SUWANEE, Ga. — The Southern Collegiate
Athletic Conference announced today that Schreiner University has
accepted an invitation to join the Conference.
A member of the American Southwest Conference since 1998, Schreiner
will join the SCAC at the beginning of the 2013-14 academic year
and become the seventh member of the Conference.
“We are pleased that Schreiner University has elected to join
the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference,” said Austin
College president Marjorie Hass, who currently serves as the chair
of the SCAC Board of Directors. “Schreiner represents another
fine institution that has worked hard to find balance for its solid
academic program and competitive NCAA Division III athletics
program. We are all impressed with the commitment Schreiner has
displayed in the review process and anticipate many competitive
games and matches in the years to come with our new conference
partner.”
The acceptance of membership by Schreiner ensures that the SCAC
will continue to be recognized as an active conference by the NCAA
when the league’s two-year grace period expires prior to the
2014-15 academic year. The NCAA requires that a conference have
seven core members who are active Division III institutions to be
considered a conference in good standing.
"This is an important step for Schreiner University, both
academically and athletically,” said Schreiner President Tim
Summerlin. “The SCAC is a highly respected conference, and
for very good reasons. That these institutions have unanimously
endorsed an invitation to join the SCAC means much to us. We
believe that it signifies a recognition that Schreiner is making
great progress in its goal of being a premier place of learning as
well as becoming increasingly competitive in its 13 intercollegiate
athletic programs. We are honored by the invitation."
Schreiner University will become the seventh member of the SCAC in
2013-14 as it joins Austin College, Centenary College of Louisiana,
Colorado College, University of Dallas, Southwestern University and
Trinity University.
“I am delighted with the presidents’ affirmative
response to the membership application of Schreiner
University,” said SCAC commissioner Dwayne Hanberry.
“In the ever-changing membership of Division III in general,
we recognize the importance of conference affiliation and
associating our institutions with schools of similar academic and
athletic philosophies. With Schreiner, we will gain an institution
that fits our conference concept.”
"We feel very pleased and fortunate to have been invited into the
SCAC," says Ron Macosko, Director of Athletics at Schreiner
University. "In the fall of 2013, we will align ourselves with some
of the top teaching institutions and athletic programs in the
country. Although Schreiner is young as a university, it has made
great strides in recent years, in terms of enrollment growth,
facilities expansion and academic quality. We are committed to
broad-based programs and recognize that academic success is the
first priority for our student-athletes. We are pleased that the
SCAC leadership saw these commitments when they made their decision
to invite us."
Schreiner University was founded in 1923 when a Hill Country
rancher, merchant and former Texas Ranger, Captain Charles
Schreiner, asked the Presbyterian Church to help him put bricks,
mortar, and people around a dream he had nurtured for many years.
He donated land along the Guadalupe River and together they
established "facilities for high grade instruction and military
training to boys and young men as preparation for college and
university work."
By 1971 the military training was discontinued and the school
became fully coeducational. In 1973 Schreiner phased out its high
school and strengthened its college curricula. And in 1981 the
college became a four-year institution, graduating its first
baccalaureate class three years later. Only a decade after,
Schreiner was listed as one of the top regional liberal arts
colleges in the western United States by the prestigious U.S.
News & World Report's America's Best Colleges Guide.
Schreiner, whose athletics teams are known as the Mountaineers and
wear school colors of maroon and white, sponsors 13 intercollegiate
varsity programs, all of which are sponsored by the SCAC including:
baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and
women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf,
men’s and women’s soccer, softball, men’s and
women’s tennis and volleyball.