Humans of Michigan Tech

Category: Athletics

Tyler Shelast

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Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Michigan Technological University, National Strength and Conditioning Association-certified strength and conditioning specialist. Professional Hockey Player — 2008-2013.

During the school year, my job is more like 6 to 6 instead of 9 to 5. Sometimes teams work out four days a week, sometimes they go to two or three, it depends on the season. Getting to work with Michigan Tech athletes is the best part of my day.

My job allows me to teach and educate young athletes on the shortcomings I experienced when I was an athlete. I had a tough road and went through a lot of pain and suffering. My goal is to help these athletes learn and understand that they can take anything that’s thrown at them. I learned more from my downfall than I did from my success, and ultimately, those are the lessons I want to share with Michigan Tech athletes — to help them grow out of darkness.

In a week it’s groups, office time, more groups, practices, and then during the hockey season, I go on the ice for hockey practice daily and am there for the team at all the games. I can’t coach, but I play an integral part in hockey due to my former playing. I really like to work out, that’s probably my favorite thing, so I try to work out once a day.

I have a lot of pride in everything I do that is Michigan Tech because I want it to excel. I want us to be the best at everything. We’re kind of like a hidden little snowglobe type place, but we need to embrace that because it’s what makes us special. Michigan Tech’s a very proud school, so I feel lucky to have a hand in shaping our culture. There’s so much that goes into seeing student-athletes grow, I mean, that’s ultimately why I’m in it, why I love being here. I’m very fortunate to work with great people.

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Tanna Windham and the Women’s Rugby Club at Michigan Tech

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Five women in rugby shirts pose for a group photo.

I’m president of the Michigan Tech Women’s Rugby Club and I’m a third-year exercise science major minoring in psychology. Before I came to Michigan Tech, I participated in cross country and track, both for about seven or eight years. But at Tech, I wanted to expand my viewpoint on different sports and join a club team. I first heard about the rugby club through the Orientation Week packet given to incoming students. The team was putting on their annual cookout. Once I was able to meet the team, I instantly fell in love with the people on the team and how welcoming they were. I have officially been on the team for two years and have loved every minute of it.

Our team began in 2012 with only a small handful of girls. We would play games with Northern Michigan University’s women’s team. Once the club grew, we became part of the Great Waters Women’s Rugby Conference in 2016. We vary to having between 12 to 20 girls on our team and are always looking for more. Last year we had about 18 girls when we went down to NashBash, a rugby tournament in Nashville, bringing rugby teams from around the country.

Our biggest season is in the fall, which is when we compete against teams in our conference—Northern, and University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, LaCross, Platteville, and Stout. During both our fall and spring seasons, we practice two times a week for a total of about four hours each week. Outside of practices, our team continues to keep the family atmosphere by having team dinners before games and hanging out with each other as much as we can.

If I hadn’t joined the rugby team here at Tech, I don’t know where I would be, and I know many of the other girls would say the same thing. We all would be lost without this wonderful sport. 

Follow the Michigan Tech Women’s Rugby Club on Instagram.

#rugby #mtuwomensrugby #mturugby#ladyruggers #mtuwc2019 #mtuwc#michigantech #rugger #rugby🏉

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Lauren Fallu

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A woman in a jersey holding a volleyball

I’m a fourth-year biomedical engineering student. I chose Michigan Tech because I knew I wanted to be an engineer. I saw Tech had a really high rate of employment and that was really attractive. And the small classroom sizes. I’m an introvert, so it was more appealing to me. And Michigan Tech has just worked out awesome. I’m from a suburb in Detroit. Nine hours from here. I’m so glad I stayed. I’ve made really close friends and all my professors I’m super close with—because of small class size, I can form great relationships with them, and I just feel really welcome here.

I’m on a club volleyball team so that’s another group of girls I’m close with; I’ve been playing volleyball my whole life, I’m so glad I could continue playing while at Tech. I’m close with a lot of the brothers in the fraternity that sponsored me as a Winter Carnival Queen candidate. They asked me if I would want to represent them and I was excited and a little scared because, like I said, I’m an introvert, so putting myself out there and being on stage in front of everyone is really scary to me. But it is something I can be proud of that I did and got over. Also, it’s my last semester so I want to keep making memories before I leave campus. I think it’s really important to put yourself out there and see what you like and don’t like; while you have the time on campus, it’s really important to expose yourself to anything you can because now is the time to figure it out. I’ve been able to do that here.

One of the memories I’ll take with me when I leave campus is snowshoeing. Downstate we don’t ever get enough snow to snowshoe. There are so many beautiful trails here. And Mont Ripley. There’s no ski hill back home so it’s the only time I can go. I also love to go to the Copper Country Humane Society. It’s super small so I can play with all the cats and dogs. Where I’m from I could never do that. Everything is much more personal up here.

I thought I wanted to go into research after I graduated. I got involved in a professor’s biomedical engineering research and I found I didn’t like it. That experience helped me narrow what I am interested in: industry, actual devices instead of the work to develop the devices. I think Tech makes it a priority to give students diverse classes. I’ve had a class on cardiovascular engineering, ethics, and medical devices. I’ve been able to see what specific field I want to go into, what’s interesting to me. Cardiovascular engineering is definitely what I want to go into. But if I wouldn’t have taken that class, if it hadn’t been offered, I would have never known. It’s so awesome that the department and professors expose you to different areas.

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Jake Lucchini

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Jake Lucchini stands on the ice in hockey gear

To be nominated for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award is a huge honor. I saw teammates go through it; it was very cool to see them up there. But being in that category is something I never thought would happen for me. I don’t think too much into it, but it is crazy to see the support of the University, and it is such an amazing feeling.

Being on the hockey team, we are given a lot of resources to help us juggle hockey and school. Whenever we need a tutor or help with anything it is always there for us. Coming into college at 20 years old was very different because I wasn’t in school for three years. I had three tutors during my first semester to make sure I was succeeding in my classes. After my first semester, it got a lot easier for me because I was able to juggle school and hockey. During my first semester at Michigan Tech, I was undecided [on a major]. I talked with a lot of people and decided the best major for me would be sports and fitness management. I have zero regrets. I love my major; studying something that interests me makes school so much more enjoyable. I want to play hockey as long as I can after I graduate. If that does not work out, I plan to become a hockey coach. I am getting a minor in coaching.

There isn’t anything to dislike about Michigan Tech. The entire experience has been unbelievable. In my opinion, we have the best fans in the country. The John MacInnes Student Ice Arena is honestly the best experience in all of college hockey. The one class that really took me by surprise was Exercise Assessment. I talked with people who took the class before and they mentioned how it was one of the harder classes in this major. My GPA is right above a 3.0, so my mindset going into the class was to work as hard as I could and hopefully get a B. I ended up getting an A and didn’t get below a 92 percent on any of the exams. The class was so interesting and I think I got an A because I enjoyed it so much.

#mtuhumans #FollowTheHuskies

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Sylvie Rokosh

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I was born in England and raised in Canada, but I’m excited to stay and work in the Midwest. I might not play volleyball again, but I get to go out in the world and be a part of a whole new team as a mechanical engineer for Yanfeng Automotive Interiors. A team isn’t just what you see on the court. Sport is a lot more than running up and down or jumping. It’s sacrifice. We’ve been 0 and 20 and we’ve experienced a 10-game winning streak. Even just a taste of success gets you through the droughts. My coaches provided a framework for what kind of athlete, and what kind of person I want to be. The world is ready for strong, athletic female leaders.

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