Stephen Bittner wins Rookie of the Year after breakout season

Stephen Bittner turned his first year with UWP into a season-long rise, and his teammates rewarded that growth by voting him Rookie of the Year. The senior mechanical engineering major from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, wore No. 64 and spent the 2025-26 season becoming a more dependable presence for Dodgeball Club-UWP.

The award fits the way UWP defined the honor: it goes to a first-year player who works hard and makes an impact on the court. Bittner’s path to it was built on visible adjustment. He said blocking was his worst skill at the start of the year and might have become his best by the end, a shift that points to how quickly he learned the club’s systems and how much trust he earned from teammates along the way. He had already been recognized as Rookie of the Month in December 2025 and again in April 2026, a run that showed the vote at season’s end was the result of steady progress rather than a late surge.

Bittner’s most memorable point came at Nationals at Ohio University, where UWP earned a 5-1 victory for its first win of the event before later facing UIUC in what the club called its toughest battle of Nationals. Bittner said the Nationals moment that meant the most to him came when he was the last player left on a point, still managed to get an out or two, and added a catch. He described that sequence as redemption after earlier struggles when he was alone on the floor, and it showed how his value had grown beyond routine play.

His self-scouting was just as important as the results. In December, Bittner said he wanted to improve court awareness so he could help with team throws and defend teammates, and by April he said Nationals was a key proving ground and that blocking had been the area where he improved most. He also pointed ahead to next season, when he wants to play in the center, draw attention and create pressure with pump fakes. For now, his biggest takeaway was communication, with Bittner stressing that players almost never make plays without teammates and that teammates are not mind readers. At UWP, that lesson became part of the award itself.