CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) announced today that former Simpson volleyball player Marissa Salber has been named the A-R-C Johanna Olson Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the 2022-23 academic year, in the 23rd year of the award. The award, the highest individual honor from the conference, goes to an alumnus from the previous academic year. 
 
"Marissa Salber is the quintessential Division III student-athlete, and a model of the best the A-R-C has to offer,” said A-R-C Commissioner Marie Stroman. “Her commitment to athletics, academics and the community shows the power of the full spectrum of the undergraduate college experience. She is very much deserving of this highest honor the American Rivers Conference bestows on student-athletes."
 
Salber was a three-year captain for the Storm volleyball team. After being named A-R-C Honorable Mention in 2021, Salber earned First-Team honors in 2022. She currently sits in the all-time top-ten for career assists. In 2021, she helped guide Simpson to their first conference tournament appearance since 2013. 
 
Academically, Salber graduated from Simpson with a cumulative 3.962 GPA on a 4.0 scale while majoring in Management with a minor in Economics, in three and a half years. She earned Academic All-Conference on three occasions (2020, 2021, 2022). Salber was named College Sport Communicators (formerly CoSIDA) First-Team Academic All-District in 2022. She earned the prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship in 2023 and is now attending the University of Nebraska - College of Law. 
 
Salber was actively involved with service projects and in the community. She was the junior class senator and senior class president in the Student Government Association. Salber was the voice and team representative for volleyball in SAAC for two years where she assisted in the planning of Simpson’s Trick or Treat event held annually. Additionally, Salber volunteered with the Village Senior Living, Roots Volleyball Academy, Community Companion, Simpson Youth Volleyball Tournaments, and Helping Hand of Warren County. With the Simpson College Campus Day, she served as a planning committee member and facilitated the event while overseeing 800 volunteers. 
 
This is the first year that a Simpson student-athlete has earned the Scholar-Athlete of the Year award. 
 
What They Say About Marissa Salber 
Simpson College Head Women’s Volleyball Coach Kekailoa Palea: “The unique thing about Marissa is even when you combine all [of her] attributes you have a person who’s willing to take the time to share her knowledge, share her experiences, listen and make you laugh. You can see the impact of that in the friends, teammates, students and faculty she works with. That makes everyone Marissa interacts with better people.”
 
Simpson College Professor of Political Science Kedron Bardwell, Ph.D.: “Marissa’s accolades on the court speak for themselves. She has a relentless positivity and “show me, don’t tell me” ethic. From earning First-Team All-Conference in the A-R-C last year to improving in assists and service aces each year, she had a TEAM focus and did all she could to help move the needle on the SC program. And the players in future years will all benefit from that groundwork she laid with her effort. Lastly, this year she was recognized by the NCAA with a prestigious graduate scholarship to attend law school at the University of Nebraska. This was an ideal bookend to her time as a model student-athlete. We at Simpson are incredibly proud of Marissa. I’m sure she will continue to grow in servant leadership as she enters the legal profession, and I was fortunate to work with her for these three and a half years.”
 
Marissa Salber: “‘That’s always what happens - we always lose.’ That’s what one of the seniors said to me after we lost our first conference game in a close match my freshman year. I guess she was right because we finished 0-8 in the conference. In high school, I was the backup setter on a two-time state championship team in Nebraska’s largest class. I knew Simpson wasn’t the winningest program when I committed…. Now, how was I supposed to know how to turn a college program around when I didn’t even play on my high school team? Like my grandma, I had a unique opportunity to help make the situation for those around me better - but unlike my grandma, I also found a team who supported me and built me up in turn. My role as the team’s setter was to better the ball for my hitters, and my role as a leader was to better the program for my teammates’ future success. With the addition of a high-energy new coach, we found more team success in wins and enhanced team culture every season. Reflecting on my college career, I know I wore 26 with pride; I poured everything I had into the program and bettered the situation in my four seasons. I started not getting playing time on a losing team and finished as a two-time All-Conference setter and team MVP for a program that came together to qualify for back-to-back conference tournaments for the first time in 11 years.”
 
Also nominated for the 2022-23 Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year were Central golf and triathlon athlete Thea Lunning, Loras track & field and cross country runner Kassie Parker, and Wartburg softball athlete Sydney Illg. 
 
The Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year is selected among the finalists by a vote of the A-R-C Faculty Representatives (FAR). 
 
About the Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards
The American Rivers Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards were first presented in December 2001 for the 2000-01 academic year. To be eligible for nomination, a student-athlete shall have graduated or exhausted their athletic eligibility during the academic year for which the award is given. The nominee must have demonstrated a high level of accomplishment and achievement in a varsity sport, have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale), and show evidence of scholarly achievements, community service involvement and leadership. Both awards were named originally for former Wartburg College and Conference sports information director Duane Schroeder in May 2002. The women’s award was renamed in 2013 for former Luther College student-athlete Johanna Olson - the inaugural winner of the women’s award - who lost a courageous battle with cancer in January 2013. 
 
About Johanna Olson
The American Rivers Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year award is named in honor of the late Johanna Olson, a former cross country and track & field student-athlete at Luther College who was the inaugural recipient of the award. Olson battled brain cancer for over 15 years before her fight ended on January 3, 2013 at age 33. She was originally diagnosed with a brain tumor as a college freshman in 1997 but went on to win the 2000 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship three years to the day after her initial brain surgery. In addition to the national title in cross country, she won three Conference Individual Championships and three Conference Most Valuable Runner awards (1999, 2000, 2001). In track and field, she was the 2001 Conference Most Valuable Performer, earning All-America honors in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs. Olson was also a member of the 2001 distance medley relay team that captured the indoor national title. She was named the United States Track Coaches Association (USTCA) regional and national Athlete of the Year in both cross country and track and field in 2000-01. In 1991, Olson was presented the Honda Awards Inspirational Athlete of the Year after returning from radiation treatments to compete at the national level.