Joe Karlgaard, Ph.D.

Dear Friends,

Our exciting fall season has come to a close, and we continue to move this department forward with steady progress. Women’s cross country won its first conference championship in 22 years; our football team won five games for the second time in four seasons, but just the third time in 43 years; and our men’s soccer team made the conference playoffs for the second consecutive season!

The competitive success of our programs only tells part of the story, however. More importantly, we took giant steps forward in establishing a culture of excellence throughout our athletics program. As we work toward creating high-functioning varsity sports, physical education, and recreation opportunities, measurable outcomes take us just part of the way toward reaching our goals. We also seek to change the intangibles, and that change begins with culture.

Culture refers to a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization. For those of us that live in the Oberlin athletics culture, the shift toward “excellence” as the descriptor of our attitudes, values, goals, and practices is palpable. Conversations with our men’s soccer team highlight this point. Although the squad ended its season in defeat at the North Coast Athletic Conference playoffs, this team made the cultural shift from the acceptance of a spot in the playoffs to the expectation that they would play well and win each time they took the field.

When excellence is established as a matter of culture in any organization, that organization’s decisions, goals, policies, and processes become much clearer to everyone involved. Student-athletes, coaches, and administrative staff dedicate themselves to superlative effort in everything they do, and they create the expectation that Oberlin College athletics will compete at a very high level among its peers.

The culture is the key to establishing a department where excellence perpetuates from year to year and throughout our preparation and execution of tasks. We are closing in on a breakthrough in this area, and I invite you to follow our progress as our program makes this dramatic shift.

Joe Karlgaard
Delta Lodge Director of Athletics and Physical Education

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