NAPERVILLE, Ill. – The College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) announced the winners of the Merle Chapman Leadership Award Wednesday.
The award, which began during the 2002-03 academic year, is named after the longtime football coach/athletics director at Millikin University and the second commissioner of the CCIW. Chapman served in that capacity from 1997-2002. The award identifies the student-athletes from the eight member institutions that best exemplify the traits that Chapman displayed and encouraged during his three-plus decades of service as teacher, coach and mentor to the athletes, coaches and administrators of the CCIW. Those traits are loyalty, enthusiasm, and commitment to academic, athletic and personal excellence, leadership and sportsmanship.
Each school is allowed to name one male and one female student-athlete from its Student-Athlete Advisory Council. The winners were honored on Monday, April 20 at the CCIW’s year-end SAAC luncheon.
2008-09 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Merle Chapman Award Winners
Augustana
Darla Smith (Davenport, Iowa/North) - Volleyball (elementary education major)
Brad Monier (Walnut, Ill./Bureau Valley) - Football (elementary education major)
Carthage
Jackie Peterson (Schaumburg, Ill./H.S.) - Women's Soccer/Track & Field (business admin. major)
Joel Brunner (De Pere, Wis./West) - Cross Country/Track & Field (environmental science major)
Elmhurst
Michele Fournier (Oak Lawn, Ill./Richards) - Softball (interdisciplinary communication major)
Kurt Nitschke (Mt. Pleasant, Mich./H.S.) - Football (interdisciplinary communication major)
Illinois Wesleyan
Nicole Spear (Naperville, Ill./Central) - Women's Golf (accounting & economics major)
Andrew Gilmore (Stillwater, Minn./H.S.) - Men's Basketball (political science major)
Millikin
Karen Carlson (Mahomet, Ill./Mahomet-Seymour) - Volleyball (business major)
Bruce Janek (West Chicago, Ill./H.S.) - Men's Soccer (entrepreneurship major)
North Central
Lisa Link (Springfield, Ill./Southeast) - Women's Soccer (psychology major)
Chris Toy (Niles, Ill./West) - Baseball (physical education major)
North Park
Colleen Horgan (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge) - Women's Golf (business admin. major)
Alex Drake (Indianapolis, Ind./Pike) - Men's Soccer (marketing major)
Wheaton
Taryne Lee (St. Charles, Ill./Wheaton Academy) - Women's Soccer (communications major)
Brad Smith (Holdrege, Neb./H.S.) - Men's Basketball (applied health & science major)