ST. PAUL, Minn. -- UW-Superior baseball senior left-handed pitcher Dante Bender (Gurney, Wis./Hurley) has been named 2022 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Scholar-Athlete Leadership Award recipient, the league announced Wednesday.
 
The honor recognizes the role athletics plays in developing leaders by rewarding athletes' excellence in the classroom as well as service to the community. The honor is awarded annually to one male and one female graduating senior from UMAC member institutions. Bender is the first UWS student-athlete to earn the award since the Yellowjackets joined the conference for the 2015-16 season.
 
Bender, a double major in Psychology and Exercise Science with a 3.93 GPA, has been a five-year member of the Yellowjackets and will graduate with summa cum laude honors. He is a four-year UMAC Academic All-Conference honoree and has won three academic scholarships from UW-Superior, including the Leland T. Dutton Alumni Scholarship Award, the Donald and Laura Carroll Scholarship Award and the William and Ruth Finn Scholarship Award.
 
Bender is a four-year member of the Yellowjackets' Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee, a building manager and lifeguard in the Marcovich Wellness Center and has volunteered his time for several community service initiatives
 
Some of Bender's service learning endeavors include working with elementary students developing positive life skills as well as supervising UWS freshmen in a Health and Human Performance class to collect data on health levels to present at the end of the semester.
 
"Dante exemplifies what it truly means to be a student-athlete at the collegiate level," said UWS head baseball coach TJ Oakes. "Dante shows up every day willing to put in the work necessary for him to be successful in all areas of life. He takes his academic work very seriously while also managing to get his work in on the baseball field. Dante also holds an on-campus job at which he excels. He is able to manage the challenges and time commitment it takes to be a student-athlete exceptionally well. 
 
"Dante has stepped up as a leader on the baseball team over the past year and is someone that his teammates can look up to and learn from in many different ways," Oakes said. "He has definitely had a positive influence over those he is around on a daily basis. Dante is a very driven individual who has worked hard to set himself up well for the future. I have no doubt that Dante will continue to better himself and work to achieve success at the highest level possible."
 
Sydney Schwitters of the Northwestern volleyball team is the female recipient. Bender and Schwitters make up the 15th set of winners since the award began in 2008.
 
Bender emerged from a group of finalists that demonstrates a healthy balance by achieving excellence in academics, leadership, and service while participating in intercollegiate athletics. Finalists for each institution were nominated by the UMAC Faculty Athletics Representatives and the winners were also selected by the FAR Council.