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The Hope Athletics Orange and Blue Podcast has returned this summer for a third season with a special series of interviews with Hope College student-athletes, administration and staff.
For the season’s third episode, sports information director Alan Babbitt sits down with Kevin Wolma, Hope College’s Assistant Athletic Director for Student Wellness and Compliance.
In this new role, Wolma will be advocating for and leading programs which will benefit the comprehensive wellness of Hope College student-athletes, while also supporting coaches and staff in their efforts to have a transformational impact.
“The wellness piece is a little bit new as far as a titled position,” Wolma said. “We do a lot of great things for student-athletes here at Hope College. The role is about tying a lot of that into one space and having somebody that will be working with different partnerships on campus and with our coaching staff to ensure that student-athlete experience for them, to provide the resources that they need, whether it’s social, emotional, mental, spiritual, or physical wellness.
“We’ve got a lot of pieces already on campus. It is just exciting to tie into that and create this mental health experience, an overall wellness experience, for them that will be transformational for the student-athletes when they leave Hope.”
A Career in Education and Wellness
Prior to joining Hope Athletics, Wolma worked for two years as Associate Director of Admissions at Hope and for 25 years in education as a teacher, a coach and an administrator.
Wolma served as athletic director for Hudsonville Public Schools for 10 years from 2011 to 2021. He taught secondary health and physical education at Hudsonville from 1997 through 2011.
He also coached three varsity sports at Hudsonville: girls golf from 2009 to 2011, boys basketball from 2000 to 2006, and girls tennis from 1997 to 2002. He also coached varsity boys basketball at Caledonia from 1997 to 2000.
Wolma started his career in education at Roscommon, where he taught secondary science for one year.
While new to athletics administration in college, Wolma is well-versed in what Hope has to offer. He and his wife, Gina, have three children who attend Hope. Jordan and Kayla, twin brother and sister, will be seniors at Hope this fall, while Kelsey will be a freshman.