Alumni Game Update:

For those who have not been keeping track the Hodags are currently undefeated and have won three tournaments (Mardi Gras, Trouble in Vegas, and Standford Invite) and secured about $7,000 in prize money. The Hodags website contains write-ups by Muffin and some video footage as well. In other words they are in need of some serious competition and apparently not many college teams are up to the challenge. Thus in a joint effort to help them raise money and to humble them I have agreed to put together an alumni squad to face them on April 19, 2008. (Time still undetermined)

Here is the deal: As we have done in the past couple of years we will be attempting to put together a BBQ of sorts following the alumni game so we can teach the current squad about their illustrious heritage and their fore fathers. Obviously, the night will probably also involve the alumni seeking refuge at one of the local watering holes to celebrate a hard fought victory. All alumni are invited so spread the word. Please let me know if you plan to attend the game and or the BBQ so we can get some sort of head count.

As far as contributions go, there is no doubt that the Hodags have benefitted from the recent rash of tournaments offering prize money, but the goal of the program and the alumni is to make sure that even in less successful years the Hodags are able to supplement the cost of players and even attract players to the program by allowing them to play for little or no personal expense. In order to do this a few hard working alumni (mostly Dean Bolton) have done the leg work to establish an endowment fund for the program through the University of Wisconsin. This means there is a tax benefit to giving to the Hodags and as Dean would say essentially you can give twice as much and not really be losing anymore money then you would have given otherwise. (Not tax advice) The end goal as daunting as it may be is to have many of the programs costs funded by interest of the endowment fund. I believe the short term goal (2 years) is to have $10,000 and hopefully in ten years to have the fund be self sustaining. Obviously, this seems daunting to some that may only be able to give $20 or $50, but every year we gain alumni and I believe that most of us would put a much higher value on our experiences with the Hodags. Hopefully Dean will chime in to tell you what to do if you would like to contibute and I will try to follow up with him.

BP (bryanparadise@hotmail.com)