Athletics and sports always have had a place in Brenau’s notion of the well-rounded student. However, future historians might well define 21st-century Brenau as the era of the student-athlete. Starting with the 2015-16 academic year, the Women’s College will attract to the rolls an additional 30 to 40 young women who will be both students and athletes: members of the three new squads in the Golden Tigers lineup of championship-class intercollegiate athletics programs. Now totaling 14, the Golden Tigers teams at full complement will dress out about 200 players. That is about 20 percent of the entire Women’s College student body.

The new squads include junior varsity basketball and junior varsity softball – to provide bench strength for existing programs – and a new dance team to expand the competitive cheer program. Golden Tigers teams compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and, for the most part, in the Southern States Athletics Conference. In addition to softball, basketball and cheer, Brenau offers cross country, track and field, volleyball, swimming, tennis and golf.

The junior varsity idea is a “developmental approach” for schools to build program strength and provide more opportunities for athletes, said SSAC commissioner Mike Hall, “a chance for players to develop and move up to varsity. For athletes, it is a chance for them to continue… to play against outside competition. If you have been doing something your whole life, you want to continue doing it. You don’t want it to end.”