Saturday's Game Day Central for Saturday Night

It has been a long, hot week and the UW-Whitewater football team us itching to get its 2011 season started.

“I think everyone is tired of competing against each other,” Leipold tells the Janesville Gazette. “They’re ready to hit someone else."

The Hawks open the season Saturday evening in La Crosse against archrival UW-La Crosse. It is the first of two regular season games between the two bitter rivals.

“And what a great way to kick off the season by having the two most dominating programs in our league play each other,” Leipold said. “There’s a lot of history between these programs.”

The two schools have dominated in the WIAC, and before that the WSUC. Since 1985, the year Bob Berezowitz took over for the retired Forrest Perkins, both teams have captured nine outright conference title and shared three other conference championships.

Whitewater opens the season on a 30-game winning streak – longest in the nation in any NCAA division.

The Warhawks have put together a mind-boggling 85 & 5 record over the past six seasons. The streak includes six straight WIAC Titles and six consecutive Amos Alonzo Bowl appearances vs. Mount Union. The two Division III powers have each won three NCAA Division III national championships.

The Warhawks enter Saturday evening’s season-opener coming off back-to-back Division III championships and three in the last four years.

To assist you in your enjoyment of Saturday’s UWW at UWL season opener, I’m publishing the following links…

Janesville Gazette Game Story CLICK HERE

UW-Whitewater Pregame Media Notes CLICK HERE

To access KOOL 106.5 Game Broadcast Audio Stream CLICK HERE

To access UWW at UWL In-Game Live Stats CLICK HERE

To access Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference weekly release CLICK HERE

To read La Crosse Tribune Editorial/Joel Badzinski: Dettwiler hopes to take Eagles on Harring-like ride CLICK HERE

Hey WarhawkNation - check out the uwwfootball.com fan Website

Hey everybody – Tom “Voice” Pattison here… I try to do my best to keep Warhawk Nation informed on the latest UW-Whitewater football information here on http://www.voiceseyeonfootball.blogspot.com/ and over on http://www.warhawkfootball.com/ .

There is another Warhawk football “fan” Website that I want to tell you about. It is “BleedPurple’s” http://www.uwwfootball.com/ blog / Website.

BP asks that you check out his blog “for all things UW-W football, There will be news, opinions, and analysis.

The Website has outstanding analysis of “all things U-Dub-Dub football” – from pregame analysis to a complete breakdown of the team’s performance following each game.

I want to make it perfectly clear that I am absolutely the worst when it comes to making weekly game predictions. Las Vegas casinos call me to ask who I think will win games each weekend – the casinos quickly install the other team as the favorite.

On Friday, http://www.uwwfootball.com/ published its week-1 predictions.

To access the uwwfootball.com Website CLICK HERE

This is "Voice" Pattison saying that www.uwwfootball.com is a "must read!" Book mark it and check it out on a daily basis.

Go Warhawks!

Warhawk 100-player roster released Friday morning

The final UW-Whitewater roster slot has been filled and the WIAC-mandated 100-man roster was released Friday morning.

To view roster CLICK HERE

29 of the 100 roster spots are players that are from out of state.

22 of those spots are student-athletes from the state of Illinois. 2 are former Mount Union players out of the state of Florida. UW-Whitewater’s roster also includes one player each from Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, and Minnesota.

On aspect of this year’s roster that catches the eye of immediate area of Whitewater fans is players that grew up and played high school football in Whitewater, Fort Atkinson, or nearby Cambridge.

Fort Atkinson’s Jake Keeser (DT) and Jaren Borland LB), Cambridge’s Cory Robinson (WR) and Whitewater’s Louissaint Minett (DE) are all returning veterans and expected to play major roles in this season’s team.
Another former Whitewater Whippet, Nick Romani (FB) is part of the 2011 100-player roster.

The Warhawks open the season on the road Saturday at 6 p.m. vs. UW-La Crosse.

7th Annual Back to the 60's Weekend set for September 16th and 17th

Attention UW-Whitewater students and Alumni from back in the 1960s. The 8th Annual Back to the 60s Weekend is set for September 16th and September 17th. The on campus event is being held in conjunction with the UW-Whitewater football team’s home opener vs. Campbellsville University (Kentucky) at Perkins Stadium.

Events on Friday, September 16 include:
11 a.m. - Golf at the Whitewater Country Club
6 p.m. - Seafood buffet at Randy's Restaurant

Events on Saturday, September 17th include:
10 AM: Pregame social at the Coulhart Family Pavillion adjacent to Perkins Stadium
12-Noon: UW-Whitewater vs. Campbellsville University football game at Perkins Stadium
3 PM-6 PM: Post game social with live music

Jim Miller is in charge of the event For more information CLICK HERE

Go Hawks!

UW-Whitewater freshmen get a crash course in the meaning of "being purple"

(Adjacent photo courtesy of UW-Whitewater athletics)

The 2011 UW-Whitewater freshman class are NOW officially Warhawks. Thursday afternoon’s Hawkfest followed by R U Purple inside Perkins Stadium is flat-out, one of the most unique ways of getting incoming students to be "proud to be purple."

The R U Purple event Thursday night was designed to introduce U-Dub-Dub freshmen to what it means to be a UW-Whitewater Warhawk.

On a hot, humid pre-Labor Day Thursday evening, a steady stream of UWW freshman students burst through the entrance to Perkins Stadium, running through a human pathway that stretched across the Perkins Stadium FieldTurf. They were slapping hands with faculty, staff and students to blaring music and rousing cheers.

“All they know is that it’s tradition here on campus, and it starts with them, but they don’t know anything else,” Kim Moistner-Bartlett, assistant dean of student life and the First Year Experience program indicated during the Thursday night “Welcome to UW-Whitewater” event.

The “U-Dub-Dub” event is part of the university’s approach to freshman orientation that started in 2008. The program focuses on creating connections, something previous freshman classes lacked, said Kim Simes of the First Year Experience program.

The First Year Experience staff realized they needed to start with pride.
“Our program, our goals are all about helping students feel like they have a connection here at UW-Whitewater and ultimately that this is home to them,” Simes said.

R U Purple has had a very unique conclusion in each of its four years. The “frosh” file out of the Perk and march over to Warhawk Drive adjacent to Williams Center. The reason? To paint the street leading to Perkins Stadium PURPLE!

Let me ask one more time – R U Purple?

To UWW freshman: R U Purple?

It has been a wild couple of days if you were driving on or near the UW-Whitewater campus. It is “move-in” week on campus – and U-Dub-Dub is doing it with a color-coded system. Each dorm has been designated a color and color-coded signs and orange construction cones permeated streets on campus Wednesday.

Campus will get even wilder Thursday as Club U-Dub-Dub is throwing its annual “welcome to campus” party for 2011 freshman students.

Coming up late Thursday afternoon will be Hawk Fest that will take place between 5:15 and 6:30 p.m in the Young Auditorium parking lot. The event will include 30-plus exhibitors from area businesses & UW-W offices, Eurobungy, Canoe Races, Speed Pitch, dunk tank featuring the 2011 Hawk Squad, carnival games, PRIZES, sno-cones and much, much more!!

From 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. incoming freshman earn “Warhawk wings” by participating in R U Purple. The event starts in Williams Center and winds its way to Perkins Stadium.

To view a video on Hawk Fest and RU Purple CLICK HERE

Samplawski and McCollom to miss season due to injury

UW-Whitewater officially released its 2011 regular season roster Wednesday afternoon.

The biggest surprise is two names missing from the roster. Aaron Samplawski and Steve McCollom spent the recent training camp on the sidelines with a foot cast and on crutches.

Samplawski, a senior out of Horicon, was shifted from cornerback to wide receiver last year. His biggest impact has come as a kick returner. Aaron is already the all-time leader in kick-off returns in the UWW record book with 1611 yards on 64 career returns.

McCollom was shifted from quarterback to safety prior to last season. The Michigan native responded by finishing second on the team with five pass interceptions. He also finished sixth on the team in 2010 with 50 tackles.

While their was a chance that both players could have returned from injury late in the season – both players agreed that sitting out the season and was the wisest action.