2008 Department of Athletics Awards Celebration
At the annual Department of Athletics awards celebration several Bears were honored for their athletic and academic achievements during the past academic year.
Award recipients represented all athletic sponsored teams and included The Bear Leadership Award, presented to student-athletes who are leaders both on the field and in the community. The Bear Leadership Award winners were Andrew Emmerling from football and softball's Hillarie Van Otterloo. Van Otterloo will serve as the co-president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee next year.
Newcomer of the Year awards went to the basketballs, as junior Jabril Banks earned the men's trophy and junior Jamie Schroeder was presented the women's trophy.
The Bear Down Award, given to teammates who work hard in the weight room, was awarded to baseball's Anthony Garcia and softball's Morgan Dahlman. Both were also named All-Americans by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Both senior Thanasi Panagiotakopoulos from men's basketball and Kelly Schmeckpepper-Cook from swimming & diving were awarded the Breakthrough Awards, while Panagiotakopoulos was also named the top graduating senior on the men's side. The women's top graduating senior award was given to Karen Groll from women's tennis.
The outstanding male athlete of the year went to Reece Hopkin from wrestling and the women's award went to Danielle Hagen from women's basketball.
Also in attendance and honored for their accomplishments were the 149 student athletes who achieved a 3.2 GPA or higher during the 2007-2008 school year. That group of students represented 46% of the student athlete population at UNC. Of those, 33 student athletes achieved a 4.00 GPA for the Spring 2008 semester.
The high academic achievements of UNC student athletes stood out last year as 57% of all student athletes achieved a 3.00 GPA or higher during the Spring 2008 semester. We also saw 70 student athletes recognized at the regional level by being named to their respective sports Academic All Conference teams, and 6 student athletes recognized at the National level by being selected to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All District team. Thanasi Panagiotakopoulos achieved the highest honor by being selected to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All American team.