The preseason hype surrounding Penn football is unreal – 13 returning starters from a championship team will do that.

Men's basketball head coach Steve Donahue officially announced his six Class of 2020 recruits to the team recently to complete the roster for the 2016-17 season. Or so we thought. Donahue announced last week via a press release through Penn Athletics that one more addition has been made to the squad, in the form of a transfer student from Lassen Community College in northern California. 

Penn basketball hasn’t sent a player to the NBA since 2000. That player was none other than Ira Bowman, who still frequents the Palestra as assistant coach to the Quakers.

Penn athletics is seemingly teeming with wunderkinds. Just about every team seems to have their own underclassmen superstar.

The Federation of International Lacrosse Under-19 World Championship took place in Canada over the past two weeks, and tournament champions Team U.S.A. relied on a core composition of Quakers throughout the six games. Five individuals — four athletes and a coach — represented Penn in the Canadian province of British Columbia as the U.S. defended its title in the Under-19 World Championship.

I’ve had the privilege of writing for the Daily Pennsylvanian for two full years now, and one particular date is seared into my brain: November 7, 2015. That particular day, undoubtedly, was the most entertaining of my Penn career thus far.

This past weekend, three recently-graduated members of Penn’s track and field team competed in the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon for a spot on team bound for Rio this coming August.

For those of you who were watching, and/or mesmerized by, the Copa America Centanario, you’ll have noticed a few things.

For most of Penn’s undergraduate population, the end of the final exam period signals the time for kicking back, relaxing and fondly looking back at the previous year. But for a very lucky, very small fraction of the student body, the onset of summer simply means business as usual. Playing on a varsity spring sport inherently carries the risk of playing past the school year’s conclusion, and 2016 was no exception.

As the country prepares for the Rio Olympics later this summer, an unprecedented delegation from Penn fought for places on the United States’ swimming roster. 14 Quakers flew to Omaha, Neb.

Last Thursday, the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame announced its induction class of 2016. One team and 15 individuals will be inducted — some posthumously. And in a class that features world boxing champions, NFL Hall of Famers and the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers, one induction will be an old Quaker. George Washington Orton graduated from Penn with a Masters in 1894 and a Ph.D.

Though the Penn men’s basketball Class of 2020 has been more or less set for a while now, head coach Steve Donahue made things official when he unveiled the newest Quakers last week. “These young men possess the type of talent and character that good programs are built upon,” the second-year coach said in a statement.

What do you do when you can’t play the sport you love? Turn your fighting energy towards a different arena: the business world. On a hiatus from the game of tennis, 29 year-old Maria Sharapova has chosen to attend Harvard Business School for a two-week summer program.

As the country prepares for the Rio Olympics later this summer, an unprecedented delegation from Penn is in currently trying to fight for places on the United States’ swimming roster.

For the third year in a row, Penn played host to the Urban Youth Lacrosse Jamboree, an annual celebration of community partnerships through sports competition. Behind the event was the Young Quakers Community Athletics program, an after-school initiative spearheaded by the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships and Penn Athletics. Founded in early 2015 — but with roots going back to 2012 — the program has sought to pair up Penn athletes with West Philadelphia elementary and middle schools through mentoring and free access to Penn athletic resources.

Dan Leibovitz, a member of Penn’s class of 1996 and assistant coach for the men’s basketball team from 2010-2012, has just been named the Southeastern Conference’s Associate Commissioner for Basketball.

The women’s soccer program just released their schedule for the 2016 season, but you’d be forgiven if you thought they posted the wrong one. This season’s list of fixtures looks remarkably similar to last season’s, head coach Nicole Van Dyke’s first in charge of the Red and Blue.