First UW-Madison water ski team to debut

Splashing through the water at 50 miles per hour, UW–Madison students will be seen water skiing and wake boarding on Lake Mendota and Monona Bay this spring.

Created by freshman Matt Clark and senior Timothy Marien, the Capital City Collegiate Water Ski Team is the first water ski team ever at UW–Madison. The team will begin practice on April 19 in Monona Bay.

“Eight of eleven Big Ten schools already have water ski teams,” says Marien.

The team is hosting a Water Skiing Instructional Night on Tuesday, April 13 at 7 p.m. in Einstein’s Cafe at Union South. All UW students are invited to come and learn the basics of waterskiing.

“Our goal is to compete and to have fun,” Marien says. “We want to make people more aware of water skiing as a sport.”

The team is coached by Paul Vitucci, owner of Redline Water Sports, a specialty ski boat shop in McFarland. Vitucci co-founded a college water ski team at Iowa State University when he was in college and has volunteered to coach the new student team in addition to providing equipment and a boat.

“Even though I’m a businessman now, I will always be a competitive waterskier,” Vitucci says. “My best memories of water skiing are from my college days.”

Since the team is not part of UW Athletics, they are looking for area businesses to sponsor them to help pay for the costs of skis, boats, transportation to area tournaments and insurance. Next fall, they plan to host their own wake boarding tournament here in Madison. The team will also travel around the Midwest to tournaments where they will compete in slalom skiing, trick skiing, jumping, and wakeboarding.

“We want to have a season under our belt so that we have something to build on for next year,” Marien says.

For more information, please contact Lindsey Benson at 608-294-6594 or labenson@students.wisc.edu.