Sports & Recreation

I'll always have 50% of the people mad at me," shrugs Jim Krogstad, Big Ten football umpire, whose role in calling a game is not only a passion, but a second career. Krogstad, 61, retired from M3 Insurance in 2009, but he's in his 15th year as an umpire. For years prior to landing the Big Ten job, he officiated lower-level college and varsity high school games. Full Story 

As throngs of vehicles head into the central city along John Nolen Drive this warm August morning, Joe Okada, 29, reports to work at Olin Park. It's 7:30 a.m., but Okada's day is already two hours old. As always, he spent about $100 at a local bait shop preparing for another day as a fishing guide. With ease, he backs his black pickup truck and sparkling red-and-black 20-1/2-foot-long Ranger 620 boat with a F250 four-stroke Yamaha motor into Lake Monona. Each piece of equipment, including the matching boat trailer, is emblazoned with his name. This is Joe Okada's office. Full Story 

At 6 a.m. on a steamy June morning, the grounds crew at The Oaks golf course in Cottage Grove is restless. Though storms were predicted for the evening, nobody anticipated the early-morning cloud-to-ground lightning and impending rain moving in. All hopes of getting onto the golf course are temporarily dashed. Full Story 

During the very earliest days of his business, Eric Fritz, the president of KEVA Sports Center, pivoted faster than most entrepreneurs would dare. The Middleton-based multi-sports facility began in 1999 as an adult-only center for physically active people needing a basketball, volleyball, or other athletic fix, but it wasn't long – three months, in fact – before that fledging business model was chucked for something more expansive, something that would accommodate athletes of all ages. Full Story