Effect on Trinity Athletics Today
Today, looking at the past success of all our athletic programs at Trinity, we are regarded as one of the top Division III institutions for athletics as well as academics. Some of these recognitions include being ranked one of the top five universities within Texas academically and also being highly ranked within the Director’s Cup athletically. Last December in 2019, Trinity University earned a ranking of #12 out of roughly 400 colleges for the fall sports standings, the highest our school has been since 2013 (trinitytigers.com). As a part of the women’s basketball team, I had the chance to sit down and talk with my head coach, Cameron Hill. Throughout this short career at Trinity, he turned a team around in a matter of three years. “I love working at Trinity and all the opportunities to work with wonderful athletes and coaches has been amazing.”. Athletics embody a huge part of our school and sports environment including fundraising tables when attending sports events and positive school support and spirit from both the students and faculty. That decision made in 1972 paved the way for Trinity college athletes at this moment in time because without their hard work and dedication to the improvement and continued success of Trinity University athletics, then Trinity may not be as recognized and on the map as we are today.
Overall, Trinity athletics has proven to be very successful ever since the reclassification from Division I to Division III. Our sports programs continue to rise in recognition while pushing our boundaries academically to ensure that Trinity represents their values stays true to their core competencies. At first, people were skeptical because at that time there were no other competing Division III institutions within the state of Texas. This resulted in Trinity going into a pretty difficult adjustment with their athletic strategies and figuring out ways to join a conference with the same views as them. Trinity fought back and forth with the decision to leave the Southland conference, but they knew what needed to be done. If not for these decisions, the history of Trinity athletics could have been completely different. To end my interview with Julie Jenkins, I posed the question if she could ever see Trinity University reclassifying back to the Division I level. She simply stated that she “doesn’t see Trinity looking to go in that direction nor would it put us in a better position. I think that Trinity is looking towards expanding the number of sports programs that we have—the more sports the better”. How would the new addition of a sports program at Trinity fit in to the rising success of our sports teams? Trinity seems to be right where they should be with fulfilling their philosophy of becoming more of a national institution through their athletics and academics.