The Ole Miss wakeboarding team has only existed for less than a year and is already competing in nationals.
Members of the Ole Miss wakeboarding team pose for a photo. (Courtesy Ben Burch)
Thanks to an opening in the national competition, The University of Mississippi‘s wakeboarding team has accepted an invitation to USA Wakeboard’s Collegiate Nationals on May 24-26. Ole Miss will be one of 16 teams across the country competing for the national title.
Ben Burch, junior accounting major and wakeboarding team co-founder, said the competition will air on Fuel TV.
“This is a big thing for us to get recognition from the university,” said Burch. “Going to a national competition and being on television is a big deal for us.”
According to Burch, the team is currently on a two-year trial period and was started in May of last year.
Five months after forming as an organization the team competed at its first competition in Shreveport, La.
In that first competition, one of the team’s advanced riders placed.
The Ole Miss wakeboarding team. (Courtesy Ben Burch)
“For our first competition and our first year of competing, it was pretty sweet,” said Houston Buckley, junior journalism major and wakeboarding team co-founder.
The team’s top 7 riders will compete in the Collegiate Nationals. Four of these riders will be men for the wakeboarding section of the competition. Each team is also required to have two women ride.
Freshman business and pre-med major Natalie Piznar joined because of her love of the water and the thrill of competition.
“Being an Ole Miss cheerleader, I’m used to being on a co-ed team and I really prefer it that way,” said Piznar.
“Having boys on the team is motivation to do better because they’re just naturally more athletic and it’s more fun.”
The other part of the national competition is the wakeskating portion, and each team has to have one wakeskater compete.
Buckley said that some of the team members going to nationals have not been in a competition yet.
“They need to get that feeling and that atmosphere of a competition in their system,” Buckley said.
The team does not have a coach, so all of the training and practicing is done within the team.
According to Buckley the team practices in Tupelo, Miss., where they are preparing for the national competition.
“We’re going to train really hard and make a name for ourselves,” Buckley said.
