Field Hockey Standouts Recognized On America East All-Academic Team - AmericaEast.com
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. -- Eleven field hockey student-athletes representing five schools and nine different majors were named to the 2008 America East Field Hockey All-Academic Team as announced by the conference office Tuesday, November 25.
Highlighting the academic squad are two first-team All-Conference honorees--Maine’s Maire Dineen (Toronto, Ontario/Michael Power-St. Joseph) and Vermont’s Kim Striegler (Whitney Point, N.Y./Whitney Point)--and four second-team All-Conference picks in Fairfield’s Carly McCullough (Queensbury, N.Y./Queensbury), New Hampshire’s Cally Cooke (Newburyport, Mass./Newburyport), Vermont’s Jen Angers (Mansfield, Mass./Mansfield) and Albany’s Ashley Ross (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley). Dineen and Ross were also named to the All-Championship Team, with Ross as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
Rounding out the academic honorees are University at Albany’s Jess Lindsey (Norristown, Pa./Methacton) and Vanessa Walter (Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Crest), University of Maine’s Nicole Emery (Winthrop, Maine/Winthrop), and University of Vermont’s Kristen Heavens (Harwinton, Conn./Lewis Mills) and Megan Maynard (Waterbury Center, Vt./Harwood).
Vermont sent a league-high four student-athletes to the Field Hockey All-Academic Team, while the 2008 America East Regular Season and Tournament Champion Albany Great Danes placed three student-athletes on the squad. Two members of the team represent the Black Bears, while New Hampshire and Fairfield each had one student-athlete honored.
Dineen, a sophomore International Affairs & Economics major, has the highest cumulative grade-point-average of the eleven field hockey players, earning a 3.97.
The All-Academic squads are a product of the June 2005 Athletics Director meetings, where faculty representatives and athletics directors from each of the conference’s nine member institutions decided to honor the league’s top student-athletes, whom excel equally in the classroom as they do on the playing field.
For the last two academic years, the All-Academic Team has been selected based on a formula. Starting this year, America East has adopted a more subjective approach based on feedback from various coaches’ groups and administrators and approval by the athletic directors. The process will now resemble the CoSIDA’s Academic All-America program. Student-athletes worthy of consideration will now be nominated by member sports information directors and voted on by committee of SIDs, academic advisors and faculty representatives from all nine member institutions.
All-Academic squads for team sports are based on the number of athletes that participate in a contest at one time (example: field hockey has 11 players on the field) or are made up of 10 student-athletes for individual sports. To be nominated for the distinction, student-athletes must be a starter or important reserve for their team and participate in at least 50 percent of their team’s games or competitions. In the classroom, student-athletes must have a 3.30 GPA and have completed at least one calendar year at their institution. Freshman are not eligible for consideration.
2008 America East Field Hockey All-Academic Team
Name Cl. School Hometown/High School GPA Major
Jen Angers Sr. Vermont Mansfield, Mass./Mansfield 3.80 Elementary Education
Cally Cooke Jr. New Hampshire Newburyport, Mass./Newburyport 3.70 Business Administration
Maire Dineen So. Maine Toronto, Ontario/Michael Power-St. Joseph 3.97 International Affairs & Economics
Nicole Emery Sr. Maine Winthrop, Maine/Winthrop 3.80 Kinesiology & Physical Education
Kristen Heavens Sr. Vermont Harwinton, Conn./Lewis Mills 3.58 Physical Education
Jess Lindsey Jr. Albany Norristown, Pa./Methacton 3.35 Psychology
Megan Maynard Sr. Vermont Waterbury Center, Vt./Harwood 3.88 Elementary Education
Carly McCullough Jr. Fairfield Queensbury, N.Y./Queensbury 3.52 Biology
Ashley Ross Sr. Albany Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley 3.67 Communications
Kim Striegler Sr. Vermont Whitney Point, Vt./Whitney Point 3.71 Human Development & Family Studies
Vanessa Walter Sr. Albany Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Crest 3.88 Human Biology