Knox College Athletics

There’s an old expression that suggests “we should all try to leave everything we touch in life a little better than we found it.” that saying sums up perfectly Ann Kapoun’s contribution to women’s intercollegiate athletics during her years as a student athlete at Knox. Ann earned four letters in volleyball and three in basketball before graduating in 1988. During that time, women’s intercollegiate athletic teams at Knox turned the corner and their gradual improvement in each subsequent year led to winning records and conference play-offs. Ann’s leadership and all-out effort to this winning attitude was her greatest contribution to the women’s program.

The volleyball team’s record was 2-14 first and then improved to 17-10, 18-12-1, and 14-12. The basketball teams she played with were 3-20, 5-16, 10-12, and though she did not play her senior year, that season the women’s team finished with an 18-4 record. Then Knox Coach, Evelyn Campbell, described Ann as a “solid, all-around player…consistent and effective in every aspect of her game.” Then Athletic Director, Harley Knosher, commenting on her winning the Arvid P. Zetterberg Award, said that Ann “combined outstanding talent with an unusual degree of self-discipline, which together enable her t be one of the best student athletes at the college.”
          
Ann was involved in a wide variety of extra-curricular activities as an undergraduate, including Mortar Board and her sorority, Phi Beta Pi. Her successes as an athlete were equally matched in the classroom where she regularly appeared on the Dean’s list. Ann has said of her college experience, “My academic research and athletic activities at Knox helped shape my career and personal growth…Attending Knox College was one of the best decisions that I have ever made.”
           
Ann went on to earn her Ph.D. in molecular biology at Indiana University and later led a research tem at the University Of Southern California School Of Medicine and Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. She is currently serving as a Senior Scientist at Scios Inc. in Sunnyvale, California.
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