The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, August 31, 2022 — 13A
Sports
It was a balmy
18 degrees and
windy when I
remembered
that I’d prom-
ised my friend
Hugh that I’d
go to a lacrosse
game with him.
I’m not the best
at remembering
things, or keeping promises, and it
just so happened that I was already
at the Union studying for a test that I
had forgotten was the next day.
There was no good reason for
me to drop what I was doing to go
watch lacrosse. I was underdressed
for the frigid weather. The lacrosse
field was two miles away, and
lacrosse was a sport that I’d neither
seen, nor cared to see, played. But
I must’ve felt guilty or something
because I got up and went.
In almost every way, it should
have been a miserable experience.
Michigan got walloped, and I froze
so badly I couldn’t feel my feet. But
it was also the most fun I’d had that
month. Unknowingly, I’d stumbled
upon the entertaining culture of
non-revenue sports at Michigan.
When everyone talks about the
sports culture of Big Ten schools,
they’re generally referring to foot-
ball and men’s basketball. And for
good reason, too, because the cul-
ture around these sports in Ann
Charlie Pappalardo: A case for the sport you’ve never cared about
Arbor is almost as alluring as the
actual sport itself.
Don’t get me wrong, Michigan
loves football, but the love of these
events isn’t exclusively about the
game. It’s also about the people
you experience the game with. It’s
about the emotion and excitement
of being emotional and excited with
thousands of others who share your
same desires. That culture and that
feeling is what people think of when
they hear about so-called Michigan
sports culture.
The culture of non-revenue
sports, though, is vastly differ-
ent — but it’s just as entertaining.
When you move away from foot-
ball, hockey and both basketball
programs, the crowd sizes decrease
exponentially. You won’t find thou-
sands of people at the average wres-
tling dual, field hockey game or
gymnastics meet, but you will find
incredibly high levels of skill in the
athletes and obsession in the crowd
that shows up.
Watching lacrosse, I found peo-
ple that were obsessed. There were
maybe 15 people in the student sec-
tion watching the Wolverines play
Harvard that day, but they made it
fun. They heckled the nation’s aca-
demic elites in the Crimson to the
point of outrage, and they screamed
at the referees’ apparent biases.
And — most importantly — they
explained everything I could ever
want to know about the sport in
excruciating detail. They told me
about the team’s roster, its stars,
their shortcomings and the recur-
ring storylines. I was hooked, not
solely by the sport but by the cul-
ture.
The culture around non-revenue
sports is unique. It’s small, rabid
and, above all else, fun. The people
in the stands really care and being
around them makes you care, too.
At Michigan, you’ll find every
sport you’ve ever thought about.
If you played it in high school or if
you’ve seen it on TV, there’s prob-
ably a team that plays it in Ann
Arbor — and they also probably do
it well. You’ll see Olympians and
national champions performing in
front of mostly empty venues, but
that doesn’t make the experience
any less fun.
These sports and the cultures
that surround them are magnetic.
The athletes perform at ridiculously
high levels, and the fans are always
losing their marbles, regardless
of whether there’s 10 of them or
108,000.
My best advice is that you don’t
have to fully understand something
to enjoy it. So if a friend ever asks you
to go watch a sport in the 18-degree
cold that you couldn’t have cared
less about before, go watch it.
I have the feeling your opinion on
the sport might change.
CHARLIE
PAPPALARDO
Five non-revenue sports to check out
IAN PAYNE
Daily Sports Writer
KATE HUA/Daily
It’s well known that football
runs the Michigan sports scene,
but Ann Arbor is home to many
other successful athletic pro-
grams.
The University is one of the
top athletics institutions in the
country. The Wolverines are a
historic titan of the college foot-
ball world and have remained
relevant in both men’s basket-
ball and hockey for decades.
Those programs carry signifi-
cant popularity, and their suc-
cess gains plenty of publicity.
But Michigan’s athletic stat-
ute extends past those three to
the two dozen other exciting
varsity teams on campus defeat-
ing rivals, making tournaments
and winning titles.
And the best part: Students
can watch these teams for free.
The Wolverines won 13 Big
Ten titles last year, 11 of which
were in non-revenue sports.
While it’s easy to overlook
some of the smaller programs
and instead focus on football
and basketball, the non-rev-
enue sports at Michigan are
an intriguing entertainment
option. Here are five exciting
sports to check out this year on
campus.
Volleyball
The environment at a vol-
leyball game alone is worth the
trip — and that makes it a great
place to start. It has one of the
liveliest sporting atmospheres
on campus, with passionate fans
and the talented volleyball band
on the sidelines.
“I remember against Michi-
gan State at the Crisler Center
after losing the first set,” Engi-
neering
sophomore
Nicho-
las Debelak said. “(Michigan)
bouncing back … (and) storm-
ing ahead and the crowd danc-
ing along. (They won) the game
three sets to one.”
Most volleyball home games
are played in Cliff Keen Arena,
a short 15 minute walk from the
Diag. But some matches take
place at Crisler Center — and
it makes for a next-level atmo-
sphere.
Women’s soccer
Last season, the women’s
soccer team won its third Big
Ten Tournament, its first since
1999. After finishing the sea-
son ranked No. 7 nationally,
the Wolverines found momen-
tum in the conference tourna-
ment and rode it all the way to
the quarterfinals of the NCAA
Tournament.
“When there’s a full student
section, the crowd can be just
as electric as some of the bigger
sports, and there’s a lot of fun
chants,” Education junior Siob-
han Stemme said. “The section
has a great location right on the
sideline.”
The team makes for an excit-
ing viewing experience at the
University of Michigan Soccer
Stadium for soccer diehards and
sports fans alike.
Gymnastics
The
women’s
gymnastics
team is Michigan’s most recent
national champion, taking home
the hardware in 2021. Along
with the men’s team, the Wol-
verines also won the Big Ten
regular season and conference
titles in 2022, and both teams
made deep runs in the NCAA
Tournament.
With the elite skill level the
Michigan gymnasts possess,
every meet is a must-watch
event.
“There’s definitely a lot of
energy,” LSA senior Ruby Mur-
ton said. “There’s moments
when one of the athletes is on
the beam, and the team needs
a hit routine. The feeling when
they stick their landing is
incredible.”
The women’s team hosts its
meets at Crisler Center, draw-
ing large and energetic — some-
times even sell-out — crowds.
Meanwhile, the men’s team
makes its home at Cliff Keen
Arena. With both squads look-
ing to run back similar triumph
next season, both should make
for electric atmospheres.
Wrestling
Coming off a Big Ten Cham-
pionship and runner-up finish
in the NCAA Wrestling Cham-
pionships, the wrestling team is
an exciting group to watch. After
falling just short of the national
championship — and with mul-
tiple elite veterans graduating
— the team will enter the season
with something to prove.
Redshirt
junior
Cameron
Amine, redshirt senior Will
Lewan, fifth-year senior Mason
Parris and redshirt sophomore
Dylan Ragusin are names worth
seeing at Crisler Center and Cliff
Keen Arena.
Field Hockey
Finally, a sleeper sport that
many students — myself includ-
ed — may have never even heard
of before college: field hockey.
While the sport is not as wide-
ly known, field hockey makes
for an entertaining and exhila-
rating viewing experience that
is pretty easy to pick up due to
the similarities it shares with
more widely known sports such
as ice hockey and soccer. But
more importantly, Michigan’s
team makes the sport engaging
for fans.
Ending
the
2021
season
ranked third in the country, the
Wolverines are one of the coun-
try’s top contenders. And being
in the Big Ten — which occupied
the top six spots in the 2021 end-
of-season rankings — Michi-
gan routinely plays high-stakes
games against elite competi-
tion. During its home games at
Phyllis Ocker Field, located just
south of Schembechler Hall,
those matchups can turn into
the kind of grudge matches that
make for top-tier sports memo-
ries.
“(The games) were really
entertaining,” Stemme said. “It
was a sport I’d never watched
before. I found it pretty easy
to follow, and the game moves
pretty quickly.”
With these — and many more
successful non-revenue varsity
programs in Ann Arbor — there
are plenty of sports for passion-
ate fans.
And remember: All of these
can be watched for free.
JENNA HICKEY/Daily
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
KATE HUA/Daily
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily