The birth of college sports predates every recognized professional sports league in America. It’s well known to sports fans (and members of the greater Rutgers University community) that the first college football game took place in 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton University (final score: Rutgers 6, Princeton 4).

While almost every detail surrounding college athletics has changed since that first contest, many of the goals of organized competition remain the same: to promote school spirit among the campus community, provide an outlet for competition, and develop skills like teamwork and perseverance that enhance the character and qualities of athletes and their educational journeys.

Rutgers University–Camden is a member of the NCAA’s Division III, and roughly 250 to 275 athletes don Scarlet Raptor uniforms each year while representing the university in 17 varsity sports. Rutgers–Camden Director of Athletics and Recreational Services Jeff Dean noted that Division III student-athletes enjoy certain benefits that are less available to athletes competing in Division I.

“I think a Division III student-athlete has more of an opportunity to fulfill all of their desires in college,” said Dean, who has led Rutgers–Camden athletics since 2003 and first arrived on campus in 1993 as the head baseball coach. “Our student-athletes get the opportunity to keep participating in a sport they love while pursuing a top-notch education—and they probably have more freedoms than the typical Division I athlete to experience all parts of college life. Most Division I athletes have very regimented schedules that can almost keep them in a bubble, to a certain extent.”

Among the many Rutgers–Camden student-athletes with a strong track record of success on and off the field of competition is men’s soccer player Liam Craver, a Dean’s List student who graduated in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and finance. He posted a perfect 4.0 grade-point average every semester as an undergrad; like all athletes who were enrolled in NCAA institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Craver received an extra year of athletic eligibility. In his final season for the Scarlet Raptors in 2022, he was one of the team’s captains. Craver is completing Rutgers’s five-year MBA program, with plans to work for a large financial firm in Philadelphia or New York City.

At any level of competition, victory is the ultimate measuring stick. For college athletes, the premier prize is a national championship. Track and field student-athlete Jude Misko is the most recent of Rutgers–Camden’s national champions, having bested all competitors to win the 2021 and 2022 national crowns in the hammer throw.

“Anyone who has ever put on a college-athletic uniform has been in search of a national championship, so to win one has to be the biggest highlight,” said Dean, though he added that deep runs in postseason competition don’t necessarily have to end at the top of the proverbial mountain to be memorable and life-changing. He singled out the 2013 men’s soccer team, which built a 37-match unbeaten streak over the course of the 2012 and 2013 seasons while advancing all the way to the tournament’s final game. “We were fortunate to make the Final Four and to play for a title, and even though we in lost the championship game,” he said, “what an experience it was for our kids to earn a trip all the way to San Antonio and compete on the national stage.”

Every year at a college or university is a new one, with new bonds to form and relationships to build. When Dean was asked what most excites him about the future, he didn’t need long to settle on an answer: “It’s always having that new group of kids that you get to watch grow and develop into adults, right before your eyes, over the next four years. That’s always exciting, and it happens every year.