Davis, Bourgeois Named 2010-11 C-USA Scholar Athletes
7/19/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
July 19, 2011
DALLAS - Southern Miss redshirt senior quarterback Austin Davis and former Southern Miss baseball player Marc Bourgeois were named the 2010-11 Conference USA Scholar Athletes in their respective sports in an announcement by the conference office Tuesday.
Southern Miss was one of just three conference schools to have multiple award winners. UAB placed two student-athletes on the 18-member list, while Rice topped all schools with eight nods.
Davis, who was recently named to the Davey O'Brien Award Watch List for the nation's top quarterback, became Southern Miss' all-time leader in touchdown passes thrown in 2010 with 53 after three years of leading the offense, passing Lee Roberts and Brett Favre.
He also holds the single-season record for completions and his 7,396 career passing yards are just 299 yards short of Favre's career mark of 7,695. The second team All-Conference USA performer is also six rushing touchdowns short of besting Reggie Collier's mark of 26 for the most by a Southern Miss quarterback. Davis was also named to the C-USA All-Academic Team in 2010 after graduating with his degree in business administration.
Bourgeois, currently playing for the Yakima Bears of the Class A Northwest League in the Arizona Diamondbacks system, was a First-Team Academic All-American, All-Conference USA Academic selection and a First-Team All-Conference USA selection at designated hitter in 2011, batted .358 for the Golden Eagles this spring with 10 doubles, two triples and seven home runs to go along with 38 RBI.
He also garnered the C-USA Hitter of the Week award once on the strength of a 10-for-13 weekend in a sweep at league foe UCF. He helped the Golden Eagles win a share of the Conference USA regular-season title as well as reaching their ninth straight NCAA Tournament appearance and 12th overall.
Bourgeois finished his Golden Eagle career with a .318 batting average to go along with 13 home runs and 61 RBI.
The accolades are the first for the Golden Eagles since 2007, when Trey Sutton and Kristin Chaney took home the honors in baseball and women's basketball, respectively. Former Golden Eagle baseballer Marc Maddox also took the award in 2005 and 2006 while Charity Butler was softball's award winner in 2006.
The C-USA Scholar Athlete of the Year awards is presented to the top student-athletes in each conference-sponsored sport, as selected by the Faculty Athletics Representatives. The award is based on academic achievement (GPA), athletic achievement and service.
Scholar-athletes were selected from C-USA's 12 institutions and 20 sports (combining indoor and outdoor track & field).
2010-11 SCHOLAR ATHLETE AWARD WINNERS
Baseball - Marc Bourgeois, Southern Miss
Men's Basketball - Connor Frizzelle, Rice
Women's Basketball - *Amanda Peterson, UAB
Men's Cross Country - Matt Carey, Rice
Women's Cross Country - Risper Kimaiyo, UTEP
Football - Austin Davis, Southern Miss
Men's Golf - Erik Mayer, Rice
Women's Golf - Carolyn Cochran, UAB
Women's Rowing - Chelsey Lauzon, UCF
Men's Soccer - Zach Nulisch, Tulsa
Women's Soccer - Vendula Strnadova, Memphis
Softball - Antoinette "Toni" Paisley, East Carolina
Women's Swimming & Diving - Audra Egenolf, SMU
Men's Tennis - Oscar Podlewski, Rice
Women's Tennis - Rebekka Hanle, Rice
Men's Track and Field - **Philip Adam, Rice
Women's Track and Field - Allison Pye, Rice
Volleyball - *Tracey Lam, Rice
* Repeat winner