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Curry, Graus Highlight the 2011 Athletic Banquet
In front of a packed house of nearly 250 people including over 130 athletes, their families, faculty and staff junior Patrick Curry (Hampstead, NH) and fellow junior Jessica Graus (Rochester, NY) earned the 2011 Male and Female Scholar-Athlete Award, respectively, at the 2010-2011 Athletic Banquet.
The Scholar-Athlete Award is the top award presented to any Newbury College athlete. It is given to two upperclassmen student-athletes – one male and one female – who demonstrate both excellence on the playing surface and, most importantly, in the classroom. This year, President Hannah McCarthy presented the awards to Curry for the men while Graus was honored for the women.
Senior Matt Talamantes (Los Angeles, CA) and sophomore Catherine O’Connell (Quincy, MA) received the Nighthawk of the Year Awards given to the one male and one female student-athlete with the most outstanding athletic contributions during the 2010-2011season. This past season, Talamantes was named New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Player of the Year and First Team All-NECC. In addition, he earned 2011 Second Team honors for NECVA – New England and received the NECVA Academic Award. In his four-year volleyball career at Newbury, Talamantes appeared in 482 games and finished as the all time leader at Newbury and 3rd all time in DIII Volleyball with 5291 assists.
A member of the women’s basketball team, O’Connell was just the first sophomore to receive the Nighthawk of the Year award. In just two short years with the Nighthawks, O’Connell has already left her name on the record books including both NECC and Newbury Rookie of the Year last season. This year, O’Connell became the 2nd all time leader in rebounds ripping over 700 to date while also finishing just shy of 600 points in just two seasons. O’Connell set new career highs this season with 20 points against Becker College in the NECC playoffs and 27 rebounds against Rivier College earlier in the year. O’Connell was named to the NEWBA team of the week and was also named 2nd team all NECC for her outstanding season.
This year’s Male and Female Sportsmanship Awards went to two seniors – baseball’s James Languirand (Biddeford, ME) and women’s volleyball’s Kerri McAuley (Middleboro, MA). They had genuine respect for the games they played and their teammates and represented Newbury well both on and off the diamond and court. Away from athletics, Languirand and McAuley were served the community as Resident Assistants as well as being meticulous students in the classroom. In addition the two of them dedicated many hours of community service to the Newbury community as a whole.
In his first year at Newbury College, baseball coach Kraig Kupiec was honored with 2011 Coach of the Year Award as he led the baseball program to the most wins in program history and finished the season above .500 at 18-17. Kupiec was also named NECC Coach of the Year for his efforts and the turnaround of Newbury’s baseball program which includes setting program records in wins, hits, runs, saves, strikeouts and the list goes on and on.
The Athletic Department also honored senior Amy Chen (Chelmsford, MA) for her outstanding contributions as the New England Collegiate Conference rep for the NCAA Student Athlete Advisory Committee over the past three years.
Early in the evening, Newbury also bid farewell to their 13 senior student-athletes who will graduated on May 15, 2011. The Department of Athletics would again like to thanks them for all of their contributions to Newbury College and wish them luck in their future endeavors.
