Coffman, Nelson, Grooms sweep top Golden Eagle girls tennis awards

By GARY HENERY

News Man­ag­ing Editor

For the Big Wal­nut girls ten­nis pro­gram, the 2012 sea­son was one of suc­cess both on the courts and in the class­room for first-year Golden Eagle head coach Ryan Balaz.

Big Wal­nut, putting together a 13–7 sea­son, posted a 4–3 mark to fin­ish fourth behind New Albany, Olen­tangy and Olen­tangy Orange in the highly-competitive Ohio Cap­i­tal Con­fer­ence Cap­i­tal Division.

It was the Year of the Senior when it came to the four indi­vid­ual post­sea­son hon­ors. Three Golden Eagle seniors con­cluded their high school careers with the program’s top three awards.

Grace Coff­man was the recip­i­ent of the Most Valu­able Var­sity Player Award, Cecily Nel­son the Most Valu­able Junior Var­sity Player Award and Melissa Grooms the cov­eted Golden Eagle Award which is awarded to a senior based on Char­ac­ter (40 per­cent), Schol­ar­ship (30 per­cent, 3.00 or higher GPA-4.070) and Ath­letic Abil­ity (30 percent).

Junior Blake Stenger was pre­sented with the Coaches Award.

Grooms, who placed third at third sin­gles in the OCC Cap­i­tal Divi­sion Cham­pi­onship Tour­na­ment, was hon­ored as a Third Team All-OCC Honoree.

Coach Balaz, who was assisted by JV coach Sarah Cline, awarded eight var­sity let­ters, led by five seniors. Coff­man, who earned her Var­sity Blan­ket as a four-year let­ter win­ner as well as her Senior Plaque, was joined by class­mates Emily Balaz and Grooms who earned their sec­ond let­ter while Kizer and Nel­son each received their first letter.

Three juniors were the recip­i­ents of their first var­sity let­ter, includ­ing Ford, Sewalk and Stenger.

Junior var­sity awards were pre­sented to senior Kaitlin Flynn; juniors Alexan­dra Berger, Jes­sica Dar­ling, Han­nah Flynn, Ara­bella Goodrich and Janie Serna; to sopho­more Erika Kessler; and to fresh­men Jen­nifer Cole­man and Brit­tany Peters.

Eight mem­bers of the Golden Eagle squad were rec­og­nized as Big Wal­nut Scholar Ath­letes (Var­sity Let­ter Win­ner, 3.20 Grade Point Aver­age) includ­ing seniors Emily Balaz, Brit­tany Kizer, Coff­man, Grooms and Nel­son; and juniors Car­o­line Ford, Bai­ley Sewalk and Stenger.

Balaz was also hon­ored as an Ohio Cap­i­tal Con­fer­ence Scholar Ath­lete (Senior, 3.50 GPA).

Posted by Gary Henery on Nov 7 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.