From the Desk of Athletic Director Charlie Gartenmayer - June Edition

(This letter was emailed out on Tuesday, June 10.)

Hello, Raven Nation!

We hope you are doing well and looking forward to a great summer, like those of us at Benedictine College. 

Before we begin preparing for an exciting 2025-26 academic year at Benedictine, we would like to reflect on the success that we shared with all of you this past school year.

Raven Athletics experienced tremendous success in 2024-25 as our student-athletes, coaches, and fans embraced our mission. The Athletic Department's mission "affirms a holistic approach to education formalized in the goals that are intended to promote intellectual, social, physical, and spiritual growth of our student-athletes."

Intellectual Growth – We celebrated the largest graduating class in the history of Benedictine this year with more than 500 graduates, including 96 student-athletes. We celebrate all the time they have committed to representing Benedictine in competition as well as remaining committed to pursuing a degree that will prepare them to move beyond Benedictine. We also inducted our second class of Epsilon Chapter of Chi Sigma Alpha – a national scholar student-athlete organization. On April 1, we welcomed the 49-member Class of 2025, who earned a 3.4 GPA or higher and were either juniors or seniors. We also celebrated 120 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes who span fall, winter, and spring sports. 

Social Growth – Our Student-Athlete Leadership Team (SALT) continues to work with departments across Benedictine to create opportunities for our student-athletes to interact with the community. SALT held the annual Trunk or Treat in October, coordinated the annual Christmas Joy Toy Drive with Residence Life in December, and led a Field Day for local grade school students on Legacy Field during the Spring. Additionally, SALT organizes High 5 Fridays, where our student-athletes visit three local grade schools multiple times each semester to greet those students on their way to school. Many of our student-athletes are involved with the Atchison Recreation Commission as coaches and officials, mentoring the younger athletes in the community. Our baseball team visited Troy Elementary School to speak about bullying. In a time where bullying is an issue young people face daily, the positive words of wisdom shared by our athletes are likely to have a lasting impact. This Spring, our Women's Soccer team took part in a Special Olympics event with Atchison High School, and the Football program participated in the annual Atchison Cleanup. 

Physical Growth – We remain committed to winning conference and national championships within the mission of Benedictine College, and this year we earned Heart of America Athletic Conference Championships in Football, Men's Indoor Track, Women's Outdoor Track, and Women's Lacrosse. We also won Heart Tournament Championships in Volleyball, Women's Basketball, and Women's Lacrosse. Benedictine Athletics was represented in the NAIA playoffs in 11 sports this year, culminating with the 2025 NAIA Women's Lacrosse National Championship. The Women's Lacrosse program became the first two-time NAIA National Champion in the sport of Women's Lacrosse to hang a second Red Banner along with the 2022 National Championship banner. Individually, Raven Athletics earned 21 NAIA All-America Selections while Kaylen Moore was named the NAIA Women's Lacrosse Player of the Year – the second time a Raven has earned that recognition in the 10-year history of the program. We also had one individual National Champion in Owen Nolte, who won the Men's Indoor Race Walk and has qualified for the USATF National Meet. In addition, some of the coaches earned recognition for their outstanding leadership of our student-athletes. Joel Osborn was named the Heart South Head Coach of the Year, Victoria Hurtt was named the Heart Women's Volleyball Coach of the Year, Gabby Keating was named the Heart Competitive Cheer Coach of the Year, Jacob Connealy was named the Women's Outdoor Track & Field Coach of the Year, and Clare Hanson was named the NAIA Women's Lacrosse Head Coach of the Year. 

Spiritual Growth – For several years, we have incorporated a Spiritual Captain into the leadership of each program on campus. Those leaders help form Bible studies within their teams to help our student-athletes continue to form a personal relationship with God. Additionally, we were excited to celebrate 20 student-athletes who joined the Catholic Church this Spring. Women's Lacrosse is active with the Benedictine Hunger Coalition, and we have several teams that routinely help with Benedictine's Sleep in Heavenly Peace, building beds for local families. Our Spiritual Captains also continue to work to build community across campus with initiatives like Praise and Worship sing-alongs, Holy Hours, and Masses at times that are more convenient for student-athletes to attend.

This is just a small sample of the ways that we remain committed to the best possible experience for our student-athletes in their time at Benedictine College. To our parents, thank you for allowing us to be a part of your family and the development of your sons and daughters into young men and women that we can all be proud to call Ravens. Alumni, friends, and supporters of Raven Athletics, we hope that we make you proud of what we are teaching and accomplishing with these great young people. We continue to challenge ourselves every year to provide the resources that are vital to our mission to provide the same opportunity for future student-athletes at Benedictine College.

I hope that you will be able to enjoy a relaxing and enjoyable Summer! We look forward to welcoming everyone back to Benedictine College in August for a full year of activities.

God Bless & GO RAVENS!

www.ravenathletics.com | #UnleashGreatness | www.benedictine.edu