It’s 7:00 on a Friday night, and as the lights dim over the Kohl Center ice and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” fades in, five words flash across the big screen, juxtaposed over a highlight reel of the season’s biggest moments: “Wisconsin, this is your team.”
For the average 9,307 fans in attendance on any night of the season, this statement manifests itself in one particular quantifiable way: 10 athletes on the 26-man roster hail from the state, meaning the Badgers hold nearly half of the 22 total Wisconsin-raised players in the WCHA.
For redshirt junior forward Keegan Meuer, who went to high school just up the road from campus at Madison Memorial, going from watching the team as a kid to playing for the program is a dream come true.
“It’s surreal. I never wanted to do anything else when I was growing up,” Meuer said. “I had the same helmet the Badgers had, the same skates … It’s a Badger town and that’s all I ever really wanted to be.”
Meuer is a legacy at Wisconsin. His two uncles, Jeff and Rob Andringa, won three NCAA hockey titles during their tenure at UW. His mother and two older sisters played soccer for the Badgers, while his younger sister McKenna, a freshman, is currently blazing her own path on the pitch for Wisconsin as well. His parents even currently own the quintessential Madison bar, State Street Brats.
“There’s a lot of history and it’s kind of like carrying on the torch and the legacy here,” Meuer said.
The rest of UW’s in-state talent shares the sentiment, and appreciates the fact that they can play elite hockey while remaining close to home.
For the Little brothers, redshirt senior Ryan and junior Sean, forwards from Fond du Lac who have skated on the same line most of the season, being a Badger from Wisconsin comes with a little extra pride.
It also means that their parents, who live a little over an hour away, can make it to most of their games.
“You can still feel kind of like a kid,” Sean Little said. “It’s definitely a benefit to live close to here.”
Locker room dynamics also benefit from the team’s local players, most of whom have played against each other during their high school and youth hockey days. Impromptu games, such as their “Wisco vs. the World” scrimmage, even occasionally break out between the players from Wisconsin and the others, according to Jake McCabe.
“It’s just something that brings you closer together,” sophomore goaltender Landon Peterson, an Oregon, Wis., native said.
Junior forward Jefferson Dahl is the forerunner of this team’s in-state talent after winning the title of “Mr. Hockey” in Wisconsin his senior year of high school, something his teammates won’t let him forget.
Ryan Little also likes to remind Dahl about a particular state semifinal game in which Ryan and Fond du Lac beat Dahl and Eau Claire Memorial.
“It creates some good-natured fun in [the locker room],” Ryan Little said.
Dahl knows Wisconsin’s brand of hockey especially well, having been raised in Eau Claire, Wis., looking up to Jake Dowell, who won a national championship with the Badgers in 2006. And Dahl isn’t alone in having a hometown Badger hero to idolizing growing up.
Sophomore forward Brad Navin of Waupaca, Wis., grew up close to former Badger great Joe Pavelski, and can’t remember a time when he didn’t follow the red and white.
“I always saw [Pavelski] as a player and idolized him because he was so close by and went to my high school,” Navin said.
Joe Pavelski is a name that sophomore forward Matt Paape, a native of Appleton, Wis., is also quite familiar with.
“You’re skating around on the pond growing up and you’re like ‘I want to be Joe Pavelski’ or all those throwback guys,” Paape said.
Part of the experience of being a Badger, according to Paape, is understanding that now you’re the one being looked up to.
“Getting a chance to hopefully be that dream for a little kid growing up, it’s fun, it really is a dream come true,” he said.
Head coach Mike Eaves, a former Badger great in his own right, understands this symbiotic relationship between his team and the state’s youth. He keeps his eye on players from high-profile youth programs and all-star teams such as Team Wisconsin throughout the year.
“We have a section on our boards just for high school kids in Wisconsin,” Eaves said. “We have an extra effort to find and do our due diligence about learning as much as we can about the boys in Wisconsin.”
While making players’ dreams come true is just part of a college coach’s job in a state where there are no professional teams, Eaves recognizes that those youth are some of his most dedicated fans as well.
“When you’re seven, eight, nine, 10, the guys in college are bigger than life,” Eaves said. “[Wisconsin] only plays twice a week, so every weekend is like the Stanley Cup Finals, you’re playing game six and game seven. That’s what makes it so special.”
There is a stone at the top of Bascom Hill commemorating the Wisconsin Idea with a quote from former University of Wisconsin President Charles Van Hise: “I shall never be content until the beneficent influence of the university reaches every home in the state.”
It looks like, at least for now, the Wisconsin men’s hockey program is trying to do just that.
