PROVO -- A total of 317 athletes from all 21of BYU's Division 1 NCAA sanctioned sports programs will be honored at the Annual Scholar Athlete Banquet, Tuesday night. The event is sponsored by BYU's Student Athlete Academic Center.
These student-athletes qualified for the award by reaching or exceeding a 3.2 GPA from either the Fall 2005 or Winter 2004 semesters. Nearly 50 percent of the 711 total eligible student-athletes will receive the Scholar Athlete Award.
"We're pleased to be able to put on this banquet yearly," said E.J. Caffaro, director of the Student Athlete Academic Center. "It gives us an opportunity to honor those student athletes who are making good progress in their academic endeavors. This is a good opportunity to honor athletes for their accomplishments off the field."
The banquet will be held in the Cougar Room of the LaVell Edwards Stadium at
6:30 p.m., where the recipients of the Zion's Bank Academic Salute honorees will also be recognized. They are John Denny (football), Kassi Andersen (track and cross country), Brett Andrus (track and cross country), Alexis Brown (volleyball), Garner Meads (basketball), Kory Knell (baseball), Danielle Cheesman (basketball), Mike Burke (volleyball), Lisa Willis (gymnastics), Kamila Rywelska (track), Rebecca Pike (tennis), Dominik Kaufhold (tennis), Natalie Newren (golf) and Jennifer Whitely (softball).
This year's keynote speaker will be Jamal Willis, one of the most prolific rushers BYU's football program has ever had. After becoming the school's all-time leading rusher with 2,970 yards, he played for the San Francisco 49ers for one year. He was the head football coach at Payson High School for two seasons before obtaining his master's degree in Educational Counseling. Willis recently joined the Student Athletic Academic Center as an academic counselor.