The ’98-99 season began with a bit of controversy. One of the captains, Matt Ewell, took a leave of absence from Northwestern and Eric took his place. The team was now in the hands of Eric and Noel. The freshmen turnout was huge, enough that the team would have to add on a B team: the Opposable Thumbs. This year, two key players came on board, Bjorn Gunderson and Ben DiMaggio. Northwestern was a very short team, but with these two players, they became taller, not because of height, (Bjorn 5’10, Ben 5’8) but because of hops. Another player Colin, came on, hailing from Canada and through a loophole in the system was able to play for the team. Some of the freshmen that began this year were Nathan Pavlik, Eddie Bluemel, and Ethan Molitch-Hou. Injuries played a large part of the year with Bjorn ending his season early with a shoulder injury. Eric ended up with a bruised knee after a mistaken collision with a radiator. Noel had surgery as well as a couple of broken fingers. Despite these injuries, the team looked very promising after their spring break trip when JT came back from Texas and Eddie came back from his mysterious Winter Quarter leave of absence. The team started the Spring season on inspiration from Mohammed Ali.
