Growing up in Sparta, Wisconsin, there were always two constants in my life: sports and the farm. I grew up helping my dad farm just north of town. I’m the youngest of Mike and Kathy Wacker’s four kids, and that meant that Mom had to haul me along whenever one of my older siblings had a game or event to be at, at least until I was old enough to contribute on the farm.
My older brothers, David and Chris, each played sports throughout their high school years, and my sister, Jana, played softball and volleyball before turning her attention to music and theatre. I was my mom’s sidekick from before I could read until I started playing sports myself. I remember going to David’s football games at Memorial Field in Sparta and having to ask my mom what the part of the scoreboard with the letters G-U-E-S-T spelled, and what the numbers underneath it meant. Eventually I started playing football and baseball in Sparta. I played throughout my high school career while working on the farm.
David went to school at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls for a couple of years before returning home to help my dad. Looking back now, I think of how special my senior year of high school was. I was a captain on the football team, a two-way starter for most of the season. I got to play baseball with my best friends. In one game I even got our team’s only hit against a pitcher who eventually went on to be drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies. I went to just about every home sporting event held at Sparta High and spent my weekends hanging out with my friends. I got to do all that while having a morning work release co-op where I got to farm with my dad and David.
After I graduated, going to the farm full time wasn’t in the cards for me. I went to UW-La Crosse where I majored in sports management and tried to find my own career path.
After graduating from UW-La Crosse, I was looking for my next step, as all college graduates do. I went on to earn a graduate assistant position at Indiana State University. I was working in an NCAA Division I athletic department on their communications team. I was working and studying to get my master’s degree in sport and recreation management. This was also the first real move away from home for me. I moved to a different state, seven hours away, with my dog, Louie. To that point, I had always lived with my friends in college, so there was always someone around and something to do. This was going to be a big adjustment.
So there I was, in a one-bedroom apartment in a sketchy side of town in Terre Haute, Indiana. With a busy work schedule and online classes, trips back to Wisconsin were hard to come by. But whenever I found time to call home, my dad and I would bond over sports and what was going on at the farm.
After my graduate assistant position, I took my first full-time job in Greensboro, North Carolina. Thankfully, this time it was more than me and the pup moving. My girlfriend, whom I had met at UW-La Crosse, made the move down to Terre Haute for about six months before we decided a move to the East Coast would be our next stop. After six months of living in Greensboro, Codi agreed to marry me, and we wed in La Crosse, July 1, 2017. While we were living in North Carolina, talks with my dad still were about sports and the farm. When talking with David, it was catching up with how his kids were doing and what he was doing on the farm.
After a couple years in Greensboro, Codi and I eventually made the move to Richmond, Virginia, so I could take a new job at the University of Richmond. I always had a goal of working at the highest level of college athletics, and that dream was accelerated a little bit in 2019 with the arrival of our son, Brooks. To get him and Codi closer to family, I was looking for jobs at schools back in the Midwest and eventually landed at the University of Notre Dame.
Like most 90s kids, I was familiar with the story of Rudy Ruettiger. Rudy was the epitome of grit and determination, so I was familiar with the golden dome and the lore that surrounded that place. And it is real. When I first got there, I thought it was going to be just another job, but something about Notre Dame is just different. I had been working in college baseball for seven years before switching over to softball with the Irish and eventually took on a role with the football team. I went from being a kid who couldn’t read “GUESTS” on the scoreboard to being on the sideline for games of one of the most historic programs in college football history.
I achieved a career goal of mine, working at the highest level in college athletics. But with that position, there were some long days spent on campus, and a ton of travel involved. Now it was fun to get to travel to Florida, California or Georgia, especially in late February or early March. But, I was starting to see how there wasn’t enough time in the day or week to be the person I wanted to be. My family had followed me around the country, and we were still six hours from home and the rest of our family. I was getting to live out my dream, but that came at a cost for everyone else. I knew that I needed to make a change; a change to help my wife, my kids and our families be more connected. I changed career paths, and that led me back to the dairy industry.
What I learned through it all is how much my dad sacrificed for me. That senior year, when I got to have all those opportunities to go and hang out with friends, play sports and do any and all extra-curriculars that I wanted, was because my dad and David let me. I didn’t know it at the time, but the further I got away from it, the more I realized it. They could have easily asked me to stay back, and make their lives easier by taking more ownership on the farm, but they knew that wasn’t what I wanted to do. So, when I was looking to pivot my career, I wanted to do something to help give back to a community that taught me so much about being selfless, about hard work, getting the job done and doing it at a high level, all the principles that helped me in my professional life. I’m thankful that Mark Klaphake and the team of wonderful people at the Dairy Star have given me that opportunity. I’m excited to start telling the stories of people like my dad and brother, those who sacrifice for others, who put in the work to help others, and those who are too humble to boast about their own accomplishments.
I hope that I can do your stories justice. I’m looking forward to meeting more of you, hearing your stories and helping tell the rest of the world just how truly awesome you all are.
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