The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference has announced that Earlham College will join the membership beginning in the 2010-11 academic year. Earlham, located in Richmond, will join the conference after spending the past 20 years affiliated with the North Coast Athletic Conference.
“We are very pleased to have Earlham join the HCA as our 10th member beginning in the fall of 2010, as they have a rich tradition of strong academic and intercollegiate athletic programs,” said HCAC Commissioner Christoper Ragsdale. “Many of our conference members have already been competing in non-league contests with Earlham College. They are centrally located to our conference schools, which make them a natural fit.”
Earlham College is one of the nations strongest academic liberal arts colleges and is an independent, four year, coeducational, residential institution of higher learning founded in 1847 by the Religious Society of Friends. The Quakers provide 16 varsity athletic programs for their enrollment of just under 1,200 students.
The addition of Earlham marks the first change in membership for the HCAC since Rose-Hulman joined the league in 2006. Other conference schools include Anderson University, Bluffton University, Defiance College, Franklin College, Hanover College, Manchester College, Mt. St. Joseph and Transylvania University.
“I am extremely excited that Earlham has been invited to join the HCAC,” said Earlham President Douglas C. Bennett. “In joining the HCAC, we are rejoining a number of colleges and universities that have been institutions with which Earlham has competed for many decades. We are delighted to now be in a conference with them.”
The HCAC sponsors 16 championships in men’s and women’s athletics. Beginning in the 2010-11 academic year, Earlham will be competing in 13 of 16 sports in the HCAC, excluding men’s and women’s golf and softball.
“When it comes to intercollegiate athletics, Earlham College shares a similar vision with current HCAC members who value the intercollegiate experience as an intergral part of the overall educational experience for their student-athletes,” said Ragsdale.
