The Triple Wildebeast Award

No award has more prestige than this award I'm sure. The nicknames that have been bestowed on our team throughout the years have slowly gotten better, year by year. In the early years, you had Joel King becoming "Kinger," or Jordan Kauffman becoming "JK," or me being deemed "Mills." I mean, they are nicknames, but they aren't great.

Then there came an explosion of creative. Daniel Buschert was called "Angel" based on his Jesus-like hair. Jonny Shenk was "Kashmar," which was Russian for nightmare. Luke Hostetter became "Luke Hostennis" based on his love of the game.

But we didn't end there. Last year, the ultimate for nicknames saw us endear Misha Rebec with "I Will Kill You Later." Then, Austin and Nick Rebec received a nickname from an opponent, when the Mishawaka player they faced called them "Testosterone Filled Monsters." And of course, this award's namesake, good old Jake Gerig who will forever be the "Triple Wildebeast."

And the nicknames came back this year, and all of the old traditions. Justin Zehr got the easy way out and was called "JZ." That was made even more comical considering the rapper who goes by the same name, although spelled differently, and our JZ's complete lack of "rapper-ness." Joel Gerig, little brother of the Wildebeast was deemed "Double Wildebeast," one step down from big bro. Abe Thorne got the ninja nickname "Aby Baby." Ryan Minter, for no apparent reason, was known as "The Blitz." And perhaps the coolest Star Wars take-off of all was "Parth Sidious."

But in the end, only one nickname really fit. We all know who it is going to be, unless we forgot that it was a nickname because we called him by this so much.

Indeed, Wade Troyer was the "Tower of Power."
Funny enough, despite Kyle Miller's prominent role on the team for four years, I don't remember one single nickname he ever got. It seems like he deserves one, considering the ridiculous things that he has done and said. Hmm...

Anyways, I know I'm behind on the awards. For some reason I have teaching work to do now that tennis is over... I'll try to post up two awards tomorrow. They will be the Amann Award and the Ninja Award.

Keep rockin' Kyle Miller Week.