UW-Whitewater athletics are full of streaks. Whether it be women’s tennis and its 18-straight WIAC titles, or football’s 22-straight wins over UW-Eau Claire, every Warhawk program has a streak of some capacity.
But one streak epitomizes just how successful Warhawk athletics are as a whole: 15-straight top-20 finishes in the Division III Learfield Directors’ Cup.
“We pride ourselves on national success,” Athletic Director Ryan Callahan said. “Our mantra – ‘powered by tradition’ – our coaches lean in on that tradition, that tradition of excellence within our student athletes.”
Created by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and USA Today, this award uses a success-based model that measures the overall success of collegiate athletic programs across their respective divisions. When the award was established in 1993, it only represented DI schools. Two years later, the award expanded to DII, DIII and NAIA schools, which promotes the relevancy of collegiate athletic programs outside of DI.
“Our athletes are always wanting to try to get on a level playing field with those premier Division I schools,” baseball head coach John Vodenlich said. “Division III sometimes gets a bad rap, or people view things differently, but our athletes here are very capable, and they want to excel.”
At the DIII level, the Warhawks have an all-time best finish of second place, which came during its trifecta 2013-14 season. Despite never winning the prestigious award, the award is still taken seriously across all athletic programs.
Callahan uses the award to motivate coaches. During yearly meetings with coaches, the athletic department applauds successful seasons, which can “energize other people to get back out there and pound the pavement with recruiting.”
Vodenlich, who recently led Warhawk baseball to a second-place finish at the 2024 NCAA Baseball Championship, combines the school’s athletic success with academic excellence and campus outreach to form a successful recruiting package.
“As proud as I am about the on-field performance, we can match each and every one of those performances with people that are doing it in their career path,” Vodenlich said. “We not only use the performance of other teams on the field, but also the academic achievements that are very important to us.”
With DIII student-athletes unable to receive athletic scholarships, reputation is extremely important for interested recruits and transfer athletes. The 15-year streak of top-20 finishes in the Directors’ Cup puts pressure on incoming student-athletes and coaches to continue the success.
“Now it’s on them to establish their own tradition,” Callahan said. “How are they going to be remembered? What is their legacy?”
Despite the consistent top-20 finishes, the award’s selection of sports hinders the Warhawks’ capabilities to finish higher. Williams College, which has won 22 of the 27 career cups, sponsors 32 varsity athletic programs, while UWW offers only 20. While four guaranteed sports, men’s and women’s basketball and soccer, and the top 14 sports outside of those programs are scored in the final standings, having more options clears a more flexible path for some universities.
This idea was seen in the second-place 2013-14 season, where despite the Warhawks completing winning national titles in baseball, men’s basketball and football, Williams College still outscored UW-W to take home their 15th cup in the last 16 years. Williams’ second-place finish in women’s rowing, a ninth-place finish in women’s lacrosse, and a 15th-place finish in skiing elevated them to the top.
“It’s the totality of your programs, but even that’s a little skewed,” Callahan said. “We are the best Division III bowling school in the country. We’re Division III playing in Division I bowling. Over the last 25 years, I don’t think there’s been a better [DIII] gymnastics program than Whitewater. Gymnastics isn’t part of the Learfield Cup.”
Callahan added that east coast schools like Williams College, Johns Hopkins University, Middlebury College and more have a more diverse offering of athletics because of varying popularities of sports across different regions. Nonetheless, competing with these private, east coast schools tells a bigger story about Warhawk athletics.
In 2024, the Warhawks finished 10th in the cup’s final standings, but finished atop all public DIII programs. Finishing as the top public school also placed the Warhawks above all other WIAC schools, one spot ahead of UW-La Crosse.
“I take pride in the fact of working for a medium-sized, public Division III institution,” Callahan said. “We’re competing against schools where it’s $70,000 a year to go – some pretty elite academic people. Kudos goes to our student-athletes that are doing it.”
While Warhawk athletics value some things more, including athletes’ development and national championships, the award further proves the belief that the university has some of the best athletics in DIII.
According to Vodenlich, “It’s a sign that the rest of the nation respects us.”
