CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. ? Four Austin Peay State University athletes were recognized Monday night with APSU's most esteemed athletic honors.
Sophomore basketball forward Drake Reed, the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, was named Most Outstanding Male Athlete while freshman golf star Staci Lynch, who was named the OVC Co-Freshman of the Year while earning first-team All-OVC, was named Most Outstanding Female Athlete.
Meanwhile, soccer standout Adonia Bivins, a four-year starter and three-year captain who earned second-team ESPN The Magazine Second-Team Academic All-America, has been named the Female Joy Award recipient as the most valuable senior athlete.
And baseball pitching standout Shawn Kelley, who owns the Governors career strikeout record and is third all-time in wins, was named the Male Joy Award recipient.
In addition, Bivins, who has a 3.962 grade-point average as a psychology major, has been named Female Scholar-Athlete while junior football player Duncan Williams, Jr., who has a 3.6 GPA as a history distributive teaching major, has been named Male Scholar-Athlete.
Bivins also received the Governors Club Academic Achievement Award as the senior with the highest GPA. Her teammate, Virginia Penner, who also plays tennis, was presented the Governors Club Academic Scholarship recipient for the rising senior with the highest grade-point average. A pre-physical therapy major, Penner holds a 3.935 grade-point average while playing two sports.
Those awards highlighted Austin Peay's annual athletics banquet in the Morgan University Center.
In being named Most Outstanding Male Athlete, Reed helped lead the Governors to the regular-season OVC championship. In starting all 33 games, he averaged 15.8 ppg, 6.0 rpg and 1.7 apg while shooting 51.9 percent from the floor. At one point, he scored in double figures 24 straight times. He led the Governors in scoring 16 times, including a career-high 31 points at Arkansas State. The 6-5 forward also was named honorable mention Associated Press All-America
Lynch, meanwhile, enjoyed a terrific first season as a Lady Gov. As a freshman, she played in all 11 events and had low score for all but three rounds. In addition to earning OVC co-Freshman of the Year honors as well as first-team All-OVC, Lynch was named to the OVC All-Newcomer team. She won the Great Smokies Women's Collegiate with scores of 71-69 (first player in five years to win the event who wasn't from the host school). She also captured the F & M Bank APSU Intercollegiate with scores of 72-74. She had six other top 10 finishes, including a tie for seventh in the OVC championship.
Bivins recently achieved a pair of firsts at APSU. She became the first Austin Peay athlete to receive an NCAA Post-graduate Scholarship in addition to being the first Lady Govs soccer player to be selected ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America, earning second team honors. She twice was selected first-team academic all-district. Last fall, Bivins was chosen as an OVC Scholar-Athlete, one of three females (and three males) to receive the award. She also is a two-time recipient of the OVC Medal of Honor (highest GPA of conference-sponsored sport). She was the 2005-06 recipient of APSU's Female Scholar-Athlete award for owning the highest GPA of Lady Govs athletes along with the 2005-06 Perkins Freeman/Governors Club Academic Achievement Scholarship for owning the highest GPA of rising seniors. She also was heavily involved in the Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC), serving as president the past two years.
On the pitch, Bivins was instrumental in the Lady Govs soccer program's success. She ranks fifth all-time overall in total scoring (22 points), seventh in points per game (.29), first in assists (12), third in assists per game (.16), first in shots attempted (160), second in shots on goal (65), second in games played (75), first in games started (72) and first in minutes played (4,971). Her six assists in 2005 are a single-season record and she also holds the single-game record for shots attempted (14).
Meanwhile, Kelley is completing an outstanding senior campaign. In fact, he leads the OVC in wins and innings pitched and is coming off a tremendous performance against then-first place Southeast Missouri, retiring 21 straight batters at one point in a 4-2 win. He currently is 7-2 with a 2.69 earned-run average.
During his career, Kelley is ranked among the top 10 in 10 different pitching categories. In fact, at Tennessee Tech, April 14th, he became the program's all-time leader in strikeouts. He also is third all-time in career victories (22) and second in innings pitched (336.1). The Louisville, Ky., native was a second-team All-OVC selection in 2005 and has been a member of the All-OVC tournament team in each of the previous two seasons, helping lead the Governors to the 2005 OVC tourney title. He received his bachelor's degree in political science last December and is working on his master's degree in communication and theater. He also is a member of the member of Phi Sigma Alpha honor society (psychology). Earlier this school year, he was featured in the HCA-OVC Scholar spotlight, sponsored by HCA's TriStar Family of Hospitals.
The Joy Award was originated in 1947 by the late Wilson Goodrich, owner of Joy's Jewelers, with the individual award being a watch. Widow Alice Goodrich continued the tradition through 1989 and current Joy's Jewelers owner David Baggett has sustained the presentation each spring after a vote of all head coaches, athletics director and athletics administrative staff. A permanent plaque display with recipients names is located in the Governors Club Room in the Dunn Center. Ten years ago, with Baggett's blessing, it was determined to name both a male and female Joy Award recipient. Last year's recipients was men's basketball player Zac Schlader and women's basketball player Ashley Haynes. The first Joy Award recipient in 1947 was Dr. George Fisher, who also is a member of both the Austin Peay and Ohio Valley Conference Halls of Fame.
