The University of North Dakota, Salisbury and Coker have earned the NCAA Community Service Award, which recognizes student-athletes community service in their collegiate cities and surrounding areas.

This is the second time in the last three years that North Dakota has won the Team Works Challenge, also winning during the 2021-22 school year.

The NCAA, which coordinates community service efforts at its championships, and Helper Helper, a volunteer management and tracking platform, launched the competition in NCAA Divisions I, II and III to recognize student-athletes who volunteer their time and services and their schools that support them.  The competition, which challenges student-athletes to do outreach and get involved in their communities, began in September and ran through Dec. 15. The competition is based on the number of service hours completed and the number of student-athletes at each school who participated in outreach activities. Helper Helper tracks the data throughout the competition.

The total number of service hours for student-athletes in all three divisions who participated was 203,514, which, according to Independent Sector's research calculations of the national value of volunteer hours, would be more than $6.4 million.

North Dakota, which won the Division I award, tallied 3,230 community service hours, with 97% of its student-athletes participating, for an average of about 9.2 hours per athlete. They volunteered at Grand Forks Public Schools and spent more than 300 hours with Special Olympics programs in their areas. Finishing second and third in the Division I competition were Miami (Florida) and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, respectively.

"This is a huge honor to receive," said Luke Labatte, a North Dakota student-athlete in men's indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country. "It symbolizes the hard work and dedication of the connections that have been built to benefit our community. Volunteering and community involvement are a major part of the culture at UND."

"It never ceases to amaze me what our student-athletes do to give back to the community," said Bill Chaves, North Dakota director of athletics. "Winning the NCAA Service Challenge is a tremendous accomplishment, but I know that it is really not about awards but rather helping others through the platform of being a UND student-athlete."