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ROCK HILL, S.C. --- Tusculum College's Jarrell
NeSmith is the male recipient of the 2008-09 South
Atlantic Conference Presidents Award announced league
officials.
The SAC Presidents Award is considered one of the most prestigious
honors the conference bestows to its student-athletes. It
exemplifies the finest combined qualities of excellence in
athletics, academics and community leadership. During the year, the
South Atlantic Conference recognizes 14 Scholar-Athletes,
representing each of the conference-sponsored sports. The top male
and female SAC Scholar-Athletes from each represented member school
are then nominated for the Presidents Award.
NeSmith becomes the second Tusculum football player to win the
award, joining Glen Black who earned this honor in
2007. In fact, NeSmith and Black are the only two football players
in the history of the league to earn this prestigious honor.
NeSmith, a 6-2, 215-pound junior from Russellville, Ala., has a
3.86 cumulative grade point average as a Pre-Medicine major. He was
named the SAC Scholar Athlete for Football for a second consecutive
year and was tabbed to the ESPN The Magazine Academic
All-America® College Division Football Team this past fall.
NeSmith was named a first-team All-Conference selection at tight
end and caught 67 passes for 635 yards and seven touchdowns this
past football season. His catch tally was the third-best in school
history and he ranked second in the league in receptions per game.
NeSmith was named to the Associated Press Little All-America Team,
the Daktronics Division II All-America Team, the D2Football.com
All-America Team and the Football Gazette All-America Team.
He helped lead the Pioneers to a 9-4 record and the 2008 South
Atlantic Conference Championship. The nine wins match a school
single-season record, while earning the program its first NCAA
Division II Playoff berth. Tusculum advanced to the regional
semifinal round and finished the season ranked No. 16 in the
nation.
NeSmith earned the 2006-07 Duffield Award, presented to the
Tusculum male student-athlete with the highest GPA and was the
2005-06 Tusculum Academic Freshman of the Year. He is a member of
the SAC Commissioner's Honor Roll and the Tusculum Athletic
Director's Honor Roll. He is also on the Dean's List, President's
List and Charles Oliver Gray Honors List. He was named to the ESPN
The Magazine Academic All-District IV team for a second year in a
row.
In the community, NeSmith has volunteered with Habitat for
Humanity, Adopt-a-Highway and Drug Awareness program at Holston
Homes for Children in Greeneville, Tenn. He also volunteers with
the Lunch Buddies program at Doak Elementary School, which provides
mentoring relationships between the Tusculum football players and
the school children. He has spoken to youth and high school
students on the importance of education and college life at South
Greene High School and the Chucky Mullins Center.
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