Honoring athletes

Staff Reports
The Union-Recorder

Fri, May 16 2008

— Honoring its student-athletes for their commitment to excellence during the 2007-08 season, the Georgia College & State University Department of Athletics held its annual year-end banquet Sunday.
After discussing the successes of each of the 10 varsity sports at Georgia College, interim director of athletics Jimmy Wilson handed out the four annual awards, Male and Senior Athlete of the Year, the Comeback Player of the Year and the Bill Childers Award for contributions to athletics from a non-staff member.
Selected Senior Male Athlete of the Year was Aaron Clark, from the Bobcat men’s basketball team. Clark finished his career as the only GCSU men’s player in the top-10 for career points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals. He was also a two-time All-Peach Belt Conference honoree as well as an All-Region player and ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District selection.
The Senior Female Athlete of the Year went to tennis player Celine Martin. Holding a career 153-68 record, Martin was named to the All-PBC squad for the past three seasons and has been nationally-ranked for nearly her entire career.
Dr. Mike Martino was given the Bill Childers Award. Serving as a mentor and extra assistant coach for all 10 Bobcat athletic programs, Martino helps the Bobcats with their strength and conditioning, and all of the coaches have seen marked improvements in that area for their teams. Martino is a professor in the Kinesiology Department at GCSU.
The Comeback Player of the Year was given to women’s soccer’s Mary Byrne