HAVERFORD, Pa. – Tommy Bergjans has become the 28th student-athlete at Haverford to receive a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Haverford's most recent award winner earned the honor following the conclusion of the baseball season.
Bergjans is the third player in the history of the program to be awarded the NCAA postgraduate scholarship, joining Hunter Rawlings '66 and Matt Popowsky '01 as former Haverford baseball players to garner this prestigious recognition. As an athletic department, Haverford has had at least one student-athlete earn an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship during each of the past eight academic years.
The NCAA awards up to 174 postgraduate scholarships annually, 87 each for men and women. Recognizing student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are at least in their final year of intercollegiate athletics, the scholarships are awarded for fall sports, winter sports and spring sports. There are 29 scholarships (one-time grants of $7,500) available for both men and women each sports season (fall, winter, spring).
The most decorated pitcher in program history, Bergjans was recently selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2015 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. Bergjans's was picked in the eighth round, becoming the third Haverford player to be drafted into Major League Baseball. During his collegiate career, Bergjans earned All-American accolades and Centennial Conference Pitcher of the Year recognition during his final three seasons with the Fords.
The College's Varsity Cup recipient led all of NCAA Division III with 111 strikeouts and 14.84 strikeouts per nine innings during the 2015 season. Bergjans graduated as the program's leader in seven different career categories, including wins (27), ERA (1.69), and strikeouts (374). He also owns seven single season records and struck out a program record 18 batters in a single game against Washington College during the 2013 season. The Fords made the conference tournament in each of Bergjan's four seasons, winning the 2012 and 2014 Centennial Conference Championships. Bergjans also led Haverford to its first win at the NCAA Regional tournament with a dominant effort against Moravian in the opening game of the 2014 tournament.
An economics major at Haverford, he was named to the Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area team for baseball during each of the last three seasons, earning performer of the year honors this past spring. During a memorable 2015 season, the right hander was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District and All-America team. He was also a member of the Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll during his collegiate career.
The NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship was created in 1964 to promote and encourage postgraduate education by rewarding the Association's most accomplished student-athletes through their participation in NCAA championship and/or emerging sports. Athletics and academic achievements, as well as campus involvement, community service, volunteer activities and demonstrated leadership, are evaluated. An equitable approach is employed in reviewing each applicant's nomination form to provide opportunity to all student-athlete nominees to receive the postgraduate award, regardless of sport, division, gender or race. In maintaining the highest broad-based standards in the selection process, the program aims to reward those individuals whose dedication and effort are reflective of those characteristics necessary to succeed and thrive through postgraduate study in an accredited graduate degree program.