The NCAA recognized Hillsdale’s student-athletes over the break, giving the college the NCAA Division II President’s Award for Academic Success for the 12th year in a row.
Hillsdale has earned the award every year since the NCAA created the honor in 2010. A school receives this award if its Academic Success Rate (ASR), which measures the percentage of student-athletes who graduate within 6 years of enrolling in their college, is 90% or higher.
For the 2022-2023 award period, Hillsdale had an ASR of 98%. Out of the 44 schools which received the award this year, Hillsdale placed fourth. This is the fifth consecutive year in a row that Hillsdale has placed in the top five.
Hillsdale Athletic Director Don Brubacher said a key factor in this success is learning how to balance between their time in the classroom and their time in the gym.
“It is almost always a matter of time-management,” Brubacher said. “I’ve never met a student who could not do well academically and athletically if they were willing to manage their time appropriately.”
Brubacher said focus is key to success on the field and in the classroom.
“Athletes can understand how to focus on their schoolwork because they are required to focus in their sport,” Brubacher said. “They are not always trained in academic focus, but they know what it means. So if you press them in the right ways, they tend to get it.”
Head coach of the women’s swim team Kurt Kirner said he has seen his fair share of struggles when it comes to student-athletes managing their school and work.
“When athletes first come in, they really don’t have any idea about how they’re going to balance that out,” Kirner said. “And many of them struggle, but the reward is in the struggle. We don’t ever get better unless we struggle.”
Kirner emphasized the importance of embracing the struggle because it will help develop character.
“You have to come in, you have to work hard, you have to fail a few times,” Kirner said. “It’s that struggle which allows them to persevere. It takes a little bit of time to get to that point where they understand that the challenge is the whole part of being here.”
Senior Leah Tunney, co-captain of the women’s swim team, explained how she and her teammates meet to study.
“The first semester we do regular study tables,” Tunney said. “We require all of the freshmen to go despite how they’re doing in their classes but it is open to the entire team. We go for two hours every single night Monday through Thursday, and we sit down in a classroom and just get some work done.”
Tunney said the system is not only helpful for developing time-management skills, but also for gaining advice from upperclassmen.
“The freshmen can talk to upperclassmen if they’re struggling with a class,” Tunney said.
Tunney said she was not surprised that Hillsdale’s athletic department won the President’s Award.
“I think it’s really impressive that we were so high on the list,” Tunney said. “Everyone here is very good at getting their work done and staying on track.”
Caroline Holmes, junior at Hillsdale and co-captain of the women’s swim team, said one of the most important skills to have as a student-athlete is the ability to communicate effectively.
“Keep an open channel of communication between your coach and your professors,” Holmes said. “And just really make sure to be prepared to do the work and sometimes do the extra work whenever you have schedule conflicts or whatever it may be. And just enjoy it because four years go by really fast.”
