When people think of UW-Whitewater athletically, they most likely think of it as a Division III school. However, there is a world of sports that is not affiliated with the NCAA or the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) that reaches Division I heights. Club Baseball has seen several WIAC and Division I baseball fields in their time as a club sport. President, postgraduate and former UW-W varsity baseball player John Volkers has been with the club for the past three years.
“Whitewater is a DIII school, but within NCBA, we are a Division I program, and not a lot of people think about that,” Volkers said.
UW-W Club Baseball is a part of the National Club Baseball Association (NCBA), which has given the club its ability to compete on higher levels than the DIII competition that Whitewater is often in league with. Within their conference are UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, Northwestern University, Illinois State University and University of Illinois. They have also played other national teams such as Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame.
“Baseball can be an incredibly stressful sport,” Vice President Erik Ahlquist said, “but we take pride in making sure we build a strong team-centered culture and give all our players the confidence to perform to the best of their ability.”
Club Baseball is a year-round club sport that has both a highly successful competitive side and a fun side. Within the competitive side, they hold tryouts every fall for their NCBA roster led by Volkers.
“I’d say as president, I’m technically the coach of the team,” Volkers said.
The conference of seven within NCBA that UW-W competes in is the largest in the nation. During the regular season, they play three three-game series during the fall semester and three series during the spring semester. They also compete in annual tournaments such as the Duel-in-the-Dells tournament hosted by the UW-Madison club team at the beginning of the season for fun. Normally club baseball also attends a Florida tournament over spring break called Swing in the Spring but was unable to compete this year due to a lack of other teams participating.
“Club baseball brings a home to ball players who might not have the time, skill or ability to play at the varsity level,” Ahlquist said.
Following the regular season for the club is the postseason, where two years ago they went to the national championship and finished as runner-up, losing to Pennsylvania State University.
Overall, they play roughly eight to ten weekends a year without the postseason and two more with the addition of the postseason play.
“Our goal is to make the playoffs for the third straight year,” Safety Manager Jarret Olson said.
This past weekend, club baseball competed in a series against UW-Eau Claire as they close in on the final series of the regular season against Marquette University the weekend of April 26.
The team had some struggles in the fall season, losing all games by one run. They are currently fighting to get a playoff bid. Their series against Marquette is considered the deciding series of whether the Warhawks will make the playoffs once again.
“This year, our club hopes to finish the season off strong, and go out with a bang,” Ahlquist said. “We have quite a few seniors, so we want to leave our mark on the team and set up future club teams for success.”
The current club baseball roster has 20 members, some coming from the WIAC varsity-level baseball team. At the end of the day, it’s all about having fun playing a sport they love
“That’s the main thing,” Volkers said, “enjoying the sport we all grew up playing.”
