Madison Reporter

Volleyball stars Dana Rettke and Liz Gregorski are making a difference on and off the court on the University of Wisconsin campus.

A four-time first-team All-American, Rettke is putting just as much sweat in getting UNCUT Madison media off the ground. The student-run multimedia website provides student-athletes with a platform to share their stories.  

Over time, Rettke and Gregorski teamed with fellow UW student Olivia Hancock to launch the site, with the first episode of “Dana’s Den” featuring Rettke interviewing teammate Danielle Hart about her growth in confidence as a player and continued pursuit of other interests such as art, adventure travel and photography.

"Making their presence felt off the court, @BadgerVB players @dana_rettke and @LizGregorski help establish UNCUT Madison media platform for student athletes," Wisconsin State Journal sportswriter Dennie Punzel tweeted. 

To date, about 20 episodes of UNCUT have been produced, with Rettke also having done an interview with basketball player Brad Davison. With some of the stories being produced as videos and others as written pieces, the article that has garnered the most traffic was written by a former walk-on soccer player, Justin Bobb, who told his story of dealing with anxiety and depression and almost taking his own life while in high school.

“That was our trophy piece,” Hancock told Madison.com. “It just shows you the fact that the walk-on soccer player gets the most views, the most shares, shows how our platform is all about empowering and sharing really great and impactful stories. The story matters, that was reinforcement of all the hard work we’ve put in because that was an incredible, moving story for anyone to read, regardless of whether you knew Justin Bobb or not.”

Rettke is also responsible for recruiting other students to join the venture, which is how Gregorski, who specializes in video interviews, became involved. Gregorski’s first interview was with quarterback Graham Mertz and she now has a number of other projects in the works.

UNCUT Madison also recently teamed with Madison-based American Family Insurance to create a five-part series dedicated to mental health issues faced by student-athletes. As part of the company’s Free to Dream initiative, Am Fam donated $20,000 to the “Bettering Badgers” series, which features interviews by Gregorski with basketball players Tyler Wahl, Carter Higginbottom and Carter Gilmore on the subject of dealing with stress.

“It’s very validating for a big company like that to see a smaller nonprofit and say we see you and we really value what you’re doing and we want to do it with you,” Hancock said.

While as a senior, Rettke’s days at UW are winding down she’s hoping that won’t come to spell the end for UNCUT. She and Hancock are planning move on to advisory roles with the website.

“While my legacy will be on the volleyball court,” she said, “I think this is another part of my legacy that I can be leaving here at Wisconsin. The hope is to keep the nonprofit going for years to come.”