Coker Athletes Recognized for Achievements

The following is the publicity release put out by Coker following the Athlete Recognition on Wednesday evening. In addition to the students being honored, it was an opportunity to recognize the Coker Cobra Men's Golf Team. That team had just returned as the Conference Champions, coming back from 18 strokes down to win the tourney - an amazing feat.

Here is the story from Chris Dougherty:

April 26, 2012

HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Coker College junior James Sweeney was named the C.G. Timberlake Athlete of the Year award to highlight the 2012 Athletic Awards Ceremony held Wednesday night in the Watson Theater. Fernando Bedoya and Kelley Godbout took home the Male and Female Freshmen of the Year honors, respectively.
Sweeney is a junior mathematics major from Huntingtown, Md., who excelled on and off the field this season as the Cobras’ goalie. Sporting a 4.0 GPA, Sweeney started all 21 games, allowing just 13 goals while posting 58 saves. Sweeney led Coker to an 18-3 record and a berth to its first-ever NCAA Division II regional tournament. The team reached as high as No. 5 nationally and finished at No. 18. Sweeney posted a .61 goals-against average that included 10 shutouts and a .817 save percentage.
Sweeney was named to the Capital One Academic All-American First Team as well as the Capital One Academic All-District Team. He was also the Conference Carolinas Scholar-Athlete of the Year, first team all-conference and a Daktronics All-Southeast region selection.
Bedoya, a freshman from Miami, Fla., started all 21 games for the Cobras. He tallied four assists and one goal on the season. Bedoya was named NSCAA Third Team All-American, an NSCAA First Team All-Southeast Region player, a Daktronics First Team All-Southeast Region player and a first team all-conference selection. He is a physical education major with a sport management concentration.
Godbout is a freshman from Mathews, N.C. She played in all 27 games, starting 18 of them, and averaged 10.9 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. Godbout is a biology major with a pre-medical concentration.
In addition to the athlete of the year and freshmen of the year, Coker handed out awards for team MVP and coaches’ pick. They are as follows: Men’s soccer: Carlos Recinos, MVP; Atticus Lum, coaches’ pick. Women’s soccer: Sarah Rountree, MVP; Millie Rogers, coaches’ pick. Men’s cross country: Brandon Cain, MVP; Dylan Bates, coaches’ pick. Women’s cross country: Stephanie Shaw, MVP; Angela Williams, coaches’ pick. Women’s volleyball: Samantha Celek, MVP; Brittany Bass, coaches’ pick. Men’s basketball: Julian Nelson, MVP; Brenden Marcell, coaches’ pick. Women’s basketball: Amber Lau, MVP; Jasmine Alston, coaches’ pick. Men’s golf: Jake Murphy, MVP; Josh Clay, coaches’ pick. Women’s golf: Sara Allen, MVP; Mallory Thompkins, coaches’ pick. Softball: Stacy Burr, MVP; Jaclin Poole, coaches’ pick. Baseball: Dan Meyer, MVP; Kyle Gallman, coaches’ pick. Men’s tennis: Manel Estruga, MVP; Jeremy Curtis, coaches’ pick. Women’s tennis: Alyssa Blanchard, MVP; Cora Berna, coaches’ pick. Men’s lacrosse: Keith LaClair, MVP; Christian Stevens, coaches’ pick.

2012 Athletic Awards Ceremony Photo Gallery

For more information, contact Chris Dougherty, manager of athletics media relations, at 843-383-8018 or cdougherty@coker.edu.

Last Classes of the Semester at Coker College

This week is almost over when it comes to classes. And, it is only Tuesday. Monday and Tuesday are the last days of the semester for Coker College's Spring 2012. This morning is the final class for PR Writing and we are going to be finishing up with a news release about graduation.

As we go into the final class I got an infographic from a blogger at frugaldad that pertains to the class. It has to do with keeping a camera handy so that you can always grab the news. In today's fast-changing world it is important for communicators to keep the technology close at hand. This particular infographic touts the strength of the smart phone as the technology that can go everywhere and it also points out the changes that have happened in photography since the introduction of the smart phone camera technology. Lots of converged journalism operations have begun using this type of technology.

An interesting thing about this week is that just yesterday I had a request from a person for a recommendation for one of the students in this class. Talk about just-in-time education. Sure hope that inquiry turns into a job - the same hope I have for the other seniors who will be graduating from Coker on May 5.

Coker College holds Honors Convocation (4-9-12)

Coker College held its Honors Convocation for the 2011/2012 academic year in the Watson Theater on Monday night. Dean Tracy Parkinson, provost of the College, was hosting his first Honors Convocation and he told the audience one of his reasons for choosing Coker was the unique way the Colleges brings a focus to its Academic Excellence. He was referring not only to the Honors Convocation but to the "Celebration of Academics" that is taking place all week at the Hartsville, SC-based college.

There was recognition of Academic Excellence as those who have achieved the Dean's List and the National Honor Society and the Who's Who of Colleges and the Senior World Scholars and the Susan Coker Watson scholarship winners stood amid applause.

In a very personal touch, the seniors who will be completing their four years at Coker with honors were introduced to the audience by their faculty mentors. Those receiving College Honors after completion of a major Honor's Project include Rebeca Armentrout in Biology, Monte Jackson and Ivy Aldrich in English, Marlin Ketter in Music Education and Hannah Jumper in Psychology. Hannah is also a communication major.

Scholar Athletes
A most impressive list of student athletes was also honored as Academic All Conference members for the Conference Carolinas. Among those honored were Brendan Burns, Francisco Suarez, and Matthew Bowman of the baseball team; Jonathon Gardner of the basketball team; Thad Sulek, of the cross country team; Diego Polo and Matthew Kreider of the golf team. There were three men's soccer players -- Noah Lascell, Jonathan Pent and James Sweeney and Robyn Risher of the Women's cross country team. The women soccer players were Morgan Hartline and Sarah Kinsey. And Jennifer Sanborn, Katelyn McElveen and Rebecca Dillon received the all-conference award for the softball team. Becky Dillon, who is a communication major with a minor in both Spanish and Business was the Murphy Osborne Award Finalist from Coker. And, it did not stop there.

Academic All-American
The national Fastpitch Coaches Association named Jaclin Poole, Stacy Burr and Katelyn McElveen All-America Scholar Athletes. Two men's soccer players were named to the Academic All-District team, Tyler Staub and James Sweeney. Sweeney was also a Capital One Academic All-American, as well as the Conference Carolinas Scholar Athlete of the Year.

Departmental Awards

Many of the Coker College Departments chose outstanding students for their Departmental Awards.
Analisa Smith was named the award winner for the Art Department. Josh Bittinger, was the award winner for the Department of Behavioral and Social Science and Diego Polo was the winner for the Department of Business Administration.  Seth Johnson won the award for the Department of Communication, Language and Literature and Marlin Ketter was the winner in the Department of Dance, Music and Theater. Kimberly Edgerton was the winner for the Education Department, Robyn Risher for the Physical Education Department, Emma Hayes for the Department of Science and Mathematics and Patricia Medlin for the Department of Social Work.