HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – The Southern Conference wrapped up its 2016 spring meetings on Friday. The four-day meetings were attended by the institutional presidents and chancellors, athletic directors, senior woman administrators and faculty athletic representatives, as well as Southern Conference staff. The league’s football and men’s and women’s basketball coaches also held meetings.
In addition, three Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) members – The Citadel’s Tevin Floyd (football), Mercer’s Ryan Sharry (women’s cross country and track and field) and Wofford’s Catherine Martin (women’s tennis) addressed the ADs, SWAs and FARs about the recent NCAA time-demands survey.
Among the business conducted, the league finalized the site for the 2018 SoCon Outdoor Track and Field Championships, awarding them to Western Carolina.
At the Honors Dinner on Wednesday, the SoCon recognized the league’s annual award winners. Chattanooga quarterback Jacob Huesman was honored as the Bob Waters Male Athlete of the Year, while Furman women’s soccer player Stephanie DeVita was presented the Female Athlete of the Year award.
The 10 SoCon postgraduate scholarship winners were also recognized.
ETSU was presented the Commissioner’s Cup for fielding the best men’s programs in the league, while Furman was recognized for winning the Germann Cup, which honors the school with the top women’s programs.
Wofford collected its second straight Graduation Rate Award, with 87 percent of its student-athletes graduating over the last five years. Mercer won the Barrett-Bonner Award, given annually to the school with the highest percentage of its student-athletes on the SoCon Honor Roll, with 67.8 percent of its student-athletes earning the necessary 3.0 GPA for the year. The D.S. McAlister Award went to UNCG. That award is presented annually to the school judged by the league’s administrators and head coaches to have exhibited the highest degree of sportsmanship. The award is named after Colonel D.S. McAllister of The Citadel, who served as the conference’s secretary treasurer for 38 years.
Western Carolina was also recognized at the meetings as the winner of the league’s Keeping Tabs on Kids initiative, a contest among the 10 league schools’ SAAC chapters to collect aluminum can tabs to donate to Ronald McDonald House Charities. Ronald McDonald Houses collect tabs instead of entire aluminum cans because they are more hygienic and easier to collect and store. When the RMHC chapters take the tabs to local recycling centers, the tabs are weighed to determine their value and the recycling centers send the local chapters checks for the total value of the recycled tabs.
The SoCon’s Keeping Tabs on Children initiative was created in an effort to unite the league’s SAAC chapters in a joint project. The mission of the Ronald McDonald House Charities is to create, find and support programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children.
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