Hillsdale earns NCAA President's award as elite academic - athletic program

Hillsdale.net

MI_Hillsdale  --  Hillsdale Daily NewsHILLSDALE — Hillsdale College has always taken a great deal of pride in its academic success rate.Now the NCAA has placed the school in an elite category in its latest Academic Success Rate survey.Hillsdale College is one of 26 Division II institutions to receive the NCAA Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence in the time period spanning from 2002-05.During that time frame, 90 percent of Hillsdale College's student-athletes graduated within the time frames outlined by the NCAA. The federal rate for the 2005 entering class of student-athletes was 54 percent, compared to 48 percent for the general student body.The Division II Academic Requirements Committee created the Division II Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence to recognize programs achieving long-term academic success. The honor is intended to call attention to those programs and is not intended as a ranking.The Academic Success Rate is a measure that reflects the unique qualities of Division II. It measures graduation rates for virtually all Division II student-athletes, including transfers and those not receiving athletically related financial aid. The inclusion of student-athletes who do not receive athletically related financial aid distinguishes the ASR from Division I’s Graduation Success Rate.Active and provisional member institutions when the data were submitted for 2011-12 were eligible for the Division II Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence.The Division II Academic Success Rate captures about two-thirds more student-athletes than the federal graduation rate, which does not count incoming transfers, counts outgoing transfers as having not graduated and counts only student-athletes receiving athletically related financial aid. The national four-year ASR average is 72 percent.

Wintry start to Hillsdale's Spring Football Practice

The 2013 Hillsdale College Football team has two of its allotted 15 Spring practices in the books. With ice on the Muddy Waters Stadium Pro-grass surface the team has faced far harsher conditions than anything they endured during the 2012 regular season.

Hillsdale will practice next week at 4:00 PM in full pads on Tuesday the 19th and Thursday the 21st. Both sessions like all Hillsdale practices are open to the public. The team is off the following week for Spring Break and returns to the field on Tuesday April 2. Below is the full schedule with annual Spring Game set for Sunday April 21. All times 4:00 unless noted.

March: 19 (limited contact), 21 (full)
April 2 (no pads), 3 (limited), 5 (full), 7 (2:00 PM), 9 (limited), 11 (full), 13 (scrimmage, 10:00 AM), 15 (limited), 17 (full), 19 (limited), 21 (Spring Game 1:00 PM)

You can't stop the Harlem Shake. You can only hope to contain it.

The Charger Basketball team gets its shake on...

The Hillsdale Women's Track Team makes the best of Nemo: Blizzard 2013

The Charger women's track team was stuck in Boston during Winter Storm Nemo. They made the best of it with this video. Well done ladies! Charge On!

Breaking down the Hillsdale Football Recruiting Season with WCSR's Andy Brown

It's always great to catch up with Hillsdale College's football and basketball play-by-play guy Andy Brown.

Here is our breakdown of the 2013 recruiting class.

Hillsdale signs 24 from 6 states to Football Recruiting Class

Official Hillsdale release on their 24 signees. One of the biggest classes in a long time.



Heavily a Michigan oriented group but nice reach with kids form Ohio, Indiana, New York, Florida, and New Mexico. I will be posting highlight videos and profiles on many of these guys in the coming days. 

Welcome to the Charger Family boys!

NAME	POS.	HT.	WT.	HOMETOWN/HIGH SCHOOL	COACH
Austin Adams	TE	6-6	223	Medina, Ohio/Highland	Tom Lombardo
Chuck Ahee	LB	6-0	210	Macomb, Mich. /Chippewa Valley	Scott Merchant
Ron Branch	DB	5-8	169	Stevensville, Mich./Lake Shore	Denny Dock
Jake Bull	TE	6-6	218	Hudsonville, Mich./Hudsonville	Dave Ligard
Nick Chappell	OL	6-5	279	Fenton, Mich./Fenton	Jeff Setzke
Daniel Drummond	OL	6-3	275	Pittsford, NY/Rush Henrietta	Joe Montesano
Matt Hall	LB	6-1	204	Saranac, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian	Don Fellows
Jordon Harlamert	DL	6-1	247	Coldwater, Ohio/Coldwater	Chip Otten
Matthew Hazelton	H-back	5-9	205	Lakeland, Fla./Geneva Classical Academy	Steve Sloan
Nathan Hollern	DB	5-8	182	Grand Rapids, Mich./Catholic Central	Trip Gallery
Will Jones	DB	5-9	161	Lafayette, Ind./Central Catholic	Kevin O'Shea
Chris Koenigsknecht	LB	5-8	197	Fenton, Mich./Flint Powers	Bob Buckel
Joe Kutil	QB	6-7	174	Waterford, Mich./Notre Dame Prep	Kyle Zimmerman
Kyle Marsh	OL	6-2	225	Rochester, Mich./Brother Rice	Al Fracassa
Timmy Mills	WR	5-10	156	Lafayette, Ind./Central Catholic	Kevin O'Shea
Spencer Nehls	TB	6-0	185	Ada, Mich./Forest Hills Central	Tim Rogers
Tim Pearce	DB	5-11	175	Tatum, NM/Tatum	Gary Durham
Scotty Penola	LB	6-3	207	Zionsville, Ind./Zionsville	Larry McWhorter
Doug Phillips III	DB	5-9	182	Armada, Mich./Armada	Don Holston
David Ritchie	QB	6-0	176	Grosse Ile, Mich./Gabriel Richard	Tom Michalsen
Casey Schukow	DL	5-11	270	Saline, Mich./Saline	Joe Palka
John Terry	DB	5-10	176	Tecumseh, Mich./Tecumseh	Al Romano
Zach Van Orman	OL	6-5	240	Hillsdale, Mich./Hillsdale	Marc Lemerand
Christian VanDeBurg	TB	5-10	190	Grand Rapids, Mich./Christian	Don Fellows

Recruiting 2013: Updated Hillsdale College Commitment List

Signing Day 2013 is still eight days away but through the magic of social media, I have been able to run down a number of guys planning on joining the Hillsdale College Football program in the Fall.

Here are Michigan guys listed at TheDZone.com.

• Nick Chappell - Fenton
• Christopher Koenigsknecht - Flint Powers
• Spencer Nehls - Forest Hills Central
• Jake Bull - Hudsonville
• Joe Kutil - Notre Dame Prep
• Casey Schukow - Saline
• John Terry - Tecumseh

The DZone is also reporting the following guys have accepted invites as preferred walk-ons with the Chargers.

• Matt Hall - Grand Rapids Christian 
• David Ritchie - Riverview Gabriel Richard 

Just in today via Twitter is Stevensville (MI) Lakeshore's Ron Branch

The following out-of-state have also committed to signing with Hillsdale.

• Scotty Penola - Zionsville HS (Indiana) 
• Timmy Mills, Lafayette Catholic Central (Indiana)
• Austin Adams, Highlands HS (Medina, Ohio)