End-Of-Year Athletic Awards Announced
MEDIA, Pa. -- The Penn State Brandywine athletic department announced its major awards and honored over 100 student-athletes at its annual end-of-year banquet last weekend.
Coaches spoke of their seasons and accomplishments and student-athletes received all-conference, all-American and academic awards from the PSUAC and USCAA during the annual celebration.
In addition, Brandywine announced the winners of its three major awards: the James King Memorial Award, the Michael W. Menichini Memorial Award and the Lloyd Vernon Heart of a Lion Award.
The James King Memorial Award as Brandywine's outstanding student-athlete was received by men's soccer senior Manny Amine. Amine, a USCAA All-American, was a four-year member of the men's soccer team and captained the squad to a pair of PSUAC titles in 2013 and 2014. Amine also became Brandywine's first-ever Capital One Academic All-American in 2014 when he was named to the first team.
The Michael W. Menichini Award recognizes dedication and service to Brandywine athletics and this year's recipient was the Brandywine University Relations office. Headed by Director of Marketing and Communications Bill Tyson, the University Relations team was honored for its constant support of athletics and the student-athletes throughout the year. University Relations was responsible for creating Brandywine's recruitment video and numerous additional projects during 2015-16.
The Lloyd Vernon Heart of a Lion Award is named in honor of late tennis coach Lloyd Vernon, who served his alma mater for six years from 2010-15. A proud Penn Stater, Coach Vernon battled cancer for nearly his entire tenure at Brandywine, while still maintaining two of the top teams in the conference and teaching tennis classes to Brandywine students. Coach Vernon devoted his time and energy to the program and the athletic department and truly showed the heart of a lion during his time at Brandywine.
On hand to present first-ever Lloyd Vernon Hear of a Lion Award were Lloyd's wife, Rhonda, and brother, Mark. Women's tennis senior Heather Gartside and women's basketball senior Jilly Gledhill were both presented with the award for showing their heart, hustle and dedication to their teams over the last four years.