Evergreen Reporter

Central Washington University Athletics issued the following on Dec. 8

Seventh Annual Wildcat Alumni Challenge Concludes

The Seventh Annual Wildcat Alumni Challenge drew to a close on December 1.

Each year, the Wildcat Alumni Challenge is a friendly fundraising competition between CWU sports teams to determine which team can achieve the highest percentage of former student-athletes giving back.

The first $25 of each gift goes to the general Wildcat Athletics fund and counts as participation in the challenge. Anything above that amount can be designated directly to the CWU sport of their choice. Contributions from dual- and multi-sport alumni count toward each sport played.

The team with the highest percentage of former student-athletes giving back receives an additional $5,000, thanks to an anonymous donor. The team that has the highest number of former student-athletes giving receives $2,500, thanks to donor Dave Coffman. And the team that raises the highest amount of money through the Challenge receives $2,500, thanks to donor Zac Scott.

Women's soccer achieved the highest percentage of alumni participation, earning the biggest prize. The other category winners were baseball for the most alumni donors, and football for the highest dollar amount raised.

This year's Wildcat Alumni Challenge was the most successful in its seven year history, gathering more than 450 alumni donors and earning over $75,600. There are still a few outstanding gifts to be processed before announcing the final totals.

"It was exciting to see the results of this year's Wildcat Alumni Challenge," said Troy Nealey, CWU's Associate Athletic Director of Development. "We had to make some adjustments to how we operated this year, so it was great to see the coaches get even more involved, and to have the response of our former student-athletes during a very difficult year was inspiring."

CWU Director of Athletics, Dennis Francois, was also impressed with this year's challenge. "Raising funds for our programs is always important, but it was most encouraging to see a record number of alumni student-athletes showing up to give back, especially with the current pandemic causing so much uncertainty, and make this very successful for all of our programs and current student-athletes."

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