EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is featured in the Fall 2024 edition of The Tartan magazine. Read more from The Tartan at alma.edu/tartan.
Alma College athletics is thriving, with an impact felt both on and off the field of play. Read on to learn more about how the Scots are strengthening our roots in the mission of Alma College.
Exemplifying strong female leadership
In what is historically a male-dominated area of college campuses, Alma College stands out for a group of women who are leading its athletics department to new heights.
“I’m extremely proud of how far we have come since I started at Alma College,” said Sarah Dehring, who has served as director of athletics since 2019 after joining the college as head volleyball coach in 2011. “More than 70 percent of incoming first-year students participate in a sport of some kind and half of our sports are for women. That’s an incredible figure.
“I think it’s a testament to the conviction of our administration, who believe this is the right path to forge, as well as the coaches and athletic administrators who do great work with our student-athletes every day.”
Alma College currently offers students the opportunity to play 30 sports, including 15 for women. Some of the most prominent recent offerings — indeed, some of the fastest- growing sports in the United States — have been women’s sports, including competitive dance and cheer, STUNT and women’s wrestling.
On the field of play, these new Scots have made the most of their opportunities. The dance, cheer and STUNT teams, led by longtime head coaches Tracy Burton and Michelle Sabourin, respectively, are already multi-time national champions. Their rosters are some of the largest of any sport at Alma College. They also have their own dedicated spaces to practice and compete.
“We don’t necessarily focus on wins and losses,” said Burton, who has coached the Scots’ dance team for eight years. “We’re focused on trying to build what we didn’t have growing up. We’re creating a pathway for young women to come to Alma College, compete in a sport they love and earn a college degree. If the wins come, we consider that a byproduct.”
True inclusivity is an ongoing process and there remains work to be done in order to ensure that opportunities for men and women in athletics are equal. But for now, it’s apparent that powerful work is taking place in the athletics department at Alma College.
“Something we’ve been able to demonstrate time and again at Alma athletics is that not only do we elevate women to leadership positions, but that we uplift each other,” Sabourin said. “We’re smashing a glass ceiling and we’re not creating another one.”
Pictured from left are faculty athletics representatives and faculty athletic mentors Brian Hancock ’05, Peggy Yates ’92, Nancy Dopke and Andrew Sellers.
Involving academics with athletics
Alma College’s support for athletics extends into the classroom, too. Assistant Professor of Education Brian Hancock ’05 and Associate Professor of Chemistry Nancy Dopke are two examples of faculty members who work hand-in-hand with athletics administrators to keep student-athletes engaged with academics in various ways.
Dopke, for many years, served as a faculty athletics representative, or a “FAR,” a role currently served by Assistant Professor of Business Administration Andrew Sellers. Hancock, along with Associate Professor of Education Peggy Yates ’92 and other faculty members, is a “FAM,” or a faculty athletics mentor.
Dopke explained that as a FAR — a role she served in for more than a decade — she worked as a liaison, in order to ensure excellent communication between other faculty members and athletic coaches. When everyone is on the same page regarding a student-athlete’s commitments, she said, it works out better for everyone who is involved.
“Student-athletes often have a different relationship with their coaches than they do their course instructors. If I’m able to tell a student, ‘Hey, I know your coach, and this is what they would want you to do in the classroom,’ they listen to me differently,” Dopke said. “We’re fortunate at Alma to have coaches who are real advocates of our students in the classroom.”
In Hancock’s role as an FAM, he is assigned a specific team to work with — in his case, men’s lacrosse — in order to build an even tighter bond with those student-athletes. Hancock, a former student-athlete himself, said those bonds have helped inform his work as a faculty member, giving him a better understanding of the students in his classrooms.
“Our job as educators is to work with people who come to Alma, and if a big part of the reason they came to Alma is to participate in athletics, it behooves us to understand the thought process behind that,” Hancock said. “If we understand that thought process, we can more fully help them stay the full four years, explore interests outside of athletics, receive their degrees and move on in life.”
Scots quarterback Carter St. John is pictured in a 2024 game.
Offering opportunities to give back
Carter St. John and Sophia Cooney are two examples of Alma College student-athletes who seek to improve the communities around them through service.
St. John, a junior quarterback on the Scots’ football team, started his own nonprofit organization this year called Quarterbacks vs. Cancer. Through the nonprofit, St. John contacted every single starting quarterback in Division III and asked them to provide paid training sessions to local high school football players. The funds from those sessions are being paid to a cancer charity of the quarterback’s choice.
St. John said that he came up with the idea following the “Alma CARES Cancer Awareness Game” in 2023, in which the Scots raised money to benefit the American Cancer Society.
“We currently have about 30 quarterbacks from across the country taking part in this initiative,” St. John said. “We’ve raised thousands of dollars so far and we’re going to raise more. Division III sports are unlike any other college sports in America — it’s a close, tight-knit community.”
Cooney, a senior soccer player, started a program to benefit the local Police Athletic League. She worked with league administrators to bring young soccer players to Alma’s home games and participate in them — walking out with the starting lineup, playing a game on the field at halftime and going home with plenty of Alma prizes.
Cooney said that a big part of her motivation for doing this was to get young people involved in college activities, so that when they are old enough to consider their next steps in life, college campuses will not be unfamiliar places to them.
“If I’m able to contribute to a cause like that, then I think I’ve done well,” Cooney said. “One of the things that make Alma College special is our relationship with the local community.”
Pictured from left are coaches Jason Couch, Ashley Johnson and Matt Chovanec ’91.
Providing mentors for life
When a student-athlete comes to Alma College, they’re not just getting an opportunity to play a sport and earn a college degree. They’re getting mentors for life — in the form of coaches who work hard to ensure their success in the classroom, on the field of play and in life.
“The best part of my day is when a student-athlete comes to my office, either to talk about something on the field or something off of it,” said Ashley Johnson, who has coached nine years for the women’s lacrosse team. “When they take the initiative, you feel like you’re getting through to them. The relationship is more important than what they can do on the field, because oftentimes, it’s those relationships that keep students engaged and help them to earn their degrees.”
Cross Country and Track and Field Head Coach Matt Chovanec ’91 and Head Football Coach Jason Couch ’95 recalled being led by Scots Hall of Fame coaches Charlie Gray (basketball, track and field and cross country) and Jim Cole (track and field and football). Those relationships, Chovanec and Couch agreed, continue to this day.
“Honestly, coming to college as a first-generation student, it was more about athletics than it was for education,” Chovanec said. “Coach Cole and Coach Gray helped me to see the bigger picture. Even today, they’re helping me with that type of stuff. If it weren’t for them, I don’t think I would have such a fulfilling career and life.”
In that way, the coaches agreed, they are simply paying forward the mentorship they have received from previous generations of coaches. Among the highlights are seeing their student-athletes progress through life: Johnson has seen one of her proteges go on to become a successful high school lacrosse coach. Chovanec has officiated the wedding of two Alma alumni.
“Essentially, we come here for the life and we stay here for the people,” Couch said. “That’s one of those indelible qualities about Alma that has persisted through the years. It’s about way more than what you see on the field.”
Denny Griffin
Honoring excellence
One coach at Alma received special attention this past winter for coaching in a milestone game.
Denny Griffin, who for 35 years has led the Alma College softball team as its head coach, reached his 1,000th career win in February with a 1-0 win over Eastern University.
Griffin, who has coached at Alma for the entirety of his career, is just the 50th softball coach in NCAA history to reach the milestone mark. His 1,000 wins put him third among active NCAA Division III softball coaches and 22nd among all NCAA softball coaches.
Griffin is just the seventh coach in DIII history to reach 1,000 wins.
“It’s a great milestone. Not a lot of coaches get to win 1,000 games in their career,” Griffin said following the game. “It really is the result of 35 years of young women coming to Alma College with the dream of playing college softball. They put their heart and soul into Alma College.
“You look at people like (assistant coach) Phil Hansen, who’s been here for 30 years, and the amazing coaches that I’ve been lucky to have on my staff over the years. It’s the dedication of those around me who enable me to achieve milestones like this one. At the end of the day, I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to change so many lives.”
Griffin’s journey began in 1989, when he took the reins of the Alma softball program. Since then, Griffin has won 14 MIAA championships. He has coached 10 MIAA softball MVPs, four MIAA Most Valuable Pitchers and 204 All-MIAA selections.
With his 1,000th victory, Griffin now lays claim to over 90 percent of Alma College softball’s all-time wins, and will look to collect more victories in the future.
