ARKANSAS TECH'S AMANDA GRAPPE EARNS PRESTIGIOUS GULF SOUTH CONFERENCE "TOP TEN" ADWARD

        RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas – Arkansas Tech Golden Suns Basketball player Amanda Grappe has been named as one of the Gulf South Conference’s “Top Ten” student-athletes for the 2008-09 school year.

Grappe’s award marks the 10th time in the last 13 years that at least one Arkansas Tech student-athlete has been selected as a member of the GSC “Top 10” and she is Tech’s 13th representative on the prestigious list since 1997.

“What a tremendous and deserving honor for Amanda Grappe,” Golden Suns Head Basketball Coach Dave Wilbers said. “She is a true definition of what a Golden Sun basketball player and a student-athlete should be.”

The GSC “Top Ten” recognizes the top five male and female student-athletes as the cream of the crop in the conference, which consisted of 15 member institutions this past school year. The top male and female student-athletes in the league receive the prestigious Commissioner’s Trophy.

The presentations of this year’s winners will be made at the GSC’s Annual Awards Banquet on Thursday, June 25, at the Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulf Front Hotel in Pensacola, Fla., at 6:30 p.m. In addition to honoring the “Top Ten” honorees, the conference will announce the winners of the Commissioner’s Trophies, recognize its All-Sports Trophy champions (Valdosta State for the men and West Florida for the women) and bid farewell to departing administrator, University of Arkansas-Monticello Athletic Director Alvy Early.

The selections for the “Top Ten” award were made by a panel of administrators from within the Gulf South Conference. The panel selects who it feels are the five most outstanding males and five most outstanding females based on athletic, academic and extracurricular achievement during the 2008-09 academic year.

Grappe, a senior from Benton, Ark., became Tech’s first-ever First-Team WBCA/State Farm Division II Coaches’ All-American selection this past season after averaging 19.0 points and pulling down 8.1 rebounds per game and scoring in double figures in 27 of Tech’s 28 games and shooting 54 percent from the floor, 42 percent from the three-point line and 78 percent at the free throw line. In addition to earning All-America honors, Grappe, who was a three-time GSC West Division Player of the Week, was also named the GSC West Division Player of the Year and was a repeat First-Team Daktronics All-South Region honoree in 2008-09. In her four-year Tech career, Grappe was named a three-time First-Team All-GSC West Division selection and was named a GSC West Division Player of the Week 10 times. She finished her career as the program’s 10th all-time leading scorer (1,738 points) and the fourth all-time leading rebounder (791 boards) and holds the school’s career records for free throw attempts (649) and free throws made (468). In her career, she had 94 career double-digit scoring games, 20 double-doubles and 29 games of scoring 20 or more points, including five career 30-plus point games.  

Along with her athletic accolades, Grappe, who has a 3.13 cumulative grade point average in elementary education, was a three-time member of the GSC Women’s Basketball Academic Honor Roll, made the Dean’s List two times and finished with a 3.58 GPA in her major.

In addition to Grappe, four other female student-athletes earned honors this season. They are West Florida junior soccer player Courtney Jones, University of Arkansas-Monticello senior shortstop Lindsey Randall, Harding University senior tennis player Alicia Williams and Henderson State junior volleyball player Bethany Wright.

The five male student-athletes selected were Christian Brothers senior cross country runner Stephen Hill, West Florida senior soccer player Nolan Intermoia, North Alabama senior basketball player Kenny Johnson, Valdosta State junior baseball player Joe Koenigsfeld and Southern Arkansas senior baseball player James Schroeder. Johnson is a repeat “Top Ten” honoree from last season.

A Tech female student-athlete has now been named to the female top five for the fifth time since 1997 and the first one since former Golden Sun cross country runner Aoife Cooke (Youghal, Ireland) in 2006. Tech’s first female student-athlete named to the GSC’s “Top Ten” was former Golden Sun volleyball player Jamie Hatchett (Fort Smith, Ark.) in 1999. In addition, Grappe is the first Golden Suns basketball player to earn “Top Ten” honors.

In addition to the five female student-athletes named GSC “Top Ten” honorees, Tech has had eight male student-athletes honored since former Wonder Boy baseball player Bryant Richardson (Russellville, Ark.) began the tradition in 1997. Former Wonder Boy baseball player David Ciesla (Pottsville, Ark.) was honored in 1998, while football players Stuart Cash (Lonoke, Ark.), Paul Peletz (Bentonville, Ark.) and B.J. Bayer (Gentry, Ark.) have also been honored. Cash was a two-time selection in 1999 and 2000, while Peletz was named in 2001 and Bayer was selected in 2002. Former Wonder Boy football player Jonathan Hayes (Sheridan, Ark.) was the most recent Tech male student-athlete honored as he was a two-time GSC “Top Ten” honoree in 2004 and 2005 and was selected as the league’s Commissioner’s Trophy winner in 2005.

Grappe is active on the Tech campus in extra-curricular activities as she served as the Vice-President of Tech’s SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee), where she helped create community service engagement events. In addition, she was an active participant in the women’s basketball team’s “Adopt-A-Mile” project and spent many hours volunteering at Russellville Elementary Fitness Night, teaching children lifelong fitness.

“Amanda (Grappe) had an outstanding career as a Golden Sun,” the second-year Tech coach said. “She is truly one of the all-time greats that have played in this tradition-rich program.”

The daughter of David and Diane Grappe, she is a 2005 graduate from Bryant High School in Bryant, Ark., and will return to the Golden Suns next season as a graduate assistant coach on Wilbers’ staff.

Complete GSC "Top Ten" Award Release

                                                         -- Tech Athletics --