Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics

Varsity - February 16, 2012

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

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Keeping WIAA in Madison a win-win BEHIND THE DESK BARRY ALVAREZ • UW DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS T here was never any doubt in our mind that we wanted to keep WIAA state tourna- ments here. Everybody kept writing me and listing all the reasons why it should be here. I know all the reasons why it should be here. Everybody is a little selfish, too, including us. We want anything in- volving our state high schools and athletes to be here. Obviously, I understand the financial boon to the downtown merchants and the city. There are also benefits to our university as far as showing it off to potential students, and there are recruiting benefits to having the tournaments on our campus. In the end, everybody benefits. If I'm living outside of Madison, I want to experience our state capi- tol and state university. To many, Madison is still considered the front porch of the state. From my office in Camp Randall Stadium, I have watched the kids on their field trips. I've seen how much it means to them to just walk across the turf. I've also seen what it does for grown-ups when they're out there snapping pictures. The same applies to the Kohl Center. These are venues that they've seen on TV, and they are bigger than life. These are the venues where Bret's and Bo's teams have cel- ebrated Big Ten championships. These are the venues where our 10 » VARSITY FEBRUARY 16, 2012 teams have enjoyed historic wins over No. 1-ranked opponents. These are the venues a lot of kids have grown up dreaming about playing in. This is where Ron Dayne and Montee Ball scored big touch- downs. This is where Devin Har- ris and Jordan Taylor scored big baskets. Certainly, when you include the UW Field House, these are the venues that have factored into lega- cies and become such a big part of the rich history and tradition of the WIAA state tournaments. Tradition is very important to me. I would guess if you talked to the high school coaches and high school athletes around the state, they would say the same thing. There are too many reasons and positives why the WIAA should have its tournaments here. Particularly now that we've cleared the venues. When it was decided months ago that the Big Ten hockey tour- nament would be held at campus sites, we were very pro-active as far as contacting the other five league schools that play hockey. We stated our case why it should be a neutral-site event. I talked to all of the athletic directors and Mike Eaves talked to all of the hockey coaches. We were the ones who contacted the Big Ten office to see if we could revisit the tournament and the vote, which the league agreed to do. We certainly appreciate the Big Ten's cooperation. We had a good meeting on a conference call with all of the direc- tors and it was pretty much the consensus that it should be at neu- tral sites. We were the ones who championed the idea and made it happen We wouldn't have done that probably had there not been the conflict in scheduling. You have to understand one thing about the process: I was hired by the university and I'm respon- sible to the student-athletes we re- cruit and the coaches that we hire. It would be pretty hard to tell one of my coaches who have quali- fied a team to play in a tournament that we may be moving their games to another venue. I didn't feel very comfortable with that. I would have had a hard time looking them in the eye, and it would be very easy for them to say back to me, "What type of commit- ment are you going to make to us?'' There's no question we are com- mitted to our athletes and coaches. At the same time, there's no question we are committed to host- ing the WIAA tournaments. And I've never heard anything but positives from the WIAA when they have been here — whether it has been for their football, basket- ball or wrestling tournaments. We want them all here, and we've done everything we can to keep them here.

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