Classroom: academic achievements and successfully progressing in regards to earning a degree

Transcription

1 Lowe's Senior CLASS Awards Criteria In addition to the core requirement that the candidate be a NCAA Division 1 senior, the finalists and eventual winner will be selected based on personal qualities that define a complete student athlete. These areas of excellence are defined under the categories of,, and. : academic achievements and successfully progressing in regards to earning a degree : attributes that define the candidate's personal character, including leadership skills, work ethic and integrity : involvement in community and charity activities, utilizing the candidate's status as a college athlete to make an impact in worthwhile causes : achievements within the athlete's respective sport and their role in the success of the team Baseball 2010 Athletes: Daniel Bibona Stephen Cardullo Blake Dean Mike Donato Jim Klocke Cory Kovanda Tyler Lyons Matt Payton Tony Plagman David Towarnicky

2 Daniel Bibona (UC Irvine) Bibona was the 2010 Big West Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a 2009 UCI scholar-athlete. He has a 3.25 GPA and will be graduating June of 2010 with a sociology major and minor in education. Bibona, a team captain in 2010, struggled as a freshman, pitching just 26 innings; however, he worked hard and had success during fall ball prior to his sophomore season. One day before his first start against USC at home, he was informed that his mom was in the hospital and was diagnosed with cancer again. "When I received this news, I did not know what to do. My mom did not want anyone to know, not even me because she did not want me to be affected by the situation. She did not want the coaches to find out in case they would not let me play. I feel as though I got a lot of strength from her during that time and this is why I am the way I am to deal with difficult situations." Bibona has visited with and played with the children at Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). He has worked the youth baseball camps at UCI every year and also coaches a youth team with 2009 finalist, Ben Orloff. He is a member of a non-profit organization called American Home Dream, which is an organization that helps terminally ill children. Bibona was the 2009 Big West Pitcher of the Year and a Collegiate Baseball Louisville Slugger first-team All-American. He garnered National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Baseball America second-team All-America honors and was a CollegeBaseballInsider.com All-America first-team selection. He was a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist and Collegiate Baseball Foundation National Player of the Week. Bibona was a 16th-round draft pick by St. Louis and posted a 12-1 record as a junior, tying for second in the UCI single-season records with a.923 win percentage. He is eighth in the UCI career annals with 22 victories, 12th with 36 career starts, and seventh with 230 strikeouts. He was undefeated in Big West games, posting a 7-0 mark and recorded his first career complete game against UC Davis to give the Anteaters the conference title outright. He concluded the season as the Big West leader in ERA (2.63), strikeouts (108) and wins (12) and was second in opposing batting average (.209), batters struck out looking (30) and fourth in innings pitched (106). He ranked 5th in the country in wins and 20th in ERA and ended the season 22nd in the nation in strikeouts and 15th in hits allowed per nine innings at He was named to the Irvine Regional All-Tournament Team after recording a career-high 14 strikeouts against Fresno State in the first game of the postseason. He registered the win against then-no. 1 Cal State Fullerton, shutting out the Titans through eight innings. He enters this season as a Collegiate Baseball Louisville Slugger preseason third-team All-American, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association preseason third-team All-American.

3 Stephen Cardullo (Florida State University) Cardullo is a two-time member of the ACC Academic Honor Roll ( , ) and a member of the 3.0 GPA Club following his fall 2009 semester at Florida State. He is majoring in finance with a cumulative GPA of and a graduation date of the summer of Cardullo's future aspirations outside of playing baseball professionally is to become a financial advisor. Head coach Mike Martin says, "Stephen Cardullo is basically the epitome of what college baseball can do for a young man. He came in here as a walk-on and a good student and has taken that to another level, becoming a full-time starter on our ball club and a very hardworking student. Stephen has accumulated a 3.0 cumulative GPA on a regular basis and has just done a great job of performing in the classroom, on the field and in the community. It has been fun to watch the young man get better and better each day." Cardullo has participated in a variety of community service projects ranging from the Relay for Life sponsored at Florida State, the Wolfson Children's hospital visit in Jacksonville, Fla., the Charity Vision Walk sponsored by Delta Gamma sorority at Florida State and Give-A-Day - Jump Start Program where Cardullo will spend a whole day with kids participating in a variety of activities picked by the kids themselves. Cardullo begins the season as a third team preseason All-American selection by Collegiate Baseball. In 2009, he was a Baseball America first team All-American at shortstop, becoming just the second shortstop in school history to earn first team All-America accolades since Dick Howser (1957 & 1958). He was named a semifinalist for the Brooks Wallace Award presented to the nation's top shortstop and he earned second team All-ACC accolades. He was named to the NCAA Tallahassee All-Region Team. Cardullo finished the season hitting.376 in 62 games with 20 doubles, 10 home runs and 51 RBI in his first year as an everyday starter. He ranked second on the team in hits (89), runs (76) and stolen bases (20), while tying for the team lead in triples with three. He finished the year ranked in eight offensive categories in the ACC including runs scored (t-2nd), walks (t-4th), stolen bases (t-5th), on-base percentage (6th), hits (7th), batting average (7th), doubles (t-7th) and total bases (t-9th). He ranked nationally in runs per game, runs, hits and walks and had a record-setting performance against Ohio State in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional championship final, going 7-for-9 with five RBI, five runs, three doubles and a triple. He set the NCAA Tournament single-game record for hits and at-bats and finished the series with a.600 average and 12 hits, recording multiple hits in all three games, 10 RBI, four doubles and 18 total bases. He has a career.374 batting average and.610 slugging percentage.

4 Blake Dean (Louisiana State University) Dean is a general studies major at LSU and is working toward finishing his degree requirements this year. Though he was drafted in the 10th round last season by the Minnesota Twins, Dean elected to return to LSU for his senior season. He is the acknowledged leader of an LSU team seeking to defend its national title in Dean regularly participates in philanthropic events, including the Buddy Walk in support of people with Down Syndrome, and the ALS Walk in support of people with Lou Gehrig's disease. He also participates in hospital and school visits in the Baton Rouge area. Dean is a 2008 first-team All-American and a 2009 first-team All-Southeastern Conference performer. He is recognized as one of the top sluggers in LSU's rich baseball history.

5 Mike Donato (University of Massachusetts) Donato is not only one of the top performers on the field for the Minutemen, but also holds one of the team's highest grade point averages. As a history major at UMass, Donato has excelled in the classroom, boasting a 3.41 GPA. He has been a member of the Dean's List and is a part of Chi Alpha Sigma (National Collegiate Athlete Honor Society). Donato's "blue-collar" work ethic is present in all that he does. Though quiet in nature, Donato's true ability to lead comes through his actions and is recognized and respected by his peers who elected him a team captain for the 2010 season. The UMass coaching staff praises him as a hard working person of high character and a great listener who never cuts corners and always gives a 100% effort in whatever he does, on the field and off. He is a self-motivated individual who aspires to be a teacher and desires to work in low-income communities such as the one he grew up in. Donato hopes to use his past experiences, coming from a like situation, to help children succeed, no matter how they define success. His goal is to help contribute to closing the achievement gap, in his words, "using education as a tool for success, rather than a burden that prohibits children from reaching their goals." Donato has a strong passion for giving back and has been involved in various endeavors to better the community since coming to UMass. He is volunteering at a local elementary school this semester as a teacher's aide, working with 5th and 6th grade students in social studies as well as reading/language arts with children with special needs. He has also worked as a mover for the Trash to Treasures organization and participated in a National Walk to School Day visit as a part of a group from various UMass athletic teams. As the SAAC representative from the baseball team, Donato brought toys from the SAAC toy drive to children in Shriner's Hospital in Springfield. Over the summer of 2008, Donato worked a community baseball camp in North Adams, Mass., as well. After seeing regular playing time over his first two seasons at UMass, Donato took his success to a whole new level as a junior in 2009 after working hard over the previous summer, making adjustments to his swing, etc. In a talent-stocked Atlantic 10 Conference that saw a record number of players taken in the 2009 MLB draft, Donato was one of 12 players throughout the league's 14 teams to earn an All-Atlantic 10 first team selection last season. He posted career highs in virtually every offensive category, including lifting his batting average nearly 100 points from A fixture in right field, Donato was one of just two Minutemen to play in all 53 games in He posted a.336 batting average and scored 36 runs, drove in 40 and belted 13 doubles, two triples and five home runs. He led the team in hits (73) and tied for 10th in the A-10, the sixth-most hits in a season in school history. In conference play, Donato batted.386, tied for ninth in the league, while ranking third in hits with 44. He totaled 21 multiple-hit games and six multi-rbi games last season as a junior, as well.

6 Jim Klocke (Southeast Missouri State) Klocke has a grade point average in business administration with an emphasis in finance. He won the OVC Medal of Honor ( ), was named to the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American Second Team ( ) and the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll ( , , ), and was the Southeast Scholar Athlete ( ). Klocke has shown tremendous leadership since his arrival to the team as a freshman. On and off the field, Klocke is a class act. He is extremely coachable and is everything you want out of a player, as he leads by example. On the field, he shows leadership on offense and defense, as he competes as a pitcher and catcher and consistently ranks among the league's best in hitting. Off the field, he makes sure that he performs at the same high level in the classroom and in the community. There is no better all-around student-athlete than Klocke. Klocke participates in the following community service activities: Cape Girardeau Middle School Family Reading Night, SEMO SAAC "Deck the Halls" Holiday Fundraising and the St. Francis Medical Center Cancer Awareness Walk. Klocke also helped move elderly to new residence in Cape Girardeau and gave out Halloween candy at St. LaCroix Church in Cape Girardeau. In 2009, Klocke was drafted in the 46th round (1,389th overall) by the St. Louis Cardinals in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. He was named a Louisville Slugger third-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball, becoming just the second player in Southeast history to earn All-American honors in multiple seasons. He was voted first-team All-OVC catcher for the second consecutive season and was an All Ping! honorable mention selection. He became the team's closer and finished 75th nationally with seven saves. His seven saves rank third in Southeast single-season history. He had a 15-game hitting streak from April 18 - May 16 in which he hit.569 (33-for-58) with eight doubles, five home runs, 16 RBIs, 56 total bases, 25 runs scored, 10 walks, a.966 slugging percentage,.638 on base percentage and only two strikeouts during that span. As a sophomore, Klocke was named first-team All-OVC catcher after leading the team and finishing seventh in the conference with a.357 batting average. During his freshman season, Klocke was named OVC Freshman of the Year and a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American.

7 Cory Kovanda (Ohio State Univeristy) Kovanda is on track to graduate while majoring in early childhood development. Kovanda was voted by his teammates to be a team co-captain as a senior. He is quick with a smile and he always seems to be making good things happen. Life hasn't been easy for him. He lost his mother, Linda, to pancreatic cancer two weeks before the start of the 2009 baseball season. At age 12 he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He heard the swimmer Gary Hall Jr., who also has Type 1, say the disease would not run his life. Kovanda lives by that rule, too. He keeps extra food and insulin wherever he is. He checks is blood sugars repeatedly during games. He has collapsed prior to games and come close to it during games. But he gets back up and he takes care of himself. Kovanda has a twin sister, Kimberly. She was born with Down syndrome. Kovanda knows what it means to be responsible for someone with special needs. He knows what unconditional love is. He loves Kimberly. And Kimberly loves him. She likes to tell Kovanda he is her favorite brother, but then she goes and tells their older brother, Chris, that he is her favorite. Kovanda is a favorite to a lot of people around Columbus, Ohio. Kovanda has done everything from raise and give money to the pancreatic cancer society to take part in diabetes walks for life. He takes time to go to the elementary schools in Columbus and talk to children about the importance of being good people and good teammates. He also has visited cancer patients at Columbus Children's Hospital. And this year he and his teammates are working to "adopt" a cancer patient and make that individual a part of the team. This effort is still in the planning stages, but it is going to happen. Kovanda will see to it that it does. Kovanda was Ohio State's Big Ten Conference Sportsmanship honoree in He is the most experienced Buckeye, having started 157 games. He will become a four-year starter this season. He sports a.320 career batting average and he is one of the most clutch players on the team, batting.415 with runners in scoring position in He has 185 career hits and he has scored 125 runs. Last year he was second-team all-big Ten Conference. He made the Big Ten all-tournament team in And in 2007 he was a freshman All-American.

8 Tyler Lyons (Oklahoma State University) Lyons is a member of the Oklahoma State President's Honor Roll for achieving a 4.0 grade point average. Three times he has won the OSU Academic Achievement Award and he is a three-time member of the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll. He has been on both the first and second teams of the All-Big 12 Academic Honor Roll and was an ESPN the Magazine Academic all-district team. Lyons is a great leader on the team who is tough and wants the ball in his hands in the big games. He was a 10th round draft pick of the New York Yankees in June and decided to return to school for his senior year, bypassing thousands of dollars, to help his team and continue to work towards his degree. For the Humane Society, Lyons volunteered and did things such as help care for the animals, clean up, walk dogs, etc. He helped with fundraising efforts with Relay for Life here on campus. He's also volunteered with the Into The Streets program, which does volunteer work in the Stillwater community helping people fix up their houses. He and his teammates have also recently volunteered with Coaches vs. Cancer by spending time and mentoring several children with cancer. Lyons' baseball awards include: all-big 12 Second Team in 2008, Honorable Mention All-Big 12 in 2009 and NCAA Clemson Regional All-Tournament Team in 2009 and Stillwater Regional All-Tournament team in He led OSU in wins in 2008 (12) and 2009 (7) and has led OSU in innings pitched each of last two seasons. His 12 wins in 2008 ranked fourth nationally and was eighth-most in a single season in school history. Lyons pitched for Team USA during the summer of 2008 and was 2-0 with 17 strikeouts in 14 innings. He made 11 appearances for Team USA and did not allow an earned run. He was part of a Team USA club that led the United States to a 24-0 record and a gold medal at the FISU World Championships. Lyons enters his senior season with 19 career wins, three shy of entering the top 10 on OSU's all-time list. He won his first three starts of the 2009 season, giving him a win in 13 straight decisions dating back to the 2008 season.

9 Matt Payton (Western Kentucky University) Payton has excelled in the classroom in his three-plus years at Western Kentucky University. He holds a 3.82 cumulative GPA as an exercise science major and plans to graduate in spring A two-time CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District selection, Payton is also a President's Scholar at WKU. He is a member of the National College Athlete Honor Society Chi Alpha Sigma. Payton plans to open a sports-specific training facility after graduation. Payton is a tireless worker, both on and off the field, which is evident by both his athletic and academic achievements. He plays baseball with a tremendous amount of desire and heart and leaves everything on the field. He has been one of the leading factors in the rise of WKU baseball, as the team has made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and finished the 2009 season ranked 23rd in the nation. He leads the team with his actions and his words and the players listen to him as he says the right things at the right times. The coaching staff really appreciates having a leader on the field with the character and leadership qualities Payton possesses. Payton also finds time to be actively involved in the community. He has over 200 hours of community service working mainly around his hometown of Louisville, Ky. He has spent time at the famous Churchill Downs racetrack working with the church to minister to jockeys and workers. He has also spent time cleaning the living quarters of the jockeys. Payton has also volunteered with the Wayside Christian Mission feeding the homeless and cleaning dishes. Payton has manned second base and the middle infield for WKU for much of his first three seasons. As a junior in 2009, Payton made 53 starts and led the team with five triples while hitting.307 and reaching base at a.404 clip. His infield defense is well-known around the conference, as he made just six errors in 275 chances in 2009, good for a.978 fielding percentage on a team that finished third in the nation in fielding percentage. His consistent performance and reliability in the WKU lineup has helped the team to two straight NCAA Tournament appearances and the 2009 Sun Belt Conference championship.

10 Tony Plagman (Georgia Tech) Plagman has been named to the Academic All-ACC baseball team and the ACC Academic Honor Roll three consecutive years at Georgia Tech. He has also been on the Academic Dean's list every semester since he became eligible. He carries a 3.36 cumulative GPA while majoring in Management and is on pace to graduate in May of When he finishes playing baseball, Tony would like to own his own sports marketing firm. Plagman began his career as a non-scholarship player, walking onto the team in His hard work immediately became evident as he went on to start 48 games his freshman season and earned a scholarship the very next year. He has started all but three games since, and his character was soon recognized by not only his teammates but also others in the baseball world. Tony has been elected as 2010 team captain and represents the baseball team on the Student-Athlete Advisory Board. In 2009, Plagman was selected by the New York Yankees in the MLB draft but chose to return for his final season at Georgia Tech to not only receive his degree in management but to help lead his team to a conference championships and possibly make a trip to the College World Series. Plagman has worked in the community at numerous events during his time at Tech. He recently completed his third year as an escort during the Georgia Special Olympics opening ceremonies and has twice volunteered at the Egleston Children's Hospital Halloween Patient Party. He was spent four years campaigning for the Michael Isenhour Toy Drive and three years serving at the St. Baldricks fundraiser for Cancer patients. He has recently begun his involvement in the L.E.A.D program with former Chicago Cubs baseball player C.J. Stewart to help inner city youth play baseball in high school. Plagman is a team captain and three-year starter at first base. He has played in 173 games while starting 161. He's been named 2010 Louisville Slugger and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Preseason All-American (third team) and 2009 second team All-ACC. Holds a career.317 batting average with 34 home runs and 141 RBI. His 34 career home runs are tied for the 18th-most in school history, 23 shy of the all-time record.

11 David Towarnicky (Appalachian State University) Towarnicky has maintained a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average through his first seven semesters at Appalachian State University as a double-major in banking and finance and risk insurance management with an international business minor. He is a member of the Chancellor's and Dean's Lists, the ASU and Southern Conference Academic Honor Rolls, ASU's Walker College of Business Honors program and the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. Towarnicky also serves as an Appalachian Ambassador, a select group of 42 ASU students dedicated to serving the Alumni Association, University Admissions and the Office of the Chancellor. For his efforts in the classroom and on the playing field, he was named a third-team CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American in He was also named the 2010 recipient of the Southern Conference's Camp Champs Graduate Scholarship. Following his graduation in December, Towarnicky plans to put his career in finance on hold and continue his education overseas, where he would like to conduct research in the area of microfinance and the financial needs of poverty-stricken areas of the world. He then aspires to work for an international organization such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank to help bring capital and financial services to people and places that desperately need it. He would like to help bring green and renewable sources of energy to both developing areas and the rest of the world that would drastically reduce energy costs and result in a cleaner living environment. ASU head coach Chris Pollard says "There is no one that I have worked with in 17 years of college baseball that has more integrity than David Towarnicky." Towarnicky is an active member of the community through his work as an Appalachian Ambassador and with ASU's Student-Athlete Advisory Board and ASU baseball. As an Appalachian Ambassador, he helped spearhead the Chancellor for a Day program, which encourages ASU students to donate canned goods for an opportunity to switch roles with Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock for a day. The drive raised over 6,200 cans of to help fight hunger in the High Country. As SAAB's external affairs committee chairperson, it is his responsibility to coordinate the organization's community service projects, most notably with the Crossnore School, a non-profit home and school for abused children. He calls his interaction with the Crossnore School "the most rewarding experience I have had through any of my extra-curricular activities at ASU." He has also participated in Samaritan's Purse's Santa's Toy Box campaign with his baseball teammates and coaches. Towarnicky has been the Mountaineers' starting first baseman since his arrival at ASU, playing in 152 games and making 138 starts at first base over the first three years of his career. The team captain is a.304 career hitter and, perhaps even more impressively, sports a.993 career fielding percentage with just nine errors in 1,291 chances at first base. He will most likely finish his career among ASU's all-time top 10 in hits, RBI and total bases. As a junior in 2009, he set career highs with a.328 batting average, 64 hits, 12 doubles, 90 total bases, a.433 on-base percentage and seven total sacrifices.