Wayne State College hosted a football reunion on Saturday presenting campus updates, scholarship opportunities, and guest speakers in light of the 6-3 Wildcat football team.
On Nov. 6, WSC invited all football alumni to come join and celebrate the football programs success showing the progress they have made.
“It is always good to get people back to campus, especially with all the changes in the last five to ten years,” Megan Finn, assistant Athletic Director, said.
Within the last ten years, the football field has had many changes including the turf field and the new press box. The reunion provides an opportunity for old teammates to see each other again and remember the good times.
“It’s awesome to get the alum back, and get them to connect with the current student athletes and share what they went through,” Mike Powicki, WSC Athletic Director, said.
Powicki refers to the word “brotherhood” often, and he explained the connection between the alumni.
“While coaching strategies and drills have changed overtime, they all understand what it is like putting the helmet on going through tough practices and games in all sorts of weather making them connected in a very cool way,” Powicki said.
Furthermore, Powicki explained that alumni are some of the greatest recruiters and marketers that the school can have. Just as the success of the current football team has been from the groundwork the alumni had put in, the current football players are laying groundwork for future Wildcats.
“We can build a program that all alumni are proud of, as teams win it brings more notoriety bringing more people back to Wayne,” Powicki said. “While they were here at separate times and played for different coaches with different facilities, they all wore the paw so they are inherently connected on a unique level.”
The football reunion is meant to inspire other reunions in the future including basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball, and softball.
“We want to something like this for all of our sports, we started with football because they are having an exciting year,” Finn said.
One of the goals of the reunion is to help expand scholarship funding.
“We are always trying to raise scholarships, and you can see how that helps with success,” Finn said.
With the rise in scholarships over the last few years the football team has been able to take that big first step into becoming successful on the field.
“It is not all about money, it’s about providing a positive student-athletes experience so we can stack positive recruiting class and moving towards a conference championship,” Powicki said.
With many people living out of town or being from another state, it is hard for people to get back on campus.
“The challenges I would say is getting the word out there and getting people to come back to campus,” Finn said.
According to Finn, one of the farthest drives for the alumni was an eight-hour drive from Missouri.
“The administration wants to take that next step and engage all of our alumni groups on a higher level and give them more reasons to come back and connect with Wayne and the brotherhood and sisterhood they have with sports,” Powicki said.