By Rob Chaney, FCSAA Associate Director/Athletics Commissioner

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Before intercollegiate athletics celebrates its "New Year's Day" on August 1 and our fall sports officially begin the countdown to the start of the 2023-24 athletics season, I felt it's only appropriate to reflect on the past 12 months that have been filled with championship performances in competition, in the classroom and throughout the communities served by member colleges in the Florida College System Activities Association. 

The 2022-23 athletics season produced 10 NJCAA Team Champions from our FCSAA membership – a record number for a single season in our association's history – and in some sports, we didn't stop with the first-place trophy.

In fact, Palm Beach State College led a 1-2-3 (and 7) finish in Beach Volleyball; Division I Women's Golf boasted the National Champion (that's four in a row for Seminole State College) and Runner-up. Overcoming adversity left in the wake of Hurricane Ian, Florida SouthWestern State College won its first Division I Volleyball and third straight Division I Softball titles by knocking off a FCSAA rival, and Division I Men's and Women's Basketball came agonizingly close to being All-FCSAA finals. In the latter of the hardwood tilts, Northwest Florida State College won its second title in three years.

Championships were won by dominating from start to finish – here's to you, Florida Gateway College Women's Flag Football and your 152-20 scoring margin in five NJCAA tournament games – and by dominating when it mattered most - on the final day of competition (see Hillsborough Community College sweeping its five championship matches to win Division I Women's Tennis).

Others were claimed while showing the resolve to come back from the brink of elimination and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat – hello, College of Central Florida, who conquered Grand Junction to win the Division I Baseball World Series. 

And then there's Indian River State College's men's and women's swimming & diving teams. We're way past wondering if the Pioneers are going to win; let's face it, the questions are "by how much?" and "how many in a row?" To answer the latter, it's 41 straight for the women and 49 for the men, who will host the 2024 NJCAA Championships in pursuit of Golden Championship #50.

Thanks to hard work and dedication of outstanding host sites, our FCSAA Championships are second-to-none and produce some of the best competition in the NJCAA.

Last year's slate of championships featured inaugural events for Beach Volleyball, Division II Baseball and Division II Softball, and 11 different schools hoisted a FCSAA Champions trophy across 12 championship events, including an historic victory for Eastern Florida State College's women's basketball team. This year, Division II Men's Basketball joins the offerings and we're a year away from adding Championships No. 14 (DI Women's Soccer) and 15 (DI Women's Golf). 

Academically, the FCSAA's student-athletes continue to perform at a clip that is a model for other cohorts at our institutions, all while adhering to some of the strictest academic standards at any level of intercollegiate athletics. During the 2022-23 academic year, 556 student-athletes earned All-Academic honors from the NJCAA for achieving at least a 3.60 cumulative GPA between the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters. Of those, 132 posted a perfect 4.0 GPA to earn First-team honors.

From a team perspective, 65 of our teams across 16 different sports were recognized by the NJCAA for posting a cumulative 3.0+ GPA. Palm Beach State College proved it could get the job done in the books just as easily as the sand, earning NJCAA Academic Team of the Year honors for Beach Volleyball.

Many more student-athletes and teams were recognized for their athletic and academic prowess at the FCSAA and conference levels, culminating with our annual FCSAA Athletic and Academic Awards. If you haven't read about the 2022-23 nominees, please take a minute to do so. We had a phenomenal slate of candidates, which included Indian River State College swimmer Gina Miller, who received the prestigious Betty Jo Graber Award, presented annually to the NJCAA Female Student-Athlete of the Year.

Depsite a demanding schedule filled with team activities and academic commitments, our student-athletes, coaches and administrators place a high priority on giving back to our communities. FCSAA member colleges reported 351 community service projects in the 2021-22 year, and while the 2022-23 data won't be available until later in the summer, it will include a recent trip by Polk State College Head Men's Basketball Coach Brandon Giles, Assistant Coach Josh Jackson and Hillsborough Community College Head Women's Basketball Coach Chris Springs, who recently conducted a basketball camp for kids in grades 1-12 in the Bahamas. 

So many other accolades could be included - numerous All-Americans, individual National Champions, NJCAA Player and Coach of the Year recipients, the list could go on.

By any metric, our student-athletes upheld the mission statement of the NJCAA while also honoring the FCSAA's student-athlete-specific learning outcomes:

• Demonstrating the character traits of respect, teamwork, self-discipline, cooperation and dedication;
• Learning time management skills while navigating the demands of both their athletic and academic responsibilities;
• Giving back to their communities through participation in community service projects; and 
• Demonstrating academic retention and persistence through success and graduation rates.

It all adds up to a year in which our FCSAA member colleges raised an already high bar.

Congratulations to all of our student-athletes, coaches and administrators on an outstanding 2022-23 season and the very best of luck to everyone as we embark on the 2023-24 year!