The moms of Badger Athletics
May 08, 2009 | General News
Marija Pientka, Lisa Stone and Mary Weaver-Klees all have three very different roles within the UW Athletic Department.
Pientka oversees the department's fundraising activities and has numerous other tasks as director of development. You can usually find Stone on the hardwood at the Kohl Center coaching the Wisconsin women's basketball team. And Weaver-Klees spends her days in the Kohl Fetzer Center working with student-athletes as assistant director of academic services.
Athletic titles aside, all three share another title when they head home after a day of work'Mom.
Pientka, Weaver-Klees and Stone are just three of many working mothers within the UW Athletic Department and all three are in different stages of motherhood. With Mother 's Day just around the corner, we want to honor all the moms within the athletic department and give fans an inside look at the balancing act these three perform on a daily basis.
Just getting started
Pientka is one of the newest mothers in the athletic department after giving birth to daughter Sophia on Feb. 5, 2009. Her first day back in Kellner Hall was Monday of this week and she is still slowly getting into a routine as a new mom back at work. Marija notes that Sophia wakes up around 6 a.m. every day and after a little breakfast and morning playtime, she's out the door at 7:30 a.m. for a full day of work.
Even though Pientka just returned back to the office, she still did plenty of work while at home on maternity leave, logging at least a couple of hours a day.
'There were some days where you were going on not much sleep, the baby was fussy and there were some moments of stress certainly, but I'd say overall it really helped keep me connected,' Pientka said. 'It really helped make my transition back to the office very smooth. As she got a little bit older, she would take a nap for a couple of hours which would let me do e-mails and make some calls as needed. '
While Sophia is just 12 weeks old, Pientka is well versed in learning how to balance work and family life with her husband, Jim, and two step children, Jack (10 years old) and Jessica (7 years old). Her family helped her learn a very valuable lesson even before Sophia came into the picture.
'I think for any parent, not just for a mom, but for any working parent, it helps to be really efficient with your time,' Pientka said. 'I can say that there is no down time with an infant. You have X amount of time to take care of the baby, get yourself ready, do the groceries and laundry and all that, and it's all about being efficient.
'You have to really re-evaluate what your priorities are and the things that don't fit in there just need to go by the wayside because there are only so many hours in the day.'
Some of the priorities for Pientka are being active with her step children in tennis and golf and even taking little Sophia to Badger sporting events. Sophia made it to almost every home tennis match this year, decked out in Badger gear, and Pientka is hoping to take her to a few football games in the fall. One of the biggest priorities and most rewarding aspects of motherhood for Pientka though has been taking time to appreciate the little things that Sophia is learning every day.
'I never thought I would be so excited with her figuring out that she has hands and can swat at a rattle or a toy on her gym when she spent two months just looking at it, ' Pientka said. 'She can just sit there for a half an hour, swat at it and just be fascinated and it's really the small things that are so much fun to watch her master.'
While Sophia and Jessica still have a while before they reach the working world, Pientka hopes that she can someday be an example for them.
'I think as a working woman, for my step-daughter and daughter, I want them to know that you can be a mom and have a career,' Pientka said. 'With my older kids, they know and appreciate that I work and I have a career but I can still do mom things with them and that's rewarding to me.'
Keeping family first
Stone has been coaching women's basketball for over 20 years and her kids, Allison (17) and Tyler (14), have been right alongside her their entire lives. When the kids were younger, Stone would pack up the diaper bag, toys and portable crib, and bring Allison and Tyler to the gym and office with her. Thankfully she had some help along the way.
'My players, managers and sometimes assistants have always been willing to lend a hand when needed,' Stone remembers. 'Where there's a will, there's a way. It takes some energy and commitment but it's an understanding about what's most important and that's family. '
With kids around the office, there's always guaranteed excitement; especially when your office is a basketball court.
'Ironically, when Tyler was probably about 14 months old, I was coaching at UW-Eau Claire and we were playing UW-Oshkosh against Coach (Kathi) Bennett,' Stone said. 'He ran across the court to me, during the game and he got there without collision and there were no technical fouls or anything like that. I just had to pick him up and take him back to his dad.'
Now that her kids are older, they are involved in their own activities, but Stone still makes family a priority and is supportive in everything her kids do. Allison plays basketball and soccer while Tyler is involved in football, basketball, baseball and golf. Stone said she has breakfast and dinner with her family every day and she makes it to about 80 percent of her kids' events. If she is unable to attend because of a road trip, game, meeting, etc., her husband Ed is there cheering them on.
'My family is the most important part of my life,' Stone said. 'I am very blessed because I have a very supportive spouse and two understanding children. I also have a very understanding administration at the university that allows me to be both a mother and a coach. So when you have both of those things, it actually makes it easy. The support I have from everybody makes it that much more rewarding.'
Stone's family returns that support by showing up in full force at the Kohl Center on game days. You can usually find her family sitting in the stands, cheering Stone and the rest of the Badgers on.
'It's very comforting to have them there because win or lose, I 'm still their mom,' Stone said. 'I'm a mother, wife, teacher and a coach, I wear a lot of hats, and I'm very blessed that I have tremendous support from my family.'
Learning along the way
With older sons Evan (23) and Luke (18), Weaver-Klees has seen the balancing act of work and motherhood get easier as the years go on. As a UW employee for 25 years, Weaver-Klees had the task of raising two young kids while working beyond the normal 9-5, beginning with Evan who was born just a few years after she started at Wisconsin.
'The thing I struggled with the most early on was the nature of our job because we work a lot and we work on weekends,' she said. 'I think that was my biggest challenge, was making sure I saw him enough.'
To make sure she did get quality time with Evan, Weaver-Klees turned him into a Badger fan at a young age by bringing him to volleyball and basketball games. When Luke came around, Weaver-Klees said she stayed home a little bit longer and she also got him involved in Badger sporting events and camps.
Being around athletics at an early age also helped Evan and Luke turn into quality athletes on their own. Evan recently graduated from Edgewood College where he played basketball and soccer and Luke will enroll at UW-Parkside in the fall to play soccer. Even though they are both very athletic, Weaver-Klees knows she has two very different sons and watching them grow up into their individual personalities has been one of the most rewarding parts of motherhood for her.
'They are very different kids, with different strengths and different talents and I appreciate their differences very much but they need different things,' she said. 'I think the very best part of motherhood is watching the really great individuals that they've grown up to be.'
Now that her kids are older, Weaver-Klees says the balance between work and motherhood is much easier. With Evan living on his own and Luke a few months away from college, she can work more hours, which she views as a positive thing.
'I think the student-athletes benefit from me being around a little more and me not having to race off for a doctor's appointment or dentist or speech therapy or whatever comes up in a young person's life,' Weaver-Klees said. 'I think the difference now is I can be here a little more often so I think the Badgers benefit from that.'
The Weaver-Klees family is obviously very involved in athletics so it may not be hard to guess where the family will be on Mother's Day.
'We'll be at a soccer game!' Weaver-Klees said. 'Our life has pretty much been surrounded with their athletic events, but they were things that were important to them and we wanted to be supportive. I'm hoping for nice weather and maybe we'll all get to go out to dinner afterwards.'
