Athletics Academic Award Banquet Celebrates Achievement

Lotta Aaltonen of Finland and a four-year member of the Coker Cobra Women's basketball team was awarded Academic Athlete of the Year at Coker College during an awards dinner on March 31.

Dr. Robert Wyatt, president of Coker College, congratulates the academic award winners of the various athletic teams at Coker. This was the largest number of athletes to win major academic honor in most people's memories. I think I was invited because I am a member of the Faculty Athletics Committee and I really enjoyed seeing the athletes honored for their academic achievements. I was amazed at the number of students who had 4.0 semesters.

Jessica Covington and Becky Dillon are communication majors honored for their academic achievement. Jessica is a member of the Coker cheerleading squad and Becky is a pitcher/outfielder for the Coker softball team.

Coker ties FMU after double overtime

The game between Coker and Francis Marion was exciting and was well played by both teams. It was such an even match that two overtime periods could not help make a decision. This Saturday the Cobras have another major encounter as they take on Lees McRae, assigned the top spot in the Conference Carolinas.

Coker College Honors Athletes

Senior Shelly Catlett is the Coker Athlete of the Year
Brin Griffin and Alyssa are the First-year Athletes of the Year

(this blog post comes from Christian Stryker's news release about the Athletic Awards that were given out on Tuesday, April 21.)


Coker Honors 2009 Athletic Acheivements
by Christian Stryker, SID Coker College
4/22/2009
Hartsville, S.C. - For the second year in a row, senior Shelly Catlett took home the biggest award of the night, while freshmen Brinley Griffin and Alyssa Blanchard received the second highest honors at the 2009 Coker College Athletic Awards Ceremony held Tuesday night in Coker's Watson Theater. Catlett was once again named the C.G. Timberlake Athlete of the Year Award, while Griffin and Blanchard each received Freshman of the Year honors.
Shelly Catlett is a native of Orangeburg, S.C., and has been a four year starting pitcher for the Lady Cobras Softball team. She was named the First Team All-Conference in 2009 and was named the Heritage Community Financial Services Athlete of the Month for April 2009. In 2008, she was named Conference Carolinas Softball Player of the Year, was First Team All-Conference selection and was named Second Team All-Region; while in 2007 she was named Second Team All-Conference, was an All-Region Selection and was named the MVP of the conference tournament. This season Catlett has a record of 15-11, with a 2.05 ERA and 164 strikeouts.
Off the field, Shelly is a Biology Major, a three-time Academic All-American, President of the Senior Class for 2008-09, President of the Coker College Science Club, a four-time member of the Dean's List and a member of Omicron Delta Kappa. After graduation she plans to attend the Medical University of South Carolina to study dentistry.
Brinley Griffin is a native of Port St. John, Fla., and he is the first baseball player to ever receive the Male Freshman of the Year award at Coker. Griffin was an All-Conference nominee, playing in all 42 games this season, a first for a true freshman at Coker since 1993. Griffin was a team leader in almost every offensive category this season including being fourth on the team in batting average (.335), first in doubles (9), second in hits (55), third in RBIs (22) and tied for the team lead in stolen bases (12).
Alyssa Blanchard is a native of Columbia, S.C. and a member of the Lady Cobras tennis team. She was named First Team All-Conference, the first ever such selection for a player under Coach Alvin Cheng, and was named the March 2009 Heritage Community Financial Services Athlete of the Month. Blanchard played No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles, posting a record of 10-2 in doubles and 9-3 in singles. She helped lead the Lady Cobras to their best finish under Coach Cheng, in the Conference Carolinas Regular Season (4th) and in the Conference Carolinas Tournament (5th).
In addition to the Athlete of the Year and the Freshmen of the Year awards, Coker also recognized award winners from each team, along with the Finalists for the C.G. Timberlake Athlete of the Year. Team MVP's from each team included Dennis Gonzalez for men's soccer, Kathryn Friedmann for women's soccer, Kelsey Carlson for volleyball, Michael Murphy for men's cross country, Kendyl Seawright for women's cross country, Nequita Bracey for cheerleading, Mason Ambler for men's basketball, Henna Koponen for women's basketball, Blanchard for women's tennis, Mark Vial for men's tennis, Kyle Walker for baseball, Catlett for softball and Chris Marsh for golf. Finalists for the Athlete of the Year were Jesse Hatchell (baseball), Ambler (men's basketball), Koponen (women's basketball), Carlson (volleyball), Lindsey Crighton (women's tennis), Shannon Townley (women's cross country) and Marsh (golf).

A funny-weather Spring Break

** Winter weather postponed conference basketball games though they have now all been played and Coker's two teams have had good seasons come to an end.

** Earlier in the week snow at Erskine postponed the baseball game and the team is playing at home today but the temperature at noon is still hovering around 40degrees.

** The softball team was to be at Limestone but they still have snow on their field, so that trip is postponed.

** Saw some facebook photos of the choir trip to D. C. and noticed that in what is often a land of Spring blossoms there was snow on the ground.

** Professor Mac Williams writes from Savannah, GA that the International Student Organization has encountered nasty weather, though they did do a service project at an elementary school and enjoyed a meal at Paula Dean's restaurant.

** Getting very close on the announcement of a new president for Coker College.

** And, while it has nothing to do with weather, we have a major phone system changeover taking place this week as Coker goes digital with phones -- enhancing service and saving money.

** Now, if I can just catch up as I planned to do when this Spring Break week began.


Adding some video footage of the Conference Tourney game between the Coker girls and Pieffer University on Tuesday night. (twice postponed)

Watched the Volleyball game on Friday night

And the girls did not fare that well against Anderson. The Coker Volleyball team has struggled this past season. The thing most noticeable last evening was that even though they were down (Anderson had two really strong spikers) they did not qive up and they never quit. It is a fairly young team this season that will be returning some strong competitors in 2009.