Athletics
Valpo's colors are brown, gold, and lime green and the school's mascot is the Crusader. Most athletic events are held in the Athletics-Recreation Center (ARC), which is the primary sporting facility on campus. Valparaiso's eighteen teams and nearly 600 student athletes participate in NCAA Division I (I-FCS for football) in the Horizon League, except for football, in which they compete in the Pioneer Football League (the Horizon League does not sponsor football) and play at Brown Field. The school is known for its well rounded athletes as 98% successfully graduate, which ties Valparaiso with the University of Notre Dame for the third highest graduation rate in the country. Valpo is also known for its men's basketball head coach Homer Drew and his son Bryce Drew, who led the team to its Sweet Sixteen appearance in the 1998 NCAA basketball tournament by making "The Shot", a three-point shot as time expired to beat favored Ole Miss by one point. Bryce Drew was named head coach in the spring of 2011. Valparaiso is also the home of the National Lutheran Basketball Tournament. Recently the Crusader men's soccer team has been successful, winning the Horizon League regular season in 2011. Head coach Mike Avery was named Horizon League Coach of the Year, Stefan Antonijevic was named the league's Defensive Player of the Year, and Kyle Zobeck was honored as Horizon League Goalkeeper of the Year. Sophomore Charles Barden led the team in 2011 with four goals.
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