Chris Kolodzey	Christine Brady	Vic Sage	Kim Wagaman

Without the scholarship support provided University of Delaware student-athletes through events such as the annual MBNA Blue Hen Golf Classic, Kim Wagaman would not have been able to attend UD, much less compete successfully in NCAA Division 1 athletics.

The same is true of baseball co-captains Victor Sage and Chris Kolodzey and softball standout Christine Brady, competitors who are representative of the scores of UD student-athletes who depend on scholarship support of the sort provided through the tournament.

As a student at Oley Valley Regional High School in Pennsylvania, Wagaman, a sophomore on UD's field hockey team, began looking ahead to college with the knowledge that it would be a large financial burden for her mother, a single parent.

"It was a big decision," Wagaman said. "I wanted to go to college. I knew that you have to go to college if you want to have a life. I started thinking about how I would get there. My parents had been separated for four or five years, and money was a problem. It got to the point where I thought, 'How am I going to do this?'"

The answer came when field hockey head coach Carol Miller offered Wagaman a scholarship. "It was the biggest relief," Wagaman said. "I was going to have an opportunity to go to college, and I was getting there on my own."

Wagaman said a high school guidance counselor had been urging her to consider attending an Ivy League school no matter what the cost, citing the pride she could take in her degree upon graduating. "I told the counselor, 'Do you know how much more pride I will have when I say to my mom, "You don't have to give a penny toward my college education"?'" Wagaman said.

Wagaman said she is thrilled to be at UD, where she is studying accounting in the College of Business and Economics. "I love Delaware, I love the area and I love the field hockey team. The moment I stepped on campus, I loved it," she said.

"If not for the scholarship, I honestly don't know if I would be in college," Wagaman said. "I can get the education I always wanted."

Baseball pitcher Vic Sage expressed a strong interest in attending UD coming out of Springfield High School in Pennsylvania, according to head coach Jim Sherman. "I liked him, but we couldn't offer him any scholarship assistance," Sherman said. Knowing that Sage's father was a single dad trying to make ends meet, he didn't encourage the young player to enroll here. Sage came anyway, and, by his sophomore year, UD was able to provide him financial assistance. Every year since, the scholarship support has increased.

Chris Kolodzey, from Cherry Hill East High School in New Jersey, was in a similar situation. He became one of the team's "hardest working kids," Sherman said, and finally received scholarship support in his junior year. That support has increased for his senior season.

"They're the kind of success stories we see in the baseball program," Sherman said. "Both kids are good students and great representatives of student-athletes here at the University of Delaware."

"It was difficult for me to attend school here as an out-of-state student," Sage, a pitcher, said. "The scholarship has helped my family a great deal financially. It was always a pain for me to see my father struggle just so I could be happy.

"When I was a sophomore, I received a half-tuition scholarship, which was a huge weight off our shoulders. Now, my senior year, I am getting full tuition," he said. "It made me feel proud to tell my dad that he didn't have to help me with tuition this year.

"Baseball, and the scholarship support it has provided, helped me get into a great school and helped me realize that if I apply myself, I can create my own opportunities. I went from having a 2.4 grade point average my freshman year to starting my senior year with a 3.1 cumulative GPA. If it wasn't for baseball, I would probably not have even come to college, and without the scholarship support I would not have realized how well I could actually do here," Sage said.

Kolodzey, an outfielder, labored through two seasons before he was able to receive scholarship support. "At the end of my sophomore season, Coach [Bob] Hannah, [recently retired Blue Hen head baseball coach], called me into his office and told me that I would be able to receive a half scholarship. That was one of my proudest moments here at the University."

He said it is a case of hard work paying off and, with two siblings still in college, "the financial reward to my family is priceless."

"Coming from my situation and receiving this baseball scholarship is an awesome feeling," Kolodzey said. "I think one of the best things about my scholarship is that my coaches also feel that it is well deserved and that they are happy to be able to do it for me. That statement alone means a lot."

Senior softball player Christine Brady of Bensalem, Pa., was raised by her mother, a single parent, and said she decided early on to help pay for her college education through an athletic scholarship.

"Being raised in a single parent home, I knew this would be an opportunity to go to a fine university," she said. "There are always loans but I wanted to help my mother, and I wanted to play softball and receive an education.

"Receiving a scholarship is a wonderful opportunity and I am very thankful I received it," Brady, a center fielder and team captain, said.

In addition to her course work, Brady said the scholarship support has enabled her to learn a variety of life skills. "I have gained time management skills from balancing academics, practices, games and traveling," she said. "Being an athlete has made me stay on top of my course work."

The opportunity also has enabled her to learn to work with others "while trying to achieve something together."

"By receiving this scholarship, I learned a lot about myself and others, and I learned to deal with many different things at once," Brady said. "My UD experience has been a very good one and that scholarship allowed me to be here."

Edgar Johnson, athletics, said the MBNA Blue Hen Golf Classic benefits the Blue Hen athletics program as a whole through the scholarship support it provides. Money is disseminated to coaches as part of their overall budgets.

"My goal has been to try to get the income from the golf tournament disseminated across as many programs as possible so that each coach understands how their program benefits from the tournament," he said.

Scholarship support contributes greatly to UD's rich athletic tradition, Johnson said, a tradition that stresses excellence both on the playing field and also in the classroom.

–Neil Thomas

At the auction

The ninth annual MBNA Blue Hen Golf Classic, held Oct. 16 at the DuPont Country Club in Rockland, helped raise more than $100,000 in support of University of Delaware athletic scholarships.?

After the golf classic, the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Gala Auction Party was held with opportunities to bid on items in live and silent auctions. Honorary chairman of the event was Dallas Green, manager of the 1980 World Champion Philadelphia Philles, and guest speaker was former Philadelphia Eagles coach Dick Vermeil, who led the St. Louis Rams to victory in the 2000 Superbowl.

Vermeil donated to the auction a Super Bowl game ball and a helmet, both autographed by him and members of the winning team.

Dick Vermeil makes a bid during the silent auction (right)