By ARIANA WILSON
Contributing Writer
The athletics office at The College of Saint Rose will hold an inaugural award ceremony, recognizing current student-athletes for their accomplishments on and off the field. Athletes from all sports will be invited and celebrated at the Golden Knight Awards this upcoming Sunday in the Nolan Gymnasium.
Doors will open for the event at 6:30 p.m., allowing each student-athlete in attendance to have a red carpet entrance into the gymnasium. All members attending the ceremony will be expected to dress in formal attire.
Ever since the athletics office has voiced their decision to change from the individual team banquets to the larger department event, there has been one common theme: unity.
“Hopefully this will be something we can build tradition on and encourage athletes to get out to other games, not just the Golden Wave games, to support their other athletes,” said Shardonay Blueford, assistant athletic director for compliance and influential innovator of the event.
While Blueford explains the ceremony is meant to give Saint Rose Athletics a sense of coalition, some coaches worry about switching from the traditional team banquet to such a large event. Brian Goodale, head coach for the women’s volleyball team, is open-minded but has appreciated the individual team banquets in past years.
“The all sports event is great to bring the teams together, but the individual team banquets allow for more attention on the graduating seniors as well as involving the parents,” said Goodale.
This being the first time the event is taking place, the committee for the awards decided to make the event invite-only, offering admittance to only student-athletes, coaches, and members of the athletics department. This excludes both non-athlete students and parents at Saint Rose.
Athletes were nominated for each category by head coaches, administrators in the athletic department, and members of the Golden Knights Awards committee. Each opinion was taken into consideration, and final nominations were sent out via email to student-athletes who were to vote on which of their peers they would like to take home the awards.
The student-athlete body was given a 16 day allotment in which they could vote for the athletes whom they thought most deserved each award. The voting started on April 9 and will continue until April 24 at 11:30 p.m. At this time, the winners will be finalized although nobody, besides the counter will know who won. The final reveal will be when the presenters of the award open the slip where the winner’s name is scribed.
Members of each team are not given the option to vote for their teammates. Though people can still vote for their friends on other sports teams, the committee wanted to be sure that teams who had larger rosters couldn’t out-vote those that are smaller. Even still, some athletes are concerned that their sport doesn’t receive enough recognition to garner the awards they are nominated for.
“Sometimes we feel neglected by schools and shadowed out by other sports,” said Kyle Wilson, a member of the men’s swimming and diving team and nominee for two individual awards (Male Athlete of the Year and Individual Male Sport Team Performance) and one team award (Male Athletic Team of the Year). Wilson doesn’t doubt his athletic accomplishments and ability, but fears the ceremony will be more like a popularity contest.
Each award given away at the ceremony will have both a male and female segment making it a total of 24 awards that will be won throughout the evening. The awards range across the board: Male and Female Athlete of the Year; Male and Female Newcomer of the Year; Male and Female Sophomore of the Year; Male and Female Junior of the Year; Male and Female Senior of the Year; Individual Male and Female Sport Team Performance of the Year; Male and Female in a Supporting-Role; Male and Female Golden Knight of the Year. There will also be one team award for each gender, The Athletic Team of the Year Award, which attributes the teams that had the most overall success.
One award that encompasses both academic and athletic garners is the Golden Knight of the Year. Jennifer Crego, a senior tennis player who is nominated for this award as well as two others (Female Athlete of the Year and Individual Female Sport Team Performance), is impressed with all of the nominees and shocked that she is in running with some of her peers.
“I didn’t expect to be nominated,” said Crego, “ especially next to all of the people who also got nominated are really great athletes.” The award focuses on the accomplishments of individual athletes who have proven to be an example of a standout student-athlete on and off the field; encompassing all the qualities of a true Golden Knight.
In the future, the athletic department has high hopes of making the event grander, inviting the entire Saint Rose community to celebrate its student-athletes accomplishments. For now, the focus of coalition will be kept small, mainly on the athletics department.
“We thought we would try something new this year to bring everybody together,” said Blueford, “and enhance the unity within the athletics department”.
