CHIPYs honor best CMU athletes, teams
Student athletes are used to competing in front of crowds under bright lights.
On Sunday, they all congregated under the lights of Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium for the first-ever CHIPYs awards show, put on by the Student-Athletes Advisory Committee. The event was created to showcase the best moments of the 2009-10 athletics season and raise money for the Jimmy V Foundation.
The night started with a presentation of the late Jimmy Valvano’s famous ESPYs speech in which Valvano inspired athletes to keep pushing through hard times and not give up, creating a subtle reminder of the real reason for the awards show.
The most anticipated award of the night, Team of the Year, was a toss up, with five teams winning Mid-American Conference championships during the 2009-10 season. Tom Borrelli’s wrestling team, however, got the nod after finishing 12th in the nation. The MAC title was CMU’s ninth consecutive tournament win.
“To us, winning the conference championship isn’t our ultimate goal,” Borrelli said. “We’d like to win a national championship and bring home national trophies.”
On the men’s side, former CMU quarterback Dan LeFevour won two awards: Best Recording Breaking Perfomance and Male Athlete of the Year. While the Cincinnati Bengals’ quarterback could not be in attendance, former teammates gave him a surprise call on stage to let him know of the awards.
“Oh man, I’m so pumped,” LeFevour said on speakerphone to the crowd in attendance.
Senior all-around gymnast Katie Simon capped off her record career at CMU by winning Female Athlete of the Year. Simon was named MAC Gymnast of the Year in 2010 after winning three events at the MAC Championships, increasing her career conference titles to seven.
Simon was not in attendance but sent in an acceptance video, thanking everyone for her success.
Head baseball coach Steve Jaksa was named Coach of the Year after leading the team to a 36-22 overall record and regular season MAC title.
“It’s a great honor, I’m not going to lie,” Jaksa said. “It’s the first one of these that we’ve done, but at the same time, I think that any one of the coaches in there could’ve won it. I just hope we’re all sitting up here again.”
Andrew Aguila’s on side kick and 42-yard game-winning field goal against Michigan State earned Play of the Year honors and soccer’s 2-0 upset win against Purdue in the opening round of the NCAA tournament was named Best Upset.
A parody of LeBron James’ “decision” was played following the Best Championship Award performance, featuring CMU men’s basketball recruit Trey Zeigler in a TV-like setting where he would make his choice to play for Central Michigan.
‘Maroon carpet’
It was a sight to see Sunday night as players, coaches, administration and fans were out on the maroon carpet for the first-ever CHIPY awards event at Plachta Auditorium. Everyone, from the athletes to athletic Director Dave Heeke, was out for the show.
The first person to show up and walk the carpet was CMU head football coach Dan Enos. Enos said he was impressed with the setup and stressed the organization and interaction among the athletics department.
“I’ve only been here a short time and that is something I’ve been very impressed with,” Enos said. “The family-like unity with the entire athletic department, sport-to-sport and student athlete-to-student athlete.”
Men’s basketball head coach Ernie Zeigler, wearing a power blue suit, also made an appearance to support the event.
“It’s always fun when you come into an event like this to see the reaction from the awardees,” Zeigler said.
