This spring and summer, the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconins (CCIW) will celebrate its 80th anniversary with a series of feature stories that celebrate the history and legacy of the conference.

Steven Hermsen never imagined his final years in college would become a blueprint for what a Division III student-athlete could achieve. By the time he left Carroll University, he had done something no one in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) had done before: be named Student-Athlete of the Year twice. 
 
“It’s an honor, first off, to have been awarded that award one time, but twice it was pretty amazing,” Hermsen said. “It just goes to show how good of a support system I had around me.”
 
That support system – family, coaches, teammates, and friends – helped him excel in the classroom, lead in the community and dominate in the throwing circle. Now a physical therapist in Milwaukee, Hermsen looks back on his time in the CCIW not just through the lens of championships and accolades, but through the relationships and values that shaped him.
 
At Carroll, Hermsen became one of the most accomplished student-athletes in CCIW history. He was the first man in conference history to be named CCIW Student-Athlete of the Year twice, receiving the honor in 2022 and again as a graduate student. In competition, he won three consecutive NCAA Division III outdoor discus national championships from 2021 through 2023, completed his career as a six-time All-American and nine-time national qualifier, and earned 14 all-conference honors. Hermsen also established Carroll records in the indoor shot put, weight throw and discus, tied the program’s outdoor shot put record and set the CCIW Championship record in the discus.
 
His accomplishments extended well beyond the throwing circle. Hermsen maintained a 4.00 grade-point average throughout his undergraduate work and Doctor of Physical Therapy program, earning recognition that included the NCAA Elite 90 Award, CCIW Elite 25 honors, two USTFCCCA Male Scholar Field Athlete of the Year awards and the CSC Division III Track and Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Team Member of the Year honor. 
 
He also served as a leader in Carroll’s Sports Medicine Club and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, worked as an orientation mentor and remained involved in volunteer service and youth track and field coaching.
 
“Being a good athlete means more than just being good in the circle,” he said. “You’re staying on top of your grades, you’re getting involved outside of the classroom. We can impact people’s lives more so outside of competition.”
 
Competing at the Highest Level
Hermsen’s time in the CCIW coincided with some of the best years of his athletic career, including multiple national titles and All-America honors. He credits the conference’s competitiveness for preparing him to perform on the national stage. “When I think about the best conferences in Division III, I think about the CCIW,” he said. “I was really lucky to have some awesome competitors at the same time I was competing.”
 
Those weekly battles sharpened his edge. “When you have competitors within your conference that you’re seeing five, six, seven times a year, it just pushes you to be better,” he said. “It pushes you to work harder and want to succeed not only at the conference level, but also at the national level.”
 
Even after graduation, Hermsen continued to compete in Division III meets while managing a nagging elbow injury that began during his final season at Carroll. “I competed in a number of Division III meets and some summer meets as well,” he said. “But I couldn’t find the throw that was going to qualify me for USA’s.”
 
Eventually, the injury forced him to step back from competition. “It looks like there’s a bunch of inflammation around my ulnar nerve, and it’s causing a bunch of pain,” he said. “The competition cycle for me has died down a little bit. I’ll probably look more into coaching from here on out.”
 
Excellence in the Classroom
Hermsen’s success wasn’t limited to athletics. He was equally driven in the classroom, earning his Doctor of Physical Therapy degree and completing an orthopedic residency shortly after graduation. “One of the biggest things my parents always told me growing up was your athletics are only going to get you so far,” he said. “You have to be as good of a student as you can be.”
 
He found that same emphasis on academics within the CCIW. “The thing I liked about the CCIW more than other conferences is I think it promoted the student-athlete,” he said. “I don’t know that there’s any other conferences that are leaning into the academic side as much as the CCIW was.”
 
Now working as a practicing physical therapist, Hermsen sees firsthand how sports medicine has evolved to support athlete longevity. “There’s a lot of people competing well into their 30s,” he said. “The beautiful part about sports medicine is we can help people continue to do what they love.”
 
For Hermsen, that means staying connected to athletics even if he’s no longer competing at the same level. “If I can help athletes stay competing or get back to competing at a high level, then I think that’s as rewarding, if not more rewarding, for me,” he said.
 
Serving Others
Service has always been a core part of Hermsen’s life. “Community service is important, and I think everybody should be striving to serve others just as much as others are serving them,” he said. His mother, a veterinarian, instilled that value early through years of volunteering at animal shelters. At Carroll, he found another meaningful way to give back when his coach’s son needed support following neurological procedures.
 
“It started as a $500 or $1,000 goal, and we ended up raising over $2,000 or $3,000 for him,” Hermsen said. “Just seeing the look on his face made it all worth it.”
 
Those experiences reinforced his belief that athletes have a unique responsibility to their communities. “As athletes, even at the Division III level, there are people looking up to us,” he said. “We should always be looking for somebody other than ourselves that we can be doing something for.”
 
Giving Back Through Coaching
Hermsen’s passion for helping others extends naturally into coaching. While completing his residency, he volunteered at Concordia University Wisconsin to work with their throwers. “I loved it,” he said. “Coaching allows us to help somebody else. It’s that service thing again.”
 
In an ideal world, he hopes to combine his career in physical therapy with part-time coaching. “If I could get back to a program one or two days a week, specifically at the Division III level, that would be meaningful,” he said. “It would be awesome. I would love it.”
 
He credits much of his success to his own coaches and mentors. “Without coaching, without the mentorship that came with working with Pete Delzer for all those years, I’m not doing half of the things that I did,” he said. “If I could give that back, even in some small manner, I would love to do that.”
 
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
When Hermsen reflects on his time at Carroll and in the CCIW, his fondest memories aren’t the titles or awards – they’re the people. “The trophies are awesome, but the most meaningful thing was the time I got to spend with the people I care about most,” he said. “The joy, the happiness, the endless amount of memories and jokes – we’ll reflect on those for the rest of our lives.”
 
He believes that’s the true spirit of Division III athletics. “Division III is pretty beautiful,” he said. “It poses a unique opportunity to allow people to compete at whatever level they want to be at. That’s something special you often don’t get in the other divisions.”
 
For Hermsen, that opportunity transformed him from a “hot-headed kid from De Pere, Wisconsin” into a national champion, a scholar and a leader. “My coaches saw potential in me and molded me mentally and physically to be a top-level competitor,” he said. “That’s a very special thing you can get in D3.”
 
As he builds a life with his fiancée and continues his career in physical therapy, Hermsen remains grateful for the conference that helped shape him. “Being part of the CCIW was a blessing,” he said. “I wouldn’t have asked for any better setting or competition level that would have prepared me more than what the CCIW did.”