Hello {{Name_First}} -

Happy end of summer! Whether you are ready or not, school is beginning. Our teams are completing their final days of pre-season this weekend and fall classes start on Wednesday! Summer flew by quick for us, as the coaches worked extremely hard in the recruiting process. As of today, we have 171 new student-athletes joining Lakeland, one of the largest classes in Lakeland history with a chance to set a record by next week. Now we will flip our script from getting students to Lakeland, to supporting them through their educational journey. It is going to be a good year for the Muskies!

Sincerely,

Dan Artamenko
Director of Athletics
Lakeland University

Athletic Department Updates:

Golf Tournament:

The athletic department hosted our annual fundraiser golf tournament at Autumn Ridge Golf Course. Historically, this event is the final summer activity before we begin our fall camps and semester. The tournament is focused on alumni/fan development, a chance to have a good time with coaches. This year was exactly that, with a record number of teams, 31 in total, registered and playing. In addition, we utilized one of our apparel contracts to secure slightly better hole prizes. We had some lovely pullovers, jackets, and hoodies to give away. Thank you to all for your support of the Muskies and this event.

Sponsorship Program:

Very soon, we will be announcing a new Sponsorship program for Lakeland Athletics. As we have plans to expand our facilities with new features like video scoreboards, we recognize the need for local businesses to support these initiatives. In addition, the foot traffic experienced during many of our games, both by Lakeland fans and the competition, provides excellent exposure for some of our local businesses. The sponsorship program will provide businesses with the opportunity to gain branding exposure in our facilities or online presence. It can be banners on the fences at football/soccer games, opportunities during half-time or timeouts at basketball, or involvement during special games like Homecoming or Senior Night. Once we secure a few sponsorships, the conversation about enhancing our scoreboards and game-day experience will only escalate.

Department Expansion (and some new faces):

I am very excited to announce the growth of our athletic staff for this academic year. This summer alone, we added three new full-time positions and enhanced three other positions to align with future success. Under Coach Mike DeRoehn, our wrestling team is showing strong growth, and we were able to support this growth by hiring Mason Hawkins to a full-time role as an assistant coach. Mason was with us last year as a Graduate Assistant. I am excited that we were able to keep a Lakeland graduate as they begin their coaching career! For Volleyball, we hired Jacob Jurney to a full-time role to help both the Men’s and Women’s Volleyball teams. After graduating from Marian, Jake worked in a part-time role for us while also serving as the head girls' volleyball coach at Plymouth High School. Bringing him on full-time will provide the student support for both programs, given our current roster of over 50 athletes across the two sports. Speaking of student support, our Men’s Soccer recruiting has gone so well that the institution realized we needed to provide more coaching support, and we are excited to announce that former Lakeland Soccer Coach Tony Pierce has rejoined us in a full-time role to assist the Men’s program.

Just this week, our new Head Coach for Track and Cross Country started, as Sara Klemme joins us after being an assistant coach at the Division 2 level. A Sheboygan Falls native, she takes over the head coach position as we look to grow our running sports. Hannah Nelson, former softball standout and NACC Student Athlete of the year, completed her graduate program while serving as the GA for the Athletic Director. Again, we are happy to announce she is joining us full-time in the role of assistant Softball Coach and Assistant to the Athletic Director. You will see her involved in almost every sport at Lakeland as she helps with the gameday experience.

NIL & The Future:

Name, Image, and Likeness…one of the most talked about topics we get, but also a bit of a taboo topic at the Division III level. We learned a lot this year about the current state of NIL at Division III and the future of it at Lakeland. From the NCAA convention, feedback was that around 75% or more of D3 schools are actively involved in NIL activities on their campus. Since July 1, 2021, the average compensation per Division II athlete is $204, and $309 per Division III athlete. It is not a matter of if, but when, and we are already finding out that the when is now. Many of our students are actively engaged in trying to secure NIL opportunities as we speak. With that, it’s a good time to clarify the difference between what you see as NIL at Division I schools (pay to play) and NIL for our students. When we talk about NIL, we are not talking about Lakeland paying a student athlete. That is still against Division III bylaws. NIL for us means that the students can use their own brand to promote themselves and legally receive money doing so. They can go to a local business and sign autographs for compensation, or they can promote a product or event on their social media. We are currently exploring avenues through which Lakeland can provide support to our students, including education, access, and management, in an educational manner. Our team is exploring exciting ways to integrate this into the educational journey at Lakeland, rather than making it a stand-alone activity for a few individuals. Stay tuned!

Staff Development:

Our athletic staff participated in a two-day workshop to come together with great ideas on how to grow our department and succeed. We had multiple presentations covering topics such as external fundraising, student-athlete advisory committee, mental health, and recruiting at Lakeland. We had our conference commissioner join to discuss the state of Division III and the conference, and had ADs from Division II and NAIA schools share stories on how to grow teams. However, the star of the show was Lakeland’s own Dr. Caleb Voskul, assistant professor of exercise science. He was able to share how our teams can utilize the great technology that Lakeland has to advance our teams. They have GPA tracking systems, an ultrasound to measure muscle density, and many other tools to measure/track strength and explosiveness. Our coaches are excited to use these tools to advance the Muskies!

Fall Events & Games

All Lakeland schedules are updated and posted on Lakelandmuskies.com. Our first home event of the year will be on August 31, followed by multiple events every week throughout the year. We will look to have expanded Senior Nights and will be releasing details on themes/promotions soon!

Also, don't forget to make your reservations for Homecoming Weekend, Oct. 17-18. All the details can be found at Lakeland.edu/homecoming!