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Stan Aukamp was one of the most skilled big men to come to The College of Wooster, according to long-time men’s basketball coach Steve Moore, and the 6-8 center played an important part in setting a new winning standard for the program that still exists today.
While Aukamp’s size and skill attracted a number of recruiters, including scholarship schools, to Canton South High School, he chose Wooster after Moore had directed a swift turnaround during his first season as head coach.
“Stan was very athletic. He could jump extremely well. He had the physical talent to play at a much higher level,” said Moore. “I think he wanted to stay close to home and he thought we were an up-and-coming program. We were fortunate to get him.”
As a freshman, Aukamp made an impact right away, forming a “twin towers” of sort with 6-7 Mike Trimmer. While the duo was rarely on the floor at the same time, their presence on the inside played a key role in the Fighting Scots leading the country in both scoring defense (57.1 ppg) and defensive field-goal percentage (.381) for the 1988-89 season. The effort on that end of the floor resulted in a 21-7 record, plus the team’s first conference championship (co-champs with Allegheny College) in more than a decade (1978).
“Opposing offenses stayed out of the paint. Their shot blocking was a key factor in our success,” recalled Moore.
With Trimmer’s graduation, Aukamp took over the starting center position as a sophomore and thrived, averaging 14.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks en route to his first of three consecutive first-team all-North Coast Athletic Conference honors. However, the team had an un-Wooster-like record of 18-9.
Aukamp and company put that behind them and produced two of the best seasons in team history, as they combined for a 51-7 record (.879) while earning berths into the NCAA Div. III Championship field – the first two of Moore-coached teams’ 22 national appearances.
As a junior, Aukamp was the leading scorer (16.3 ppg) and contributed similar rebound (8.9 rpg) and block (2.1 bpg) numbers to the previous year, and added a first-team all-Great Lakes district award to complement his all-NCAC status.
Aukamp’s numbers dipped slightly (14.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg) as a senior, due in part to a late-season stress fracture, but his presence was undeniable as he was named a second-team All-American by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The national distinction was the result in large part to the Scots’ successful campaign – 26 victories (26-3), featuring a school-record 22-game winning streak, and NCAC regular season and tournament championships.
All told, Aukamp, who was later voted to the All-NCAC Decade Team (1984-93), piled up 1,490 points on a .560 field-goal percentage, 827 rebounds, and 216 blocks. Twenty-plus years since his last game, he still ranks among the top-10 in school history in all of those categories.
Following his time at Wooster, Aukamp headed southeast to join his family who had moved to the Charlotte, N.C., area. He works in information technology as a middleware and application services manager at Railinc, “the railroad industry’s most innovative and reliable resource for IT and information services.”
Aukamp married Wooster alum Katie Lederer ’93, and they have three volleyball-playing daughters – Sarah (15), Jillian (12), and Emily (9). They reside in Cary, N.C.