Recent Ohio Wesleyan University graduate Veronica Hardman has been named the winner of the North Coast Athletic Conference’s Pam Smith Award for 2023, it was announced by the NCAC.
Hardman, a member of the Battling Bishop field hockey and women’s track & field teams, won all-conference recognition in both sports. During the 2022 field hockey season, Hardman was a first-team all-region selection, scored the game-winning goal in the NCAC tournament championship game and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, was a first-team All-NCAC pick, and went on to receive second-team All-America recognition by Synapse Sports.
Hardman was a second-team All-NCAC selection in 2021 and an honorable mention All-NCAC pick in 2019. She helped the Battling Bishops share the NCAC championship in 2019, win their first NCAC tournament title and record their first-ever NCAA Division III tournament win in 2021, and repeat as NCAC tournament champion in 2022.
In track & field, Hardman won all-conference laurels with a third-place finish in the long jump at the 2023 NCAC indoor championship and placed 3 other times at conference championships, including a fifth-place finish in the triple jump and a seventh-place showing in the long jump at the 2023 NCAC outdoor meet.
She received Ohio Wesleyan’s Presidential Award, recognizing the University’s top athlete and person. The top honor awarded by the Ohio Wesleyan athletics department, the Presidential Award is based on athletics ability and achievement, academic excellence, character, leadership, activities, and inspiration.
She also was a Top Ten honoree, an honor voted upon by the Ohio Wesleyan Athletics Council and is based upon the student-athlete’s impact upon their family, their team, the University, and the Delaware community, and a OWU Top 50 awardee, recognizing the top 50 cumulative grade-point averages among student-athletes. Hardman also received Ohio Wesleyan’s Nan Carney-DeBord Award, recognizing the top female senior student-athlete, and Ohio Wesleyan’s Mackenzie Conway Sportsmanship Award.
Hardman received Academic All-District laurels by the College Sports Communicators in both sports, was a 2-time NCAC Academic Honor Roll honoree, and was named Ohio Wesleyan’s NCAC Scholar-Athlete Award winner. She received the Harriet Stewart Award from Ohio Wesleyan’s health and human kinetics department and was inducted into Chi Alpha Sigma and Psi Chi honoraries.
Off the field, Hardman volunteered her time in the community with the Common Ground Free Store and with FEED Delaware. On campus, she served as an orientation leader for new international student orientation and participated in Kappa Alpha Theta. She served as the Kappa Alpha Theta vice president of external affairs in 2021-22 and was responsible for organizing service events for members along with 2 philanthropy events that raised money for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA).
She also served as a team leader during the 2022 Make a Difference Day, coordinating a team to help members of the community with tasks around their homes. Hardman was a member of the health and human kinetics department student governing board, where she helped advise students on which classes to take for a timely graduation, while providing evaluations of professors and coming up with ways to increase the presence of the department on campus.
The Pam Smith Award is named in honor of the former Wittenberg University women’s basketball coach and administrator Pam Evans Smith, who had a profound impact upon the athletes she coached and the students she taught over an illustrious career that spanned more than 2 decades.
She was the architect of the women’s basketball program with the most wins and highest winning percentage in NCAC history through 2007. A 1999 Wittenberg Athletics Hall of Honor inductee, Smith earned 7 NCAC Coach of the Year awards and compiled a 401-170 record after taking the reins of a struggling program prior to the 1986-87 season.
She led the Tigers to 8 NCAA Division III tournament appearances, 12 20-win seasons, and 11 NCAC championships. The award recognizes one female senior student-athlete who has distinguished herself throughout her collegiate career in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service, and leadership. Each NCAC institution can nominate a distinguished female student-athlete for the honor, and a committee of NCAC administrators, in conjunction with the conference office, makes the selection.
Hardman is the first Ohio Wesleyan student-athlete to win the Pam Smith Award since Sarah Shinn in 2010.
As the NCAC’s Pam Smith Award winner, Hardman will be nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award, one of the most prestigious honors the NCAA bestows. The award recognizes senior student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service, and leadership.
Each NCAA conference, and independent institutions, can submit 2 nominations for the NCAA Woman of the Year award as long as one of the nominees is a student-athlete of color or is an international student-athlete.
OWU Sports Information contributed to this report.
