July 21, 2005
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Graduated baseball player Trevor Thompson (Kent, Wash.) continued to rack up the honors on and off the diamond as he was named the Patriot League's Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, in voting done by the League's sports information directors. The honor is the latest in a long list of accolades for Thompson, who becomes the third male Navy student-athlete to receive the award, accompanying Billy Hurley (2004-men's golf) and Toby Moore (1995-baseball).
Thompson was named an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American, marking only the fourth time a Patriot League baseball student-athlete has been named to the first team. Thompson also earned a spot on the Patriot League Honor Roll and was named the Patriot League Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The history major graduated at the top of his class and left the Naval Academy with a 3.95 cumulative grade point average, after posting a perfect 4.0 GPA in his first seven semesters.
In the fall, Thompson was awarded one of 32 Rhodes Scholarships that are handed out each year by the committee of the Rhodes Trust. The 32 recipients were selected from a pool of 904 applicants. The prestigious honor will allow him to study at Oxford University beginning in October of this year. He was also selected into the Navy SEALS program.
On the field, Thompson led Navy with a career-high .322 batting average with 37 hits, 14 RBI and six doubles. Thompson was second in the League with his 18 stolen bases. Navy's team captain was named to the All-Patriot League second team, after batting .371 in league games.
The Patriot League Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year award is selected from the winners of the Scholar-Athlete of the Year award in all sports. The other contenders for the league's highest academic honor were Army's Carl Fisher (tennis), Scott Manley (golf) and Paul Strozier (cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field), Bucknell's Adam Freeman (swimming and diving), Jonathan Hemmert (soccer) and Chris McNaughton (basketball), Lafayette's Stephen Bono (football) and Navy's Clipper Lennon (lacrosse).
The Patriot League, which was founded on the principles of admitting athletes who are academically representative of their class, is in its second decade of academic and athletic excellence. Participation in athletics at Patriot League institutions is viewed as an important component of the undergraduate experience. The Patriot League, which began as a successful Division I-AA football conference in 1986 and became an all-sport conference in 1990, includes American, Army, Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh and Navy as full members and three associate members. These institutions are among the oldest and most prestigious in the nation and their alumni have played leadership roles in the shaping of our country. In the most recent NCAA Graduation Rate Report of student-athletes, the Patriot League ranked first among NCAA Division I conferences.
