Senior Spotlight - Jimmy Clark '16

Meet Trinity Basketball senior guard Jimmy Clark. Jimmy came to Trinity from Rockford, IL and is the only senior on this year's roster. Jimmy graduated from Trinity this past May and is currently a graduate student in Trinity's Healthcare Administration Program.

Team Cookout

Yesterday was a great opportunity for our team to get together at Coach Cunningham's house for a cookout. This is a pre-season tradition that lets our guys spend some time away from campus together. We also enjoyed having a few local alumni around. With a few weeks left before practices begin, finding some available time to bond as a group off the court is important. We're fortunate to have a great group of student-athletes this year and can't wait for October 15th to arrive!

Compliance Meeting

Last night, we had our team's compliance meeting, which was led by Coach Cunningham (who also serves as Trinity's Associate Director of Athletics for Compliance). This is a mandatory meeting for any student-athlete to attend who wishes to compete and come out for intercollegiate sports. We hold this meeting as early as possible in the academic year in order to cover important topics such as eligibility requirements, sexual misconduct, drugs/alcohol, hazing, and several academic issues, so that our student-athletes are well prepared for the year ahead.

First Day of Classes - Fall 2015

Today was the first day of Fall classes here at Trinity and the campus is alive again with students running around. Our guys have all gotten their schedules and are beginning to meet their professors. We encourage each of our student-athletes to make the effort early in the semester to get some quality time with each professor. At a university with a small student-professor ratio, this early interaction goes a long way in establishing a positive learning relationship. Our guys are extremely lucky to be learning from some of the best and brightest!

Move-In Day 2015

Today was Move-In Day here at Trinity University! Move-In Day marks the opening of dorms and beginning of New Student Orientation for the 2015-16 school year and campus has come alive again. The quiet days of summer around here are no more, as over 600 new Tigers arrived to campus today. The Trinity Orientation team, along with the First Year Residential Life team, does a phenomenal job these next several days welcoming and assimilating all of the new students to the Trinity community.

If you were around campus this morning, you may have seen several members of Trinity Basketball (including a nice and sweaty Coach Cunningham!) helping new students move boxes and dorm-items from cars to dorm rooms as part of Team Trinity. After our new student-athletes were able to get moved into their rooms and pile into Sam's Gymnasium to check-in, we had a great opportunity to get our guys and their families into a room together for a Meet-and-Greet. Coach Cunningham enjoyed welcoming our new Trinity Basketball family members while some of our upperclassmen back on campus were able to come meet up with their new teammates. We are blessed to have such a great group of individuals and families as part of Trinity Basketball.

Welcome Class of 2019!

Top University for Sciences

The Princeton Review just recently came out with their various college lists and ranked Trinity as having the #5 science facility in America. This is great recognition for our spectacular science departments, who also have some of the top faculty in the country, as well. Many Trinity Basketball student-athletes have excelled in the sciences, which is a testament to their hard-work and time management. If you are every around campus, we encourage you to stop buy and check out the newest addition to Trinity's campus, the Center for Sciences and Innovation.

The Trinity Standard

The National Association of Basketball Coaches has released the 2014-15 Honors Court and Team Academic Excellence Awards. We are very proud to say that our student-athletes continued to hold a high academic standard and were given the Team Academic Excellence Award for the third year in a row (which the award has only been given for the past three years). For a large group of student-athletes to hold a cumulative GPA above a 3.0 at an academically competitive university, such as Trinity, is a true testament to our guys' ability to work hard in their studies and manage their time efficiently.

We would also like to congratulate the three upperclassmen who were named to the NABC Honors Court. To earn a GPA above a 3.2, especially during your last semester of your senior year (which often carries the most challenging capstone courses), is an impressive feat for these three graduates. Congrats Jimmy, Matt, and Will!

Entrepreneurial Tigers

Forbes Magazine recently came out with a list of America's Most Entrepreneurial Colleges 2015 and ranked Trinity University at #8 in the country. We are extremely proud of this acknowledgement, as liberal arts education encourages entrepreneurial thought within its students and Trinity has established a unique program here. Trinity's Entrepreneurship program is making a major impact on one of our current student-athletes, Khambrel Roach. Kham came to Trinity from Miami, Florida and has been a member of Trinity Basketball for the past two years. Here are Kham's comments when asked about the program:

For years I have always brainstormed and imagined how much better the world would be if certain products were created. I have always had big ideas and it wasn't until my freshman year of college when I began to learn how to focus my passion for innovation. I learned that through entrepreneurship, these ideas that I constantly render in my mind could be transformed from visions into tangible products through strategic and diligent work ethic. When I heard of the entrepreneurship program at Trinity, I immediately scheduled a meeting with the program director, Dr. Martinez, to tell him all my ideas. In our meeting he smiled and said I had the mind of a true entrepreneur. I was motivated and began to work tirelessly on my ideas. I learned to code, design 3D models, and work with various animation softwares and am proud to say I have successfully started my first business, Recordio LLC, and plan to launch an app (Recordio) this coming fall. While Recordio is shaping out to be my first entrepreneurial success, I am currently involved with several other projects that have grown from my ideas. Through the program, I have been able to meet many successful entrepreneurs that have profited from their ideas, landed an internship with Venture Lab (an entrepreneurship hub located in San Antonio) and personally presented my ideas to local San Antonio investors and venture capitalists. I didn't know the Entrepreneurship program existed until I arrived here, but it has been a big part of what I love about Trinity.

- Khambrel Roach '17

Faces on the Hill - The Trinity Bunch

You could spend every day meeting a new face on campus and it would still take years to get through all of the impactful employees we have here at Trinity. Our student-athletes are very fortunate to be surrounded by so many caring individuals that want to help them succeed. While each student may not meet every person in every department, this video is a great start to getting to know some people that every Trinity student should get to know during their time on "the Hill."

Setting an Academic Standard

It ceases to amaze what great student-athletes Trinity University attracts. Recently, the SCAC announced the Spring 2015 Academic Honor Roll and the Trinity Tigers lead the way again with 124 recipients. We would like to acknowledge our five Trinity Basketball honorees:

Matthew Bender, FY - Undecided
Jimmy Clark, SO - Business Finance Major, Global Health Management Major
Matt Jones, FY - Undecided
Matt Selling, SR - Business Finance Major, Sports Management Minor
William Young, SR - Business Accounting Major, Business Finance Major

These young men have maintained the strong academic standard that we strive towards and set a tone for all of our team. We are proud that our team GPA is still above the average male student's GPA here at Trinity, which shows the hard work our student-athletes have put in off the court.

Congrats guys and keep up the good work!

Academic Standard

Winning back-to-back Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships is a tremendous accomplishment, but what is even more extraordinary is being able to succeed on the court WHILE maintaining the highest academic success in the conference. Yesterday, the SCAC announced the Spring 2013 Student-Athlete Academic Honor Roll, which acknowledges student-athletes that achieve a 3.25 or higher semester GPA. This year, Trinity Basketball placed 11 student-athletes on this list (the most for a men's basketball team), while holding an overall team GPA of 3.22 (far above the average male student's GPA at Trinity). We would like to congratulate, AND THANK, the following student-athletes for their dedication to succeeding at the highest level, both on and off the court -

John Boxberger
Jimmy Clark
Jacob Cukjati
Matt Holmes
Robert Kitzinger
John LaVanway
Zach Lambert
Craig Saltarelli
Matt Selling
Joe Shotland
Jonathan Wilt

As a whole, our Athletic Department simply out-performed the rest of the conference, with 141 student-athletes making the honor roll - 32 more than the second highest total. This is a testament to the type of student-athletes we attract here at Trinity. These are highly motivated individuals that are here not just to compete on the court/field, but more importantly, to earn a premier education. If anyone says that college athletics has lost its meaning, we would love to invite them down to San Antonio to experience what it means to be a true student-athlete.

Continuing To Excel Off The Court

Fall semester grades are in and Trinity Basketball AGAIN set an all-time high for team semester GPA! The average GPA of 3.441 beats last semester's average (and previous all-time high) 3.360. This is a testament to the hard work and dedication that this group of student-athletes put in and out of the classroom. We most often recognize our players for their athletic accomplishments, but these victories are the ones that should truly be heralded. As coaches, we couldn't be more impressed with the approach these 15 young men take to their education and commend them for the time management and efforts it takes to succeed in both academic and athletic arenas.

Go Tigers!

Tigers Succeed On AND OFF The Court!

While 2011-12 was a tremendous success for Trinity Basketball on the court, what might be even more impressive is the amount of success this team produced off the court. With the SCAC's 2012 Spring Student-Athlete Academic Honor Roll being announced last week, it is easy to see how this year's team set the Trinity Basketball record for highest team GPA in a semester (3.36) - 12 players were on the Honor Roll! In order to be recognized, a player must maintain a minimum grade-point average of 3.25, and for anyone who has ever studied at Trinity University, they know that is much easier said than done!

We would like to congratulate the following outstanding student athletes for putting their priorities in the right order and getting it done in the classroom:

Ryan Beall
John Boxberger
Jimmy Clark
Jacob Cukjati
Matt Feldman
Heath Hopson
Robert Kitzinger
John LaVanway
Zach Lambert
Gil Melchior
Joe Shotland
Jonathan Wilt

These guys are the perfect models for what Division III athletics, and what college athletics SHOULD be all about. We couldn't ask for better student-athletes representing Trinity Basketball.

Nine Tigers Make Academic Honor Roll

We are extremely proud to acknowledge nine of our Trinity Tiger basketball players for making the SCAC Spring Academic Honor Roll. The athletes are:

Clarke Allan '14
Ryan Beall '12
John Boxberger '13
Sam Dworkin '11
Matt Feldman '14
Sam Harris '12
Gil Melchior '12
Joe Shotland '14
Joel Van Essen '13

These guys embody what Division III and being a student-athlete is all about. Not only did they dedicate themselves to their teammates and contributed to our successes, but they also were able to balance their time and excel in the classroom, earning over a 3.25GPA for the semester. There are no mandatory study hours. We do not have special "athletic department tutors" specifically assigned to overlook our players' grade point averages. These guys are able to figure out how to be successful on both an academic front, as well as athletic.

Congratulations gentlemen - keep up the good work!

What is Division III?

As the NCAA continues to define the identity of Division III athletics (refer to above video), now would be a great time to share an article written a few years back (1999 to be exact) by a Cornell College student-athlete. It is a terrific perspective on what drives a Division III athlete to take on such a difficult task as managing academics and athletics – especially when he/she strives to be successful in both arenas.


Why We Play Division III Athletics

It's not about getting a scholarship, getting drafted, or making SportsCenter. It's a deep need in us that comes from the heart.

We need to practice, to play, to lift, to hustle, to sweat. We do it all for our teammates and for the student in our calculus class that we don't even know.

We don't practice with a future major league first baseman; we practice with a future sports agent.

We don't lift weights with a future Olympic wrestler; we lift with a future doctor.

We don't run with a future Wimbledon champion; we run with a future CEO.

It's a bigger part of us than our friends and family can understand.

Sometimes we play for 2,000 fans; sometimes 25. But we still play hard. You cheer for us because you know us.

You know more than just our names. Like all of you, we are students first.

We don't sign autographs. But we do sign graduate school applications, MCAT exams, and student body petitions.

When we miss a kick or strike out, we don't let down an entire state. We only let down our teammates, coaches, and fans. But the hurt is still the same.

We train hard, lift, throw, run, kick, tackle, shoot, dribble, and lift some more, and in the morning we go to class. And in that class we are nothing more than students.

It's about pride—in ourselves, in our school.

It's about our love and passion for the game. And when it's over, when we walk off that court or field for the last time, our hearts crumble. Those tears are real. But deep down inside, we are very proud of ourselves.

We will forever be what few can claim...college athletes.

- Sean Sornsin, Dec. 3, 1999 edition of The Cornellian

First-Year Move-In Day

Today was an exciting day, not only for Trinity Basketball, but for the entire Trinity University Campus – First-Year Move-In Day! Sam’s gymnasium was packed with eager first-years checking-in, bouncing between information booths, and getting their photos taken for their TigerCards. The first week of freshman year at Trinity is definitely a memorable one, with scheduled events such as lecture speakers, information sessions, dorm and mentor group activities, and the additional excitement of getting to know so many new faces from all different backgrounds.

For us, it was great to spend some time with our incoming freshmen class and their families. Only at a university such as Trinity are families from all over the country able to immediately connect and hit it off so well. We are excited to have such an enjoyable group of people join our Trinity Basketball Family.