The NCAA celebrates Division III week April 1-7, 2019. Division III Week is a positive opportunity for all individuals associated with Division III to observe and celebrate the impact of athletics and of student-athletes on the campus and surrounding community. Here at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, we want to use the opportunity to highlight some of the unique stories of Yellowjacket Athletics.
 

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SUPERIOR, Wis. – For many collegiate student-athletes, attending classes and playing their sport are the only things on their minds during their time in school. 
 
Balancing schoolwork along with the demands of being an NCAA Division III student-athlete is difficult enough, but add in being an Army veteran and current member of the Army Reserves, and you have Bryce Meverden (Birnamwood, Wis./Wittenberg-Birnamwood). 
 
A junior catcher on the UW-Superior baseball team, Meverden has a Military Occupational Specialty of Heavy Construction Equipment Operator, and has been deployed to both Afghanistan and Kuwait.
 
Many Army missions depend on safe roads and structures for success, and not everywhere the military goes has the necessary infrastructure. That's where Meverden comes in.
 
"I'm a heavy construction operator, so bulldozers, graders and stuff," he said. "Kind of our job, it's construction more than anything. Obviously we have hands-on stuff that we can do. Our first mission is obviously to prepare to defend the country."
 
Meverden enlisted in 2014 after spending the 2012-13 academic year at Northland College. He appeared in three games for the LumberJacks that spring before leaving school to enlist.
 
"I just wanted to be a part of something that was bigger than me and help out and work towards the benefits they offer," Meverden said.
 
He completed basic training at Fort Benning in Georgia and advanced individual training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri prior to being deployed.
 
"We deployed back in 2016 and then we came back in 2017, so about a year deployment altogether. Over there, we just did our normal operations of building roads, tearing stuff down that was old on the base, in a sense that's what we did there," Meverden, who has not seen combat, but remains understandably guarded about his time overseas, explained.
 
Meverden enrolled at UW-Superior in 2018 and, due to a previous relationship with a former Northland assistant coach, found himself a roster spot with the Yellowjackets.

 
"I was looking around and I found Superior – I wanted to play baseball, too, for fun, and to see what I could do," he said. "I walked in January of 2018 before the semester started and I didn't even know Frank Pufall was the coach until I got here. Seeing him, I was like, 'Can I play baseball [for you]?' So, it was nice to see him as the coach that I knew and be able to get on the team that route."
 
Now in his third season as head coach at UWS, Pufall has seen a difference in Meveden since their time in Ashland.

"When I coached Bryce at Northland he was right out of high school and had some growing up to do," said Pufall. "When he walked into my office at UWS, you could tell his time in the military had helped him mature."
 
With his energy refocused on finishing his degree in physical education, Meverden would like to teach at the grade-school level. 
 
"Being older and having his military experience, there is no doubt that Mev brings a very valuable perspective to the team," Pufall said.
 
The 'Jackets hope that perspective will help Meverden and his teammates challenge for a conference championship this season.