In spite of many unusual challenges, the 2020-21 school year was a great one for Hillsdale College athletics.
The Chargers' excellent coaches played an important part in the overall success of the program, which saw its teams finish in the top four in the G-MAC in 12 of the 14 sports Hillsdale offers, including eight G-MAC championships.
Five separate Hillsdale College coaches won G-MAC Coach of the Year honors in their respective sports, the highest conference honor accorded to a coach for the season.
Men's basketball coach John Tharp was a repeat honoree, claiming G-MAC Coach of the Year honors for the second straight season after winning the award in 2019-20, and becoming just the third coach in program history to earn Regional Coach of the Year honors from the NABC as well.
Dealing with the lingering effects of the pandemic, Tharp guided the Chargers to a 19-1 regular season record and a G-MAC regular season title by three games over the next closest competition.
Hillsdale also earned the top seed in an NCAA regional for the first time in school history, picked up just its second-ever NCAA Tournament win with the victory over Mercyhurst and reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.
The Chargers posted the best single-season winning percentage in school history (87.5%) and became the first team in program history to have all five starters earn postseason conference recognition.
On a personal level, Tharp also surpassed multiple coaching milestones this year, earning his 450th win as a college coach and his 250th win at Hillsdale. By completing his 14th season with the Chargers, he also became the longest-tenured head coach in Hillsdale College history, surpassing Dwight Harwood, who coached in two stints at Hillsdale from 1926-34 and 1940-46. He'd already become the winningest coach in Charger basketball history multiple seasons ago.
The women's track and field program also built on its strong tradition in 2020-21, helping head coach Andrew Towne won the G-MAC Indoor Track Coach of the Year award for the second-straight season and the third time in four years. After narrowly winning the conference title by less than two points in 2020, Towne ensured the Chargers came back even stronger in 2021, closing out a repeat crown by a significantly larger margin than the year before.
Towne recruited an excellent freshman class that bolstered the Chargers' lineup in key areas, and, together with his staff, also oversaw the continued development of some of the team's best returning athletes as well. Senior sprinter Kajsa Johansson, senior distance runner Maryssa Depies and junior Nikitia Maines were just a few of the Hillsdale athletes who entered the season with plenty of accomplishments, but who all set new personal bests in multiple events over the course of the season.
At the 2021 NCAA DII indoor national meet in March, Johansson won the school's first national title in a half-decade in the 200m dash, and the Charger women finished in the top 10 in the nation for the ninth time in the last 10 years.
All told, between cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field, Towne has been G-MAC Coach of the Year six times in the last four seasons, and he's helped continue the excellence the Charger track program has been known for for decades.
On the volleyball court, a strange season that saw the Chargers play in the winter instead of the fall had the same result – the fourth-straight G-MAC regular season and tournament titles, and a fourth-straight Coach of the Year nod for Chris Gravel, the dean of G-MAC volleyball coaches.
Along with four GLIAC Coach of the Year nods, the honor was the eighth Gravel has earned in his career. Now 518-260 overall in 25 years as Hillsdale's head coach, Gravel has built the Chargers into a program that is not just a G-MAC power, but a Midwest Regional power and, increasingly, a national power as well. In 2021 the Chargers earned the top ranking in the AVCA Division II poll for the first time in program history, and finished the season ranked in the top 10.
Gravel has led the Chargers to eight regular season conference titles, seven conference tournament championships, and 12 NCAA Division II Tournament appearances during his tenure.
After leading the Hillsdale College women's swimming and diving team to a second-straight G-MAC/MEC title, head coach Kurt Kirner was named G-MAC Coach of the Year for the third straight season.
The head coach of the Chargers for 14 seasons now, Kirner keeps pushing the program to unprecedented heights.
After bringing in one of the best freshman classes in program history to help bring home the program's first-ever conference title in the 2019-20 season, Kirner's 2020-21 recruiting class was arguably even better, helping keep Hillsdale ahead of the competition for a second-straight conference crown.
Throughout a season heavily impacted by Covid-19, where just cobbling together a schedule seemed at times like an insurmountable challenge, Kirner kept his team focused and ensured it hit its peak when it mattered most, with freshmen Cecilia Guadalupi and Caroline Holmes each winning two conference titles to help the Chargers beat Findlay by over 200 points in the final standings.
Last, but not least, Hillsdale men's tennis head coach Keith Turner was named G-MAC Coach of the Year for the second-time in his tenure after leading the Chargers to G-MAC regular season and tournament titles, as well as the program's first-ever NCAA tournament berth. It's the second time Turner has been recognized as Coach of the Year, adding to the honor he won in 2018, the last time he led the Chargers to the conference title.
This year's run was arguably the more impressive job, as Turner had to replace four of the six members of his singles lineup from the previous season. Despite a lineup with only one senior and three true freshmen, the team came together incredibly well over the winter and has won several matches over top Midwest Regional teams since the spring season started in February, achieving arguably the best season the program has had since it restarted in the fall of 2015.