Dear Bronco Family,
I am excited to take a moment to share what was undoubtedly one of the most successful years in the history of your Western Michigan University Broncos. Guided by our vision to graduate our athletes holistically prepared to pursue their passions in life; making high quality connections with our community; and winning championships, WMU broke records in all three areas – with our highest student-athlete GPA on record, the most amount of community service hours in our history, and the WMU record for team conference championships in one academic year.

Thank you for being a part of this historic season, and we look forward to a great 2024-25 with you all.

2023-24 IN REVIEW
The 2023-24 athletic season was historic for the Western Michigan University Broncos. For the first time ever, we finished 1st in the MAC in the Learfield Director's Cup Standings. We won 13 conference titles, eight team titles, and five individual titles—the most team titles in one season in program history—and made six appearances at the NCAA Championships. Individually, our student-athletes and coaches earned multiple conference and national awards.

• 2 Conference Player of the Year Awards
• 3 Conference Freshman of the Year Awards
• 9 Conference Specialty Award Honors
• 1 National Player of the Year Honor
• 1st Ever MAC Hermann Award Finalist
• 3 Conference Coach of the Year Awards
• 120 All-Conference Selections
• 9 All-American Honors
• 18 Professional Contracts

While we take pride in placing a priority on competing at the highest level, we continue to emphasize a quality academic experience in preparing our athletes for life. Our student-athletes broke academic records at every turn:

• Highest academic year GPA in our history
• Highest semester GPA in our history in Spring 2024
• Highest number of 4.0 student-athletes in our history (23% of our athlete population!)
• Six programs with their best GPA on record
• 10 programs with a perfect 1000 Academic Progress Rate
• 10 consecutive semesters with a 3.30+ GPA
• 130 Academic All-Conference Selections
• 13 Academic All-American Honors
• 2 CSC Team Academic All-America Team Member of the Year Honors
• 1 National Scholar Player of the Year

We are also proud of the priority we are placing on developing our student-athletes outside of the fields of competition and the classroom. We grew programming to support Year 2 of the one-of-a-kind Broncos Empowered Student-Athlete development program, which includes civic engagement, resources to prepare our student-athletes for life after sport, and emphasizing a welcoming, diverse, inclusive environment. WMU ranked #1 in the MAC in community service impact and had the Helper Helper National Champion for Service in Division 1 in our Women's Golf Program. We had 100% of our student-athletes participate in an hour or more of community service, totaling 6,210 hours of service to our community.

We continue to prioritize high-quality connections with our alums and former student-athletes. This last season, both hockey and gymnastics held 50th-anniversary reunions. Hockey welcomed close to 100 former Broncos for a weekend celebration, and gymnastics had over 50 former gymnasts back to celebrate. We welcomed the 1988 MAC Football Championship team back to campus and our men's basketball alums returned to celebrate the 2004 and 2014 MAC basketball Championship teams.

We appreciate all the fans that have helped us grow attendance in the past two years. We were nationally recognized in Football attendance, placing 1st in the MAC and 13th in the nation for year-over-year growth, and with student attendance up 52%. The Lawson Lunatics continue to energize our hockey program, with 10 Lawson sell-outs and a student attendance record of 2,077 students for the home opener. Our Volleyball fans also gave us all a lot to cheer about, with attendance up 188%! 

The support of our Bronco Athletic Fund donors led the way to many exciting facility improvements across our sports. This year, we unveiled the new soccer practice pitch, opened the state-of-the-art women's basketball locker room, and moved our track, gymnastics and men's tennis programs into their own exciting locker room spaces. Additionally, this Fall we will be introducing both new, wider chair back seating and a Taraflex Volleyball floor at University Arena, as well as the world class Bergeron Golf Performance Center in the Donald J Seelye Center. Finally, we made significant progress on the design and development of what is certain to be the finest facility in all of hockey and basketball with the Athletic Performance and Kalamazoo Event Center.  The project is no longer just a dream, and we are preparing everyday for this exciting opportunity.

LOOKING AHEAD
We see all of these milestones as progress towards a larger goal, and there is no question that we are facing significant challenges and obstacles that we will need to navigate. Your support has never been more important. The pending House vs. NCAA settlement proposal will result in a reduction of almost a half million dollars in our operating revenues. Our league competitors have embraced NIL as an opportunity to expand benefits to their student-athletes, and the alumni leading our own Broncos Will Reign Collective need your support. We will fall behind our peers if we ignore this important initiative. And whether you choose to lend your support to that initiative or directly to the Bronco Athletic Fund, I can promise you that you are supporting a first-class group of student-athletes that will continue to break records and engage our community in amazing ways.

I am so thankful to be surrounded by these amazing coaches, staff, student-athletes and the wonderful people that make up the WMU and Kalamazoo communities. I look forward to celebrating so many more monumental achievements with you all. We're off to 2024-25!

BRONCOS REIGN!

Dan Bartholomae
Vice President/Director of Athletics
Western Michigan University