UW-River Falls Football Wins NCAA Division III Title

This past winter, the UWRF football team achieved an incredible feat in the history of our campus. Apart from becoming WIAC champions against the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Coach Matt Walker and his team went above and beyond competing in the NCAA Division III Tournament and winning against the reigning champions, the North Central Cardinals, with a score of 24 to 14. However, this achievement has not only shown the strength of our campus’s coaches and players on the football team, but also the skills, resources, and determination of our campus, our town and the Athletics Program as a whole.

Apart from the championship against North Central, every round of the bracket that UWRF participated in was hosted at Ramer Field by UWRF. While this was a great honor in and of itself, this lead to a couple of hurdles that the Athletics department had to deal with. The most notable of these hurdles being the harsh weather and the lack of student-enrolled staff to help out due to nearly all of the games taking place during campus breaks when most students would be off campus. These problems are most apparent with the second round game against Chapman University taking place over the Thanksgiving break, and the quarter finals game taking place in sub-zero temperatures.

Crystal Lanning, the Athletics Director at UWRF, commented on how “it seemed like it would snow on [the] Thursday [before the game for] five to seven inches" which would cause problems due to the fact that Ramer Field had to be cleared of snow by Saturday for the games.

However, despite all these hurdles, the Athletics Department was able to rally together people to help clean the stadium and provide assistance to the Athletics Department, most notably from the UWRF Baseball team as well as the coaches and assistant coaches for other sports teams on campus. It was even reported that Interim Chancellor John Chenoweth provided help, pulling up heaters and clearing the field alongside the grounds crew.

When it came to supporting the team, several businesses around the River Falls area helped provide meals to the team and their families due to meal services on campus closing during the breaks, with the exception of them being open on Thanksgiving to provide meals for some students. A few of the most notable businesses to help out in this case were Ptaceks and Juniors, but several other restaurants helped provide meals in the week leading up to the championship.