(Because she is not an athlete I have excluded her last name, and have gotten approval for this story.)

As we grow up and go through school, we are told that college will be “the best years of our lives.” For many, these are the years that we will get to experience freedom, meet lifelong friends, figure out who we are as people, and understand what it means to be an adult through experience.

However, what many people do not discuss are the difficulties of college. There is so much that goes into the college experience: classes and school work, jobs and interviews, extracurriculars, sports, and having personal time and a social life. All of these components are major stressors for college students that we are told are normal to experience while in college.

While that may be true, it is sort of hard to enjoy all that sometimes, especially for students like Hannah, who came into college with their own personal struggles.

Hannah is a graduating senior who has been in Madison for the past four years. She came in hoping that the change from Minnesota to a big university would be the change she needed to focus on something other than the tension she has felt at home with her family. For the majority of her life, there was hostility between Hannah’s parents and her uncle’s because, despite being 18 (when she got to Madison), Hannah and her Uncle’s did not really have a relationship past hello and goodbye.

“Both of my parents have a lot of siblings, my mom has four and my dad has five, so I have five uncles. And it’s really weird, but growing up I have never been close with any except for one, and even with my parents asking me to talk to them and them to talk to me, we just didn’t really and it would cause a lot of arguments between my parents and their siblings and would often make holidays and important events with family really awkward.”

Hannah’s main goal when getting to college was letting that go. This was a new environment and experience and she wanted to make the most of it. So, she sought to find something outside of her norm. For her, that was sports. Hannah grew up watching not-so popular sports, like swimming and tennis; and being at a big ten school, she knew how important was to the university’s culture.

“As most college students do, my dorm roommate and the people on my floor were who I first spent my time with, and one of the first things you do when you get to campus in August is go to a football game. I wasn’t really a football fan but considering my friends wanted to go and I wanted to see what it was about I went and I loved it. Everything about it was amazing, the energy from the crowd and the places vibing off each other was the best. I’m from a small suburb and my school was really small and athletics were not great so I hadn’t experienced that before.”

She mentions how what she calls “Football Saturday’s” became part of her weekly routine. Whether they were home games or away games, she watched all of them, celebrated, and made the whole day an event. So much so, to the point where she made sure to get all her schoolwork done and plan her Sunday work very accordingly so she could enjoy Football Saturday’s.

Sunday phone calls with her family were a weekly thing for Hannah and every call she would tell her parents about how the game went. Her parents told their family how much fun Hannah was having attending and watching the games and that she was a true Badger fan. Apparently, this is what sparked an interest in getting Hannah’s uncles to talk to her, and although she does not believe it should have taken this long, she is just happy with how it has bonded them. 

“…they’re all really big football fans and when they heard that I was really into UW football they got really excited and would talk to me about it over holidays and stuff. It’s kinda funny, my parents and I can laugh about it now, how all it would take for my uncles and I to get close would be college football.” 

Being part of the football community at UW has also given Hannah a new form of identity. She did not want her engineering major, which is what UW is known for and considered a big deal, to be the only thing she was identifiable with.

“As soon as I was able to declare a major at UW I did and it was engineering, and I have never thought to change my mind. I’ve wanted to be an engineer since I was little, and since I came into college knowing exactly what I wanted to do, I formed that identity very quickly and that soon became what I was known as. Besides the people I met in my freshman year dorm, I quickly started spending most of my time with other freshmen that were declared engineering majors and that was what our friendships were based off of.”

Even though Hannah did not start taking engineering classes until her sophomore year, she started hanging out with other engineering majors quickly. She mentions how up until senior year, there was something missing from those friendships, because the only reason they got together and bonded was over engineering. She knew that with her major it could very quickly consume her identity, and that is exactly what she did not want. Having those Football Saturday’s and friendships that were about having fun gave her another sense of self.

For what Hannah was dealing with throughout school, creating a space with football helped her cope and balance it all.

Current Badger and former men’s swimming team member explains why he quit the team and the obstacles he encountered along the way

Growing up, many children fantasize and yearn for the opportunity to be a college student and eventually enjoy the perks of being an adult. On the contrary, plenty of older folks wish that they could revert to their childhood or their ‘glory days,’ experiencing four years of friends and a lack of responsibility. As the saying goes, the grass is always greener on the other side. 

What is rarely discussed, however, is the struggles that exist for everyday college students. Whether it be classes and schoolwork, extracurricular activities and sports teams, or personal and social life, college students have stressors that go underrepresented in the public sphere.

These struggles are present for everyday college students, but they also exist for student-athletes and foreign student-athletes. This specificity is precisely what makes Idan Dotan’s experience at Madison so unique.

Dotan is a 24-year-old junior at UW-Madison. He arrived in Madison in 2018, but his journey to college is incredibly different from the average person. 

Idan grew up in Beit Dagan, Israel, where he started swimming at 8-years-old and competitively swimming at 11-years-old. As Israeli swimmers hold a tight circle due to there being a small number of competitive swimmers with aspirations of going to college, Idan heard about the University of Wisconsin-Madison from others who have attended college in the U.S. in the past. 

Dotan was recruited to Madison for competitive swimming, in which he was the only underclassman that was already able to legally enjoy a drink. When he arrived at school in the summer of 2018, he was not disappointed. Not only did he love the environment at UW-Madison, but he also loved the team around him.

“Over the summer, I really got to know Madison. I explored the city, and just like everything else in the U.S., it was new for me which was really cool. But when school started, I was welcomed to the team right away and it was a great adjustment. You really feel like you’re a part of the team, and the other kids on the team really looked after me and took care of me,” Dotan stated.

Idan competed in freestyle, butterfly, and backstroke sprints and relays during his freshman and sophomore years until COVID-19 put a pause on sports. He had a solid freshman season, in which he made his debut with a third-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle race against Green Bay, and he also qualified for the 50-yard freestyle race at the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational. 

It wasn’t until COVID-19 hit when everything changed. The NCAA offered student-athletes the chance to opt out of the season, and Idan took the opportunity. According to the NCAA Board of Governors, “All student-athletes must be allowed to opt out of participation due to concerns about contracting COVID-19. If a college athlete chooses to opt out, that individual’s athletics scholarship commitment must be honored by the college or university.” 

Dotan had muscle inflammation in his right shoulder, and the delay of competition ultimately made him rethink his desire to swim at college. While his love of the sport remained, his shoulder injury along with disagreements with head coach Yuri Suguiyama became a concern. Still, these were not even close to the being the only reasons Idan opted out of the season and eventually quit.

These factors are significant and substantial contributors as to why he left the team, but it’s important to note that this is without the discussion of the difficulties of balancing all that college has to offer, especially for a student-athlete. Idan discussed the tiring and stressful schedule in place.

“I would literally wake up at 4:45 a.m. and I was in the water by 6 a.m. After our first practice, I had to bike to class at 8 a.m. and eat breakfast on the way because I didn’t have enough time. Right after class, I had to go lift at noon and had another swim session at 1:30. After that, I had to do homework, and by the time I was home, I was completely exhausted. That was my schedule for four days per week.”

This schedule excludes weekends and matches against other schools. This constant structure loomed in his mind, and he no longer wanted to experience college in this way.

“With two years left, I wanted to live. I didn’t want to spend my last two years swimming all day every day. I needed to see what else was in Madison and actually have a life outside of swimming. There were a lot of ups and downs during my time on the swim team, but I felt confident enough to quit even though I was hesitant. It was definitely tough,” Idan said.

So, despite the wonderful first impression that Idan had, balancing college life got the best of him. How many other student-athletes have had a similar occurrence in their college careers? According to Northeastern’s RISE organization, 95% of male and 85% of female athletes report higher stress compared to 52% of non-athlete students. 

While these numbers about student-athletes are extremely concerning, 52% is also too high of a number. These statistics are some of the many reasons that universities need to place more importance on identifying these stressors and finding ways to make college life better for these student-athletes and everyday college kids. 

Although Dotan’s experience is as uncommon and distinctive as they get, it’s not a reason to dismiss his story by any means. We need to be conscious of these issues and plan to better the lives of those representing their university moving forward.

How Wisconsin Middle Blocker Danielle Hart uses confidence on the court to guide her through life.

By: Maya Shea

With 100 kills, five assists, 12 digs, 129 points, five solo blocks, 48 assisted blocks, and Second-Team All Big Ten honors for the 2020-21 season, watching Danielle Hart on the court has been a work of art. 

Hart’s career with the Badgers has been equally as much of a masterpiece. With 349 kills, eight assists, 469 points, 43 digs, 16 solo blocks, and 209 assisted blocks, the court is her canvas and her skills are the paintbrush. 

Through her time in the Wisconsin Volleyball program, Hart has found her confidence on the court, which has impacted other unlikely areas of her life. Her art. 

When the world shut down in the early months of 2020 due to the pandemic, Hart found herself with a lot of free time. She took quarantine as an opportunity to travel the country and tap into her creative side. She and a few friends packed up her Jeep Wrangler and set out on her first major expedition. With her camera in hand, Hart and her friends traveled all over the western Continental United States. 

This experience led Hart to discover her true passion for creating content. Through filming and video editing, web design, and other creative endeavors, Hart was able to capture her adventures and tap into her passions for content creation.

“In high school I was a Math and Science Academy student,” says Hart in Dana Rettke’s candid podcast from UNCUT Madison. “Leaving high school and going into college, I felt like I had to pursue something in the math and science area.”

Hart spent the first two and a half years on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus pursuing a Computer Science degree. 

“I realized this program was going to take me to a career path that I really did not see myself ending up in. Sitting at a desk all day coding might be some people’s thing, but it’s not mine,” says Hart later on in the podcast. “It was kind of scary because I had to accept and come to the conclusion that there are these other passions that I have.”

Hart took a leap of faith and changed her major to Life Sciences and Communication with several creative certificates, in hopes of turning her passions into something where she could make a living. This ability to let go of who she is expected to be, and truly embrace who she is and what she loves, comes from valuable lessons of self-confidence that she has learned through volleyball. 

“This sport has pushed me outside of my comfort zone in so many ways. I think that getting comfortable outside of my comfort zone, and continuing to accept that, push that, and embrace it has given myself this platform and jump start to so many other things outside of volleyball.”

One of her most notable experiences came in the spring of 2020 when Hart and her family traveled to Kaua’i, Hawaii. Walking through the local galleries, they stumbled upon Epoxy Resin Ocean Art. Being from Virginia Beach, Hart was enraptured by the pieces’ ability to recreate ocean waves through glossy resin. Hart looked up videos online and taught herself the skills of the trade, creating many masterpieces of her own. 

“Sometimes you get frustrated with the way pieces are going,” explains Hart in UNCUT. “You keep playing with it, and fall back to trusting what you know, things turn out well. Even in that kind of setting, pushing yourself and having confidence in your abilities pays off.”

This idea of pushing through frustration and having confidence in your abilities is a skill Hart has gained from her time on the volleyball court. There is no better example of this than Wisconsin’s first game of the 2021 NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament against Weber State. 

“She was pretty frustrated early on in the match,” admitted Kelly Sheffield during the post game press conference. “She was getting quite a few negative touches on the block. She stayed with it and made adjustments as she was going. She really shut some people down as the match went on”

Hart went on to finish the match with nine blocks, nine kills, and a .533 hitting percentage to aid her team in a sweep.

“I had some really rough touches and was not able to put the ball down like I wanted to,” said Hart. “When I came off I told myself to settle in and get back in your groove and find your rhythm.”

As the saying goes: life imitates art. The valuable lessons Danielle Hart has learned through volleyball extends off the court. By expressing herself and letting her creativity shine through, Hart has been able to trust in her abilities and truly be herself. 

“Learn to embrace it. It’s scary. Your feet are going to shake, you’re going to sweat, you’re going to hate all of it. But you will benefit from it so much.”

To hear more from the podcast and learn about Danielle’s journey, watch here. 

The Unjustified Vilification of Brad Davison

By: Maya Shea

Every good story has a few crucial elements. A setting, a plot, a conflict, a resolution, a hero, and a villain. The world of sports is no different. Players, coaches and fans alike all strive for the same great story for their team. 

Picture this: Two teams with a rich history of rivalry face off against each other on a national stage. The game battles back and forth, coming down to the last few seconds. An unlikely hero comes off the bench and wins it at the last second. The team celebrates and hopes this momentum can carry them through the rest of the season. This is a story we all know too well in sports. But what’s missing? A villain. So what happens when a villain doesn’t naturally emerge in the world of sports? The media creates one.

Nobody knows this more than senior guard Brad Davison. His historic career with the Badgers has totaled 128 games played, including 124 starts, averaging 31.3 minutes per game. He’s no stranger to the stat column. With 422 field goals, 222 3-pointers, 297 free throws, 46 rebounds, 274 assists and 132 steals, Davison is a force to be reckoned with on the court. 

Despite his positive stats that Badger fans love him for, the national media has decided to focus more on the negatives. Instead, Davison’s career has been remembered for multiple hook-and-holds, flagrant 1’s, monitor requests from opposing coaches and charges (which are applauded for being gritty when obtained by any other player, but go down as “cheap” when drawn by Davison).

Throughout the 2020-21 season, Davison’s play was put under more intense media scrutiny than ever seen before. Major sports outlets added fuel to the fire. Perhaps the most alarming coming from ESPN putting up an altered Wikipedia page graphic during the Wisconsin vs. Illinois game that took place in late February. The graphic included a modified biography of Davison saying he averages 2.3 dirty plays per game, and listed his position as a “school threat”. This public display of bullying garnered a private apology from Dick Vitale to Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard, but it seems as though the damage has already been done. 

The conflict reached its peak during the Badgers’ final regular season game against the Iowa Hawkeyes. During a game that was deemed as poorly officiated by both fanbases, the dramatic saga came to its crescendo  in the closing minutes when Wisconsins’ comeback efforts were thwarted by a questionable hook-and-hold flagrant foul against none other than Brad Davison. 

For Greg Gard, enough was enough. In his emotion-filled postgame press conference, Gard called for an end to the Davison witch hunt that has been ensuing for far too long. Gard used this time to speak on behalf of Davison’s character and expose the wrongdoings the league has allowed against his player. 

“I feel bad for Brad Davison. The kid is a great kid,” said Gard. “He continues to get screwed by this, and how the officials, the league, and opponents continue to call that out. It’s become sickening really.” 

Gard wasn’t the only one in the Badger locker room to come to Davison’s defense. Several players shed light on Davison’s gentle nature and exemplary character during the post game press conferences. 

“The image he’s developed is ridiculous,” said Wisconsin Forward Micah Potter, who has been roommates and teammates with Davison for two years. “If people knew Brad Davison. It’s impossible to not like Brad Davison. I don’t care who you are, what you’ve seen, what you’ve heard. If you meet him in person and you see how he is, how he interacts with people.”

Brad Davison’s positive impact on the Wisconsin Basketball program extends even further as his character has been recognized off the court by fellow coaches, teammates and peers. In the 2020 Buckingham awards, Davison was voted by other student-athletes as the recipient of the Eli Stickley Believe Award. This honor is  presented to student-athletes that exemplify characteristics of discipline, love, loyalty, passion and being an uplifting, selfless leader. Davison’s recognition for this award comes from countless hours of community service through the athletic department’s Badgers Give Back program, peer testaments to Davison’s character, and the passion and leadership he has shown on and off the court. 

The negative media portrayal of Brad Davison has been cruel and unfair. This, coupled with the rise of social media, has allowed online trolls the ease of anonymously spreading hateful comments and creating a mob mentality against certain players. With Davison’s recent announcement that he will be exercising his opportunity to return for a 5th year of eligibility due to the pandemic, it can only be hoped that in his final season he will be treated with the respect he deserves. At the end of the day, college athletes are people too. They see, hear, and feel things just like everybody else. Media outlets need to be held accountable for the narratives they create. 

When is it ever okay to not pay workers?

When California announced it was passing the Fair Pay to Play Act in 2019, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the NCAA and professional leagues. The bill states that college athletes have the ability to accept endorsements based on their name, image and likeness, and as one could assume, many collegiate and professional athletes and those involved in the sports world, and even celebrities and politicians have spoken out with many different opinions.

Over the years, many opinions from very recognizable people have been brought to light surrounding the controversy over whether or not collegiate athletes should be paid. Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Bernie Sanders have all spoken out with their opinions as to why collegiate athletes should be paid: “they are workers,” “they work for their schools and don’t have time to get jobs themselves.” Ex-NFL player Patrick Kerney also agreed that collegiate players should be paid, but suggested doing so in ways that would differ from just giving athletes checks; he thinks deferred compensation packages would be best, that they could “maybe contribute to a 401k for them, get them to understand the time value of money.” 

Another very recognizable person, Tim Tebow, voiced how he believes collegiate athletes need to play for the love of the game. “It’s about your team. It’s about your university… the pros are where you can play for money.” Tim Tebow, along with many other members of the NCAA and collegiate athletic departments and school boards are against the Fair Pay for Play Act and believe college athletics should be about the enjoyment of the sport. NCAA President Mark Emmert made a statement to CBS Sports that “college athletics is about college students playing other college students, not employees playing employees.”  

There are so many opinions that vary in why people do or do not believe college athletes should be paid; and while there are so many different circumstances, given the school, division and sport, I entirely believe college athletes should be paid. Simply, college athletes put in way too much work to not be paid. In fact, while the NCAA rules state that college athletes are not to put in more than 20 hours a week on their sport, a survey put out by the NCAA reported that many athletes put in at least 30 hours to their sport, but oftentimes put in more than 40 hour weeks.

It is fair to say that how much college athletes get paid should vary and be dependent, again, by school, division, sport, and likeness. Division 2 athletes should not be paid the same as Division 1 because they do not bring in as much; and the amount athletes get paid should partly be factored on how much their department brings in. For instance, it would not make sense for UW-Madison tennis players to get the same compensation as the football players because the UW-Madison football program brings in over $150 million dollars a season. The players that are the most favored and bring in a big cut of revenue and are used in other measures, such as video games, should also be compensated at higher costs, both by their university and the company that is making money off them. The Fair Pay to Play Act also mentions how highly likeable athletes are allowed to be represented by agents to receive compensation and not be penalized by the NCAA, which only makes sense considering how many millions of dollars they bring in for these companies.

 A survey that was published in 2019 by College Pulse recorded the answers from 2,501 college students on whether collegiate athletes should be paid. The data showed:

• 38% of students said they favor, and 15% said they strongly favor, resulting in 53% being in support of compensating college athletes. 40% of athletes in the bunch strongly favored and 31% in favor. 
• 51% of white students said they favor or strongly favor, 52% of Hispanic students, 56% of Asian students and 61% of Black students said they favor or strongly favor paying student-athletes.
• 60% said that salaries should be paid to all athletes, and 38% said salaries should only be paid to athletes playing sports that bring in revenue. Women were more likely than men (65% compared to 52%) to support paying all athletes.
• About 77% of all students said they favor the profit of likeness or strongly favor that policy and 81% of athletes said the same.
• An overwhelming 80% of all students and 83% of athletes agreed that college athletes should be paid if their image is used for purposes such as selling merchandise.

Most student athletes who go to Big 10, Pac 12, or SEC schools are going with the intention of putting in the work to try to make it to the league if they play basketball or football. The amount of time and practice they put in, not to mention the stress they put their bodies and minds through without even knowing if they are going to make it to the pros or not, requires compensation. Not to mention them not even being allowed, in most cases, to have the opportunity to work, and if they can’t work then how are they expected to provide for themselves?

Many athletes, especially minorities, are not able to ask their parents or family for financial help and come from low-income financial situations. How is it fair that these students, athletes, workers – all valid titles – put in countless hours of vigorous work to have no money saved up after college? How is it fair for them to not be allowed to work but also not get paid for the services they are providing to their schools? How is it fair for minority students to be expected to not be able to provide for themselves or their families despite all the revenue they bring in?

There are so many reasons why collegiate athletes should be paid. Overall, they are workers for their universities. Workers need to be paid.

In February of 2018, the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team was on the cusp of failing to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time in nearly two decades, when No. 2 Michigan State came to the Kohl Center. While this matchup may have seemed daunting, it gave the struggling Badgers a huge opportunity to stake a claim for an outright bid into March Madness. 

Unfortunately Badger fans know how that story ends. But when one story ends another begins, and this was the beginning of Brad Davison’s story.

During the 2017-2018 season, Davison was a true freshman who was thrust into big time minutes due to a number of injuries — mainly to D’mitrik Trice and Kobe King. Davison was hampered all season by a separated shoulder as well. Like Riggs in Lethal Weapon, Davison would be seen occasionally throwing his shoulder back into place on the sideline.

Davison fought through the injury and did not disappoint. Leading the team in scoring, including a 30-point performance in that fateful game against Michigan State at the Kohl Center. 

The scoring outburst gave some Badger fans hope that maybe the team could go on a run in the Big Ten tournament and earn a spot in the ‘Big Dance’ the hard way. However, the formidable Spartans were in the way again. Davison injured his shoulder in the game but persevered and gave the Spartans all they could handle. 

Ultimately coming up short again, the Badgers at least had high hopes for the future with the freshmen out of Maple Grove, Minnesota leading the way. 

Flash forward three years. That true freshmen, who everyone had high hopes for, has made the decision to take advantage of the NCAA COVID rules and return for his fifth year. 

Given the short history from his freshman year, one would be led to believe that this would come as a resounding welcome-home party for a beloved player. But a lot has transpired over the last three years that has caused Davison’s career at UW to be described only as a rollercoaster ride. 

Davison started his sophomore season connecting on only 28.6 percent of his three-point attempts in his first 10 games. He eventually had a few high-scoring games before ending the season even worse than he began, shooting 21.3 percent on threes in his final 12 games. 

The poor shooting was the least of Davison’s worries. He soon grew a reputation for playing too close to the line that shouldn’t be crossed. 

In a matchup with the Gophers in February of 2019, Davison stuck his leg underneath Minnesota’s Jordan Murphy, who was attempting to rebound Davison’s blown layup. No foul was called on the play because the play was deemed as incidental contact on the floor. 

In another incident, Davison was issued a flagrant foul after striking Iowa’s Connor McCaffery in the groin when he was trying to evade McCaffery’s screen. Davison was later suspended for a game for his actions. 

Whatever Davison’s intentions were, the reputation soon began to grow as referees became aware of Davison’s style of play. 

“He grabbed me right in the — where you don’t want to be grabbed in. He does that. He’s marked for doing that,” McCaffery told the Iowa Gazette after the game. 

Early in his junior campaign, Davison drew a ridiculous five charges against NC State. Only months later, The NCAA created a rule (Rule 4-10.1.C.4) with the intention of putting an emphasis on eliminating flopping from the game — some call it ‘The Brad Davison Rule’. 

“Some people call it flopping, some people call it gamesmanship and other people just call it playing basketball,” Davison told Madison.com in reference to the rule change.

“Anytime there is a foul or a question, the opponents are yelling to the officials to go to the monitor,” Gard said after the loss to Iowa. “I think it has really turned into a joke.” 

While Davison has earned a bad-boy reputation on the court, his reputation off the court is quite different. 

“Brad Davison has a busy life and yet he’s a regular visitor at the Children’s Hospital. He’s done an incredible amount of volunteer work at the hospital and stuff and that just makes me proud to be part of the community,” former UW-Madison academic advisor Mary Weaver-Klees said in the spring of 2020. 

Davison graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA and was named the 2017 scholar-athlete award from the Minnesota Chapter of the National Football Foundation. He was also a member of the National Honor Society and participated in more than 120 volunteer hours by going on service trips to Jamaica and Costa Rica through his church in Maple Grove. 

The juxtaposition of Davison’s life on versus off the court is a mind boggling one. But one thing is for sure, the incoming freshmen want Davison on the court with them, no matter what the critics say.

“Yessir bro!!!! Can’t wait to play and learn from you,” Matthew Mors said on Twitter after Brad’s announcement. 

Chucky Hepburn tweeted a bunch of fire emoji in response to Mors. 

The returning senior shot a career high 39.1 percent from three last season, but shot a career-low 34.6 percent from the field. Like the rest of his career, the Davison roller coaster was in full effect last year. 

Davison’s career began as the spunky freshmen who wasn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with the No. 2 Spartans, to a callused veteran who was prone to making the dirty play — with sporadic shooting spread throughout. 

Now, the Badgers need Davison to evolve into his final stage. They need a poised leader who can be looked up to by a young team, not an angsty teenager who is trying to prove he belongs with the big boys. 

The last thing Badger basketball needs is a new wave of Davisons. But there is nothing wrong with a new wave of Badgers that have a little Davison in them.