Coker Brings Home Second Consecutive NCAA Team Works Community Service Challenge Award

HARTSVILLE, SC. - Coker has won the NCAA Team Works Community Service Challenege for the second consecutive year. The Cobras logged over 7,000 hours in the academic year, as they take home the Division II award again. 

Coker earned the award, with 7,574 hours and 92% of their athletes participating in outreach for an average of 17.9 hours per student. A few of the events Coker partook in were officiating and coaching clinics for youth sports, greeting elementary students at a morning drop-off, holding clinics for youth sports and doing a trick-or-treat event. This was the second consecutive year that Coker has earned this honor. 

"I cannot thank our coaches, student-athletes and administration enough," said senior associate director of athletics Aaron Beebe. "An award like this doesn't happen unless you have buy-in from all three of those levels within the university. Strengthening our relationship with the city of Hartsville (South Carolina) and Darlington County has been at the forefront of Coker's strategic plan and I am extremely proud that our coaches and student-athletes are the ones building those relationships. It's another great day to be a Cobra." 

NCAA Team Works, which coordinates community service efforts at NCAA championships, and Helper Helper, a volunteer management and tracking platform, launched the community service competition to recognize student-athletes and schools who give back to their communities. This was the 10th year of the competition, which ran September 15 through December 15, 2024, and is based on the number of service hours completed and the number of participating student-athletes. Helper Helper tracks the school participation data throughout the competition.

This year, student-athletes in Divisions I, II and III contributed a total of 210,288 hours of community service, an increase of nearly 7,000 hours from last year's competition. According to Independent Sector's research on the national value of volunteer time, their efforts generated an estimated $7.04 million impact in communities nationwide.

The student-athletes at Miami (Division I), Coker (Division II) and Oswego State (Division III) all will receive an award from the NCAA for winning the competition.