Unleash IT: Indiana Tech unveils a bold new look for its athletic identity

Indiana Tech’s athletic teams will have a bold, new look when they enter their respective arenas this season after the Department of Athletics revealed a new Indiana Tech Warriors logo system.

The new Indiana Tech logo is a robust evolution of the previous Warrior logo, which was created in 2005. The logo set features the addition of a full-body Warrior, an updated I-Tech logo, a stand-alone shield option, new word marks, fonts for print and web and other options to promote Tech’s 27 varsity sports.

“We are ecstatic to unveil our new marks for athletics as student-athletes begin to report back to campus for fall practice,” said Tyler Stevenson, Sports Information Director. “We think the new Warrior, along with the rest of the marks, promotes a strong and dynamic athletics department that will give us a clear and recognizable brand and sets us apart not only in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) and NAIA, but across all levels of collegiate athletics.”

The change will be rolled out over the next year, as numerous teams will use the new marks on competition gear while all teams will have practice and team gear with the updated logos. Indiana Tech’s athletics website, indianatechwarriors.com, and social media accounts, will also feature the updated marks while other changes, such as updating logos in competition spaces, will happen as a rolling change over time.

“I’d like to thank our marketing team for their help in navigating this venture and getting us at this destination,” Stevenson noted. “With the launch of the ‘Go For IT’ initiative last year and the charge to give Indiana Tech and clear and recognizable brand, we could not be happier with how the athletics redesign went. This is an evolution of the Warrior and having the marks connect and build upon one another is something we think will help differentiate us from the competition.”

Three individuals, two teams inducted into the Warriors’ Hall of Fame

In early May, the Indiana Tech Department of Athletics inducted its 2019 Hall of Fame Class, the 21st in its history.

Making up this year’s class was Donald Andorfer, Alissa (McKaig) Doehla, and Rod Waters, and two teams, the 2008 women’s volleyball team and 1994-95 men’s basketball team.

Alissa McKaig
Alissa McKaig

Andorfer was a mainstay at Indiana Tech from 1977-2003 and spent the last 18 years as the seventh president of the university. He reinstated two sports (baseball and men’s soccer), and started two sports (softball and women’s soccer) while the Schaefer Center was built under his presidency. Andorfer started his Tech career in 1977 as a business manager and also served as a aontroller, dean of the business school and vice president for finance under former Indiana Tech president Thomas Scully.

Dr. Donald Andorfer
Dr. Donald Andorfer, left

A runner for the cross country and track and field programs from 2007-08, Doehla was the forerunner of success with four individual NAIA National Championships, and was the first individual national champion in Indiana Tech history. On the cross country circuit she won the 2008 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) and NAIA meets, setting a national record in the latter with a time of 16:41.4, a mark that still stands, while leading the team to a conference championship and a seventh-place finish at the national race. She holds the fastest time in program history and four of the top-10 marks as well. On the track she won the NAIA National titles in the 5000m (indoor and outdoor) and the 10,000m, while she still holds the program records in the mile, 3000m, 5000m (indoor and outdoor), 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m.

Just as Doehla was a pioneer for the cross country and track and field programs on the women’s side, Rod Waters left his mark on the track for the Warrior men. He became the first national champion in program history as he won the 110 meter hurdles at the 2008 NAIA National Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a time of 13.987. A three-time WHAC champion, he was a national qualifier in the NAIA National Indoor Championships and still holds the program record in the 110m hurdles.

Rod Waters
Rod Waters, right

The 2008 women’s volleyball team started a run of four straight years of qualifying for the NAIA National Championship as Tech went 33-5 during that season, only its fourth year since being reinstated in 2005, and won its first WHAC title. The team started the year 28-0, the longest in program history and longest in the country and received its first-ever national ranking. The magical year was not without heartbreak though, as senior Liz Lykowski tragically passed away on October 5 due to a congenital heart defect. Tech played with heavy hearts throughout the rest of the season, continuing its winning streak for eight more games after the untimely passing of Lykowksi, and sharing the conference title with Madonna, who had won 11-straight outright titles. The team won its first-ever postseason game against King College in the NAIA Opening Round and picked up a win in pool play at the final site. Head coach Kirsta Solberg (Cobb) was named the WHAC Coach of the Year while mentoring five All-Conference selections and two NAIA All-Americans.

The 1994-95 men’s basketball team, coached by legendary Hall of Fame coach Dan Kline, became the first team to qualify for the NAIA National Championship since the 1964-65 season and featured a pair of All-Americans in Dale Blassingame and Dwayne Tubbs. The Warriors went 24-6 that season and won the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) regular season and tournament championships en route to the national tournament, where they advance to the second round. The 24 wins were the most of any Dan Kline-coached team was tied for the most wins in program history until the 2003-04 campaign.

Scholar-athletes celebrated

Indiana Tech celebrated the success of its 25 teams and over 800 student-athletes at its early-May Student-Athlete Awards Ceremony.

The program honored those students who had earned:

  • Player of the Week accolades from the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC), Sooner Athletic Conference and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA)
  • Conference honors from the WHAC and SAC, and conference champions
  • All-American, individual and team national champions and the Emil S. Liston Award winner from the NAIA
  • Academic All-America honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA)
  • Inductees into Chi Alpha Sigma, the academic fraternity for the National College Athlete Honor Society

and awarded the following awards:

  • Hayashi (awarded to a senior who promotes a Warrior Pride attitude and excels in both academics and athletics; nominated by coaches and decided by athletics administration staff)
  • Scholar-Athlete of the Year (highest senior GPA combined with greatest athletic achievement)
  • Ultimate Warrior (Symbolizes the student-athlete you want on your team; the one who goes all out in every practice/game/match/race/round/competition/etc. If you had multiple of them on your team it would make you and your teammates better; nominated by each head coach)
  • Newcomer of the Year (first-year [freshman or transfer] student-athlete, nominated and voted on by coaches)
  • Athlete of the Year (nominated and voted on by coaches)

The winners of the Hayashi Award were Erique Early (men’s wrestling) and Jennifer Banks (women’s lacrosse).

The Scholar-Athletes of the Year were Ruben Leonardo (men’s soccer), Kendall Knapke (women’s basketball) and Loren Kreider (women’s golf).

The Ultimate Warriors were:

Adam Kowalski – Baseball
Casey Jamison – Cheerleading
Joel Wincowski – Men’s Basketball
Dawson Maier – Men’s Bowling
Cayce Griffin – Men’s Cross Country
Dathan Terry – Men’s Golf
Alex Gregorich – Men’s Ice Hockey
Evan Schuster – Men’s Lacrosse
Dean Ward – Men’s Soccer
Barthelemy Peter – Men’s Track and Field
Lucas Braga – Men’s Tennis
Oscar Martinez – Men’s Wrestling
Brianna Glass – Softball
Rachel Bell – Women’s Basketball
Jaimee Jaskie – Women’s Bowling
Hayley Newman – Women’s Cross Country
Cecilia Heck – Women’s Golf
Bailey Childs – Women’s Lacrosse
Kayla Saffran – Women’s Soccer
Destiny Copeland – Women’s Track and Field
Martina Borges – Women’s Tennis
Madeline MacDonald – Women’s Volleyball

The Newcomers of the Year were Joel Holmberg (ice hockey) and Destiny Copeland (women’s track and field).

The Athletes of the Year were Glen McClain (baseball) and Kendall Knapke (women’s basketball).

Read more on the athletic website.

Glen McClain, left, and Kendall Knapke, right, stand with vice president for student affairs Dr. Dan Stoker after being named Indiana Tech’s Athletes of the Year for 2018-19
Glen McClain, left, and Kendall Knapke, right, stand with vice president for student affairs Dr. Dan Stoker after being named Indiana Tech’s Athletes of the Year for 2018-19

The beat rolls on for the athletic program

The Indiana Tech Department of Athletics finished the 2018-19 season sixth in the final rankings of the Learfield IMG College Directors’ Cup, tying its highest finish in the history of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) award.

Tech finished the season with 669 points, the most in program history, with 267 points coming during the NAIA sports season. The Warriors finished third in women’s outdoor track and field (85 points), fourth in men’s outdoor track and field (80 points), seventh in baseball (73 points) and 22nd in women’s golf (29 points).

The Warriors got 360 points in the winter and 42 in the fall and finished atop teams from the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) for the fourth consecutive season. It is the third time that the Orange and Black have finished sixth (2015-16, 2016-17) while it is the fourth straight season, and fifth time in the last sixth years, that the department has recorded a top-10 finish.

The program also won its third straight Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Fred Smith All-Sports Trophy.

The Warriors picked up 119 points over the year and won the regular season title in 10 sports: women’s golf, men’s bowling, women’s bowling, women’s basketball, men’s indoor track and field, men’s lacrosse, women’s lacrosse, men’s outdoor track and field, women’s outdoor track and field and baseball, while six different sports won the conference tournament: men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s ice hockey, men’s lacrosse, women’s lacrosse and baseball.

Warrior grad pitches to home run derby winner Pete Alonso

Former Indiana Tech baseball player and 2015 graduate Derek Morgan helped his cousin, New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, win the 2019 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby during this summer’s MLB All-Star festivities. Morgan was Alonso’s batting practice pitcher, helping the Mets’ rookie sensation win the annual long-ball contest in July.

A three-year member of the Warrior baseball team after transferring from St. Bonaventure University, Morgan was named to the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) All-Academic Team as a senior and a member of the 2013 Tech team that won the WHAC Tournament and qualified for the NAIA National Championship Opening Round.