Past and present Generals athletes said their sport doesn’t define their experience at Washington and Lee — it enhances it. To them, the biggest success of the university’s Division III culture is its flexibility to allow students to be more than just athletes and include non-athletes in the experience as well.

The university’s varsity sports teams compete at the NCAA Division III level. According to the NCAA, as a student-athlete, “the four-year journey is designed to complement time spent in the classroom and pursuing other activities — some related to coursework, others extracurricular.”

But Washington and Lee takes the DIII experience to the next level, affecting the 591 undergraduates who belong to a team and the other students who share their Lexington campus.

“W&L in particular, beyond other DIII schools, really is the quintessential ‘WhyDIII’ school,” said Caroline Kranich, ’24, who played for the university’s women’s lacrosse team all four years at the university.

Kranich said that the opportunity to be involved in other organizations on campus such as Greek life and clubs helps integrate student-athletes with non-athletes. “You’re really close with your teammates, but you can also have other groups of friends, which I think makes the school more cohesive overall compared to other DIII schools,” she said.

In addition to finishing her lacrosse career at W&L as a captain, Kranich also served as president of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and was a member of the Williams Investment Society and the Contact Committee — all while studying Business Administration, Sociology and Anthropology and Data Science. Since graduating, she has stayed involved with lacrosse by volunteer coaching for a girls high school team.

Amanda Tan, ’26, said there’s “a really good balance with being involved in other activities. There’s time and opportunity to explore something that piques your interest while also having the support of coaches and teammates.”

Tan plays on the field hockey team, serves as Editor-in-Chief for the Mudd Undergraduate Journal of Ethics, competes for the Ethics Bowl team, plays the flute for the wind ensemble, acts as treasurer for the Pan-Asian Association for Cultural Exchange, contributes work towards a language and emotion lab in the Cognitive and Behavioral Science (CBSC) department, and supports first-years as a residential advisor. In her free time, she joked, she double majors in Business Administration and CBSC.

Considering her wide range of involvement on campus outside of athletics, Tan reflected on how the experience of DIII athletes relates to the overall student experience at the university.

“At W&L, I feel like there’s not a huge divide between people who play sports and people who don’t,” said Tan.

She also said Washington and Lee’s athletic success contributes to the DIII culture. “I feel like our school specifically does pretty well in terms of conference play and going to NCAAs, and I think that people get really excited about that, and you have friends who will rally for you and cheer for you,” said Tan.

Director of Athletics Jan Hathorn also said that many other people on campus contribute to the DIII experience.

“What makes the experience at Washington and Lee valuable is that people who work in the athletic department, whether it’s an administrator, an athletic trainer, somebody on the indoor or outdoor crew, assistant coach, head coach, or sports information, there’s a certain level of caring and concern that we all sort of have for the students that we support through what we do because we’re small enough that we know each other,” said Hathorn.

Although student-athletes earn some credit towards the physical education requirement for playing a varsity sport, all must complete at least one course which is different from the sport they play. This allows student-athletes to learn new athletic skills outside of their sport alongside their non-athlete peers while being taught by coaches from other teams as well.

“As coaches, we also have the opportunity to do other things and be more balanced,” said Avery Blackmon, the assistant women’s lacrosse coach, who has also coached at a Division I school. “Here, I’m doing more teaching and can be involved as a leader in clubs and other organizations on campus as well,” said Blackmon. 

According to Hathorn, many of the traditions which are so foundational to the student experience at Washington and Lee seep into the DIII experience as well. 

“It’s the nature of Washington and Lee: the speaking tradition, all the things. When somebody comes here from another place to start coaching, it takes some getting used to,” she said. “But it feeds into how we are with each other and how we approach our work as well.”

Hathorn said that the Honor System is also central to the DIII experience. It was one of the main reasons the university transitioned from the University Division to the College Division back in 1951, as well as maintain its high academic standards, she said. 

“They more or less made the statement that we’re going to be about academics, and we’re going to have the kind of people here that want to go to school,” said Hathorn. 

The Washington and Lee experience is a DIII experience, Hathorn said. 

“Our campus is historically a Division III kind of atmosphere. And it sounds sort of hokey, but…it’s just who we are, and I love it, and I think it’s the way it should be,” said Hathorn.