Choosing the college that’s right for you is serious business. Knowledge is power, so learning as much as possible about the school in which you’re interested will help insure your pick is the fit for you. Northwestern College, located in Orange City, Iowa, is a Christian liberal arts college with a serious commitment to excellence–excellence in the classroom, in your personal life and in athletics. According to Athletic Director Barry Brandt, “We see sport as a superb platform through which to help young people develop mentally, physically, socially and spiritually into all they have the God-given ability to be.” A member of the Great Plains Athletic Conference, the Northwestern Red Raiders compete against institutions with similarly high caliber athletic programs. Since the inception of the GPAC in 2000, nine team national championships have been garnered by member institutions. Three of those national championships were won by Red Raider teams. In 2001, the men’s and women’s basketball squads won the national crown, and the Northwestern men’s team repeated the feat in 2003. While success on the court or the field is important, it is not paramount. Coaches at Northwestern strive to foster growth in all areas of a student-athletes’ life. For example, Head Coach Melanie Mason, the skipper of the softball program, said, “While we hope to continue in the winning ways already established here, we also want to emphasize that much can be learned about life from the game of softball. We try to teach our players to win and lose with grace, to pursue goals and the importance of self-sacrifice for the good of the team.” Head football Coach Orv Otten stated, “Our goal as a football program is to teach our players three things: commitment, responsibility and discipline. These three traits are needed in all areas of life.” At Northwestern, commitment, responsibility and discipline aren’t just catchy words on paper. Putting these character traits into action produces tangible outcomes. For instance, during the 2003-04 season, 11 Red Raider athletes earned NAIA All-American status. An even greater number, 22, were honored as NAIA Scholar-Athletes. Members of the baseball team traveled to Moldova to conduct baseball clinics for children and to assist in orphanages. The 2004-05 season saw members of the volleyball team travel to Brazil to work at an orphanage, Lar Batista Biblico, while a number of NW wrestlers traveled to the Czech Republic to facilitate wrestling clinics.
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