HELENA, Mont.  – The Frontier Conference has announced the 2024-25 Frontier Conference Champions of Character award recipients. For the second-consecutive year, the Fighting Saints have been honored as the conference's School of Character.
 
Less than a year removed from becoming the NAIA's inaugural School of Character, Carroll College has once again been designated as the Frontier Conference's representative on the national ballot.
 
Carroll athletics is beyond committed to what it means to be a school of character. Character is not a buzz word at the institution, rather a shared vision of student-athletes, staff, and community working towards a better cause.
 
The vision is shared throughout competition and practice facilities, locker rooms, hallways and clearly stated on messaging to student-athletes and staff alike throughout the course of the year. The five core Champions of Character values are visible and intentionally placed in areas where student- athletes and coaches spend the most time.
 
Beyond the five core values of the Champions of Character, Carroll has developed pillars for successful living, working, and competing at the highest standard. Upholding, reinforcing and celebrating these values is something Carroll student-athletes and staff do daily.
 
Student-athletes at Carroll are held to a higher standard.

They are guided not only by the Champions of Character core values, the school's pillars for success, but also the Carroll Code of Conduct. Carroll provides many opportunities to prepare our student-athletes to be leaders and role models in our community, which is further promoted and initiated by our active SAAC group.
 
This year alone, the student-athletes, with the assistance and leadership from the SAAC hosted three Red Cross Blood Drives, served over 40 families in need over Thanksgiving with meals delivered to their homes or school; organized a winter clothing drive for our local Head Start program; helped raise over $15,000 for Hoops for a Cause – benefitting the young daughter of one of our own coaches; raised money to support two Carroll athletes battling cancer, helped setup and run the Special Olympics State Basketball tournament; and contributed well over 10 hours per athlete to help with internal events and competitions at Carroll in addition to countless community support efforts for many local organizations throughout the year.
 
These activities included, but not limited to: The Helena Humane Society, Florence Crittenton, YWCA, YMCA, Knights of Columbus, Shodair Hospital, TouchMark, local elementary and middle school volunteers as well as many youth athletic clinics throughout the school year.
 
The Carroll SAAC (student-athlete advisory council) also created our first-annual mental health awareness week where they provided different activities and services for our students. The week included: free donuts and coffee; yoga under the lights; a sleep, breathing and relaxation presentation and activity; doggy daycare (dogs were provided by staff, students and our anthrozoology program) where students could relax and play with the dogs on the lawn; and finished with a "friend check-in" where students reached out to a friend, family member or teammate with no other motive other than to see how they were doing. This was a great week for students campus-wide and highlighted the SAAC as true servant leaders on campus.
 
Carroll's student-athletes are not alone in their initiatives and service within our campus and our community. The athletic staff is also very active in creating a culture that highlights the five core values of the NAIA Champions of Character.  Staff participated in a cultural driven task force with measurable action items that included: community outreach; development of points of pride within the department; establishment and commitment to culture action items; enhancement of campus collaborations; and innovations that enhance operations.
 
These task forces were made up of coaches, staff, and athletic trainers who met throughout the year to develop and improve these areas of emphasis. The overall goal of these task forces was to identify where shortcomings are, and to try and be better in the way that we serve Carroll's students, the Helena community, as well as serve each other.
 
The Carroll athletic department does monthly staff meetings with designated time to announce monthly "Saints Special Moments".  Department initiatives also include highlighting student-athletes as Champion of Character each month in our "Saints Spotlight". Title IX, and National Girls and Women in Sport are among two of the many events organized and recognized throughout the course of the academic year.
 
Carroll celebrated All-Americans, team championships, scholar-athletes, and recognized student-athletes that exhibit the "best of the best" at the eighth annual Halo Awards this past spring. The end of the year banquet not only includes winners of Athlete of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and Scholar-Athlete of the Year, but more importantly, the "Team of Service", Most Supportive Professor, Servant Leadership Award ,and lastly, the Male and Female Saint Sebastian winners. The Saint Sebastian Award is presented annually to both the Male and Female student-athlete that best exemplifies what it means to be a Fighting Saint, a reciprocal of being a Champion of Character.
 
Being a school of character is much more than reading the Champions of Character Core values before each competition or filling out the NAIA core report or score card. It is a continuous effort to ensure all coaches have completed the NAIA online training before they begin coaching, it's about holding coaches and athletes to a higher standard and using the "Teachable Moments" platform to help them when they fall short, it's just about what they do daily, but, more importantly, who they are daily that really matters.
 
Being a Champion of Character is about being intentional in daily work and the goals we set. It is an emphasis on building strong leaders, mentors, and teammates within Carroll's athletic department. It's about providing training, resources, opportunities and encouragement to help our students and coaches operate in a place of integrity and respect.
 
At Carroll, it's not about saying we're Champions of Character. It's about living the model, committing to the betterment of those around us, and acting on the five core character beliefs.