12A — Wednesday, August 31, 2022
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

JOHN TONDORA
Daily Sports Writer

At Michigan — as anybody 
will tell you — the Wolverines are 
famous for game days. From the 
fanfare, to the tailgates, Ann Arbor 
bleeds Maize and Blue.
And at the University of Michi-
gan, game days aren’t just on Satur-
days in the fall. 
No, this isn’t a cliche about bring-
ing your A-Game in class every day 
— although, you should probably do 
that. This is a message telling you 
that in addition to each electrifying 
sold-out game at the Big House on 
Saturdays, there are dozens more 
games played during the same 
week. 
And with the fiftieth anniversary 
of Title IX on June 23, the sports-
loving student body of Michigan 
needs your help! Because in Ann 
Arbor, every sport deserves the 
overwhelming amount of love and 
attendance that the football pro-

Sports

Letter to freshmen: you can be the new generation of 

Michigan fans that value women’s sports

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gram receives. 
Especially each and every one 
of Michigan’s talented women’s 
sports.
The Wolverines are privileged 
to have 14 varsity women’s sports 
teams, each with a vibrant legacy 
and rich future of success and 
empowerment. Currently, Michi-
gan sits atop the race for the coveted 
Director’s Cup, which measures 
school-wide athletic performance. 
An achievement powered by four 
women’s Big Ten Championships.
Women’s sports at Michigan are 
among the most elite in the world, 
and as a student body, it is our duty 
to bring the fans, energy and respect 
that these teams deserve. 
As a new wave of incoming fresh-
men, it is up to you to continue to 
build upon and strengthen a tradi-
tion of empowering women’s sports 
by attending these events. And 
National Championship winning 
head coach of women’s gymnastics 
Bev Plocki agrees:
“I think it’s about time that we 

sell our women’s programs the way 
that we have our men’s programs 
for decades,” Plocki said. “And we 
showed for the first time this year 
that we could sell out Crisler Arena 
with a 12,707 attendance when we 
(hosted) Auburn.”
And that’s the truth. 

With every passing season, wom-
en’s sports at Michigan vault into 
greater heights and cement what it 
means to be a Wolverine. Selling out 
Crisler Arena is just the beginning 
of what this new era for women’s 
sports can entail — a new era, pow-
ered by you freshmen. This is an 
opportunity which women’s soccer 
coach Jen Klein sees as ready for the 

taking.
“I think the thing for us that we 
need to keep doing is to just keep 
fighting the good fight,” Klein said. 
“And not say, ‘oh, we did it once,’ like 
no, let’s do it. You know, every week-
end, every season. And continue to 
push it to make it as great as it can 

be.” 
With the help of you, the incom-
ing freshmen, the sky’s the limit for 
what women’s sports can reach. 
When you attend these events, not 
only are you empowering these ath-
letes, but you are empowering your 
fellow students. 
With 72 Academic All-Big Ten 
Honoree women in the Fall of 2021 

alone, these athletes are more than 
just world-class competitors — they 
are your classmates, as well. 
“It’s especially important and 
special when it’s peer to peer,” 
Plocki said. “When it’s our athletes, 
their peers and fellow students at 
the University of Michigan, it’s not 
just mom and dad and grandma and 
some friends.”
And although bringing mom, 
dad, grandma and anyone else to 
these games is more than welcome, 
when the student section is filled, 
the atmosphere is just different. 
“It’s amazing, and it just makes 
our athletes feel important and spe-
cial and really energized,” Plocki 
continued. 
Moreover, as a wave of incoming 
freshmen, your commitment to sup-
porting women’s sports will help 
honor the humble beginnings of 
Michigan women’s athletics. From 
the six varsity sports that began in 
the fall of 1973 to the 14 varsity pro-
grams in 2022, Michigan has come 
a long way. 

But there is still work to be done 
— work that you can help with.
As much as Michigan athlet-
ics has taken steps to increase the 
equity between men’s and women’s 
sports — from marketing to atten-
dance and beyond — the onus is on 
students to make those steps pay off. 
Through attending women’s sport-
ing events, you do more than simply 
enjoy the thrill and rush of an amaz-
ing game.
You support women’s sports. 
And you prove to Michigan 
athletics that women’s programs 
already — and will continue to — 
deserve the funding, exposure, mar-
keting and investment that men’s 
sports have received for decades.
“The reality is, sports are draw-
ing (attendance) because of energy 
and the resources that you put into 
them,” Plocki said. 
“And if you put the same energy 
and resources into the women, I 
think it would be very interesting to 
see what the women really have the 
capability of doing.”

With the help of you, the 
incoming freshmen, the sky’s the 
limit for what women’s sports 
can reach. 

JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily 

