|
9/18/2006 John Williamson was named Vanderbilt’s 2005-06 “Coach of the Year” after leading his second-year bowling team to a fifth place tie at the NCAA Championships. The announcement was made on the field at Saturday’s Arkansas football game. The coach of the year award is determined by a vote of the Senior Athletics Administrative Team. The Commodore bowlers were the surprise team in the nation in 2005-06, especially considering they primarily used an all-freshman tournament team that got better as the season progressed. The regular season included two victories over defending national champion Nebraska. In addition, the bowling team posted the best cumulative grade point average of all varsity teams. With 10 of 11 squad members posting a 3.0 or better, the team composite was a remarkable 3.489. Senior engineering major Jennifer Redmond was Vanderbilt’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Michelle Peloquin was voted the nation’s “Freshman of the Year” and made the five-person first-team All-America squad and also was an academic all-America, posting a 3.60 in pre-medicine. Tara Kane was an honorable mention all-America and all-region and a third freshman, Mandy Keily, also earned all-region honors. Vanderbilt bowling also landed the nation’s No. 1 female high school bowler in Josie Earnest of Vandalia, Ill. “I was pretty surprised when it was announced,” Williamson says, “because we have some tremendous coaches on our staff. Just to be considered in the mix with them is an honor because to be honest, I’ve learned so much from them over the last two years.” Previous Vanderbilt Coach of the Year winners: 1999-2000 Geoff Macdonald, women’s tennis 2000-2001 Geoff Macdonald, women’s tennis 2001-2002 Cathy Swezey, lacrosse 2002-2003 Ken Flach, men’s tennis 2003-2004 Tim Corbin, baseball 2004-2005 Melanie Balcomb, women’s basketball 2005-2006 John Williamson, bowling |
