June 30, 2005

Arkansas Tech's Jonathan Hayes has been named as the winner of the Gulf South Conference's "Commissioner's Trophy" for a male athlete in the 2004-05 school year. It marks the fourth time for a Tech student-athlete to receive the league's highest honor.

Hayes joins David Ciesla of Pottsville (1998), Paul Peletz of Bentonville (2001) and Bridget Pyles of Mansfield (2001) as Commissioner Trophy winners from Tech.

Hayes' award also marks the eighth time in the last nine years that at least one Tech student-athlete has been selected as a member of the GSC "Top 10" and he is Tech's 11th representative on the prestigious list since 1997.

The male and female winners of the Commissioner's Trophy are selected from the GSC "Top 10," which includes the top five male and the top five female student-athletes in the conference.

The Gulf South Conference consists of 17 member institutions and more than 3,000 student-athletes. All of the award winners were honored at the Gulf South Conference's annual awards banquet at Point Clear, Ala., Thursday evening.


The selections are made by a panel of administrators from within the Gulf South Conference. The panel selects whom it feels are the five most outstanding males and the five most outstanding females based on academic achievement, leadership, school and community service, character and sportsmanship.

A triple-major student-athlete

Hayes, a senior from Sheridan, epitomizes the meaning of "student-athlete," combining a stellar collegiate football career with a triple major in the classroom.

He was the leader of the Wonder Boys' offensive line, earning first-team all-Gulf South Conference honors in 2004. The four-year letterman was also a Football Gazette All-American.

Hayes stepped up even more in the classroom, earning a 3.72 overall grade point average ----- including an impressive 3.93 GPA in electrical engineering, nuclear technology and mathematics.

He was a three-time member of the Gulf South All-Academic Football Team and a four-time GSC Honor Roll member. Hayes was a six-time member of the Arkansas Tech University Honor Roll, highlighted by three semesters with a perfect 4.00 GPA.

Hayes is active on the Tech campus in non-athletic extra-curricular activities, serving as an officer for the school's international engineering student organization, the Student Association of Engineers.

He serves as a tutor in mathematics and science, has been a competitor in Future Business Leaders of America on the state and national level, was instrumental in helping to organize a group of engineers to become the Arkansas Society of Mechanical Engineers and is a member of the National Honor Society.

Hayes volunteers to assist in the Adopt-a-highway project and the summer festival RiverFest in Little Rock, is a mentor to kids from broken homes at a local elementary school, is a Baja car project designer, and is involved in a mass air flow system project.

The son of Edward and Shelly Hayes, he is a 2001 honor graduate of Sheridan High School, where he earned eight athletic letters in football, basketball, baseball and track and field.

The other winners

Alabama-Huntsville's Stephanie Pinto, a sophomore softball player, was named as the female winner for the Commissioner's Trophy.

In addition to Hayes, others among the Top 5 male athletes are Blake Barlow of Central Arkansas (soccer), Reed Fisher of Harding (cross country), Paulius Jurkenas of West Florida (tennis) and Craig Newton of Delta State (baseball).

Joining Pinto in the women's division top five are Alyse Hasty of Delta State (softball), Eva-Marie Petschnig of Valdosta State (tennis), Nicole Plikat of West Florida (tennis) and Carla Silveira of Henderson State (volleyball).

Becoming a Tech tradition

A Tech student-athlete has now been named to the male top five for the eighth time since 1997, when baseball team member Bryant Richardson of Russellville became the university's inaugural student-athlete to receive a GSC "Top 10" award.

Richardson was followed by baseball player Ciesla in 1998, football player Stuart Cash of Lonoke in 1999 and again in 2000, football player Peletz in 2001, football player B.J. Bayer in 2002 and Hayes in 2004 and 2005.

The tradition of female student-athletes from Tech earning GSC "Top 10" awards was started by volleyball player Jamie Hatchett of Fort Smith in 1999 and continued by volleyball standout Pyles of Mansfield in 2000 and again in 2001.