BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — In the strangest of ways, Shawna Nicols has come full circle.
She played two full seasons with the Wisconsin women's basketball program before a series of concussions forced her to step away from the game she cherished in 2003.
It was a difficult moment for Nicols, who helped lead Milwaukee Pius High School to three consecutive state titles and was named the state's Gatorade Player of the Year in 2000.
"To say someone took the wind out of my sails is putting it lightly," she said of the abrupt end to her 43-game career with the Badgers. "I felt like I was born with a basketball in my hand."
Funny how life works sometimes. Not only has Nicols triumphantly returned to campus and the scene of that watershed moment, she's doing it in a way that defies her diagnosis.
Nicols, known professionally as DJ Shawna, is working with the Wisconsin Athletic Department as a deejay tasked with connecting with students, student-athletes and fans through music.
Whether the event is at Camp Randall Stadium, the Kohl Center or the Field House — she hit all three during a recent five-day run, engaging crowds attending volleyball, men's basketball, football and women's basketball games — the goal is to entertain and engage.
"We love the fact she's a former student-athlete of ours," said Justin Doherty, the senior associate athletic director for externals relations. "She knows our culture, but she also brings her own experiences to the table as well."
Nicols, who lives in Milwaukee, acknowledged her circular path back to her alma mater with a sense of gratitude.
"I think it's amazing," she said. "I feel lucky. Being back here, I feel so happy. I feel so appreciated being on this side of the game."
Nicols, 35, earned a degree in zoology and a LGBT certificate from Wisconsin and a Master's in communications from Bellarmine University, a NCAA Division II school in Louisville, Kentucky.
She became enamored with the deejay life while frequenting music clubs with friends in the mid-2000s, but grew more serious about being a full-time deejay three years ago, a commitment that brought her a manager, gigs with Marquette, the Milwaukee Bucks and Brewers and the NCAA, which tabbed Nicols for the women's basketball Final Four.
Nicols doesn't know where her career path leads, but she hopes to expand her brand — which includes a clothing line — and somehow get involved in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
"A goal of mine is to try and find a way to travel," she said.
In the growing world of in-venue DJs for major college football games Nicols is a rarity. Of the 30 other known schools who utilize one, 27 are exclusively male while two feature a male and a female. Tulane is believed to be the only other school to employ solely a female DJ.
"I don't feel out of place," Nicols said.
"I know I'm in a male-dominated industry. I know we're few and far between right now at this level."
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Nicols said her personal musical tastes lean toward hip-hop as well as old-school R&B, but her play list varies and is a work in progress.
"We do take into consideration the overall attendance," she said of Badgers sports crowds, "but one of the main reasons I was brought on is truly for the students and the student-athletes."
Specifically, the newly-branded student sections — AreaRED— at Camp Randall for football and the Kohl Center for men's basketball games. Nicols said her role is "constantly evolving, especially as AreaRED continues to grow as a brand."
Nicols has quickly gained an appreciation for the marketing and facility units within the Wisconsin Athletic Department.
"I don't know if student-athletes truly understand all the time and energy and thought and hours that go into preparing for one single event," she said. "It's incredible what goes into it."
Fifteen years later, Nicols is back where she began, doing her best to promote the Badgers.
"What's really cool is it's amazing to feel part of a team again, something bigger than me," she said. "I think that's what the end game is, for this to continue to grow and keeping adding and building on the culture of what Wisconsin already is."
