professionalism will gain him far more life lessons than winning.

    James has transformed the meaning of the mental game in golf by emphasizing the role of the heart. The heart that brings him to his history classes on Tuesday, the heart that envisions a trophy, not for the sake of vanity, but for the sake of grounding his guidance, the heart that yearns for a friendly face in the greens of Cherry Hills. The heart carries his belief that he has the merit to win every bit of success offered in the world.

    Because on most days, he achieves it.

  • Restless to Relentless: Everett Levin’s ADHD Pickleball Edge 

    By: Jonah Altmann

    “Joe!” “Joe!” “Come here, bro!” That was Everett Levin only 5 minutes into our conversation at the Brats on State Street patio. His eyes have been darting back and forth for much of the conversation. He takes a second to notice everyone walking by on the street, just barely visible from our seats on the middle bench. He finally caught someone, his friend Joe, passing by.  

    Everett, a star player on UW-Madison’s Club Pickleball Team, is well aware of his struggles to focus. “I’m not your ordinary player,” Levin told me. “No one is quite like me on the court.” 

    Levin was diagnosed with ADHD at age 13, but notes that he has always struggled to sit still. In most situations, his constant energy and the need to move around were limitations. Classroom settings were difficult; homework and exams were nearly impossible. Levin’s parents were always searching for new ways for their jittery son to channel his energy. He was constantly trying different sports and hobbies. For a while, ice hockey was his channel. Yet the combination of only getting on the ice for short periods before having to be back on the bench and always being inside with only limited space to move left him unsatisfied. One day, about six years ago, everything changed. “[My parents] got me a racket and all of a sudden I’ve been playing ever since.” 

    Pickleball has become the ideal avenue to channel all his restlessness. It first started with being able to get out from under a roof. “I’m the type of kid who needs to be outdoors,” Levin told me. “I needed the freedom to run around and sh*t.” (Levin did specifically request we speak out on the patio). 

    His affinity for the sport did not stop there. “I always (get to) be moving around,” when playing pickleball, Levin said. “I am moving my feet, moving my hands, moving my head around, even looking for the birds in the sky. And for the first time, no one was ever really telling me to stop.” 

    Levin’s route to becoming a highly-skilled player happened with ease. His passion for the sport ensured that he could be found at the local park or gym almost every day. His practices were long and breaks were short. Levin does not tire easily. He would often stay on the court for hours after lessons or matches were over. It wasn’t long before some of the more seasoned players took notice of Levin and invited him to their matches. The challenge only fueled his desire to play more. By the time he arrived in Madison for his freshman year, Levin knew he was ready for club-level competition. 

    Yet, not everyone has seen Levin’s maximum-motion style as an asset. “Other people are just like standing there and serving and I’m moving left and right. I don’t know, like f*cking bouncing up and down. So yea, I definitely get looks.” Some see this behavior as evidence that Levin is not ready for this level of competition. They find his methods too immature or juvenile for serious play. “People have said things to me suggesting I should just play for fun.” But for Levin, this is all part of the competitive pickleball process. “I do move around like a lunatic… I do struggle to focus just like I am during this interview. But that’s also just been throughout my whole life. But to doubters of his pickleball abilities, “I look at them in the eye [and say] I can do this, I know I can do this.” 

    “Jimmy!” “Jimmy!”

    Levin’s darting eyes catch another friend walking down State Street. Jimmy, who barely remembered Levin from their class together two years ago, didn’t have time to stick around and chat. A few minutes later, Levin forgot about Jimmy, took a breath to refocus and was ready to talk pickleball again.  

    To Levin, pickleball is the right for him because he feels that in this sport, his ADHD is an extra-ability rather than a limitation. While he acknowledges he gets distracted on the court, Levin told me this is true of any pickleball player. “ When I’m looking at the birds in the sky or the insects that are on the ground… a lot of times people say it then I need to snap back in.” But for Levin and his short attention span, these other thoughts are momentary. “They all forget that I can’t think about the birds or the insects for too long. Even if I wanted to.” This might not be true for other players. “I have teammates and opponents that begin to think about other things for 5 or 10 minutes during a match.” But for Levin, this is never a problem. Once the point starts, “I’m super locked in.” 

    One of Levin’s practice partners, Owen Turk, has seen firsthand how Levin’s playing style impacts his game. “Everett plays like he has unlimited energy,” Turk said. “Sure, I’ve seen him like down on the court in the middle of practice and look up at the sky for a while,” Turk said while giggling. “But we all know him to wear down opponents just by constantly moving. Most people don’t play like that, and it definitely throws them off.” Turk also noted that Levin’s fast reaction times are a major strength. “He doesn’t overthink shots like a lot of people do. When you’re playing him, you always have to be ready for a quick return.”

    Levin also sees his restlessness as giving him good reaction times in a sport where fast reflexes are key. “I’m a different player because I move more than other people.” While others sometimes think too much about when and how to hit, for Levin, this is a thoughtless process. His brain is firing at hyper-speed. “I’m just so used to bouncing around mindlessly that when the ball is flying at you, it is so easy to just react.”  

    Also, not everyone can handle playing against Levin and his style. “Sometimes I’m moving so much, people think I’m a f*cking nut job on the court. “ This is not only necessary for Levin to succeed, but also sometimes hampers uptight opponents. “They think more about me than the actual point that’s going on. I’m calling them and that is a distraction. But for them, not me. That’s perfect.” This also serves Levin well in his longer matches. As other players get tired, he just gets more fired up. “It feels like my energy is unlimited.”

    Levin’s jumpiness has not only helped him make substantial achievements on the pickleball court. He has also seen improvement back at home. As we walk into Levin’s apartment, I am quickly struck by how many different types of food are out on the counter, especially for a college student. Levin explained that he despises eating the same thing twice in a day. He gets bored with one thing too quickly. His room is filled with different relaxation tactics. A lava lamp, which Levin tells me he finds especially peaceful, a standing desk, and an eye mask for sleep. All of which Levin says can help him calm down. But after a couple of hours of people, these relaxation methods are not always necessary. “My homework might take someone 10 minutes, but it takes me an hour.” Except after a long day of pickle, “I feel like I’ve got it out of my system. I feel I can sit down at my desk and actually power through.” 

    Levin hopes his story inspires other kids with ADHD to find their own outlets and talents. Whether he wins or loses a match, one thing is clear: Everett Levin is playing his game on his terms. He hopes other restive athletes with boundless energy and fierce dedication follow in his footsteps and find avenues where their ADHD is an asset. “The world of pickleball better be ready for us.”

  • Pioneers on the Sidelines: How Two Students Transformed Wisconsin B1G+ Broadcasts

    By David Giardino

    When Krissy Birdsall and Rachel Cohen looked at Wisconsin’s B1G+ broadcasts, they noticed something was missing. While other schools featured sideline reporters bringing viewers closer to the action, Wisconsin’s student-run broadcasts lacked this dynamic element. Rather than accepting the status quo, these two determined journalism students decided to create the change they wanted to see.

    “For me, I noticed there was a ton of interest from people at B1G+ and there wasn’t really an option to pursue on-air reporting,” Birdsall explained. “Since we don’t have a student-run TV station, it felt like there was a gap in what we could be doing as sports journalists.”

    For Cohen, the dream of sideline reporting had been brewing since childhood. “Being a sideline reporter is something I’ve always wanted to do ever since I was in elementary school watching football,” she shared. “I always loved the humanizing aspect and the reporting role so much so that I used to write fake football reports with my weekly vocab words.”

    Their path to implementation was not straightforward. Cohen began advocating for sideline reporting from her freshman year, encountering resistance with each attempt. “Every time he would say no, but I kept e-mailing and e-mailing,” she said, recalling her persistent communications with her supervisor.

    Birdsall joined the push during her junior year and together with fellow student Ariel, they formed a united front. “Realizing we should be asking for sideline as a group, Ariel, Krissy and I banded together and emailed as one,” Cohen explained. “We felt like strength in numbers would help but also show there’s a number of people that want it.”

    Their strategy worked. By the end of Birdsall’s junior year, their proposal received the green light, but challenges still remained. “The biggest hurdle was figuring out the tech aspect of it and if it was even possible to do at UW with the equipment we had,” Birdsall noted. “I think for us, making plans to do as much as possible with as little as we could helped push that process along as we were willing to try and fail to make it work.”

    The summer before implementation became a flurry of planning. “Once we got the green light, it was really cool to see the collaborative effort to figure out the timing and logistics to make it possible,” Birdsall recalled. “We communicated a ton through texts, calls, FaceTime and sharing a [google] doc and adding ideas.”

    Their persistence paid off when sideline reporting debuted during the 2024/2025 school year. The results have impressed even the founders. “The growth of our sideline reporters in just one year has been incredible,” Birdsall remarked. “Every time someone hops on the mic they improve in some shape or form and it has been really cool to see how much we’ve grown as a broadcast, production and reporting crew since September.”

    As they look toward the future, both have visions for how the program can evolve. Cohen hopes to see more dynamic coverage, “I would love to see more real-time reporting, which is something I feel like is missing right now. We all have preplanned stories which are great to share, but also talking to coaches at halftime and sharing what improvements they want to make or if an injury happens, giving that insider information would be amazing.”

    For Birdsall, who is graduating in May of 2025, her focus is on the program’s sustainability and growth. “I would love for it to continue to grow, evolve and expand,” she said. “The interest is there and if we can be a small part of growing students in their sports reporting journeys, it makes it all worth it.”

    Through determination, collaboration and a willingness to experiment, Birdsall and Cohen haven’t just changed the B1G+ broadcasts at Wisconsin—they’ve created opportunities for future generations of student journalists to gain valuable experience in sports reporting. Their story demonstrates how student initiative can transform campus media and create pathways for professional development that didn’t previously exist.

  • Change is Necessary: How the MLB “Ghost Runner” Rule is Transforming the Game in a Positive Way

    By Jordan Berendt

    “They’re ruining baseball by changing the game.” 

    This is a phrase that MLB fans, players, and coaches hear all too often nowadays. Particularly, since the MLB introduced what is often referred to as the automatic “ghost runner” rule in 2020, nostalgic baseball supporters have not held back from voicing their complaints. 

    The automatic runner rule was added during the 2020 season as part of the MLB’s attempt to shorten games and reduce players’ exposure to one another in the midst of a global pandemic. This rule consists of placing a runner on second base at the start of each extra inning during regular season games. Despite the initial mixed fan reactions to this change, many baseball lovers refused to believe the rule would last much past 2020. 

    However, as the pandemic slowly subsided and the world returned to a new normal, the rule still remained. This sparked further debate over whether having a “ghost runner” was changing the beloved game of baseball. Despite critics’ arguments, the rule was permanently implemented by the MLB prior to the 2023 season. 

    So, just like life after the pandemic, can’t fans adjust to this rule being the “new normal” in baseball? 

    The answer for many – no. 

    Unfortunately, the quote “change is scary” resonates far too closely with several long-time baseball fans. 

    I would argue, however, what these OG baseball fanatics desperately need to hear is this – CHANGE IS NECESSARY! 

    Similar to how educational curriculums, the English language, people, and many more things evolve, sports do too. Now, more than ever, Major League Baseball is in need of changes like the “ghost runner” rule to appeal to younger audiences. Audiences that will make up the future of baseball. 

    Considering this rule is now official, fans might as well try and focus on the positives. Below, I have listed five advantages of the automatic runner rule that baseball purists should consider next time they feel compelled to complain. 

    Shorter Games

    Many fans and players have come to appreciate how the automatic runner rule has significantly decreased the length of games. While the average MLB game time in 2019 was three hours and five minutes, a typical game was just two hours and 36 minutes in 2024. 

    Additionally, there is no denying that this shorter game time has increased younger generations’ appeal for the game. According to the American Psychology Society, all people, but especially children, have attention spans that are continually shrinking. One of the major contributors to this is our ever-growing digital world. 

    So, let me ask you this, what fun would extra innings be if nobody is there at the end of the game to see the outcome?

    Increased Scoring 

    Beginning extra innings with a runner starting on second leads teams to a greater chance of scoring. This fact has been proven throughout the last four years ever since the automatic runner rule was implemented. Today, teams are scoring closer to two runs on average in a single extra inning, a big improvement in most player’s eyes. 

    Healthier Players

    The longer the game, the more strain players suffer. As a result, injuries are more likely to occur and starting players are replaced by those who typically sit the bench. 

    Since making the “ghost runner” rule permanent, all players, especially pitchers, have seen a reduced risk of injury and are facing less physically taxing circumstances. Moreover, because pitchers are experiencing less pain, the negative effects of an extra inning game do not carry on for days and no longer mess with team’s pitching rotations. 

    Elimination of Marathon Games 

    In baseball, marathon games refer to games that extend into 15 innings or more. While those who oppose the automatic runner rule often favor the nostalgia associated with a 17-inning game, most people today simply do not have the time or patience to wait these games out. 

    As technology has progressed, distractions have increased, and people’s abilities to multitask have slowly dwindled. Marathon games are not practical in today’s society.

    More Action

    Lastly, who wants to go to an MLB game and see only one or two runs scored? Not me. Because the automatic runner rule has helped increase scoring in extra innings, fans are likely to get more bang for their buck in terms of entertainment. This rule has also added a new layer of unpredictability to the game, forcing teams to strategize like never before.

    Ultimately, if the reasons above are not enough to convince you that the automatic runner rule is part of the facelift that Major League Baseball needs, then I am afraid you might be stuck in the past. 

    While it is understandable that many adults feel deeply connected to the “traditional” game of baseball, change is both necessary and inevitable. It is time that professional baseball lovers start accepting this and prioritizing the future of the game. 

    As every loyal MLB fan knows, “There’s no crying in baseball!”

  • From Madison to McClimon: The Relentless Rise of Delaney Cox

    Written by: Peyton Cox

    It was a 50-degree September afternoon at UW’s McClimon Complex, and the young sophomore on the Wisconsin Women’s Soccer team finally heard the words she had been waiting for all her life.

    “And Number 8, from Madison, WI, Delaney Cox.”

    After years of hard work, despite setbacks and uncertainty, the Madison native earned her first collegiate start for her hometown team, representing the Motion W.

    Cox laced up her cleats a little tighter that day, not out of nerves but out of pride. Pride in every early morning spent running sprints when nobody was watching. Pride in every lonely rehab session when her knee ached and her future felt uncertain—pride in the simple, stubborn belief that she belonged here, even when doubts crept in.

    As the local talent jogged onto the field for her first start with the Wisconsin women’s soccer team, it wasn’t just a personal milestone. It was a moment years in the making, built through persistence, heartbreak, and a relentless drive to prove she was more than just another name buried in the recruiting files.

    For Delaney Cox, being a Badger wasn’t promised. It had to be earned.

    Growing up just a few miles from campus, Cox got her first taste of the game surrounded by young boys on the Madison Magic’s “Skittles.”

    It was clear, even from age 6, that this little girl would grow up to be a strong soccer star. From the co-ed team to the muddy fields of Madison’s 56ers Soccer Club, Cox began to turn talent into skill and interest into passion. Long before college dreams were even a whisper, she was chasing balls in her backyard and building a reputation for her natural athleticism and an even fiercer competitive streak.

    “I remember her coming home from three-day tournaments and running straight to the backyard to work on her shooting ability and shot selection,” shared Todd Cox, her proud father.

    But the path from local standout to Big Ten starter would be anything but straight.

    Madison Memorial High School saw her promise as a young freshman and offered her a spot on the varsity soccer team without attending tryouts. While Cox was away for a tournament across the country, the young player sent in her highlight reel, and that was all they needed.

    However, COVID stripped away her chances of showcasing what she was made of to the high school team and surrounding schools. As the world was paused, Cox continued to work and push for the day when she would make her mark.

    Finally, a year later, the second spring season was approaching, and Cox prepared to represent her high school for the first time. She had built solid relationships with the coaches and teammates, and the excitement of stepping onto Mansfield Field a year later than expected motivated her.

    To prepare for the upcoming games, Madison Memorial High School scheduled scrimmages against local teams to get experience facing real competition. On a sunny Saturday morning in spring, as her sister prepared for her senior prom and energy was high, Delaney pulled up her socks and untucked her green and white jersey for the first time.

    And then the unimaginable happened.

    As her teammate threw the ball in, Cox planted on her left leg while attempting to cut to the right when she heard a pop. As she fell to the ground, a silence broke over the crowd while screams echoed from the field, making it apparent what had just occurred.

    Another setback. Another year, she could not prove to coaches why she belonged—yet another opportunity.

    “My lowest moment was feeling like everything I worked for was slipping away. Watching from the sidelines and not being able to help my team was really hard,” shared Cox, who was set to rehab for 9 months and then could only hope she was the same player she was before.

    By leaning into the support of her family, teammates, and coaches, she was reminded why she loved the game in the first place. It was always about competing, growing, and proving not to others but to herself that she could overcome whatever was in front of her.

    And she did just that.

    Just one year later, as a junior, Delaney Cox was the heart of the Memorial Spartans soccer team. The offense revolved around her skill and on-field IQ. Being a varsity cross-country runner also helped her fitness and showcased to fans that she was more than just a good soccer player—she was a great athlete.

    In the months leading up to her ACL tear, Cox and her family decided to leave the local club team she had represented for years to increase her chances of being recognized nationally by college coaches.

    “We were at a tournament in Milwaukee, and Delaney barely touched the ball the entire game – just standing there up top, completely out of the action,” her father, Todd Cox, recalled. “That’s when I realized: if she wanted to play at the next level, we had to get her in front of coaches. So I asked her: ‘Are you really serious about this?’ Because if she was, it was time to make a change.”

    Although she transferred clubs and then faced the nine-month setback, she made the most of the first chance she got to make a difference for the Milwaukee SC Wave. Following an impressive high school season, Cox was finally able to contribute with her new club teammates and helped them win a national championship.

    In just a few short months, she was named to the 2022 first-team all-conference, first-team all-area, and all-state honorable mention teams at Memorial before scoring the game-winning goal in the semifinals for FC Wave, which sent her team to the national title game.

    All of that hard work was paying off. She proved to herself that she could overcome any situation. However, her dream of playing at the Division 1 level had not yet been fulfilled.

    When asked what she would tell her junior-year self while repairing her ACL, Cox said:

    “I would tell myself that I am going to come back stronger, not just physically but mentally too. Continue to trust the process, even when it feels like nothing is going my way. The hard days are building you into someone you’ll be proud of.”

    Things had been going her way, and her father noticed. However, the first two years of setbacks undoubtedly played a significant role in her recruiting journey.

    Between her ACL tear and the COVID shutdowns, she fell off the radar of most top-tier college programs — something her dad, Todd Cox, understood.

    “I knew why schools weren’t calling — but I also knew she just needed a chance,” he said.

    That chance nearly came in the form of a full-ride offer from Loyola, but the excitement quickly faded. “On the way home, she broke down in tears,” Todd recalled. “She didn’t want to go there. That’s when I told her: if this is really about playing for Wisconsin, it’s time to reach out and see what happens.”

    Delaney reached out to Paula Wilkins, the University of Wisconsin Women’s Soccer Head Coach, to express her passion and goal of representing the Badgers and her recent success. Despite the recruiting class being full, Wilkins invited her to talk. Cox and her father walked into Wilkins’ office without expectations. However, the young player recalled that they spoke about soccer for about five minutes before discussing their shared love for Door County, sports, and family for the remainder of the time.

    Wilkins loved her and was given all she needed: an opportunity.

    “Nothing was promised, but it also made me want it more,” Cox shared.

    Ever since being given the chance to walk on and earn her spot on this team, Delaney has proven herself every step of the way.

    Delaney formed great relationships with her coaches, became close with her teammates, and became a stronger and more well-rounded college soccer player. While appearing in 7 games and playing just 44 minutes, she could still showcase what makes her unique. As a forward for her entire life, she brought a constant offensive threat to every team she played for. However, the Wisconsin coaching staff noticed her athleticism made her dangerous on both sides of the ball.

    Following her first season, she leaped from good to great, transitioning from offense to defense. Her ability to present an attacking force while defending the ball at a high level earned her minutes and the chance to fulfill her lifelong dream.

    At the beginning of her sophomore season, Coach Wilkins called Cox into her office and told her they saw Delaney as a pivotal player and a starter on the roster.

    After hearing her name over the loudspeaker and waving out to the little girls whose exact seats she grew up in, Delaney shared that “the feeling of finally seeing all the work, sacrifice, and belief pay off made everything worth it.”

    But just as everything seemed to click — the confidence, the minutes, the starting spot — another setback appeared.

    Cox was diagnosed with a stress fracture. The issue wasn’t her commitment or play; that was never the problem; it was the toll of giving too much without enough fuel in return. She had worked herself into the starting lineup for the season’s first four games, but her body couldn’t keep up.

    “It was draining,” she admitted. “After everything I had fought for, to be sidelined again was really hard.”

    Only this time, something was different.

    This version of Delaney Cox didn’t question whether she belonged. She already knew she did. Her mindset was stronger. Her body would be, too. And after everything she had already overcome, she wasn’t about to let one more obstacle keep her from doing what she loved.

    She’s spent this spring rebuilding carefully and intentionally to be even better in the fall. Not just physically, but as a teammate, leader, and example of what it means to fight for the jersey as a hometown hero.

    “I hope people see passion, grit, and joy when they watch me play,” Cox said. “I want to be remembered as someone who never gave up — and who truly loved being a Badger.”

    And as her sister, whether her name is written in record books or her college career ends with just 90 more minutes played, I will forever be proud of the girl who took a chance on herself, who didn’t just represent the Motion W, but carried the Cox name with honor, fight, and pride.

  • DR. ANDREA SPIKER: BREAKING BARRIERS

    Written by: Alex Dickett

    Who would you see when the television camera pans to the bench at a University of Wisconsin-Madison men’s basketball game? To answer, you would first see head coach Greg Gard, the starting players, the reserves, and the athletic trainer.  Not surprisingly, they are all men.  However, directly behind the bench in the second row, you will see a woman – a woman who is one of the most important and respected members of the men’s basketball program. That woman is Dr. Andrea Spiker, the orthopedic team physician for the men’s basketball team.

    Until recently, Dr. Spiker was the orthopedic team physician for the men’s and women’s basketball teams. She held that role for the women’s team for 8 years. Now, she focuses on the men’s team. Dr. Spiker attends all home games and must be ready for whatever injury may happen to either team. 

    “I am on call 24/7, typically communicating with the athletic trainer for the team, available to answer any questions about mostly musculoskeletal [issues]. . . We are responsible for the visiting team as well,” Dr. Spikers says. “So if anything happens to one of those athletes, as the physician in attendance at that game, we’ll take care of them.”  

    Dr. Spiker’s journey to her role as the orthopedic team physician was far from linear. Although initially interested in musculoskeletal medicine, she was quickly inundated with learning internal medicine and cardiology during medical school. She thought she would go into one of those fields. It wasn’t until her time practicing orthopedic surgery during the last two weeks of the third year of medical school that she found her passion again in the orthopedic surgery field.  

    “I rotated in orthopedic surgery and just completely fell in love with the ability to immediately fix what was broken, to restore in one instance or in one surgical episode, a patient’s ability to function.”  

    Dr. Spiker enjoyed learning the nuances of musculoskeletal medicine and surgical care, as they were not taught much in medical school. Despite the challenges, she enjoys the benefits that have come with it and hasn’t looked back since.  

    “It was opening this entire new world that hadn’t been shown to me before, which was really challenging and exciting. It’s a little bit more challenging than some other fields sometimes, but totally worth it.” 

    In July 2021, NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) was introduced into collegiate sports, forever changing the landscape. NIL has allowed college athletes to profit from company endorsements and private investors to pay athletes to play for their schools. This, in turn, has led to many athletes entering the transfer portal, which has also affected the patient/doctor relationship. 

    Dr. Spiker commented, “We’re seeing a little bit more of a rotating door of athletes coming in and out. I would say it’s kind of interesting because I think it’s detrimental to the students in not having continuity of care from their team doctors.” 

    Despite the existence of NIL, the transfer portal, and the accompanying difficulty in forming continuing care relationships with some athletes, Dr. Spiker knows how important it is to be physically present for the athletes.  During the basketball season, she works a few times a week with the men’s basketball athletic trainer, Brent Neuharth, who has a very close working relationship with the athletes.  Although the athletes desire to play, Dr. Spiker helps them understand that she always looks out for their best interests.  

    Neuharth said of Dr. Spiker, “She’s awesome to work with. She’s a great surgeon, a great orthopedic physician in terms of evaluating and developing plans of care for each individual . . . She cares about what’s best for that individual and thinks thoroughly about all the options and allows the student athlete to take part in making decisions that are best for them individually.” 

    The orthopedic surgery field, however, is seriously lacking in gender diversity. As of a few years ago, only 6.5% of the orthopedic surgeons in the United States were women. There is no other medical subspecialty with a lower percentage of women.  This lack of gender diversity can challenge women attempting to break into and succeed in the field. Indeed, being in such a male-dominated field, Dr. Spiker often feels the need to prove herself.  “You have to be better and more by the book,” she said. Dr. Spiker described being a female orthopedic surgeon as if there were only a single red dot in a field of 100 black dots.  

    “No matter what happens, all eyes are on that red dot. Everybody’s just paying more attention to you from the get-go, so everything you do is under a little bit more critique.” 

    Dr. Spiker notes, however, that the lack of diversity in the field is improving because 24% of the medical residents currently in the orthopedic surgery field are women.

    Dr. Spiker discussed the importance of having mentors for anyone interested in orthopedic surgery. As she began her career, she had several women as mentors and role models, as she was the residency program director, attending physicians, and other residents.  

    “I think it was very important for me as a female in orthopedics to see successful women in that role.”  

    Dr. Spiker singled out Dr. Tammy Scerpella as a key mentor in her journey to her current position. Dr. Scerpella is the Chair of the Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation at UW Madison. 

    “She’s the one who recruited me here, and I would say she’s a huge reason why I ended up coming to Wisconsin. . . Excellent surgeon. It helped me see that it’s possible to be a woman in this field and have a life outside of it as well.”

    While some may think that being the men’s basketball orthopedic team physician is Dr. Spiker’s only job, that could not be further from the truth. Dr. Spiker is on staff as an orthopedic surgeon at UW Health in Madison. She developed the hip preservation program at UW Health and treats many patients with hip, knee, and other orthopedic issues. Dr. Spiker noted that being a team physician often involves additional, unpaid time. For example, she commented that sports medicine surgeons usually have surgery or clinical appointments from 7 am to 5 pm. Then, they will attend evening or weekend basketball games during the season.  Despite the extra time involved with being the team’s orthopedic physician, Dr. Spiker has no regrets and enthusiastically embraces that role.  

    “It goes to . . . our love and our passion for doing this for the athletes.”

    Dr. Srino Bharam is one of Dr. Spiker’s colleagues in the orthopedic surgery field. Dr. Bharam is the Director of Hip Preservation at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, New York. He met Dr. Spiker when she started her practice because she trained with one of his colleagues in New York in hip preservation.  

    “I was impressed with her because she was driven, motivated, and dedicated to hip preservation very early on in her career.”  

    But even with all her accomplishments, the characteristic that Dr. Bharam admires most about Dr. Spiker is her relentless efforts to advocate for diversity in the field. “She’s a champion for female orthopedic surgery.  She’s very active. She takes an active role advocating for female orthopedic surgeons.”

    Although not the first woman to succeed in the orthopedic surgery field, Dr. Spiker no doubt had to overcome the challenges and roadblocks inherent in that field. Dr. Spiker has not just succeeded in a male-dominated medical subspecialty; she has earned the respect of players, athletic trainers, and the UW Athletic Department as the orthopedic team physician for the men’s basketball team, once unheard of for a female doctor. So the next time you are at the Kohl Center for a men’s basketball game, look for the woman in the second row behind the bench among a sea of men. That’s Dr. Spiker.

  • The Heart of a Champion

    Written by: Natalie Compe

    National champion volleyball player. Second team all-tournament. Honorable mention all-tournament. Future doctor. None of these personal victories would’ve been possible without a huge setback in Mason Durst’s life.

    At the age of 13, Mason discovered he had a heart condition called Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT). In this condition, your heart suddenly beats much faster than normal due to abnormal electrical signals in the upper chambers. It’s not life-threatening, but it can cause dizziness, shortness of breath, or even cause you to faint in some cases. 

    This would be Mason’s end of contact sports. He used to play football, baseball, and basketball, but had to change his passion to something else. This is when he found his love for volleyball. Luckily, he hit a growth spurt in his junior year of high school and rose to be 6’7. This was unstoppable in his game, and he soon took his team to the State in his senior year, where they were victorious. 

    His game was outstanding, with an average hitting percentage of .263% and a 44.9% kill rate. He was also an asset in his serve reception, with 152 receptions and only eight errors throughout the season. This opened up many opportunities for his team to put the point away. These stats were big indicators of the team’s extreme success, resulting in the team’s win in the state volleyball tournament. 

    Mason was offered a variety of D1 offers from schools, including USC and Ohio State, but he declined because he had always wanted to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison doesn’t have a men’s team, and he was unsure if he wanted to continue playing or focus on his school life. I spoke with a former club teammate of Mason, Dylan Macriola, and he greatly impacted Mason’s decision to play in college. Macriola quotes, “I remember playing against Mason in high school, and I was always mesmerized by how he played. When I heard he committed to Madison, I knew I had to get him to play club.” After several DMs, texts, and interactions, Mason continued this passion for volleyball throughout college, where he joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison Men’s Club Volleyball team. Macriola’s persistence and determination had the biggest impact on Mason’s decision, and overall, Mason looked up to Macriola on the court and elected him captain. 

    Ultimately, his decision to play impacted the team significantly, and he met some of his best friends through it. He proved his worth by being voted captain and holding various positions on the Executive Board over the past two years. After talking with one of his current teammates, Nathan Chung, some words he used to describe him were “accountable”, “persistent”, and “empathetic” – qualities that make Mason not just a great player, but a great leader. Chung and Mason played club together for years before entering college, and created such a great bond that they became freshman year roommates. They worked dynamically on and off the court and have made a great deal of impact on each other’s lives. 

    Chung continues to speak highly of Mason, saying, “he is one of the biggest reasons I still play today. He made the game more enjoyable with his contagious personality. We’ve pushed each other for as long as I can remember, and I am glad he will be my teammate for the last game of my college career.” 

    He has proven to be a leader on and off the court, and it is apparent that his teammates look up to him. 

    Every year, hundreds of teams from across the country gather for the national club volleyball tournament, competing for the title of best in the nation. For Mason, this stage has become familiar. He has played in two national championship matches—one as a sophomore, one as a junior—each time in front of thousands of spectators, under the bright lights, with everything on the line. Thousands of people piling into the arena, taking their seats to watch him play the sport he once felt was a default. 

    Mason first stepped onto the championship court in his sophomore year. He was nervous and excited, but did not realize how big the crowd would be. Nearly one thousand people filled the arena, chanting for or against him. Everything about that game was memorable. 

    “The game was against our rival school, the University of Illinois. The tensions were so high, but we knew their team well since we’ve played them in several tournaments prior to nationals. We knew their weak spots already, and they knew ours; it was just a matter of who would do it better that game,” Mason recalls. 

    After a well-fought battle against Illinois, he and his team won the National tournament in Kansas City, MO, where he received the Second-Team All-Tournament award. The second time he was in the arena was his junior year, again in KC. That year, their team took second place in the nation. Even though Mason played through a fractured fibula, he still received Honorable Mention All-Tournament. He aims to finish his college career with another national championship win and get voted first-team all-country. 

    SVT did more than change his athletic passions; it also shaped his career path. Mason developed a love for medicine and chose the Pre-Med track to help those in his shoes. His biggest goal is to become a doctor, which requires dedication, resilience, and a deep commitment to helping others. Balancing high-level athletics with a demanding academic workload has strengthened his time management, discipline, and ability to perform under pressure—qualities that will serve him well in medicine. 

    After asking Mason how his heart condition changed his approach to life, he stated, “It pushed me to be more mindful of my body, manage stress better, and stay disciplined in both academics and athletics. It also reinforced resilience, teaching me to push forward despite challenges.” 

    Mason Durst’s story is a testament to the power of resilience, determination, and a willingness to adapt in the face of adversity. From a life-altering heart condition to becoming a national champion volleyball player and future doctor, he has proven that setbacks are not the end—they can be the beginning of something greater. With his passion for helping others, leadership on and off the court, and unwavering dedication to both his athletic and academic pursuits, Mason’s journey is far from over. Whatever challenges lie ahead, one thing is sure: his heart, literally and figuratively, will continue to drive him toward success.