April 17, 2009
SPARTANBURG, S.C. -
Three Samford student-athletes earned graduate scholarships from the Southern Conference, the league announced on Friday. Golfers Andrew Villarreal and Kellie O'Connell and softball player Kylie Harmon merited three of the eight total graduate scholarships endowed by the league.
The scholarship winners were nominated by Samford's assistant director of athletics for academic services, Chris Scott, and submitted to the conference for consideration by Dr. Chris Metress, the school's faculty athletics representative. Each of the scholarships is worth $2,000. All three student-athletes have earned at least a 3.6 cumulative grade-point average. Samford's three scholarship winners were the most of any school in the league.
Villarreal won the Dave Hart Graduate Scholarship. The Dave Hart Scholarship was named for former Southern Conference Commissioner, Dave Hart. Hart served as the commissioner of the league from 1986-91.
Villarreal, a senior from Decatur, Ala., is majoring in accounting at Samford. He has been named to the Dean's List six times, earning the honor in Fall 2004, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007 and Spring 2008.
Villarreal was also named to the Ohio Valley Conference's Commissioner's Honor Roll in 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08. He was named to Samford's 3.0 Club in Spring 2006, the Highest Honors Club in Spring 2007 and the Dean's List Club in Spring 2008. Villarreal plans to attend Samford's Brock School of Business' Master of Accountancy program, starting in the fall of 2009.
On the course this season, Villarreal has played 22 rounds, with a stroke average of 75.59. He has posted one top-10 finish and three top-15 finishes so far this season.
O'Connell was awarded the David Knight Graduate Scholarship, which was named in memory of Dr. David Knight, a former professor and faculty athletics representative at UNC Greensboro.
O'Connell is a senior from Lebanon, Tenn. She is majoring in sports medicine at Samford, and plans to attend medical school following her graduation. She has earned Dean's List honors six times, being named to the list in Fall 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2008 and Fall 2008. She posted a perfect 4.0 grade-point average in Spring 2007.
O'Connell was named to the OVC's Commissioner's Honor Roll in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08. She was a member of Samford's Highest Honors Club in Spring 2007, and the Dean's List Club in Spring 2008. O'Connell was inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma College Athlete Honor Society in Spring 2007.
This season for the Bulldogs, O'Connell has played seven rounds. She has a stroke average of 84.43.
Harmon won the Camp Champs Scholarship. Camp Champs provides online marketing and camp registration services to collegiate coaches and other camp organizers.
Harmon, a senior from Matthews, Ala., is a biology/pre-veterinary major at Samford. After graduation from Samford, she plans to attend Veterinary School to become a small-animal veterinarian. Harmon is a five-time Dean's List member (Fall 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Spring 2007 and Fall 2007).
Harmon posted a perfect 4.0 grade-point average three times (Spring 2006, Fall 2006 and Spring 2007). She was named to the OVC's Commissioner's Honor Roll in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08. She was named to Samford's Highest Honors Club in Spring 2007 and Spring 2008.
Harmon was inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma College Athlete Honor Society in Spring 2008, and she was the athletics department's nominee for the NCAA's Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship this year.
On the field, Harmon is currently second on the softball team with a .350 batting average. She has driven in three runs and has stolen eight bases in nine attempts.
Each of the eight graduate scholarships recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of the student-athletes who earn the awards. The awards are designed to assist the student-athletes in pursuing a graduate degree in their chosen field of study.
The student-athletes who earn the scholarships are also invited to the SoCon's Honors Awards Banquet held during the league's Spring Meeting at the Crowne Plaza Resort in Hilton Head, S.C. This year's awards banquet will be held on May 27.
"Joining the Southern Conference was about more than providing new rivalries for our student-athletes; it was also about providing them with new academic opportunities," Metress said. "Andrew, Kellie and Kylie have taken full advantage of those opportunities, and we are proud of their accomplishments."
