Bowers, Martin Named McWhorter Scholarship Nominees
Monday, March 23, 2009 | General
Senior Florida volleyball player Kelsey Bowers (Gainesville, Fla.) and senior track and field athlete Eugene Martin (Gainesville, Fla.) are the school's nominees for the Southeastern Conference's H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship, the league offices in Birmingham, Ala., announced Monday.
The H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship has been presented by the SEC since 1986 to the league's top male and female scholar-athletes. The SEC will name the recipients of the McWhorter Scholarship on April 6 in conjunction with National Student-Athlete Day.
Bowers, a senior from Gainesville, Fla., has earned a 3.93 grade point average in public relations. She is a four-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and has earned CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III honors three times. This past season, she earned CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine second-team Academic All-America honors and became the first player in school history to be named the SEC's Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Bowers finished her collegiate career ranked sixth on Florida's career blocks list with 426. The Gators compiled a 119-13 (.902) record with four Southeastern Conference titles and four NCAA Round of 16 appearances during her career. She was a second-team All-SEC selection in 2006 and 2007. Bowers led the SEC in hitting percentage in 2006 and led the Gators in blocks per game in 2007.
Bowers has participated in community service activities through Goodwill Gators. She has been involved with Climb for Cancer, a sports camp run by UF student-athletes for children with cancer. She has also spent time working with young girls on the Gainesville Junior Volleyball Team and the All-American Volleyball Camps. She has plans to enter law school following graduation from Florida.
Martin, a senior from Gainesville, Fla., has a 3.50 grade point average, majoring in health and human performance and sport management. He is a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll (2009 spring honor roll announced later this spring), a two-time Dean's List student and the winner of the Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Award and the Sophia Witherspoon Academic Award. In 2007, he won UF Men's Track & Field Upperclassmen Academic Award.
He was the SEC indoor champion in the high jump and a first-team All-SEC performer in 2008. He was the runner-up in the high jump at the SEC outdoors and second-team All-SEC in 2008. He is ninth all-time in the high jump at Florida and won the UF William W. Richardson Outstanding Junior Award in 2008.
Martin has participated in community service activities through Goodwill Gators. He has been involved with Climb for Cancer and Swing for Cancer. He has also read to children at local elementary schools and visited children at local hospitals.
He plans to continue his studies at the University of Florida in the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sports Management.
The SEC Office will be releasing each of its institution's nominees periodically until the April 6 winners are announced.
National Student-Athlete Day was created in 1987 by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS) and Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society, and presented by the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
National Student-Athlete Day is held each April 6 to celebrate outstanding student-athletes who have achieved excellence in academics and athletics while having made significant contributions to the community. It is also a time to recognize those parents, teachers, coaches and school systems which make it possible for young people to find the balance between academics and athletics.
Each year, the SEC, in conjunction with AT&T, an SEC Corporate Champion sponsor, provides the league's male and female McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship recipients with a $10,000 post-graduate scholarship. The 22 remaining male and female finalists for the award will also receive a $5,000 postgraduate scholarship. The award recipients are chosen by a committee of Faculty
Athletics Representatives from the 12 SEC institutions and are honored at the SEC Spring Meetings in Sandestin, Fla. on May 28.
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