East Texas Baptist University senior football player James Fugate has been named the male winner of the 2011-12 American Southwest Conference Community Service Award, the ASC office announced on Tuesday after a vote of the league’s athletic directors.

This is the fourth year the ASC has awarded this honor to student-athletes for displaying leadership and action in fostering community service on their campus and local community. Each ASC member institution has the opportunity to nominate its campus Community Service Award winner to the conference-wide ballot.

James, a psychology and criminal justice double major, served as a bone marrow donor last year to an anonymous individual in the eastern U.S. and continues to be an advocate for marrow donations. He has helped the local Habitat for Humanity building houses for the needy in the Marshall area and also is involved with a prison ministry, spending time on Sundays in fellowship with and ministering to inmates.

This past year James served as the head of the ETBU Football Mentoring Program that allows players to spend time with local youth at elementary and junior high schools. He has also been an active member of Journey Served, the Baptist Student Ministry freshman families program, and also Disciple Now, where he serves as a small group leader for Disciple Now Bags For The Homeless. James also has a volunteer car service on campus, helping fellow students who may be experiencing car trouble. He has also participated in missions trips to Alaska, London, Ukraine and was a former camp counselor at Carolina Creek Christian Camp.

“Not one time has James ever done any of this for any recognition for himself,” ETBU football head coach Mark Sartain said. “His spirit of humility is genuine. What he has done is set an example for Christ. As his coach I couldn’t be more proud of a young man.”

James becomes the second ETBU football player to earn the conference’s Community Service Award, joining former teammate Michael Cucinotta from the 2009-2010 school year. James has also been named the winner of ETBU’s Joe and Marilyn Hogue Servant Leadership Award the last two years.

What a phenomenal example!  Way to go James!  GO BLUE!

Thanks to SID David Weaver for the story.

East Texas Baptist University placed three players on the 2012 National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-West Region team released this week.

Sophomore right-hander Kaylee Davis and freshman outfielder Kayla Garcia were named to the second-team All-West Region, while senior pitcher/outfielder, Ashton Brey, was named an at-large selection to the third-team.

Kaylee was the Tigers’ ace this past season, finishing 15-7 with a 2.91 ERA in 136 innings. The right-hander from Carthage, Texas, struck out 114 and allowed a .208 opponents batting average.

Kayla led the team with a .361 batting average that included two home runs, 27 RBI and 11 doubles. She was 10 of 13 in stolen bases and had a team-high 43 hits on the year as a true freshman.

Ashton capped her college career by hitting .330 with a team-high 25 stolen bases. The senior from Lindale, Texas, also was 8-8 with a 3.58 ERA in 93 innings in the pitching circle.

The Tigers finished 25-17 and advanced to the American Southwest Conference Tournament for a record 15^th straight season in 2012.

Way to go Tigers!  GO BLUE!

The ASC recently honored two Tigers for their accomplishments.

Ashton Brey, a senior softball player, has been named to the 2012 CoSIDA Academic All-District Softball Team for the second year in a row.  She carries a 4.0 grade-point average and was chosen as Academic All-American following her junior season.

Ashton is majoring in Mass Communications with a minor in Spanish. She was one of just three players from the American Southwest Conference chosen to the Academic All-District team which is based on nominations and voting by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

She was also named All-ASC East as both a utility and a pitcher. By earning first-team Academic All-District honors, Brey is once again eligible to be on the ballot for Academic All-America recognition.

Also, Anthony senior Anthony Williamson was named the 2012 American Southwest Conference East Division Sportsmanship Athlete of the Year on the 2012 All-American Southwest Conference Tennis Team released last week.

Anthony was the Tigers’ No. 1 singles player this season, shared the honor with UT Tyler senior Kevin Wright.  Anthony helped lead ETBU’s inaugural tennis team this season as a senior. He had previously been a member of ETBU’s tennis club team prior to the program becoming a varsity sports this year.

Way to go Tigers!  GO BLUE!

After the process that included nominations and voting by the league’s head coaches, Five Tiger Softball players were named to the 2012 All-American Southwest Conference softball team.

Freshman outfielder Kayla Garcia and sophomore pitcher Kaylee Davis were named to the All-ASC East Division first-team, with freshman shortstop Jessica Delgado and senior outfielder/pitcher Ashton Brey earning second-team honors.

Redshirt sophomore Kristina Cordova was named the ASC East Division Sportsmanship Athlete of the Year.

The Tigers were eliminated from the ASC Tournament late last Friday. ETBU’s 9-4 win over Howard Payne early in the day on Friday stretched the program’s streak of at least 25 wins in a season to 15 – every year of the program’s existence. The Tigers could possibly be invited to play in the NCAA Tournament for a fourth straight year pending the release of at-large bids to the tournament on Monday.

We are so proud of our Tiger Softball team and the quality student-athletes in the program!  GO BLUE!

Learn more about the Tiger Softball Program here.

Thanks to David Weaver, ETBU Sports Information Director, for the story. His official press release is here.

Chance Cotton has been named the American Southwest Conference East Division Pitcher of the Week.  The right-hander from Van tossed a complete-game two-hitter with seven strikeouts in a 1-0 win over Louisiana College. Cotton, who was perfect through four innings, did not walk a batter and allowed just a pair of singles in evening his season mark at 4-4.

It was Cotton’s second straight complete-game outing, pared with a 7-4 win at LeTourneau the week before.

SOFTBALL: Brey named ASC East Pitcher of the Week

Senior Ashton Brey has also been named the American Southwest Conference East Division Pitcher of the Week.

The righty from Lindale, tossed two complete-game shutouts and allowed just six hits – all singles – over 12 innings against ASC East opponent Ozarks. The two shutouts gave her three straight, including a 3-0 win at Centenary the previous weekend.

Brey also held her own at the plate, leading ETBU with a 6 for 9 (.667) performance that included an inside-the-park grand slam and five stolen bases.

Way to go Chance and Ashton!  GO BLUE!

East Texas Baptist’s Holly Phelps and Amanda Rucker have been named to the 2011-2012 All-American Southwest Conference East Division team based on nominations and voting among the league’s head coaches.

Phelps, a junior forward, led the ASC in rebounds this past season, her first as a starter. She played in 23 games before missing the final two because of injury, but finished with a 12.9 rebounds per game average to reign as the conference rebounding champion.

Rucker, was named to the ASC East All-Freshman team, earning the third-most votes of any freshman in the division. The 5-10 guard averaged 8.4 points and 5.8 rebounds while playing in 25 games in her first season at ETBU.

Way to go Ladies!  GO BLUE!

Sports coverage and article from ETBU SID David Weaver.

The ETBU Basketball season came to a close recently with the Tigers getting knocked out of the ASC Tournament, but the season produced some great things, including 5 Tigers being named to the All-ASC East Division team.

Jeremy LaGarde finished fourth in the league in scoring with 19.6 points per game this season, was voted to the five-man All-American Southwest Conference team, which is comprised of the top five vote-getters among the voting by the ASC head coaches and was also voted first-team All-ASC East

Jaron Joseph was voted to the second-team after a season that saw him start career-high 26 games and finish as the second-leading scorer on the team behind LaGarde, with 12 points per game. He also was named to the ASC East All-Defensive team.

Monty Grays was named honorable mention All-ASC East and was also the second-leading vote-getter on the All-ASC East Freshman Team. Grays finished with 17 starts while playing in 26 games, averaging 6.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.

Kerry McClahan and J.D. Richardson were also voted to the All-Freshman team, giving ETBU three of the five spots on the All-Freshman squad. McClahan came on strong in the second half of the season and finishing with averages of 6.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game in 24 games. Richardson averaged 7.0 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 31 of 83 (.373) from 3-point range.

The Tigers finished 14-11 overall this season with a second straight second-place finish in the ASC East. ETBU also earned a third straight trip to the ASC Men’s Basketball Tournament, a first for the program since becoming a member of the conference in 1998.

Way to Go Tigers!  GO BLUE!

Sports coverage and article from ETBU SID David Weaver.

Senior guard Jeremy LaGarde has been named the American Southwest Conference East Division Player of the Week, following a career-high 39 points in Saturday’s 87-83 win over rival LeTourneau in the home finale for the Tigers.

This is the third time he has received this recognition this season!

Also, senior left-hander Pete Fitzsimmons has been named the American Southwest Conference East Division Pitcher of the week for his performance in Saturday’s 3-2 win over Schreiner. Fitzsimmons tossed a complete-game three hitter in leading ETBU to its first win of the season.

Way to go TIGERS!  GO BLUE!!

“CAN’T GUARD LA GARDE!”

That’s a chant you’ll sometimes hear in the House of Blues, ETBU’s Ornelas Gym.  It pretty much means, you can try, but it’s pretty tough to stop senior Jeremy La Garde when he’s got the ball.

Recently, he was named the American Southwest Conference East Division Player of the Week for the second time in three weeks after averaging over 30 points per game for the Tigers last week.

Maybe it was his averaged 30.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists over two conference games last week.  It could’ve been scoring a game-high 31 points in Saturday’s 95-93 loss in double overtime to ASC East-leading UT Dallas, just two days after scoring 30 in a 100-85 win over Ozarks.

62.9% from the floor, five 3-pointers and 12 of 14 free-throw tries in two games.

30 points or more three times and has scored 20 or more points six times over the last seven games, all against division opponents.

Pick one.  Any one.  And that’s proof enough that you simply can’t guard La Garde.

Congrats on being named Player of the Week.  We are PROUD!  GO BLUE!

Read the full story from SID David Weaver here.