Empire 8 Announces 2009 Senior Scholar-Athlete Award Winners
May 27, 2009
ROCHESTER, NY – Stevens Institute of Technology soccer player Jason Nachman has been named the 2009 Empire 8 Senior Scholar-Athlete Award men’s winner. The women’s award was shared by gymnast Frances Estes of Ithaca College and cross country student-athlete Amanda Butler of Utica College. The award honors those student-athletes who best exemplify what it means to be a dedicated scholar and athlete over the course of their four-year collegiate careers.
“Jason, Frances, and Amanda represent the very best of the Empire 8 and they are the embodiment of today’s student-athlete,” said Empire 8 Commissioner Chuck Mitrano. “They excel on and off the playing surface, on their campuses and in the community at large. As leaders and true scholar-athletes, we are proud to name them as recipients of our highest honor.”
The award winners are selected by a committee comprised of conference Faculty Athletic Representatives. To be eligible, a student-athlete must maintain at least a 3.75 cumulative grade point average.
Nachman, the team captain on the Ducks’ men’s soccer team that advanced to the NCAA Division III Men’s Soccer Championship final, was a civil engineering major who has been on the school’s Dean’s List and Presidential Scholarship list every year. He received the Associated General Contractors Scholarship from 2007-2009 and was the 2008 recipient of the International Concrete Repair Institute Scholarship.
Nachman , a 2008 Chi Epsilon and 2009 Tau Beta Pi inductee, earned all-conference and all-region honors this past season and led the Ducks to their fourth conference championship in his career and a 70-7-13 record over the four-year span.
“Jason has been the consummate student-athlete throughout his career,” said Stevens men’s soccer coach Tim O’Donohue. “He was a great team captain and an excellent role model for all of our younger players. He was an intricate part of the team the past three seasons and one of the most consistent players I have ever coached. The same habits that made Jason an excellent player made him a standout student at Stevens.”
Ente was a physical therapy major minoring in Clinical Health and Physical Therapy who has been on the Ithaca Dean’s List and Empire 8 Presidents’ List every semester of her academic career. The standard for the school honor is a minimum 3.70 grade point average and the conference standard is at least a 3.75 grade point average. In 2008, she was honored by Phi Kappa Phi for ranking in the upper five percent of the junior class and this year earned Academic All-American status.
Ente became only the second Bombers’ gymnast to garner All-America recognition in one event four times as she did in the uneven bars. She also set the school record with her score of 9.725 in that event this season. The school’s Rookie of the Year in 2006, Ente was twice named the school’s Harriet Marranco Gymnast of the Year.
She was also active in community service with volunteer activities for National Girls and Women in Sports Day, ALS walk, Sit Ski for disabled skiers, Long View Retirement home exhibition, Exhibition for Special Olympics, and a Wheelchair Wash and Repair event.
“Frances is one of the most multidimensional talents that I have ever had the pleasure of working with and the type of person who inspires those around her to better themselves,” said Ithaca gymnastics coach Rick Suddaby. “She has built a culture of success within our team and has assisted her teammates in excelling in the academic arena as well as in service to others.”
Butler triple majored in biology, chemistry, and mathematics with 20-plus credit hour semesters and countless hours doing research in the laboratory. She received four scholarships each year as well as two Utica grants and the National SMART 4th Year Grant while spending eight semesters in the school’s Dean’s Honor List and six semesters on the Empire 8 Presidents’ List.
Butler, a two-time Sportswoman of the Year on the cross country team and all-conference and Distinguished Athlete Award winners in softball, received the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Undergraduate Research Fellowship and a Mayo Clinic Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Butler had posters three times at the ASM National Meeting and presented at the 2007 meeting.
“Amanda has shown tremendous leadership since the inception of our program and exemplifies what the NCAA would like in its student-athletes,” said Utica cross country coach Michael Byrch. “A committed athlete, she would take the lead in practice and take the younger members under her wing. Her diligence in her academics was even more remarkable and she spent every moment of our bus trips studying. Her dedication to the sport and the classroom transferred to her teammates and made everyone a better student-athlete.”