CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference has honored Jodie Burton of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges with the Distinguished Service Award for 2025. Burton is the 10th recipient with ties to CMS and the institution's second female to receive the award, joining Pamela Brooks Gann from from 2013.

In 1985, the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference created the Distinguished Service Award (DSA) to recognize an individual who has prompted collegiate athletics and the concept of the student-athlete as a coach, administrator, or long-term member of the conference and/or otherwise been involved with servicing college athletics on campus. The award may be given to nominees who have retired or resigned from athletics administration and who have rendered such meritorious service to intercollegiate athletics as may seem sufficient to entitle them to this honor.

Previous winners

Burton has been a central figure of women's athletics at CMS almost since its inception, serving as a head coach, administrator, advocate and mentor. She joined the Athenas as the women's basketball coach in 1979, just three years after women's athletics began at CMS, and was part of the athletic department for 45 years, through six different decades, until her retirement in 2024.

During her career, Burton also served as the senior women's administrator for the department, helping to increase the number of women's sports from six to 11 during her tenure. She has also served as the volleyball and the interim women's tennis coach in her early years, and became the first head coach of the women's golf program in 2007, after overseeing its elevation from club status.

After starting in 1979, Burton coached the women's basketball program for a total of 32 seasons, finishing with a 507-298 record and leading the Athenas to six SCIAC titles. Burton became only the 15th coach in Division III women's basketball history to win 500 games when she crossed that plateau in her final season in 2011-12. Her teams won 20 or more games nine times, and finished in the top two in the SCIAC 19 times.

Burton coached both the women's basketball program and the women's golf program for five years, before retiring from her women's basketball role in 2012 after 32 seasons, after which she was inducted into the CMS Hall of Fame in the Class of 2012. With the five-year overlap, Burton served as a head coach for 50 total seasons over her career, 32 in basketball and 18 in golf.

Burton was also a central figure in the growth of women's golf in the SCIAC, culminating in the league sponsoring the sport for the first time in 2012. CMS won the first three league titles, and six of the first eight under Burton's tutelage.

After becoming a consistent league power, Burton then led the Athenas to national prominence with an NCAA Division III championship in 2018. She also coached Margaret Loncki to an individual title in 2018, and coached nine golfers to All-America honors, and has had five SCIAC Athletes of the Year and 16 first-team All-SCIAC golfers, while winning SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year honors four times.

Upon her retirement, Burton left the women's golf program in outstanding shape, with five straight top-10 finishes in her last five years, beginning with the 2018 national title. The Athenas continued that streak with a third-place finish in 2025 with her former assistant and mentee, Keilee Bessho, at the helm. Burton also served as the chair of the NCAA Women's Golf Regional Advisory Committee, and her efforts behind the scenes also helped CMS secure rights to host the 2026 NCAA Division III Women's Golf Championship at Desert Willow in Palm Desert.

Beyond her win totals and championships, Burton was a central figure in the athletic department whose legacy will carry on well after her retirement. She mentored numerous young coaches throughout the athletic department, and has been a consistent advocate for women's athletics. The "Year of the Athena," when CMS won national titles in women's volleyball, women's tennis and women's golf in 2017-18, was in many ways a tribute to Burton's career of advocacy.

CMS and the SCIAC officially will present the award to Burton at a future campus event to be determined.