Schwarz Named Southland Softball Student-Athlete of the Year

Islanders’ junior outfielder chosen to first-team on league’s all-academic team

FRISCO, TEXAS (June 21, 2011) Texas A&M-Corpus Christi junior Hannah Schwarz has been named the Southland Conference Softball Student-Athlete of the Year, the league office announced Tuesday in conjunction with the release of the All-Academic Softball Teams.

Schwarz, a native of Kerrville, Texas, carries a 4.00 grade-point average in interdisciplinary studies and is the first softball student-athlete of the year from A&M-Corpus Christi in school history. Schwarz capped off her junior year by being named first-team Academic All-Region VI and was named third-team Academic All-America by CoSIDA. For the second consecutive year she was a first-team All-Southland and all-region pick after batting .345 while starting 58 of her 59 games. She scored a league-high 40 runs while collecting the second-most hits in the conference with 67. She tallied 14 RBI on the season, drew 12 walks and stole nine bases while collecting seven sacrifice hits.

In addition to her athletic achievements, Schwarz was named the Steve McCarty Citizenship Award winner by the Southland Conference and earned A&M–Corpus Christi’s Lee Denmon Award that is given to the athlete for service to the community.

Nine student-athletes make a return appearance to the all-academic teams, including McNeese State senior Lindsey Langner, Southeastern Louisiana graduate Katie Duhe and Texas State senior Jenna Emery, who are making their third consecutive showing.

Nine members received automatic selections by virtue of being either a first-team all-conference selection or voted to the CoSIDA academic all-district team.

Seven student-athletes were selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District VI Team. Duhe, Central Arkansas junior Katie McGregor and Schwarz received first-team merits while Central Arkansas sophomore Melanie Bryant, Northwestern State junior Kelee Grimes and A&M-Corpus Christi seniors Lauren Dodson and Caley Jeter were selected to the second-team. UT Arlington senior Rebecca Collom was named first-team all-conference, rounding out the nine automatic selections.

Texas State led all league teams with one first and three second-team all-academic selections for four members overall. Central Arkansas, McNeese State, Southeastern Louisiana and A&M-Corpus Christi had three while Northwestern State, Sam Houston State and UT Arlington had two. Nicholls and Stephen F. Austin had one each.

Established in the 2002-03 academic year, the conference honors one student-athlete from each of the 17 championship sports who achieves excellence in academics, athletics and community/campus service.

The student-athlete of the year, selected by the league’s awards committee, will have attained athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution, possess at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA and demonstrated extracurricular service at her campus and or community.

The all-academic teams are voted on by the head coaches, sports information directors and academic/compliance administrators from each Southland university. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s competition to qualify for the all-academic squad.