April 24, 2007
SAN DIEGO - Nearly 200 scholar-athletes were recognized at the 13th annual San Diego State Scholar-Athlete Awards Banquet on Monday at the KPBS Shiley Studio A. Legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg emceed the event, which honored student-athletes with at least a 3.0 cumulative or a 3.2 semester GPA during the calendar year of 2006.
The highest honor handed out was the Malik Award, which is named after Professor Emeritus Jim Malik, who was a chemistry professor at San Diego State and a long-time Faculty Athletic Representative. The award is given to those student athletes having the highest grade-point averages in the respective semesters.
The spring 2006 Malik Award recipients, who each posted perfect 4.0 semester GPAs, were Lisa Crampton (outdoor track), Dita Hauerlandova (women's tennis), Patrick Justman (football), Riki Kirchhoff (student athletic training), Rebecca Moore (student athletic training), Kasey Perry (baseball), Kevin Perry (baseball) and Cassandra Zebisch (water polo).
Moore also received the award for the fall 2006 semester, as well as Veronica Carmazzi (student athletic training), Kathryn Kitts (women's tennis) and Matt Tosches (men's tennis).
The Faculty Athletic Representative Award was given to the women's soccer and men's tennis for the spring 2006 semester and to both men's and women's tennis for the fall 2006 semester. The award is handed out to the teams with the highest overall GPA for that particular semester.
In addition, 60 total student-athletes were named to the Mountain West Conference Academic All-Conference squad (35 from the spring and 25 from the fall) for having a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better and being a starter or significant contributor on their team. Twelve Aztecs also garnered MWC Scholar-Athlete honors with a 3.5 GPA or better.
Five teams received the Team Community Service Award, which is presented to the teams with the most community service participation by their team members and coaches each semester. The spring 2006 recipients were swimming, crew, men's soccer and track and field. The fall 2006 recipients were swimming and baseball.
Three other individual awards were given out on Monday. Shanna Demus of women's basketball earned the Academic Initiative Medal (A.I.M.) Award, which recognizes a student-athlete who demonstrates a persistent commitment to his/her academic goals. Stephanie Andrews and Tamika Spivey received the Helping Hand Award, which is presented to the outstanding tutor or mentor in recognition of exceptional leadership and devoted service to student-athletes at SDSU. Finally, recreation professor Gene Lamke garnered the Distinguished Service Award, which is presented to an SDSU staff member who exemplifies extraordinary dedication and service in enhancing the student-athlete experience.
Since the inception of the SDSU scholar-athlete program in 1994, more than 2,000 student-athletes have been honored for maintaining a 3.0 grade-point average.