WINTHROP, Mass. - Colby-Sawyer College men's soccer senior captain Couper Gunn (Easthampton, Mass.) has been nominated for the NCAA Division III LGBTQ Student-Athlete of the Year Award, as the openly gay athlete is one of just five nominees for the national honor, which will be announced at the 2022 NCAA Convention in Indianapolis. 

Kenadeed Gilmour, a basketball player Hamilton College, was selected the as the award's inaugural recipient last January.

Gunn's impact on campus with fellow Chargers students-athletes and across the Great Northeast Athletic Conference goes far beyond the pitch. Checking in at an imposing 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, the backer started all 15 games this fall for CSC after starting all 19 games and leading the team in minutes played as a sophomore in 2019. Like many, Gunn was left on the sidelines a year ago with the COVID-19 pandemic taking away the 2020 season. 

A History and Political Studies major, Gunn in January 2021 shared his coming-out story with nationally known OutSports.com. His feeling was that a public post would help show other queer athletes that it is possible to be both queer and athletic.

"For most of my life I wished to be something that I thought I wasn't," Gunn said at the time. "I wished to be normal. It turns out that I always was. I am normal. We are normal … but also extraordinary."

Gunn received the D3 LGBTQ Student-Athlete of the Year nomination for his ongoing support and advocation of the LGBTQ+ community. He works with and serves as the Director of Social Media for the queer-targeted non-profit Sports Equality Foundation, which he helped relaunch in early 2021. Gunn's willingness to confront homophobia on his own team and campus in an educational and positive way has been effective. 

OutSports.com came calling in a different capacity this fall back in late September. Wearing his usual rainbow-colored captains armband for a road game, Gunn was the target of an opponent's gay slur during the first half of a match. 

Rather than retaliate, rather than fight back, rather than lose composure, Gunn played all 90 minutes and his teammates scored five times after an emotional halftime en route to the shutout victory. The five second-half goals marked the highest scoring output the Chargers would register in a game all season. 

Gunn's Chargers qualified for the GNAC Men's Soccer Tournament as the No. 8 seed, falling to regional powerhouse Saint Joseph's College of Maine in the quarterfinals. Nonetheless, Colby-Sawyer as a team received the annual GNAC Institutional Sportsmanship Award, while Gunn was CSC's representative selected to the GNAC All-Sportsmanship Team. 

Chargers first-year head coach Bob Reasso, who coached at Division-I Rutgers for 29 seasons where he compiled 350+ victories, made 13 NCAA Tournaments, and advanced to the 1990 national championship game, helped keep his team focused amidst the ordeal just prior to the five-goal output after halftime. 

Coach Reasso has also become one of Gunn's largest supporters in their time together this season. 

"Couper is an extraordinary young man," said Reasso. "He has been an outstanding captain, and second, Couper works very hard to set an example and educate teammates, friends, and opponents on what it is like to be a gay man in sports today. He is incredibly active in the LGBTQ community here on campus and across the country."

On Sunday, October 31, Gunn volunteered his time and joined the GNAC office staff at its annual Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Fall Forum in Boston.

In front of fellow GNAC student-athletes and SAAC members from all 14 conference members, Gunn joined NCAA Director of Leadership Development DeeDee Merritt to discuss core values and his experiences as an openly gay student-athlete. It marked the latest example where his leadership and advocation for the LGBTQ+ community went above and beyond.

The Easthampton, Mass. native was a natural fit to speak at the forum, as Gunn aspires for a career in teaching and currently teaches Social Studies through a local internship.

As one of the five D3 LGBTQ Student-Athlete of the Year nominees, Gunn receives an 'automatic' invitation to the NCAA Convention. The GNAC is also funding to have numerous GNAC SAAC Commissioner's Council members and other student-athletes attend the 2022 Convention to take in its programming.

"He would be a very fitting recipient of the 2021 D3 LGBTQ+ award," added Coach Reasso.

And Gunn will have plenty of support on hand in Indianapolis, as well as in New London, N.H. on the Colby-Sawyer campus, and back at home from friends and family.

"It is an honor to be nominated and would be an even greater honor to win," said Gunn. "It would further show that it's not only possible to be a queer athlete, but also that being a queer athlete is empowering. And if another nominee is chosen, that's only a good thing too. The work I do in educating and advocating has been impactful, so it's nothing but support for others who are working hard to do the same."