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Brown and Bellavance Named PBC Scholar Athletes of the Year
Year-End Honors
HILTON HEAD, SC – Columbus State senior women’ s soccer player Kayla Brown and North Georgia senior baseball player Kenny Bellavance have been named the female and male PBC Scholar Athletes of the Year at the awards banquet at the league annual meetings. The two were selected by the PBC’ s Faculty Athletics Representatives, who looked at information on each candidate and based their vote on 50 % academic accomplishment, 30 % athletic achievement and 20 % leadership qualities. The scholar-athlete award is the highest individual award presented by the Peach Belt.
Kayla Brown graduated from Columbus State this spring with a degree in Communications and a 3.94 cumulative GPA. A native of Lawrenceville, Ga., she served as president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee where she developed Make-A-Wish fundraisers and organized breast cancer awareness events. A four-time member of the PBC Presidential Honor Roll, she was also named to the PBC All-Academic team twice. She is also one of three women’ s soccer players in PBC history to be named a Capitol One / CoSIDA Academic All-American twice.
On the field, Brown was named PBC All-Conference in 2011 and 2012. Serving as the team captain for the Lady Cougars last season, she led the team and was tied for fifth in the PBC with eight assists. Brown anchored a defense that led the PBC with only 13 goals allowed in 2012 and a league-low 0.55 goals against average. Columbus State reached the NCAA Tournament all four years she was a part of the team. In addition to playing for Columbus State, she served as a coach for the Wynnbrook Middle School Warriors. Brown becomes the third Columbus State woman to be named the PBC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and fourth CSU student-athlete overall.
Kenny Bellavance graduated from North Georgia with a degree in finance while carrying a 3.97 GPA. Named to the PBC Presidential Honor Roll all four years, he was named in Who’ s Who Among College Students, won the Senior Male Scholar-Athlete Award and was a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Honors Society. Bellavance served as the president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee where he spearheaded the school’ s Make-A-Wish fundraising efforts, was named to the President’ s List for six semesters and served as a tutor in the business school.
On the field, Bellavance was named PBC All-Conference in 2012. Although injuries limited his playing time to 25 games in 2013, he finished his career eighth on the all-time list for hits at the school and fifth in sacrifice hits. He has a. 326 career batting average, including a. 301 average this past season. A native of Stone Mountain, Ga., he was named to the PBC All-Academic team three times, he was also named All-Region in 2010 and 2011. Bellavance becomes the second North Georgia player to be named the PBC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, joining Anders Oster, who won in 2010.
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on to win their eighth NCAA National Championship, the most women’ s tennis titles for any NCAA Division II school. The Armstrong softball team then won the regular-season title and played in the Division II World Series for the first time in school history.
In addition, Armstrong was tied for second in the baseball standings, were second in the women’ s golf championship and third in men’ s golf.
Columbus State was second in Commissioner’ s Cup standings after finishing in the top three in men’ s and women’ s cross country, women’ s soccer, baseball, women’ s tennis, men’ s tennis and men’ s golf. Clayton State won the men’ s cross country and women’ s basketball championships to finish third.
The PBC Commissioner’ s Cup is determined by calculating the number of points possible to each school, given the number of sports they participate in, divided by the number of points earned during the year. Points are determined by placement in the final regular-season standings of each of the PBC’ s 13 championship sports.
UNCP’ s Baker Awarded PBC-SunTrust Minority Postgraduate Scholarship
Armstrong Atlantic Wins PBC Presidents’ Academic Award
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Armstrong Atlantic State Wins Second Straight PBC Commissioner’ s Cup
HILTON HEAD, SC-- Armstrong Atlantic State University won their second consecutive Peach Belt Conference Commissioner’ s Cup, presented at the league’ s annual meeting in Hilton Head, S. C., on Tuesday night. The Pirates, who won their first cup last season, are a founding member of the Peach Belt and become the seventh program to repeat as cup holders. The award is presented annually to the best overall athletic department in the conference, as determined by regular-season league standings.
After winning a PBC-record nine regular-season championships last year, Armstrong was nearly as prolific in 2012-13, winning five titles. The women’ s soccer and volleyball teams got things started off in the fall, the women’ s soccer team rising to the # 1 ranking in the nation. In the spring, the men’ s and women’ s tennis teams, both of whom were ranked # 1 in the nation, won the PBC regular-season honors. The women’ s team went
Hilton Head, SC-- The Armstrong Atlantic State University athletic department was presented with their third Peach Belt Conference Presidents’ Academic Award at the league’ s annual meetings in Hilton Head. This award recognizes exellence in academics concerning all of an institution’ s student-athletes. 2012-13 is the eighth year the award has been presented. Armstrong won the first two awards in 2006 and 2007.
At the end of the academic school year the Peach Belt Conference asked each of the league’ s 14 members to submit an average GPA for the undergraduate student body and a GPA for all student-athletes. These two numbers were used to determine each instutions GPA ratio that identifies which school’ s athletes are performing most ahead of the curve in comparison to the student body. The schools are not measured against one another, just their athletes to their students. Armstrong Atlantic had the highest ratio at 1.098, and at 12 of the 14 PBC member institutions the student-athletes had, on average, a better GPA than the general student body.
The President’ s Academic Award is part of a larger conference program to highlight the accomplishments of PBC student-athletes in the classroom as well as on the field.
HILTON HEAD, SC- The Peach Belt Conference( PBC) and SunTrust Banks, INC., are proud to announce that University of North Carolina at Pembroke’ s junior volleyball player Marissa Baker has been awarded the PBC-SunTrust Minority Postgraduate Scholarship. The scholarship provides financial support to a deserving Peach Belt minority student-athlete in pursuit of a postgraduate college degree.
“ I’ m extremely excited about this scholarship and plan on using it to help me earn my masters in sports administration in one year,” said Baker.“ The PBC-SunTrust Minority Postgraduate Scholarship will directly help me financially, and indirectly enable me to attain the career of my dreams.”
Originally from Naples, Fla., Baker completed her undergraduate studies of sport management at UNCP in three years with a 3.97 GPA. She will begin her postgraduate studies at UNCP this summer, with the goal of earning a Master of Arts in Physical Education with a concentration in Sports Administration.
“ At SunTrust we are focused on lighting the way to financial well-being for our clients and communities we serve. As such, we have a long and proud history of supporting a variety of educational initiatives that provide opportunities for academic advancement but also foster economic growth in our communities,” said Kevin Blair, chairman, chief
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