35th Anniversary - Feature 14

The modern era of the Atlantic 10 Conference has seen great success in Olympic sports, with outstanding performances from A-10 teams and student-athletes. Conference members have fared very well in league, regional and national competition, and a look through the recent past shows an impressive array of team and individual honors.

In softball, UMass has produced one of the nation's most consistent programs in the past several years while Fordham has quickly risen to compete with the Minutewomen, who have won the past six A-10 softball championships. UMass pitcher Sara Plourde was one of the keys to her team's success in 2010, earning A-10 Pitcher of the Year honors and becoming the 18th All-American in Minutewomen history while leading the nation in wins, strikeouts and strikeouts per seven innings during the season.

The 2010 season was a banner spring for Fordham, as the Rams advanced to the A-10 championship game and earned the program's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament with pitcher Jen Mineau leading the way. Mineau's play saw her receive a host of awards, including selection to the 18-member 2010 Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-American First Team, a spot as a top 10 Finalist for USA Softball's Player of the Year, ESPN.com All-American, First Team NFCA All-Mid Atlantic, First Team All-ECAC, First Team All-District I for the ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District Team, Atlantic 10 Student-Athlete of the Year, First Team All-Atlantic 10, Atlantic 10 All-Tournament Team, Fordham's team MVP and Fordham's Co-Female Student-Athlete of the Year. Both UMass and Fordham have been listed in Top 25 preseason polls for the 2011 season, while Plourde and Mineau are included on the watch list for the 2011 USA Softball National Player of the Year award.

Fordham's pitching standout Jen Mineau

Atlantic 10 members have also produced successful cross country and track and field programs in the past several years. One of the most impressive stories was the achievements of George Washington senior Megan Hogan, who has had an excellent career despite only taking up competitive running four years ago. In the fall of 2010, Hogan won the Atlantic 10 Women's Cross Country individual championship and also received both the A-10 Women's Cross Country Performer of the Year and Student Athlete of the Year awards. In November, Hogan ran to an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships and earned her second-straight All-American award.

Charlotte has become a dominant force in track and field, with the men winning their second straight A-10 Outdoor Track and Field title in 2010, while the women's squad has won four of the last five league titles. The 49ers have fared just as well in indoor track, with the women's team winning their fourth straight A-10 title in 2010 and the men capturing three of the last four. During this stretch, Charlotte sprinter Darius Law has been a standout on and off the track. Law has picked up four A-10 Track and Field Student-Athlete of the Year awards in his career, and has been both an indoor and outdoor track and field All-American. While his numerous gold medals in A-10 championship events are remarkable, his performance away from the track is just as impressive. The senior business management major serves as the president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) at Charlotte, and is the first 49er athlete to be selected as the A-10 representative for the National SAAC. Law, a team captain, was also named to the 2009-10 ESPN the Magazine/Men's Track and Field/Cross Country Academic All-America first team and was tabbed as the 2010 Arthur Ashe, Jr. Male Sports Scholar of the Year by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine.

Richmond women's tennis standout Erin Clark is another A-10 student-athlete who compiled an impressive list of awards over the past several seasons. Clark, a 2010 graduate, put an exclamation mark on her career when she was named the Atlantic Region recipient of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Cissy Leary Award for Sportsmanship. During her four years with the Spiders, Clark was a two-time A-10 Student Athlete of the Year and three-time All-Conference first team selection. Additionally, Clark was part of two A-10 championship teams and earned a 3.96 grade-point average at Richmond while double majoring in French and English.

Dayton and Saint Louis have led the way in women's volleyball, with each program winning A-10 titles and earning NCAA bids in recent seasons. Saint Louis won the A-10 championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA championship in 2008, then followed that up with a trip to the A-10 finals and an at-large bid to the NCAA championships in 2009.

George Washington's Megan Hogan is a two-time All-American

Dayton won A-10 tournament titles in 2007, 2009 and 2010, and the Flyers advanced to the second round of the NCAA championships in three of the past four years. Student-athletes from both programs have collected numerous conference and national honors, with three Billikens earning honorable mention status on the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-American team in 2009, while Dayton had two on the AVCA teams in 2010. Additionally, in 2010, Dayton had four players named first team All-Conference, including A-10 Player of the Year Lindsay Fletemier, Setter of the Year Jessica Yanz and Student-Athlete of the Year Becky Novacek, while Saint Louis' Andrea Beaty picked up Rookie of the Year honors.

Massachusetts has historically been the most dominant program in A-10 women's rowing, winning 13 titles in program history. However, in the last few years, Rhode Island has emerged on the A-10 rowing scene and challenged UMass' dynasty. Rhode Island's 2010 A-10 championship was their second in the past three years, and the Rams placed four rowers on A-10 All Conference teams, while head coach Shelagh Donohoe was named A-10 Coach of the Year.

A-10 baseball programs were well represented in the 2010 Major League Baseball draft, where nine league schools had at least one player taken in the three-day, 50 round draft and 11 A-10 players were drafted overall. Dayton and George Washington led the way with two selections each, and other notable picks included Tim Boyce of Rhode Island, who was the A-10 Pitcher of the Year, and George Washington's Tom Zebroski, who was the A-10 Player of the Year. Five other standouts received national recognition when they were selected to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America Team: La Salle pitcher Pat Christensen, St. Bonaventure third baseman Billy Urban, pitcher Corey Roberts and shortstop Justin Roland, both of Charlotte, and Saint Louis pitcher Alex Alemann.

Saint Joseph's swept the A-10 Sporting award in 2009-10

Student-athletes from Saint Joseph's swept the A-10 Sporting Awards in 2009-10, with Kyle Murray and Brooke Darreff winning the honors in June 2010. The Sporting Award is presented each year to a male and female student-athlete who exemplifies good sportsmanship, is in good academic standing, is active within the campus community, embodies the highest standards of leadership, integrity, and sporting conduct, is enthusiastic about the sport in which they compete, and has noteworthy act(s) of sporting conduct. Murray helped Saint Joseph's claim the 2009 A-10 Cross Country Championship and was a two-time first-team All-Conference selection during his career. Murray had a 3.56 grade-point average majoring in management and received the cross country team's 2010 Academic Award for the highest GPA.

Darreff, a three-time A-10 softball All-Conference selection, is one of just six players in program history to compile 100 hits and 100 RBI and set a program record with a .461 batting average in 2008. The psychology major was a member of the Saint Joseph's Athletic Director's Honor Roll, was honored as SJU's top senior female athlete and served as the Chair of the school's Student Athlete Advisory Committee.

Temple's longtime Sports Information Director Al Shrier has been with the Owls through their entire affiliation with the Atlantic 10, and beyond, as he joined the athletic department in 1953. Shrier has received numerous honors for his work, and in 2010 he added to that list when he received the Arch Ward Award from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The award is given each year to a CoSIDA member who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of college sports information, and who by his or her activities, has brought dignity and prestige to the profession. Shrier is now Special Assistant to the Athletic Director at Temple and is a member of the Temple Athletics Hall of Fame, the CoSIDA Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame, and the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Student-athletes and teams from across the Atlantic 10 have been extremely successful in the modern era of the Conference, and the continued hard work and commitment of A-10 student-athletes, coaches and administrators has the Conference and its member institutions well positioned to achieve further greatness in the years to come.

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