Kelsey Ackerman | Sports Co-Editor
Last week, Apr. 6 to Apr. 12, was designated as National DIII Week by the NCAA. They state on their website:
“Division III Week is a positive opportunity for all individuals associated with Division III to observe and celebrate the impact of athletics and of student-athletes on the campus and surrounding community.”
The goal of National DIII week is for each institution to promote at least on athletic event or extracurricular activity. They then must report its activity to the national office.
At Buena Vista University, there were many things going on for National DIII week. Most of them were done in order to try and create a bigger crowd for the athletic events going on over the weekend. Some events included free popcorn and a drink at the softball game as well as free ice cream cone vouchers at the tennis meet. These were all advertised over social media.
Another event was lunch for all the student athletes. It was offered Thursday, Apr. 9 throughout the afternoon in the Fieldhouse lobby.
Another item that could have been seen over social media was one of our sports team participating in a national campaign titled “#whyD3”. Assistant volleyball coach Micah Rhodes took the initiative to post pictures of volleyball players with quotes from them explaining why they chose a Division III school. Other schools in the IIAC conference also participated.
“Both the athletes and their institutions need to take more pride in the fact they are Division III. Recognition won’t just happen; people need to proactively make it happen. Social media is everything these days. Using Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to get stuff out there can help let the campus’s non-athletes, faculty, and people within the community and region understand its value and importance,” Rhodes said.
Athletic Director Christyn Abaray takes great pride in being a part of Division III schools. She believes National DIII week is great recognition and deserves celebrating.
“We are the division that produces the most graduates into the working world. We are the division where all the students are choosing to play for the love of his or her sport. We are the division where coaches understand and emulate that success of the field of play as far as academics and personal development is what matters most. So having a time completely dedicated to appreciating the student-athletes and the choices they make, to thanking the coaches and the dedication they show, to showcasing what types of people institutions like ours help develop into positive productive citizens of our world is awesome,” Abaray said.
Another organization doing things to celebrate National DIII Week is Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). The athletes in SAAC are working on a video that addresses bullying. Their faculty advisor, Professor Annamaria Elsden, will also be giving a speech this coming Friday, Apr. 17, at Faculty Friday about some of the impressive accomplishments that BVU student-athletes have achieved in the past year.
“I am a huge supporter of the Division III philosophy, and I think sometimes it is forgotten amidst all the emphasis on Division I, like the March Madness we just witnessed. I would like to see more of us attending athletic events, especially in those sports that maintain a lower profile,” Elsden said.
The overall goal of the week is to build a greater awareness of Division III athletics through both local and national activities at all the different Division III institutions.
Graphic by Justice Gage
