By KEVIN JAKAHI
By KEVIN JAKAHI
Tribune-Herald sports writer
Most people generally know that Division III schools (mostly expensive private institutions) aren’t allowed to offer athletic scholarships, and unless you’ve inherited an oil fortune it’s costly to afford tuition, let alone room and board, books and other supplies.
Puget Sound’s annual tuition cost is $41,640. Northwest Conference rival Pacific (Ore.) University, another private school, is in roughly the same neighborhood. The University of Hawaii’s tuition for residents is $8,400.
There are 449 member institutions at Division III, making it the largest of the three divisions in the NCAA. The schools are supposed to compete in athletics in a non-revenue fashion, a reason for athletic scholarships not being offered.
Division III schools are also not allowed to use any endowment money to benefit their athletic programs. Puget Sound has a $217 million endowment (money or property donated to an institution).
However, it is a prevailing misconception that there is no scholarship money available for Division III athletes, according to Puget Sound basketball coach Justin Lunt, who wrote an article on nfhs.org about what it means to be a Division III athlete.
“There are many ways to earn money, possibly even more money than getting a scholarship to a Division II university,” Lunt stated. “With D-III schools, there are instances where students can earn a great amount of money through academics, while the ‘athletic scholarship’ to a Division II university could be dramatically less. The reason that students attend any university should be for the academics, and this is how scholarship money can be earned to attend a Division III university.”
Kian Kurokawa, a 2013 Hilo High graduate, is headed to Puget Sound to play baseball and study engineering. He graduated with a 3.8 grade-point average, which was the average GPA for the school’s 2012 and ’13 recruiting classes.
That’s something Puget Sound assistant coach/recruiting coordinator Kainoa Correa proudly pointed to. He also noted that competition is tough, not just in the conference, but also to secure a roster spot on the team.
“At the Division III level, almost all of our ballplayers receive sizable academic scholarships and zero athletic scholarships,” Correa said. “Because of this, nothing is guaranteed and we expect everyone to come into fall ready to scratch and claw their way up the depth chart. We lost our No. 1 starter, No. 2 starter, and one of our middle guys to graduation. We brought in a large class of pitchers to compete for those innings.
“Kian is unique in comparison to the rest of the arms in his class because he isn’t as reliant on velocity. However, I still believe that he can be effective at our level and I’m hopeful that he will continue to grow and become an important part of our bullpen early in his career.”
Puget Sound’s last winning season was 2004, when the Loggers finished with a 20-18 record, including 14-10 in the NWC. For the 2013 season, 11th-year coach Brian Billings’ ballclub went 17-23, including 11-13 in the conference.
“The competition in the NWC is impressive. Four teams from our nine-team conference made appearances in the NCAA Division III Top 25 poll last season,” Correa said. “This is even more impressive when you consider the fact that there are more Division III baseball programs than D-I and D-II programs combined nationwide.
“Linfield College, the 2013 NWC champions coached by former Yankee Scott Brosius, won the 2013 D-III World Series. We and our NWC counterparts often finish our seasons with winning records against in-region Division II and NAIA opponents. In addition, there are multiple MLB draft candidates throughout the conference.
“Our conference is tough because there aren’t as many Division III institutions on the West Coast in comparison to the Midwest and East Coast, therefore our talent pool is much less diluted. Because D-III baseball doesn’t exist in Hawaii, most local boys are unfamiliar with the quality of play. However once they arrive on campus, they quickly realize that most of the top players in D-III chose a high academic institution over D-I/II options as opposed to being relegated to D-III.”