The Golden Grizzlies have proven to the world that they are truly golden. Oakland University completed its second year as a NCAA Division I program in 2000-01 and the success that OU has obtained is immeasurable. When you make the transition from Division II to Division I athletics there are a few areas that are expected to falter. According to the norm, your teams are supposed to lose, your athletes are supposed to be below average students in the classroom and your budget is supposed to operate in the red. At Oakland, the Golden Grizzlies have defeated the odds in all of these areas. The Golden Grizzlies are winners on the field, on the court and in the pool, are above average in the classroom and have maintained working operations within the approved business plan. In the past two seasons, the OU athletics teams have won 11 regular season Mid-Continent Conference championships and one postseason Mid-Con championship. Oakland has had two athletes earn All-America honors and 59 earn All-Mid-Continent Conference plaudits. Two Golden Grizzlies competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, with one bringing home a gold. In the past two years, nearly 150 of the Golden Grizzlies have earned Academic All-Mid-Con honors and three have been tabbed with national academic awards. OU has seen eight Golden Grizzlies earn Mid-Continent Conference Athlete of the Year honors, eight earn Newcomer of the Year plaudits and has had six coaches tabbed Mid-Con Coach of the Year eight times. All of this was accomplished by a program that critics scoffed at for the thought of making the jump to Division I. The Golden Grizzlies have proven those critics wrong and themselves as successful and a university to be reckoned with. Who would have known that the powerful Division II program would be so successful at the next level? The coaches and staff and administrators of Oakland University ... that is who. When OU was making the decision, it was the supporters of OU athletics that knew that Oakland was a perfect fit for a Division I program. And in 1997, the Golden Grizzlies declared that they would indeed make the move to NCAA Division I status. In the summer of 1997 the Mid-Continent Conference invited Oakland to join its membership. The Division II to Division I transition was a two-year process and the Golden Grizzlies officially became a Division I institution in 1999-00. The Golden Grizzlies opened the 1999-00 season in fine fashion as the women???s soccer team claimed the first Mid-Con championship for Oakland. The men???s and women???s swimming & diving teams followed with conference championships in December and then in February 2000 the men???s and women???s basketball teams clinched the regular-season titles. In year two of Mid-Continent Conference competition, OU managed to increase its title total to six in 2000-01. The women???s soccer team repeated in the fall and was joined by the men???s soccer team as regular-season conference champions. The women???s team went on to win the Mid-Con tourney title as well in 2000. The men???s and women???s swimming & diving teams defended their titles in December and in February the women???s basketball team secured the repeat. The spring of 2001 saw the Golden Grizzly softball team, in only its second year of existence, win the Mid-Con regular-season title. The OU teams have fared extremely well in the first two years of Division I competition with the 11 regular-season championships and one postseason title. The Golden Grizzly student-athletes have equalled the success of teams with individual accolades. Two student-athletes have earned the nation???s top honor being named All-Americans -- Katie Wolfe (Cedar Springs, Mi -- women???s basketball 2001) and Georgia Kinsela (Australia -- women???s swimming 2000). In addition, 59 Golden Grizzlies have earned All-Mid-Continent Conference honors. OU has had eight Mid-Con Athletes of the Year in respective sports -- Anita Rapp (Lillehammer, Norway -- women???s soccer 1999), Thiago Orso (Sao Paulo, Brazil -- men???s swimming 1999), Rachelle Atrasz (Grosse Pointe, Michigan -- women???s swimming 1999), Kazi Murr (Lake Worth, Florida -- diving 1999), Kristie Kieffer (Sterling Heights, Michigan -- women???s cross country 2000), Kristin Luoma (Troy, Michigan -- women???s soccer 2000), Tamara Swaby (Kingston, Jaimaca -- women???s swimming 2000) and Haitham Hassan (Alexandria, Egypt -- men???s swimming 2000). Eight Golden Grizzlies have been tabbed Newcomer of the Year in the first two years -- Kieffer (women???s cross country 1999), Drew Williams (Claremore, Oklahoma -- men???s swimming 1999), Danielle Ward (Brighton, Michigan -- women???s swimming 1999), Wolfe (women???s basketball 2000), Shelley Aurit (Batavia, Illinois -- women???s swimming 2000), Sean Broadbent (Windsor, Ontario -- men???s swimming 2000), Mike Helms (Detroit, Michigan -- men???s basketball) and Jaymie Voss (Kalamazoo, Michigan -- softball). Guiding the OU teams through the two years of success has been six Mid-Con Coaches of the Year -- Nick O???Shea (women???s soccer 1999), Scott Teeters (women???s swimming 1999), Pete Hovland (men???s swimming 1999 & 2000, women???s swimming 2000), Beckie Francis (women???s basketball 2000), Greg Kampe (men???s basketball 2000) and Steve Ogg (softball 2001). Kampe was tabbed the NCAA Coach of the Year after the 1999-00 season by College Hoops Insider. In the summer of 2000, Rapp and Hassan of the women's soccer and men's swimming teams, respectively, both participated in the Summer Olympics in Sydney for their native countries. Rapp was a member of the gold medalist Norwegian soccer team and Hassan swam in three events for Egypt. The Golden Grizzlies??? excellence doesn???t stop on the playing field or in the pool or on the court. In the past two years, nearly 150 of the OU student-athletes have been named to the Academic All-Mid-Continent Conference teams (3.0 GPA or higher) and three have been tabbed with national academic awards -- Rapp (women???s soccer 1999), Gary Robinson (men???s golf 2001) and Ericka Burns (softball 2001). OU athletics have completed two highly successful seasons within the Mid-Continent Conference and NCAA Division I and look to continue their winning ways in 2001-02.