onu sports
Winter 2009
Winning Championships.
By Michael Benson, chaplain
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics recently recognized Olivet Nazarene University as a “Champions of Character Institution” for the 2007–08 school year. This award is given to universities for their commitment to high standards and to the principle that participation in athletics serves as an integral part of the total education process. The mission of Champions of Character is to restore character values and raise a generation of students who understand and demonstrate respect, responsibility, integrity, servant leadership and sportsmanship in everyday decisions. • Twenty-two Tigers were named to the first team, All-Academic Teams for the 2008 season by the CCAC. • Two of our student athletes competed with perfect 4.0 GPAs: soccer player Katie Gremar ’10 and volleyball player Stephanie Smith ’10. • The 2008 softball team ended the year ranked seventh in the country academically with a team GPA of 3.406. Eleven players received Academic All-American.
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CLUB Coach Ralph Hodge joined the ranks of an elite few varsity basketball coaches when he picked up his 600th career win on December 2 against Illinois Wesleyan. That win brought his 30-year record to 600-362, for an impressive .623 winning percentage. He has coached the Tigers to 11 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season championships and 14 NAIA national tournament appearances. In the national tournament, the Tigers have made six sweet 16 appearances, four elite eight appearances,
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And there’s more. Learning to work together in competition on the court or ball field teaches them how to work together in other areas too. A few weeks before Christmas, the football team gave a love offering to a family who had nothing to eat and who needed to relocate from their neighborhood to a safer place to live. A number of the members of the women’s soccer team have been volunteering at local churches to teach early-morning Sunday school classes. Athletes frequently go on mission trips during their spring break. In recent years, there have been trips to the ravaged Gulf Coast to work in Learning cleanup efforts. While in Florida to work at the national tournament this together in past year, one team helped to competiclean up litter on various beachtion on the es. Another team participated in court or the collection of food boxes for ball field donation. teaches In essence, we can see these them how student athletes becoming chamto work pions not only in athletic contests, together but also in life. How much do we in other need a generation of students areas too. who both comprehend and know how to demonstrate responsibility, servant leadership and sportsmanship in their everyday life? That’s what real champions are. They know sport. But they also know sacrifice and integrity and servanthood. We salute both our coaches and players. From public service projects to academics to modeling Christian character, we can see that the Olivet Tigers are making good on their mission: “Winning Championships. Developing Champions.”
Developing Champions.
o much of the sports scene on the national level is based on winning. Alumni and athletic directors across the country appear to be focused on one question: “What have you done for me lately?” If you don’t believe that, ask the 17-season former Tennessee Volunteer coach P hilip Fulmer, who was fired this year even though he held the fifth-highest winning percentage of all active college football coaches who have coached five years or more. Or Jon Gruden, former head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who led them to a Super Bowl win less than 10 years ago. We sometimes hear that “winning isn’t everything,” but there can be little doubt that winning is the ultimate criterion for success or failure at the professional sports level and at many of the Division I schools. At Olivet Nazarene University, we are fond of winning too. Though the Tigers compete in two of the strongest conferences in the NAIA, the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) and the Mid-States Football Association (MSFA), our teams often advance to national tournaments. However, we assess the quality of an athletic program in other ways. While we are very interested in winning championships, our main focus is on making champions. And others are beginning to take notice.
The Olivetian
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and a final four appearance in 2000. He also has coached 65 CCAC All-Conference Players, four CCAC Freshmen of the Year, six CCAC Players of the Year, 14 NAIA All-America Scholar Athletes and 16 NAIA All-Americans. Coach Brenda Williams has also had her share of recognition lately, having been named by both the American Volleyball Coaches Association and the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference as “Coach of the Year” 2008. While at Olivet, she has been quietly building one of the most respected and talented programs in the NAIA. She picked up her 650th career win back in September, when the Tigers went 2-0 in the Homestead Classic.