RIVER FALLS — UWRF senior defensive back Aaron Borgerding, who grew up in Spring Valley, has cemented his legacy on and off the field for the Falcons, earning College Sports Communicators Academic All-American status for his final season for performance on the field and in the classroom.

“A great honor for both athletics and being a student-athlete together,” Borgerding said. “A cool thing to be recognized for both the playing field and the kind of stuff nobody really sees going on in the classroom.”

Borgerding wanted to be a part of the establishment of a team culture at River Falls and he was, with the Falcons finishing with a winning record over each of the last four seasons including a 7-3 record in 2024.

Individually, Borgerding is top 10 all-time in UWRF history with 11 career interceptions and 17 pass breakups.

“It’s just cool to kind of leave a little bit behind and know that the hard work paid off in the offseason, and all the training sessions with the other [defensive backs] and stuff like that,” Borgerding said. “I think we got three or four defensive backs that are in the top 10 from our class, so it’s kind of cool to see all of us kind of leaving a legacy of what our group did as a whole.”

He played in every single game during his collegiate career, totaling 42 games with 250 total tackles. Off the field, he held a 3.74 cumulative GPA during the fall semester as a health and physical education major.

"Aaron walks out of our program as one of the most decorated student-athletes we have ever had and leaves a legacy of one of the best leaders Falcon Football has seen." UW-River Falls Head Football Coach Matt Walker stated in a release from the athletics department. "He had a positive impact on our football team, our campus, and the River Falls community.”

This is far from Borgerding’s first honor of the season. He won the WIAC Max Sparger Scholar-Athlete Award in 2024 and was a semi-finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy which honors the top Division I, II and III athletes for on-field play, academics and leadership.

Playing every career game meant a lot to him. While he was fortunate to avoid severe injury, there are still bumps and bruises that come with the sport.
“I was fortunate enough not to have any super, major injuries,” Borgerding said. “Football’s a tough sport, so you’ve kind of got to tough through a lot of the little things to be able to get out there.”

Next year, Borgerding plans on coaching at UWRF as an assistant to see where his coaching career might take him. He student-taught at Ellsworth this year as he looks to get into education.

The journey and the finish line both meant a lot to Borgerding, savoring every last moment he got on the field.

“It means a lot,” Borgerding said. “That little kid that wanted to be a college football player and kind of seeing that dream come true and have as awesome of an experience as I had at River Falls. I couldn’t have asked for anything more, honestly.”

While a lot of the credit goes to the hard work and dedication he has brought with him his whole life, there were people he wanted to thank.

“First, my parents for kind of instilling that grades matter, and pushing me to be just as good of a student as an athlete, and then my advisors in college, they kind of put me on a great course to be successful in the classroom,” Borgerding said. “Our coaches, kind of instilling the culture of going to class and being a good student as well as being an outstanding athlete, and then my classmates, we had a pretty good group in the [health and physical education] major of, we were all pretty close, so just being able to help each other and learn from each other throughout our college experience.”