WESTERVILLE, Ohio – Baldwin Wallace University athletic communications student assistant Kevin Wilker has been recognized as the 2026 Chris Wenzler Award recipient in the Ohio Athletic Conference. This is the first time a BW student assistant has been selected for this award.

To be selected for the Chris Wenzler Award, the nominee must have at least one full year of experience as a student assistant for their school's athletic communications department. The nominations were submitted by the leadership within each school's athletic communications department, and the OAC office and sports information directors voted for the winner.

Wilker graduated from BW in May and served as a member of the athletic communications department for four years. He specialized in photography, videography, graphic design, and social media management. Wilker also organized media day photo shoots for the women's basketball team. Prior to this, he was a sports photographer/videographer for St. Edward High School for three years.

Wilker took the reins of managing the men's and women's basketball social media pages in the fall of his freshman year. He travelled with each team to capture photo and video content during his four years as a sport management student. His consistently high-quality content for the men's basketball, women's basketball, and baseball teams was featured on Instagram and X. Wilker shared his content with the athletic communications staff, and his photos were featured on the athletics website while his graphics were posted on the primary athletics Instagram page.

Wilker promoted the highly successful women's basketball program with grace, garnering an increase of 3,900 followers on X and 1,800 on Instagram while generating over one million views. He covered the team's 2025 NCAA Tournament run to the Elite Eight through photo, video, and graphic design. One summer, he documented the women's basketball European tour in Ireland with photos, videos, and promotional media content.

Wilker served as the social media manager for the baseball program all four years while utilizing Adobe video editing, photography, and graphic design. He expanded the team's social media presence to 6,400 followers on X and 2,900 on Instagram. Baseball finished as third-place finishers in the 2023 NCAA Division III World Series, and Wilker traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to capture video/photo content for the team. His posts for the 2023-2025 seasons drove over 755,000 views, which highlighted their success in the OAC and NCAA tournaments.

After graduating, Wilker continued to manage the baseball Instagram and X pages as they competed in the NCAA Division III World Series. His video content on Instagram for the 2026 NCAA Division III Super Regionals alone generated over 205,000 views and 6,075 likes.

This recognition is a symbol of the impact that the BW athletic communications student assistants have had by contributing their time and talent throughout the school year. Kevin truly did everything within his ability to give student-athletes the recognition they deserved for their hard work. Wilker invested his energy into promoting NCAA Division III student-athletes with the quality of a professional sports team. Thus, it is appropriate that Wilker will continue his work with the Cleveland Browns as a digital graphic design intern for the 2026-27 season.