Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics

Varsity - October 10, 2013

Varsity is the free Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics, covering Badgers football, basketball, hockey and more each week.

Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/189804

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 36 of 56

BORN TO BE BADGERS The first family of Wisconsin athletics? Both the Meuers and Johnsons boast strength in numbers when it comes to their ties to the Badgers U BY MIKE LUCAS • UWBADGERS.COM sually such things are done on a whim. But this may have been more about solidarity and putting their best foot forward as a family in terms of pledging their school loyalty; never a secret. Before his freshman year, Keegan Meuer got a tattoo along with his older sisters, Molly and Katy. Youngest sis McKenna followed up last summer and also got a tat of a Badger claw on her foot. One for all, all for Wisconsin, a Meuer legacy. "It's an amazing tradition; one that I'm very proud to be a part of and keep going," said Keegan Meuer, 24, now a fifth-year senior on the UW men's hockey team. "We always say, 'We were born Badgers and we grew up wanting to go to Wisconsin,"' said McKenna Meuer, 19, a sophomore on the UW women's soccer team. The head of the Meuer clan, Kelly Meuer, got it all started when he lettered as a Wisconsin soccer player in the mid to late '70s. Kelly's wife, Sandy, was an athletic trainer. Sandy is an Andringa. Sandy's brothers, Jeff and Rob, each have won national championships in hockey. Jeff Andringa was a defenseman on the 1981 and '83 teams; Rob Andringa was a defenseman and captain in 1990. "It's a very proud tradition," Keegan reiterated of the Meuer's chosen path. "As you go through it, you realize how hard it is not only to get into this school academically, but to be an athlete here." Molly Meuer, 30, now living in Denver, and Katy Meuer, 28, now living in Minneapolis, both played soccer for the Badgers and set a positive example for Keegan and McKenna Meuer. "We may be a few years apart," Keegan said of Molly and Katy, "but you could see how they approached their sport and the hard work and the dedication that they put in. They led by example." Keegan remembered training sessions with Molly and Katy at a Monroe Street facility kitty-corner from Camp Randall. They lifted weights together and ran on the skating and soccer treadmills. "When I was 12 and up," he said, "I got to see how hard they worked and it really set the tone for me on goal-setting and what it takes to be a college athlete." Kelly Meuer never pushed, even when he was coaching the kids in youth soccer. "He kind of stayed in the background," Keegan said. "If we wanted help and we wanted to seek it out, he was more than happy to help us. But he wanted it to be about us, not him. "He didn't want to force us or push us into anything. He was more hands-off to make sure we en-

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics - Varsity - October 10, 2013