Ultimate champs the Madison Radicals: not tired of winning.
The beginning of the calendar year falls at an odd time in the sports calendar, because nothing in sports actually starts Jan. 1.
If you’re looking for a true beginning, mark April 27 on your calendar. That’s the first home game for Forward Madison FC. The city’s new USL League One soccer team will take on Greenville Triumph SC from South Carolina at Breese Stevens Field.
That said, Madison’s existing sports teams gave local sports fans plenty to cheer about in 2018. After years of coming close, the Madison Radicals finally won the American Ultimate Disc League’s national championship in front of a hometown crowd at Breese Stevens. And even though the Madison Mallards exited in the first round of the Northwoods League playoffs, the baseball team’s 49-23 record was the best in the franchise’s 18-year history.
Madison-area athletes were well-represented at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, too. The U.S. men’s curling team, featuring McFarland’s Matt Hamilton, defeated Sweden to capture Team USA’s first gold medal in the sport. The U.S. women’s hockey team also won gold, beating Canada, 3-2, in a shootout. That game boasted several former and current Wisconsin Badgers on both sides of the ice.
In high school sports, several area schools are reigning state champions, including Madison Edgewood (Division 2 boys’ and girls’ golf, boys’ tennis and girls’ swimming), Madison West (Division 1 boys’ swimming), Middleton (Division 1 girls’ swimming), Oregon (Division 2 boys’ soccer), Sun Prairie (Division 1 softball) and Waunakee (Division 1 baseball).
In Milwaukee, the Brewers came within one game of appearing in the franchise’s first World Series since 1982 and will enter the 2019 season with much of last year’s roster intact. The Milwaukee Bucks didn’t make it past last year’s first round of the playoffs, but they now own one of the best records in the NBA.
The year wasn’t quite so memorable for other teams. The sub-.500 Green Bay Packers missed the NFL playoffs for only the second time since 2008, while the Wisconsin Badgers football team, 7-5 in the regular season, only partially redeemed itself with its win in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. The volleyball Badgers fell one match shy of advancing to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament, and the Wisconsin men’s basketball team wasn’t even invited to the NCAA tournament — something that hadn’t happened since 1998. With a national ranking and only a handful of losses through Jan. 2, that’s not likely to happen again this season.
