Game and movie nights, Mario Kart competitions and trips to Zap Zone keep members engaged and enthusiastic during the cold winter. 

“Almost every single week we’re together, having a little party or whatever the event is — it really builds the community of the team,” said social studies education senior Ashton Krill, who serves as the president.

Team bonding hasn’t just yielded positive rewards in the friendship department; it’s helped the club’s performance at their tournaments.

“It’s why we have gone to nationals many years in a row,” sophomore civil engineering major and men’s captain Sarah Kirk said. “Not only do we have a good team, but everyone cheers each other on even when we all got two hours of sleep on the hard ground.”

The club’s family dynamic even helped the team to win the much coveted title of NCWSA Team of the Year. Alongside performance, teams get graded on sportsmanship and teamwork. Krill wrote an essay nominating the team and got to accept the award in Florida last week. 

“We might not be the most skilled team — there are basically professional teams in the south, but is it testament to how inclusive and how fun our team is,” Krill said. "For a club that came 6th in the DII National tournament to beat out all the DI teams, it took something special. “It was a super high honor and I think it just really exemplifies what this team is about.” 

Along with winning team of the year, MSU’s Will Fiedler won Male Leader of the Year. According to Krill, Fiedler was the “voice of reason,” in all four years he has been a part of the club as well as possessing leadership qualities and working hard behind the scenes to ensure the club’s success.

Part of that success entails maintaining low fees. In the offseason when the team isn’t bonding, they are looking for ways to keep their club affordable. 

“Water skiing can be very inaccessible due to money, boats and access to water,” sophomore animal science major and club vice president Kira Bonheim said. “Our main focus is keeping our dues lower with our fundraising and to make it accessible to new people and people who've already skied but never thought of competing. That’s what we're all about.”

From only one fundraiser when he first joined, the club now reduces team dues through a sponsorship package, concessions at MSU sporting events and other community ventures. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the team relies heavily on donors and its alumni base to keep the fee at $75 per person.

“The amount of fundraising the club does has increased greatly in recent years,” Krill said.

As the oldest team in the midwest — the club was founded in 1981 — their alumni support runs deep. Some current members were even encouraged to join by family members who had great experiences with the club before them. On the other hand, many members join simply because they want to make friends.

The experience level of the team ranges from complete beginners to people that have been water skiing their whole life. Freshman marketing major and merch coordinator Walker Darnell, who has been skiing since he was five, said he was “a little intimidated” by the level of some of their top skiers. 

To accommodate the varying levels of the skiers, the club is divided into an A Team and a B team. The A Team competes for points at tournaments and the B team is for people just starting to ski or just there to have fun while having the opportunity to compete without pressure.

Even Krill, the club president, was a complete novice before joining three years ago. He had never water-skied a day in his life, but on a whim, someone encouraged him to try, and he kept going back until he joined the A team and could land a 75-foot jump.

“We're very big on making our sport accessible,” Bonheim said. “We don't require anyone to have any experience skiing before joining — we love teaching people how to ski.”

The club trains at their dock on the Grand River, but they won’t be able to put the boat back out until April. In the meantime, it’s all about team bonding, training new members on land and recruiting more students to join the water skiing family.

“You will meet your people and your best friends on the team. I swear by it,” said Krill. “You will always have a spot. It's just one of the greatest experiences that anybody could ask for.”