Best of CASE District V Award
 

Institution: University of Wisconsin Madison

Title of entry: Coach of the Year

About this entry: Preston Schmitt profiles Greg Gard, the University of Wisconsin–Madison men’s basketball coach, at a time of extraordinary adversity for the man and his team. The Badgers have grappled with an assistant coach’s tragic car accident and a leaked locker room recording that threatened the program’s viability, along with the disruptions caused by the pandemic and an on-court controversy. In his personal life, Gard has also struggled with the death of his father. The article notes the irony of Gard’s dramatic tenure as coach, given his understated personality. Schmitt traces the coach’s skill in dealing with life’s difficulties to his childhood on a hog farm, where he developed a penchant for grit and hard work. These qualities have helped Gard lead the Badgers to nearly unmatched success in the NCAA. “The best lessons in life come from experience in adversity,” he says. The basketball team shared the story on Twitter and Facebook, where it garnered close to 3,000 likes and 160 comments. In a letter to the editor, a prominent Madison sports journalist wrote: “The Greg Gard article is one of the best I’ve ever read. I would be proud to have written it myself.” This sentiment was echoed by an alumnus who wrote: “Mr. Schmitt’s article was the best local sports article I’ve read in many years.”