Today we begin a weeklong recognition of UMW’s student-athletes as we celebrate the NCAA’s Division III week! Athletics is an important component of life at the University of Mary Washington and each day this week we will be featuring comments from student-athletes competing in various sports. UMW student-athletes play for the love of the game—they do not receive athletic scholarships.

Each day a different student-athlete with be featured.

Claire Haeuptle is a senior basketball player from Robbinsville, NJ, majoring in Biology. When asked why she chose to attend UMW and play basketball for a DIII school, she replied:

Being a Division III athlete is something that I am extremely proud of. In no other division do you see the overwhelming amount of student-athletes who put as much time and effort into their academics and sport as in DIII. We don't play on scholarship, we don't play for TV time, but instead we play for the love of the game. I chose Mary Washington specifically because I fell in love with the family atmosphere. All the athletes come to support each other on the court, field, or pool during contests, as well as supporting each other in the classroom with athlete tutoring. Mary Washington has 21 teams but is 1 family!