Josh Tobias Named To Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award Candidate Class
Thursday, March 26, 2015 | Baseball
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – University of Florida senior Josh Tobias was recently named as one of the 30 NCAA® baseball student-athletes who excels both on and off the diamond as a candidate for the 2015 Senior CLASS Award® in collegiate baseball. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: Classroom, Character, Community and Competition.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages those leaders to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The starting third baseman for the No. 5 Gators who is hitting a team-best .391 with 18 runs, 16 RBI and a perfect fielding percentage, Tobias was one of the three student-athletes chosen to represent the Southeastern Conference at the NCAA Convention on proposed governance rule changes under the NCAA's recently adopted Division I autonomy process.
Named to the 2014 SEC Baseball Community Service Team, Tobias has volunteered with Climb for Cancer, an event in which Gator student-athletes play games and participate with cancer-stricken kids and their siblings in a variety of sports on campus. The Greensboro, N.C., native volunteers at Littlewood Elementary School Carnival and participated in the Annual Gator Tracks shoe drive. Tobias is a University of Florida Student-Athlete Advisory Committee member and a Florida Letterman Award Committee Member and Presenter. A member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll, he is majoring in geological sciences – environmental geosciences.
Of the 30 candidates, eight have cumulative grade-point averages of 3.4 or higher and two have been finalists for CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-American honors. Four began their careers as Freshman All-Americans in 2012, two earned All-American status midway through their careers, and two more began 2015 as Preseason All-Americans. Twelve of the candidates on this year's high-achieving list of nominees play for teams currently ranked in the NCBWA Top-25 poll.
The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition. The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2015 College World Series® in June.
Baseball Candidates
| Trever Allen, Arizona State | Will Krug, Illinois |
| Robert Baldwin, Yale | Zach Lauricella, St. John's |
| David Berg, UCLA | Brennan Leitao, Sacramento State |
| Logan Brown, Baylor | Nick Lombardi, Dartmouth |
| Bryant Burleson, Texas Tech | Alex Miklos, Kent State |
| Josh Delph, Florida State | Ross Mitchell, Mississippi State |
| Aaron Fossas, Wake Forest | Benton Moss, North Carolina |
| Parker French, Texas | Jon Perrin, Oklahoma State |
| Ronnie Glenn, Penn | Cory Spera, Lafayette |
| Gage Green, Oklahoma State | Devin Stanton, Georgia Tech |
| Andrew Guillotte, McNeese State | Michael Timm, Wright State |
| Conner Hale, LSU | Josh Tobias, FLORIDA |
| Jason Inghram, William & Mary | Mike Vigliarolo, Saint Louis |
| Kevin Kaczmarski, Evansville | Grant Watson, UCLA |
| Dimitri Kourtis, Mercer | Colin Welmon, Loyola Marymount |
