Carving out a meaningful role on a college football team isn't an easy road to travel.

Getting into medical school isn't a walk in the park either.

Accomplishing both at the same time is a challenge few can meet – and that's what makes Noah Larrick's story so compelling.

Larrick's ability to walk both paths and excel has led him to be named the 2025-26 Male Scholar Athlete of the Year for the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, announced by the league office on Tuesday afternoon.

Each year, the G-MAC chooses one male and one female student-athlete from that year's graduating class to receive the Scholar-Athlete Award, honoring a student-athlete who has compiled the most outstanding record in athletics, scholarship and leadership among the student-athletes at its 13 member institutions.

Larrick is Hillsdale's fifth G-MAC Scholar-Athlete since Hillsdale joined the conference in 2017, the fourth male Scholar-Athlete from Hillsdale, and the second football player from Hillsdale, joining Joey Brenner in 2021-22. With Larrick's honor, Hillsdale becomes the first school to win back-to-back G-MAC Men's Scholar Athlete of the Year awards since Cedarville in 2016, and the Chargers have won four of the last six Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards dating back to Brenner in 2021-22.

"I'm very grateful to be honored with this award," Larrick said. "It's as much a testament to my teammates, coaches and professors who supported, instructed and inspired me along the way."

One of the most academically accomplished student-athletes in Hillsdale history, Larrick became just the third student-athlete in the last decade to graduate from Hillsdale with a perfect 4.0 grade point average and earn Valedictorian honors when he completed his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry this past spring. He earned acceptance to several medical schools and will attend the Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine at Western Michigan University beginning this summer, with the goal of becoming a surgeon.

"I can't say enough good things about Noah and the things he accomplished during his time here," Hillsdale head football coach Nate Shreffler said. "Getting a 4.0 under any circumstances is difficult, and as a college football player, even more so, but Noah is someone who understood what his goals were and had his priorities straight from day one, and never wavered.

"In my mind, he's the truest example of what it means to be a student-athlete, and someone who represents perfectly what we're all about at Hillsdale."

Larrick won the 2025 G-MAC Elite 26 Award for football by posting the highest cumulative GPA of all players in the G-MAC this past season, and his many academic awards include the Junior Marsden Award for Outstanding Research in Biochemistry, and back-to-back Hillsdale College Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards. He was also selected as a member of the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society and won the Hillsdale College football team's Leonard Urbanik Award for Scholarship, Leadership and Ability.

As an undergraduate at Hillsdale, Larrick participated in the prestigious LAUREATES program, funding original research into the manipulation of enzymes in yeast bacteria that led to him serving as a co-author on published research on the topic.

He also was a member of several academic honoraria, including serving as president of the Hillsdale Sigma Zeta math and science honorary chapter, president of Hillsdale's Pre-Professional Society and treasurer of the Hillsdale Hippocratic Society.

As a football player, Larrick displayed the same drive for excellence and relentless work ethic that allowed him to succeed in the classroom. Arriving at Hillsdale as an unheralded walk-on, Larrick poured himself into his craft for his entire career, eventually breaking through as senior and getting significant playing time on protection and coverage units on special teams, and as a tight end for the Chargers as well. He appeared in 11 games for the Chargers in 2025, including Hillsdale's Albanese Candy Bowl contest against Upper Iowa.

"Looking back, it was really challenging at times to balance football and academics, but in the moment, it never felt like a burden because I was doing things I loved and felt passionate about," Larrick said. "I think being in football was ultimately a huge benefit as well, because football is so much about accountability, managing your time, putting in the work and being efficient.

"Thanks to all those lessons I learned from football, I was equipped with the exact skills I needed to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish, not just on the football field but also in the classroom."