Campus & Community

Women’s basketball head coach Randi Henderson and her husband, assistant coach Duez Henderson, are leading the No. 19-ranked Bears into their 30th consecutive NCAA Division III Tournament appearance. The Bears will play Wisconsin-Whitewater at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 1, at the Athletic Complex. The couple’s small children are the team’s biggest fans.

Softball player-turned-coach Michelle Venturella speaks to the importance of encouragement. Bolstered to Olympic gold in 2000, she provides her athletes today with similar support to succeed on and off the field.

Whether its pursuing athletic prowess or professional excellence, alumna Kerri Morgan, assistant professor of occupational therapy and neurology at the medical school, continues to rise to meet and exceed each challenge she sets for herself.

The passing of Title IX in 1972 set the stage for the growth of women’s athletics across the country. Today, Washington University female student-athletes compete in 10 intercollegiate sports. And they hold 19 of WashU’s 22 NCAA Division III national championships, with the string of championships starting in 1989.

Anthony J. Azama, the John M. Schael Director of Athletics at Washington University, has been on the job a little more than three months. But he’s already developed a rapport with the student athletes, and he has a clear vision where he wants to help them go.

On Dec. 3, 2016, the women’s soccer team posted a 5–4 shootout victory over Messiah College to claim the 2016 NCAA Division III National Championship. ­

Ben Malcolmson, sports editor of The Daily Trojan at the University of Southern California, explores the athletic and academic success of Washington University, which has won 12 Division III national championships in the last 15 years, despite the innate differences within the realms of Division I and Division III athletics programs.