West on Community Service Team

Nov. 16, 2011

BIRMINGHAM — Senior Candace West has been named Vanderbilt soccer’s representative to the 2011 Southeastern Conference Community Service Team, league officials announced this week.

West participates in the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee’s Christmas Party, Spring Field Day and Halloween functions. She also spends time with patients at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and assists with Vanderbilt’s yearly Dance Marathon fundraiser which benefits the hospital.

“This is a well-deserved honor for a selfless person such as Candace,” Head Coach Derek Greene said. “On the field as well as off, she always set a wonderful example for her teammates to follow. As we move forward, I am excited for the chance this program has to continue building relationships in our community through service.”

At home in Georgia, Candace was an altar server at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Stone Mountain growing up and still helps with the congregation’s annual Thanksgiving food drive. This semester has tutored students at Bailey Middle School through the teaching honor society at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College.

The SEC recognizes Community Service Teams for all 20 league-sponsored sports in order to highlight athletes from each school who gives back to their community in superior service efforts. Other representatives on the eighth-annual women’s soccer Community Service Team include:

Carly Mygrants, Defender, Alabama
Carly Mygrants has been an active member of the Tuscaloosa community ever since her arrival at the campus five years ago. Mygrants along with the rest of the Crimson Tide soccer team were instantly out in the community helping with tornado relief. On top of all the hours spent after the devastating tornado, Mygrants also participated in Habitat for Humanity, volunteering at the local soup kitchens and participating in Project Angel Tree. She has also organized other community service efforts in her hometown in Ohio. Mygrants worked with LITE – literacy is the edge – also talked a local Tuscaloosa schools, visited assisted living homes, participated in Halloween extravaganza.

Jessie Givens, Midfielder, Arkansas
Away from the field, Givens has been active in community service activities. Highlights include serving on UA’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, participating in a tornado relief cleanup effort in Cincinnati, Ark., volunteering to clean up and walk dogs at the Fayetteville Animal Shelter, serving food and washing dishes at the Samaritan House, assisting students with stretching and running with the Running Club at Butterfield Elementary, reading to area elementary students through the Book Hogs Reading Program and encouraging physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle to students at area elementary schools through the Sweat Hawgs Program. On the field, Givens played in 15 games this year with six starts before being limited by an injury. She played 622 minutes and took five shots, but her strength was defense in the midfield. Defensively, she helped the Razorbacks limit opponents to one or no goals five times. As a freshman, she played in 19 games with 14 starts, and was named to the university’s Athletic Director’s List honor roll.

Katy Frierson, Midfielder, Auburn
Frierson is a mainstay in the Auburn and Birmingham communities while this past summer she went to Nicaragua for the Soccer Without Borders mission trip. The soccer SAAC representative and a leader in Auburn’s FCA, she has been actively involved with Committee of 19 and Auburn War on Hunger, has helped in Campus Kitchens, the Alabama Food Bank and the AUMC Food Pantry. She also volunteers many hours to coaching youth soccer.

Brooke Thigpen, Forward/Midfielder, Florida
Thigpen has volunteered more than almost 30 hours and participated in more than 16 different Goodwill Gator activities since the fall of 2010. Among her Goodwill Gator activities, Thigpen has participated in the 2010 and 2011 Climb for Cancer events, a morning when Gator student-athletes join children who have cancer to play various sports. She has volunteered at local charity walks/runs like the Not By Sight 5K and Run 5 to Keep Kids Alive. She has made several visits to Shands at the University of Florida pediatric ward to meet and talk with the young patients or to work with the youth to create art projects. Thigpen also volunteered at community events such as the KACB’s Great American Cleanup and the Restore Campus Cleanup.

Ashley Baker, Goalkeeper, Georgia
Ashley Baker has been active in the Athens community and has participated in several clinics including coaching a rec soccer team in the spring of 2011 in nearby Watkinsville, Ga./Oconee County. She volunteered at the Taste of Athens 10K benefitting Community Connection of Northeast Georgia and held a goalkeepers camp with former UGA assistant Steve Nugen. Baker is a frequent visitor to the Athens Boys & Girls Club and St. Mary’s Hospital. She also volunteered at the Special Olympics-UGA student athlete baseball game held on campus this year organized through SAAC and put on “Pups In The Park” event through UGA Hero and the Humane Society.

Kacie Kumar, Defender, Kentucky
Kacie Kumar has been extremely active in her two seasons in Lexington. She has been involved in everything from ringing the Salvation Army Bell ringing at Christmas time to Special Olympics Bowling. Kacie has helped pack backpacks and distribute them to local elementary schools as a part of the God’s Pantry Backpack program. Her biggest project has been with the St. Vincent DePaul Lunch and Dinner where she’s contributed nearly 30 hours in just three days.

Natalie Ieyoub, Midfielder, LSU
Ieyoub, who was also selected to the SEC Community Service Team as a sophomore in 2010, is the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative for the LSU Soccer program. In fact, she most recently helped the SAAC organize a blood drive held Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of last week as part of the LSU Baseball Purple & Gold World Series. Ieyoub is a frequent visitor with patients at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital throughout the year, as she visits with children and their families while playing games and signing autographs for the kids at the facility. In addition, Ieyoub has made a year-long commitment to Kid’s Hope USA while mentoring a student at University Elementary School in Baton Rouge. As part of the program, she meets with the student once a week while providing assistance with reading and math, and also playing educational games during her visit to the school. Among Ieyoub’s community service efforts are serving as a volunteer for the Baton Rouge chapter of Habitat for Humanity while helping to build homes in Baton Rouge, and participating as part of LSU’s Spring Greening Day in which she helped beautify the campus as part of a major landscaping effort on campus.

Alley Ronaldi, Goalkeeper, Ole Miss
Among the community service efforts in which Alley Ronaldi has participated: Reading with the Rebels, University, MS Volunteer, (2008-present); Leap Frog Mentorship Program, Oxford, MS Mentor, (Jan. 2011- present); Team community service events at games also include “Pet a Puppy” campaign (donations for the Humane Society) and “Kickin’ Cancer” (where jerseys were auctioned off after the team’s pink game for the Baptist Memorial North Mississippi Breast Cancer Center).

Kim Pettit, Midfielder/Forward, Mississippi State
Kim Pettit serves as president of the M-Club, Mississippi State’s student-athlete service organization., after previously holding the offices of vice president and treasurer. Pettit has been actively involved in numerous community service activities, including Bully’s Book Blitz which promotes the importance of reading to area students. Pettit also represented MSU soccer on State’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, helping organize the SEC’s Together We CAN Food Drive. A three-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection, Pettit has served as a team captain since 2009. Pettit ended her career with 11 points on five goals and an assist.

Maria Petroni, Forward, South Carolina
Senior Maria Petroni has logged over 54 hours of community service work in Columbia and the surrounding areas. Petroni has participated in the “Light The Night” walk each of the past two years to help raise awareness for cancer. She spends time outside of the soccer season working with youth at local schools Meadowfield Elementary and Bradley Elementary. She has volunteered her time with the Columbia United Rec League, Lexington County soccer and at various YMCA initiatives during her time at South Carolina. In addition working at South Carolina’s women’s soccer camps during the summer, Petroni has volunteered at soccer clinics held throughout the state, and has volunteered at “Family Connections” and the “K2A Speaker Series”.

Caroline Capocaccia, Defender, Tennessee
Capocaccia been involved with numerous community service projects during her time Lady Vol soccer program including making numerous trips to the Knoxville Children’s Hospital to visit with kids and their families. She spent time working at the Halloween Festival hosted by the Knoxville School for the Deaf and helped wrap and distribute toys as part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) Toys for Tots program for underprivileged children. Capocaccia has also helped host numerous soccer clinics, including the Knox Kicks Soccer Camp for refugee children living in the local Knoxville area. She has worked annual food drives to benefit Knoxville’s Second Harvest Food Bank.