Utah Valley Wolverines

Utah Valley Wolverines
University Utah Valley University
Conference Western Athletic Conference
NCAA Division I
Athletic director Vince Otoupal
Location Orem, Utah
Basketball arena UCCU Center
Baseball stadium Brent Brown Ballpark
Nickname Wolverines
Colors Green and White[1]
         
Website www.wolverinegreen.com
Western Athletic Conference in Utah Valley's colors

The Utah Valley Wolverines represent Utah Valley University in college athletics. The Wolverines participate in the Western Athletic Conference.[2][3] The school mascot is the Wolverine, and the colors are green and white. The UVU student section is called the Mighty Athletic Wolverine League, or MAWL, a name created by former executive vice president of student government Justin Davies.

Teams

Utah Valley University currently sponsors eight men's and eight women's teams in NCAA sanctioned sports:[4]

Conference affiliation

The Wolverines joined the Great West Conference in 2008.[5] Utah Valley State College was originally a member of the NJCAA and moved to NCAA Division I in 2003. The school became Utah Valley University in 2008 and a full Division I member in the 2009–10 season following a five-year transition period as a Division I independent.[6] They have won the GWC Commissioner's Cup each year they have competed in the conference. Each year the Cup is awarded to the institution that performed best overall in GWC-sponsored sports. They joined the Western Athletic Conference July 1, 2013.

UVU officially accepted an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference in all sports (with the exception of wrestling) on October 9, 2012. They became a full member on July 1, 2013 and began WAC play in the 2013–14 school year. With this move, UVU also added men's soccer in 2014.[7] The school's wrestling team remained a member of the Western Wrestling Conference (WWC) through the 2014–15 school year. The WWC then disbanded when all of its members accepted an offer of single-sport membership in the Big 12 Conference.

Varsity sports

The Wolverines play their home basketball games in the 8,500-seat Utah Community Credit Union Center. The men's basketball team finished the 2008–09 season with a 17–11 record,[8] which capped off its 26th winning season in a row.

The baseball team plays at Brent Brown Ballpark, a 2,500-seat facility (3,000 additional fans can sit on a grass berm that wraps around third base and left field, bringing total capacity to 5,500) that opened on March 25, 2005. Brent Brown Ballpark is also the home of the Orem Owlz, a minor-league affiliate of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, that competes in the Pioneer Baseball League.

The men's and women's soccer team play at Clyde Field, and has seated over 2,800 fans. The women's team were ranked 23rd nationally in 2015 for average attendance in the nation. They were also crowned the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) tournament champions that year, leading them to their first ever appearance in the NCAA tournament in school history. The men's team has also been growing over the years, having only become a part of the school just three years ago. The men's team also took first place in the WAC just a year later in 2016.

The Track and Field team for Utah Valley competes at HaL Wing Track and Field. The Head coach of the track team is Scott Houle. Under Coach Houle the team has won 31 conference championships, had 12 second-place finishes, and he has won 31 coach of the year awards. The team has also had 28 individual NCAA Regional Qualifiers and had 51 Individual events qualified to the NCAA Regional Championships. There has also be 23 USTFCCCA All-Academic individuals as well. So far the track team has had 4 All-Americans, 3 in outdoor and 1 in indoor.

Club sports

The school also fields several club teams including, men's soccer, men's volleyball, men's lacrosse, and men's and women's rugby.

The school dropped its men's club ice hockey team in 2009,[9] it competed in ACHA Division 2, and played its home games at the Peaks Ice Arena, a 2002 Winter Olympics hockey venue. A grassroots effort by the student body and the community was launched to start an NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey team; if successful it would be the first such program in the state of Utah. As college hockey continues to grow, especially with the newly formed Big Ten Hockey Conference,[10] more schools out west are clamoring for exposure.

Alumni

References

  1. ↑ Utah Valley University University Style Guide (PDF). Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  2. ↑ Wolverines Athletics
  3. ↑ http://wolverinegreen.com/coaches.aspx?rc=127
  4. ↑ http://www.wolverinegreen.com/
  5. ↑ New Great West Conference Archived August 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ http://www.wolverinegreen.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/hunsaker_dick00.html
  7. ↑ "Utah Valley University joyously accepts invitation to join the WAC". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
  8. ↑ "Seniors Go Out with Big Win". Utah Valley Wolverines. March 4, 2009. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  9. ↑ Hemsley, Landon (2010). "UVU backs out of scheduled hockey game against Aggies". Usu-tube.com. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  10. ↑ Augustoviz, Roman (March 21, 2011). "It's official, Big Ten Hockey Conference to start in 2013–14". Star Tribune. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
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