Shorter University - Athletics

Athletics

Shorter athletic teams are known as the Shorter Hawks. The university currently sponsors 21 varsity sports programs, including ten men's teams, ten women's teams and a co-ed cheerleading squad. Shorter is currently a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The university competes in the NAIA as a member of the Southern States Athletic Conference for most sports except for football and track, which compete in the Mid-South Conference; Shorter added men's and women's lacrosse in 2011, the men's team competes as an independent program and the women's team competes as a charter member of the National Women's Lacrosse League. In May 2011, Shorter announced it would apply for membership into the NCAA at the Division II level. It was accepted into the NCAA reclassification process in July 2011 and will join the Gulf South Conference. During the 2011-12 academic year the Hawks will maintain competition in the NAIA, during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years Shorter will compete in the GSC and NCAA Division II but be ineligible for NCAA championships.

During the 2010-11 school year, Shorter University athletics finished ranked third in the final NAIA Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings. Shorter's No. 3 final ranking was the highest the university has received and only the third time since the inception of the Directors' Cup in 1993, that a Georgia institution has finished in the top-3 of the final standings. Shorter also won the school's first-ever NAIA Men's Outdoor Track and Field National Championship, and finished program-best third place finishes in both the NAIA Women's Golf National Championship and NAIA Women's Track and Field National Championship. In addition, track and field head coach, Scott Byrd, was named the NAIA Men's Indoor Track and Field National Coach of the Year after the indoor title, won his second National Coach of the Year honor for the outdoor crown.