CU's waterski team works to stay afloat

BOULDER, Colo., The University of Colorado at Boulder has many great activities to keep students active during their college years. From club sports to intermurals and even Nationally ranked teams, the university offers a multitude of diverse teams.

The university conveniently displays each team online on one of three CUBuffs websites, where students can search and find the team they are interested in.

However, for one university team, recognition from the school is absent. The CU Waterski team is not included on the list of university supported teams, nor is it included on any of the three websites. The team is frankly...invisible.

Being invisible to the student body is a growing issue for the team, as the team is in desperate need for more student participation in order to keep competing at a collegiate level. And this year, getting recognition is heightened more than previous years, due to the fact that 99% of the team is graduating.

Waterski alumni, Scott Griesser says, “There’s a bunch of great waterskiers in Colorado, but no one knows about the team....the problem isn’t that there aren’t any skiers, but rather the problem is that the team has no support from the school, so the team is invisible...”

Chris Prem, along with students from the snow racing team, started the waterski team in 2004 with 25 students on the roster. Over the years student participation has dwindled, but relationships with lake owners and waterskiers throughout Colorado have been maintained.

“The waterski kids throughout the years have been really great,” says coach Alan Weappa, “Both Brad [Anderson, coach] and I love the sport and enjoy helping out the CU team.”

“We practice on private lakes near Boulder, but compete in the Midwest with 25 other Universities. Each tournament there are around 150 athletes, and everyone there is supportive of one another and really just there to have a good time,” says Long.

Along with representing CU, other incentives to join are lasting friendships and memorable experiences.

The team packs up Friday and drives all night to get to the tournaments. They camp alongside the lake with the other teams and spend the weekend hanging out in the sun with great friends.

Alum Griesser says, “My best friends for the rest of my life come from the waterski team.”