Success is common at UW-Whitewater, 20 national championships, 78 individual national titles and 30 club sports championships. A program that consistently ranks among the top in Division III year in and year out. How does UW-Whitewater sustain that kind of excellence? The answer may lie in the mantra the Warhawks use: “Powered by Tradition.”
“I think it really recognizes the people that pave the way for what we have now,” Athletic Director Ryan Callahan said. “Your legacy isn’t just the time you were here; that legacy impacts the next generation, next recruits, next players.”
There are much more to those three words than meets the eye. As found on the UW-W Sports website, a strategic plan can be found that outlines the beliefs and fundamentals that have been attributed to their winning ways. Some of those include winning and a constant pursuit of excellence in competition, engagement of the whole student-athlete in multiple aspects of their lives, exceptional experiences for student-athletes, coaches, staff, alumni and fans, and finally academic excellence with an expectation of graduation.
John Vodenlich, the head coach of the baseball team, gave a great explanation to the mantra.
“Almost every Warhawk believes we can win a national championship. We are the ‘gold standard’ of Division III, and we can accomplish excellence both in the classroom and on the field,” Vodenlich said. “They believe this because of all those Warhawks that have come before us. We can accomplish anything we put our minds to. Not the first time, but because we’ve seen it before. It’s great to be a pioneer, but it’s even better to be Powered by Tradition.”
The main focus of the mantra is sustained excellence, passing the torch and leaving the place better than when you got there, and Whitewater has been a prime example of this. The Warhawks have become a household name within the WIAC and throughout the nation in multiple sports.
The most famous example of that success is former head football coach Lance Leipold, who won six national championships in his eight years of coaching and held a 109-6 overall record. However, this is only one example of greatness within the UW-Whitewater sports programs. Coaches like Pat Miller, who won national championships in 2012 and 2014 for men’s basketball. Frank Barnes, who is a 10-time and currently the reigning Coach of the Year in the WIAC for tennis. Vodenlich, as mentioned before, who won national titles in 2005 and 2014 for baseball. That’s only to name a few. There has been unparalleled continued success in the UW-W sports world.
“We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of successful coaches that have been here for a long time that have wanted to win at a very high level,” Callahan said. “We’re lucky a lot of those head coaches want to stay here and cement their legacy.”
Sports are a huge part of Whitewater, but being in college does still mean you’re a student first. The mantra also applies to academics and focusing on the athletes getting the proper education to set them up for success later in life.
“If someone comes here for four years and doesn’t get a degree, have we really done our jobs? I think we ask ourselves a lot about the importance of academics when it comes to athletics as well,” Callahan said. “If you look at any sort of data, [our] student athletes traditionally do better in school as far as GPA, graduation rates and retention than the general student population.”
The mantra is only a means for the incredible triumph that Whitewater has experienced. The coaches, players and staff have all made it possible. Actions speak louder than words, and they have all taken that saying and brought it to life. Year after year, the Warhawks continue to prove that they really are Powered by Tradition.
