2022 NSIC Britton & Kelly Award Winners Announced

BURNSVILLE, Minn. — The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) announced Augustana University’s Tyler Riemersma as the 2022 Dr. William Britton Scholar-Athlete Award winner and Concordia University, St. Paul’s Jena Berkland as the 2022 Willis R. Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award recipient. The Britton Scholar-Athlete Award for Academic Excellence, in its 38th year, recognizes the NSIC’s top male student-athlete and the Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award, in its 37th year, is presented to the NSIC’s top female student-athlete.  

The Britton Award was created in 1985 in honor of Dr. William Britton, a longtime faculty representative at Bemidji State University who served on the Athletic Board of Control of the Northern Intercollegiate Conference for 25 years. Britton retired from BSU in 1982 and passed away in March of 2019. 

The Kelly Award is named in honor of Willis R. Kelly, an associate professor of physical education at the University of Minnesota-Morris. A member of the NSIC Hall of Fame, Kelly also coordinated the Minnesota-Morris Physical Education Department from 1970-87. She became the first director of women’s intercollegiate athletics at Minnesota-Morris in 1976 and was later promoted to athletics director for the whole department. Kelly passed away in 1988.

The member institutions of the NSIC nominate one male and one female student-athlete for the Britton and Kelly Awards. The nominees must meet the following criteria: a grade point average of 3.5 or better (on a 4.0 scale); evidence of academic excellence beyond the minimum grade point average (scholarship prizes and other academic recognition), evidence of participation in the life of the institution, and evidence of participation in at least two-thirds of the varsity events of the individual’s primary sport. The award is voted on by the NSIC Faculty Athletic Representatives.

The 32 student-athletes nominated for the NSIC’s two most prestigious awards will also be honored as NSIC Male and Female Honor Student-Athletes of the Year at their respective institutions. Riemersma and Berkland will be recognized Tuesday, July 12 at the NSIC Hall of Fame Banquet at the Courtyard by Marriott in Moorhead, Minnesota and will each receive a $3,000 post-graduate scholarship. 

Jena Berkland, a native of Crystal Lake, Illinois, is a junior majoring in exercise science at Concordia University, St. Paul. The Prairie Ridge High School graduate holds a 4.00 grade point average while excelling in soccer for the Golden Bears. Berkland is the third student-athlete from CSP to earn the NSIC Kelly Award as she joins Ellie Duffy (2013) and Mary Slinger (2009).  

Berkland is a NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Award winner; a NSIC Myles Brand Award winner and a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District® First Team selection. She is a two-time NSIC Elite 18 Award winner and has earned NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence honors three times.  
 

On campus, Berkland is an active member of CSP Solus Christus Fellows Program and the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC); is a member of the Jackson Student Leadership Committee; as worked with the Concordia University Admissions and as a Resident Assistant (RA) for Holst Hall. She was also an active member of the campus chapter of the Hidden Opponent, a non-profit and advocacy group that raises awareness for student-athlete mental health and addresses the stigma within sports culture. 

On the pitch, Berkland is a 2021 D2CCA All-Central Region Second Team selection and a 2021 All-NSIC Second Team member. She played in 61 career matches, scoring 12 goals with six assists. She ranked fourth on the team with five goals, two assists, and 12 points in 2021 and is tied for eighth in CSP history with five career game-winning goals. 

In the community, Berkland has helped coordinated the soccer team’s volunteer events to ensure each teammate completed at least five hours of community service per semester. She has worked with Feed My Starving Children, Bridging MN, Hope Lodge, Jehovah Lutheran Church, and the Ronald McDonald House Charities. She has also volunteer at Regions Hospital in the rehabilitation department. She also worked for ACR Homes, a group home for disabled adults, as a direct care professional for the majority of her collegiate career.

 

Tyler Riemersma, a native of Bloomington, Minnesota, is a graduate student, who completed his undergrad in Data Science as is now pursuing a master’s degree in Sports Administration and Leadership at Augustana University. The Jefferson High School graduate holds a 3.90 undergraduate grade point average and a 4.00 graduate GPA while excelling in basketball for the Vikings. Riemersma joins Kirby Hora (2019), Cody Lensing (2012) and Matt Braithwaite (2011) as the only student-athletes from Augustana to earn the NSIC Britton Award.  

 
Riemersma was named the CoSIDA Academic All-America® of the Year for Division II men’s basketball in 2022 and is a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-American.  He is a NSIC Myles Brand Award winner and a member of the NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence.  He has been awarded the Hinks, Sam Milanovich and Sigurdson Family Mathematics Scholarships. He is also a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes on campus.

On the court, Riemersma averaged a double-double for the third-straight season with 18.1 points and 11.1 rebounds per game. He is the only NSIC player to average the feat in 2021-22. In fact, of the three years he averaged a double-double, two of them he was the only NSIC player for that average. One of the best players to ever come through the Augustana program, Riemersma played in 89 games for the Vikings, scoring 1,316 points and grabbing 918 rebounds. His rebound total ranks him fourth all-time at Augustana while his point total has him 16th.  The 2021-22 campaign saw Riemersma lead Augustana to a Top-10 national ranking for much of the second half of the season after entering the year unranked. The Vikings finished the season with a 26-4 record, an NSIC Overall and South Division Championship, a No. 1 ranking in the NCAA Central Region and a appearance in the NCAA Central Region Championship game.  
 

Riemersma has also volunteered at the Augustana Twilight Cross Country meet, football pregame tailgates, Light the Night Sioux Falls, the South Dakota Miss Amazing, at the Sioux Falls Marathon and at Ranson Church.  

 

2021-22 NSIC HONOR STUDENT ATHLETES