COW grad Barrett wins NCAC’s Don Hunsinger Award

College of Wooster alumnus Lake Barrett is this year’s North Coast Athletic Conference Don Hunsinger Award recipient. The award is the NCAC’s top honor to a male student-athlete and is given annually to one male sport senior student-athlete who distinguished himself through his collegiate career in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, service and leadership. Barrett is Wooster’s first recipient of the award, which has been presented annually since 2009.

“I am profoundly grateful that the people at the college — my coaches, professors, teammates and other faculty — worked as hard as they did for me,” Barrett said in the nomination’s personal statement, which makes up the final component of the award selection rubric.

“This is quite an accomplishment and a true testament to Lake’s commitment, dedication and hard work in all areas of his Wooster experience,” said Frank Colaprete, Wooster’s head football coach. “Lake is truly deserving of this award, and we are so proud of him for this incredible achievement.”

Academically, the biology and education alumnus earned a $10,000 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, which will aid his pursuit of a master’s degree in education at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a three-time College Sports Communicators’ Academic All-American, becoming just the fourth Fighting Scot to earn one of college athletics’ top academic honors three times. The three-time CSC Academic All-District qualifier was a two-time National Football Foundation William V. Campbell Trophy semifinalist.

Athletically, the two-time D3football.com All-Region placekicker was one of 10 finalists for the Fred Mitchell Award as a senior. That award is presented annually to the best placekicker for a combination of elite athletics, academics and community service. Barrett earned Wooster’s first NCAC Special Teams Player of the Year, was a first-team All-NCAC performer and became the eighth player in program history to earn All-NCAC honors in four separate seasons.

Barrett’s study abroad experience in Panama helped inspire pursuing an internship with Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon in Peru in 2023. While studying abroad in Panama, Barrett was a leader in a tropical ecology program and studied a cacao agroforest and compared it to the national forest. Barrett’s research centered on if agroforests can serve as a habitat for amphibians by looking at conservation, species diversity, evenness and richness.

Groundbreaking research was discovered by Barrett during his Independent Study project. Barrett discovered the mutation in black squirrels in Colorado is different than those found in Ohio, and this research is in the process of being scientifically published.

Elsewhere, Barrett was a lead zoology lab assistant for two semesters and one summer working closely with a colony of strawberry dart frogs. He was the lead researcher on planning a thorough catalog and organization of the college’s natural history specimens, which led to thousands of specimens within the college’s collection being properly cataloged. He volunteered with STEM Success Initiative events on campus and the football team’s annual bone marrow registry events.

While pursing his master’s, Barrett will teach at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.

As the NCAC Hunsinger Award winner, Barrett is automatically nominated for the Division III Commissioners Association Male Student Athlete of the Year, which will be announced later this summer.