The Utah Valley Wolverines represent
Utah Valley University
Utah Valley University (UVU) is a public university in Orem, Utah. UVU offers master's, bachelor's, associate degrees, and certificates. Previously called Utah Valley State College, the school attained university status in July 2008.
History ...
in NCAA DI collegiate athletics and sponsor 16 sporting programs. The Wolverines participate in the
Western Athletic Conference. The school mascot is the
Wolverine
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...
, and the colors are green and white. The UVU student section is called The Den. A name change from The Mawl, the student section's previous name, was enacted in 2017. All UVU students can get their Den pass, which includes free admission to all athletic events.
Conference affiliation
The Wolverines joined the
Great West Conference
The Great West Conference (GWC) was an NCAA college athletic conference in the continental United States. Originally a football-only league, it became an all-sports entity during the 2008–09 season. The GWC stopped sponsoring football followi ...
in 2008. Utah Valley State College was originally a member of the
NJCAA
The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...
and moved to
NCAA Division I in 2003. The school became Utah Valley University in 2008 and a full Division I member in the 2009–10 season following a five-year transition period as a Division I independent. They have won the GWC Commissioner's Cup each year they have competed in the conference. Each year the Cup is awarded to the institution that performed best overall in GWC-sponsored sports. They joined the
Western Athletic Conference July 1, 2013.
UVU officially accepted an invitation to join the
Western Athletic Conference in all sports (with the exception of wrestling) on October 9, 2012. They became a full member on July 1, 2013, and began WAC play in the 2013–14 school year. With this move, UVU also added men's soccer in 2014. The school's wrestling team remained a member of the
Western Wrestling Conference
The Western Wrestling Conference (WWC) was an NCAA Division I wrestling-only conference that competed from 2006 through 2015. All of its past members are now associate members of the Big 12 Conference; all except Fresno State compete only in Big ...
(WWC) through the 2014–15 school year. The WWC then disbanded when all of its members accepted an offer of single-sport membership in the
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...
.
Varsity sports
Utah Valley University currently sponsors eight men's and eight women's teams in
NCAA sanctioned sports:
Men’s basketball
The Wolverines play their home basketball games in the 8,500-seat Utah Community Credit Union Center. The men's basketball team finished the 2008–09 season with a 17–11 record,
which capped off its 26th winning season in a row. The team is coached by two-time
National Basketball Association champion
Mark Madsen of the
Los Angeles Lakers.
Women’s basketball
Baseball
The baseball team plays at
UCCU Ballpark, a 2,500-seat facility (3,000 additional fans can sit on a grass berm that wraps around third base and left field, bringing total capacity to 5,500) that opened on March 25, 2005.
UCCU Ballpark is also the home of the
Orem Owlz
The Orem Owlz were a Minor League Baseball team located in Orem, Utah, United States, from 2001 to 2020. The team competed in the Pioneer League as a Rookie League affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. The Owlz played their home games at Home ...
, a minor-league affiliate of
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, that competes in the
Pioneer Baseball League
The Pioneer League is an independent baseball league that operates in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Its teams are not directly affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB). It is designated as an MLB Partner League.
From 1939 ...
.
Soccer
The men's and women's soccer team play at Clyde Field, and has seated over 2,800 fans. The women's team were ranked 23rd nationally in 2015 for average attendance in the nation. They were also crowned the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) tournament champions that year, leading them to their first ever appearance in the NCAA tournament in school history. The men's team has also been growing over the years, having only become a part of the school in 2015. The men's team also took first place in the WAC just a year later in 2016.
Track and field
The Track and Field team for Utah Valley competes at Hal Wing Track and Field. The Head coach of the track team is Scott Houle. Under Coach Houle the team has won 31 conference championships, had 12 second-place finishes, and he has won 31 coach of the year awards. The team has also had 28 individual NCAA Regional Qualifiers and had 51 Individual events qualified to the NCAA Regional Championships. There has also be 23 USTFCCCA All-Academic individuals as well. So far the track team has had 4 All-Americans, 3 in outdoor and 1 in indoor.
Wrestling
Non-varsity sports
The school also fields several non-varsity teams including, men's
ice hockey, men's
volleyball, men's
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...
, and men's and women's
rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
.
The men's hockey program was renewed in 2016, originally starting as a business student’s capstone project. After the first two seasons of the revived program, major changes were made to help facilitate on campus growth and the success of the team. The team currently plays as an
ACHA D2 member, with short term goals of advancing to ACHA D1. There is tremendous interest among the student body with the ACHA Hockey team bringing close to capacity crowds several times a season. All games and practices are held at
Peaks Ice Arena in Provo, Utah. In addition to this ACHA program, the athletic department at UVU has been pursuing adding NCAA D1 Men’s and Women’s hockey to campus. A feasibility study was completed, the results of which showed tremendous potential for a successful program. Currently, the school is working on efforts to raise the funds necessary to start and sustain the program for five years. The school has plans to construct a 5,000-7,000 seat arena on the newly acquired Geneva Campus 10 minutes away from main campus UVU. The initial target was to have a team competing by the 2027 season start. However, due to COVID-19 and financial woes it has been pushed to 2030.
Alumni
*
Ronnie Price
Ronald D'Wayne Price (born June 21, 1983) is an American former professional basketball player and current scout for the Phoenix Suns.
Price grew up in Friendswood, Texas and played college basketball for one year at Nicholls State and three yea ...
– basketball player for the
Utah Jazz of the
NBA
*
Noelle Pikus-Pace – American skeleton racer and silver medalist at the
2014 Winter Olympics
, ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'')
, nations = 88
, events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, athletes = 2,873
, opening = 7 February 2014
, closing = 23 February 2014
, opened_by = President Vladimir Putin
, cauldron =
, stadium = Fisht Olympi ...
*
Travis Hansen
Travis Mitchell Hansen (born April 15, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. He played for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Both his junior high school, Orem Junior High, and his high school ...
– former basketball player for the
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...
of the
NBA
*
Skyler Milne – Soccer player for the
Real Monarchs
Real Monarchs is a professional soccer club playing in the MLS Next Pro, a third division league of American soccer. The team is owned by, and operates as the reserve team of, the Major League Soccer club Real Salt Lake. While the senior club is ...
of the
USL
The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...
References
External links
*
{{Orem, Utah