FOREST CITY, Iowa – As Waldorf University prepares to celebrate Homecoming this weekend, for three distinguished Warrior alumni returning to their alma mater in Forest City, the weekend will be extra special.

Former Warrior All-American student-athletes Valeria Cogollo Martinez, Jenny Schweikert Gilbertson and Scott Pitcher each will be honored this week as the newest inductees in the Waldorf Warrior Athletic Hall-of-Fame.

“All three of the individuals this year are All-Americans, which makes them very worthy of this award,” said Waldorf Director of Athletics, Denny Jerome. “Three very good people who we’re looking forward to having be inducted.”

All three will be inducted into the Waldorf Warrior Athletic Hall-of-Fame at a banquet at Salveson Hall on the Waldorf campus on Friday, Nov. 3, starting at 5 p.m. They also will be honored at halftime of the Warrior football team’s Homecoming game on Saturday, Nov. 4. Kick-off on Saturday is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Bolstorff Field. 

Cogollo is the most recent Waldorf student-athlete in the Hall-of-Fame Class of 2018, graduating in 2009 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a minor in Finance.

The native of Barranquilla, Columbia, was one of the most successful golfers – of either gender – for the Warriors, winning the Midwest Collegiate Conference (MCC) individual championship in 2006, helping lead the Waldorf women’s golf team to the NAIA Region VII title in 2007 while earning MCC Golfer of the Year honors that spring, and winning the Region VII individual title in 2008.

Each year of those years Cogollo played at the NAIA National Tournament with a career-best finish of 26^thin the nation in 2006.

And, each year the Warrior golfer was honored as an NAIA All-American.

Gilbertson, who grew up in Monona, Iowa, and now lives in Des Moines, Iowa,also is a Warrior All-American who competed at the national tournament, and was a pitcher for the Waldorf softball team during the 1985 and 1986 season.

Graduating from the then-junior college Cum Laude in 1986, Gilbertson was a two-time All-Region pitcher who in 1986 led the Warriors to the NJCAA National Tournament. Gilbertson threw a 1-hit shutout to beat Kirkwood in the first game of Regionals (7-0), then combined on a 5-hit victory with teammate Tracy Kenniger in a win over Fort Dodge (5-2), which sent Waldorf to nationals.

During her All-American campaign, Gilbertson compiled a 24-4 record in the circle, and prior to the team’s trip to the national tournament in Michigan, she had a 0.44 ERA with 111 strikeouts in 175 innings.

After earning her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Buena Vista in 1988, Gilbertson returned to Waldorf and served as assistant coach and pitching coach for the Warrior softball team for 15 seasons, helping eight different players earn All-American honors, including 4-time All-American pitcher Marisa Jensen and 2-time All-American pitcher Jackie Doughtery, both of whom are members of the Waldorf Warrior Athletic Hall-of-Fame.

The final Hall-of-Fame inductee, Pitcher, has been part of Waldorf Homecoming in a variety of ways over the past 20-plus years as he’s served his alma mater as an assistant baseball coach, as assistant vice president of Admissions, and for the past seven years as the Director of Admissions.

Prior to returning to Waldorf in a variety of administrative roles, the Mason City, Iowa, native played two seasons on the diamond for the then-junior college Warrior baseball team.
He earned All-Conference and All-Region honors in 1992, hitting .311 with 10 doubles, 20 RBIs, four home runs and nine stolen bases.

In 1993, Pitcher was named an NJCAA All-American as he led all Iowa JUCOs with a .420 batting average, hit four home runs, drove in 33 runs and stole 18 bases. He also added a .971 fielding percentage on defense for Waldorf.
Pitcher went on to play his final two collegiate seasons at Wayland Baptist in Plainville, Texas, where he earned All-Region honors, was named to the GTE Academic All-Region Team, and set a school record he still holds with eight triples in the 1995 season.

Pitcher earned his Bachelor’s degree in History with minors in Political Science and Criminal Justice from Wayland Baptist in 1995 before starting his professional career at Waldorf in 1997.