April 23, 2008

THIBODAUX, La. - Nicholls Athletic Department hosted its ninth annual athletic awards banquet on Tuesday night in Bollinger Memorial Student Union. The annual sports banquet recognizes Colonel athletes for their academic and athletic performance over the course of the academic year.

On hand to honor the student-athletes were university president Dr. Stephen T. Hulbert, and wife Becky Hulbert, along with Dr. David Boudreaux vice president institutional advancement, athletics director Rob Bernardi, faculty representative Dr. Glenn Antizzo and director of alumni affairs Debbie Raziano.

"We are very fortunate to have such a fine group of student-athletes. As a group, they are making tremendous progress in the classroom and on the field of play. Certainly they are all worthy of recognition," said Benrardi.

Each sport presented their own accolades while the university distributed three awards based on academic excellence. The athletic department also had nine awards that were voted on by members of the local media.

The first award Dr. Hulbert presented was the President's Award for Academic Excellence, and dubbed with the honor was the women's tennis team for boasting a team cumulative GPA of 3.312. The women's tennis squad was also awarded the President's Award for Academic Improvement as the squad improved their 3.004 cumulative GPA in 2007 to their 3.312 cumulative GPA in 2008.

Dr. Boudreaux then presented the Student-Athlete Award for Academic Excellence to baseball's Anthony Marino who took home the honor for the third consecutive year. Marino was recognized in the 2005, 2006 and 2007 editions of "Who's Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities," and was recently elected to the Nicholls Hall of Fame. Through 140 hours of college credit, he currently stands with a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Then followed the nine awards presented by the athletic department that were voted on by local media members, and the first was the Norman Swanner Community Service Award. The award is given to a senior who is significantly involved in the community, and who best exemplifies the spirit, dedication and commitment of Nicholls. Winning this year's award was baseball's Bryan Myers. Myers has undergone multiple surgeries causing him to sit out two seasons, but that never stopped him from finding time to read to children in local classrooms or participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The Covington, La. native also has successfully maintained a cumulative GPA above a 2.5.

The Outstanding Freshman Female Student-Athlete of the Year Award went to women's tennis' Natalia Zamora, who has guided the Lady Colonels to an all-time program best 14-7 single season record. Zamora, a native of Peubla, Mexico, notched a 15-3 singles record and tallied 7-2 doubles mark.

Picking up the Outstanding Freshman Male Student-Athlete of the Year Award was men's basketball player Anatoly Bose who led the Southland Conference in free throw percentage and was second among freshman in scoring average. The Sydney, Australia native finished the season 11th in the conference in scoring and 15th in rebounding.

The Outstanding Female Student-Athlete of the Year Award had co-recipients with Katherine Plummer of women's basketball and Kathyrn Harrell of softball taking home the prestigious award. Plummer, a native of Brooklyn, New York, led the SLC in scoring and steals while also landing on the All-SLC Second Team, and finishing up her career at Nicholls as the all-time leader in steals and second in points. Harrell, a native of League City, Texas, is a two-time All-SLC First Team selection at short stop while leading the conference in batting average the past two seasons. Harrell became the school's all-time hit leader against Sam Houston State last weekend, and currently holds the all-time career doubles record and total bases milestone.

Tabbed with the Outstanding Male Student-Athlete of the Year Award was football's Ladarius Webb. Webb was a consensus All-American, All-SLC and All-LSWA player who also was named SLC Newcomer of the Year and LSWA Newcomer of the Year. The Opelika, Ala. native became the first player in NCAA history to win all three conference player of the week honors (offensive, defensive and special teams) throughout the season while also being named a Buck Buchanan Award Finalist. In arguably the Colonels biggest win in school history over Division I-FBS Rice, Webb intercepted a school tying three balls and took one in for a touchdown to help lead Nicholls to the 16-14 victory.

The final awards presented on the evening were the Female Colonel Pride Award and the Male Colonel Pride Award. Presented with the female award was soccer's Heather Gamble who has served as the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee President for the past two years. In this role, she helped implement the Student-Athlete Fee, and helped Nicholls students understand the need to support Colonel Athletics. The male award went to baseball's Anthony Marino who is a four-year letterwinner, and has served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for the past four years. Marino was also awarded the Southland Conference's F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarship which he will use to attend Physical Therapy School at the University of South Alabama next fall.

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