Women's Basketball Celebrates Season With End Of The Year Banquet

4/16/2003

HUNTINGTON--The 2002-03 women's basketball team was honored Tuesday night as a part of the First Annual Women's Basketball Banquet, held in front of 150 supporters, staff, and friends at the Marshall Hall of Fame Cafe.

Marshall president Dr. Dan Angel and athletics director Bob "Kayo" Marcum were on hand to help celebrate the Herd's most successful season in years.

The list of accomplishments has grown to monumental proportions. The most wins for a Marshall program since 1996-97. The Herd's first trip to the MAC Quarterfinals in Cleveland. Marshall's first ever win the Mid-American Conference Tournament. Two consecutive top-50 recruiting classes. Throw in the conference's best rebounder (Catie Knable), the nation's 13th best team rebounding margin (+7.5), and wins over three MAC programs for the first time since joining the conference in 1997 (Ball State, Kent State, Northern Illinois), and the table has been set for a promising future for the Herd women's basketball program.

Head coach Royce Chadwick believes this is just the beginning for his Herd team.

"We had a good year, with a lot of firsts," said Chadwick. "But, we didn't come here to be 12-17. Or 7-9 in the MAC. We hope that in the future we'll see some of the players in this room on the walls of this place. Because they were here when it all got started."

The awards were numerous for Marshall's players throughout the night.

Catie Knable (Floyd Knobs, Ind.) made the most trips to the podium. Knable was honored being named as a MAC Player Of The Week, an All-MAC Honorable Mention selection, the team's leading rebounder, and a member of the nation's All Strength and Conditioning team, an award given to 15 players in each Division I sport "whose athletic accomplishments, in the opinion of their strength coach, reflect their dedication to strength training and conditioning."

Jamie Kellerman (Houston, Tex.) was honored for her academic excellence in the classroom. The sophomore guard has a 3.8 G.P.A., and has made the Marshall University Dean's List every year at Marshall. She is also a member of the National Dean's List, an honor bestowed on only 1/2 of 1% of all college students.

Amy Reed (Schuykill Haven, Pa.) and Ida Dotson (Tombstone, Ariz.) were given Captain's awards, while Reed took home the offensive player of the year.

Nadia Swanigan (Sylacauga, Ala.) won the team's defensive player of the year award, Amy Smith (Ramstein, Germany) took the sixth man of the year award, while Leighann Fry (Hannibal, Ohio) was named the team's most improved player.

Freshman Sikeetha Shepard-Hall (Houston, Tex.) gathered the Donna Lawson MVP award and an All-MAC Freshman team plaque. The MVP award is named after the Herd's first women's basketball coach, and is given to the player who is most important to the team, voted on by the team.