Wharton Journal

Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: News

Picture a young athlete hurtling up the rink, with the poise and balance of a gymnast. He drops his shoulder to deke the defense, and unleashes a thunderbolt into the net to rapturous applause from thousands of adoring fans. That would be the NHL. Start a new picture: imagine a bunch of 20- and 30-something wannabe management consultants, with their peak athletic days far behind them, leaving Pub on a Thursday night and trudging over to Penn ice rink. Think of battles on the ice being fought over heart and hustle rather than subtlety and skill. Visualize long post-mortems in Bonner's until the early hours of the morning, frequently ending in dancing on the bar or greasy meals at 4am in Little Pete's. And finally, add to that, the rare, very rare glimpse of quality - the occasional crafty crossover, savage slap-shot or spectacular save. Welcome to the Wharton Wildmen.

The Wildmen is the biggest sports club in Wharton. Its members are drawn mainly from current MBA students, but also include the odd undergrad, alum, faculty/staff member or local. The season begins with "Wild for One Night" in early September. Back then, the first-years were still fresh-faced and eager to devote many hours to new activities, blissfully unaware that soon they'd be pummeled by the L'Oréal case and a recruiting pony circus. Second-year club members generously lent their gear for complete strangers to sweat in. For many it was their very first time on the ice; it wasn't quite Blades of Glory nor Steel, but many were hooked and began their hockey careers.

The vast majority of the Wildmen are part of the Development ("D") league, with experience ranging from absolute beginner to actually reasonably competent. For the next couple of months, coaches Brian Isola and Matt Galbally led twice-weekly skill sessions, where aspiring skaters learned the basics of not falling on your rump, passing, and shooting. Finally, mid-November featured the draft, where each player performed technical exercises under the eagle eyes of the team captains. After weighing actual hockey skill with boat-race ability and contribution to dressing-room humor, the captains made their selections. The draft was announced in Bonner's (where else?); the teams that would do battle were "Puck U" (captained by Allison Sydlaske [WG'08] and Steve Wislo [WG'08], "Checking Me Softly" (Terry Hamer [WG'08] and Joe Meza [WG'09]), "The Iceotopes" (Billy Rock [WG'08] and Ken Nesmith [WG'09]) and "Pull My Winger" (Tom Boonyasai [WG'08] and Jackie Fuld [WG'09]). After getting the boring stuff out of the way, the newly segregated teams got down to the serious business of boat-racing. The night ended back at the rink with a game of midnight alcoholic broomball.

Continued...

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