Evan Buitenhuis ’18 is Hamilton’s first men’s hockey player to earn academic all-American honors. He’s an environmental studies major who could (not that he would) brag about stats, successes and awards he earned for his performance on the ice and in the classroom. Here’s a glimpse:
- Member of the Academic All-America Division III Men's At-Large Team, College Sports Information Directors of America
- Dean’s List student with a 3.57 GPA
- Ranked third in Division III with a .941 save percentage
- Integral part of Hamilton’s first men’s hockey team to make the NCAA tournament
- Winner of Hamilton’s Renwick Prize in Biology
- Division III Men's Player of the Year, American Hockey Coaches Association
Buitenhuis has known since he was 14 that hockey and his education were the two pillars of his future. After graduation he wants to play professional hockey for a time, then put his environmental studies degree to work, preferably in a career that gets him outdoors.
Balancing academics and hockey was possible because Coach Rob Haberbusch emphasized the importance of each and supported players in both areas, Buitenhuis says. The team culture establishes high expectations for academics and hockey.
“It’s definitely true that D3 schools give you a good balance of academics and athletics, and I think Hamilton is a special example of that, where we have a lot of guys with the same mentality,” Buitenhuis says. “It’s showing up — our team does very well GPA–wise, so we are very successful in the classroom. And on the ice the trend is the same.”
