After finishing the 2024-25 season with an impressive 29-2 record and making it to the ‘Elite Eight’ of the NCAA Division III Tournament, Baldwin Wallace University’s women’s basketball team is on track for more success this year.

On the court, they finished January in first place of the OAC Conference. But just as impressive is how well the women Jackets perform in the classroom. The team finished last season with a 3.797 team GPA, which earned the team a spot in the Top 25 for academics in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). Fourteen players also received Academic All-OAC Honors, which involves varsity status and maintaining a 3.5 GPA.

The dual success of the women’s basketball team has been ongoing. Coach Cheri Harrer, in her 36th season coaching at BW, has had over 700 wins, 19 NCAA Tournament appearances, and has seen her team in the Top 25 in the WBCA for academics for five of the last six years. What’s her secret to success?

Communication is the first step, Harrer said. By the second day of the women stepping onto campus, Harrer is already having meetings with her players about what role they will have on the team, as well as creating “purpose statements” for the upcoming season. These meetings can take up to two hours and involve a lot of transparency.

Harrer also has her players attend study tables, where they receive a planner and create an organized schedule for the fall semester.

“If you are organized, that’s a lot of the battle, so you’re not doing things at the last second,” Harrer said.

These meetings are not a one-time thing either. Harrer encourages her players to have monthly checkups to make sure the women are balancing academics, basketball, and extracurriculars. For Harrer, the goal is simple: have the women understand their role on the court but also have a plan of attack in the classroom.

“We have a saying: how you do anything is how you do everything,” Harrer said. “Generally, if you cut corners in the classroom, you’re going to cut corners on the court, and vice versa.”

Brooke Thompson, a senior forward who has over 160 points and over 130 rebounds this season, is no stranger to Harrer’s standard of communication.

“We talk about hard conversations a lot and like tough love… you have to be transparent,” Thompson said. “[Coach] says winning teams are loud teams… and no winning gym is [in] a quiet gym, so that comes with taking what your teammates and what your coaches say to you… [knowing] ‘oh, they’re doing it because they love me and know I can do better.’”

That communication was put to the test during the offseason, as assistant head coach Cody Hartzler took a job as head coach at Ohio Wesleyan University. Harrer hired a new assistant head coach, who quit only a few months into his role.

Thompson said that lack of continuity was challenging, but that part-time coaches had meetings with the players to ease the transition.

Kaycie Badylak, another senior who has experienced both the highs and lows of being a college athlete, said that the strong, family-like community helps build team chemistry on the court but also helps push each other toward success in the classroom.

Badylak said that from the bench erupting with genuine excitement when a teammate makes a three-pointer, high fives when a player comes off the court, and even the crowded rooms in Knowlton Center when the team is studying for upcoming exams, it is clear everyone is excited to see their teammates win.

Badylak shared a time when she relied on that family-like bond, giving an example of asking for study tips from one of her teammates, Kayla Jones.

“[Studying] was something I struggled with, and I went to Kayla and [asked], ‘what do you do?’” Badylak said. “[I] learned from her.”

Jones took time out her day and worked with Badylak to help memorize legal responsibilities for a coaching class.

“That’s just something special that most programs don’t have…you have sisters that want to see you succeed just as much as you want to succeed,” Badylak said.

With the pressure of maintaining high standard for winning and a strong GPA, Badylak shared a tip Harrer gave, which is to focus on a teammate rather than yourself. Badylak explained the psychology, saying that when you focus on a teammate, you’re not worried about making a mistake, rather you’re building a “team first” mindset.

For Harrer, it’s not the wins on the box column that she cares about the most, but leading young women to be their best self they can be every single day. When asked about her goal for her players, it was simple: to live a great life, and to not be afraid to push for their dreams with all that they have.

“They’re incredible young ladies… if you’re an employer or someone around a grad school, you can’t go wrong with any of these kids,” Harrer said.

Perhaps it is true what Harrer preaches: “how you do anything is how you do everything.”