Keiser Claims Commissioner's Cup; Watson, Jarrett Honored At AD Meetings
@TSCSports
BLUFFTON, S.C. – Keiser University took home the Sun Conference Commissioner’s Cup for the first time, while Southeastern’s Drew Watson and USCB’s Justin Jarrett were honored by their peers during the Sun Conference Athletic Directors meeting Tuesday at USCB.
The Seahawks collected 148.5 points in the year-long Commissioner’s Cup competition, edging Southeastern (137.5) and SCAD Savannah (125.83). The scoring system rewards teams for their regular-season finishes in the Sun Conference standings, as well as bonus points for winning the Sun Conference tournament title. Each school’s total is the sum of its top four male and top four female teams’ totals.
Keiser claimed the regular-season and tournament titles in men’s tennis and women’s golf, earning 25 points each, tied for first in the regular season and won the tournament title in women’s soccer for another 22.5 points, and earned 20 points with a regular-season crown in men’s basketball.
"Winning this award for the first time in school history is a proud accomplishment for all of Keiser University,” interim Athletic Director Kris Swogger said. “This award is a true representation of our department and the commitment to success that our coaches, staff, and student athletes worked towards this year."
Watson was named the Sun Conference Athletic Director of the Year in voting by his peers. Under Watson's leadership, the Fire finished second in the Sun Conference Commissioner's Cup standings, earning the best finish in program history.
"It is an honor to be recognized by my peers with this award," said Watson. "I want to thank Southeastern's administration for giving me the opportunity to work with incredibly talented coaches, athletic trainers, and staff in support of our student-athletes."
SEU had unprecedented success on the field during the 2015-16 school year, winning three conference tournament championships, and capturing three regular season conference championships. Ten individuals qualified for NAIA National Championship competition, and five teams earned national tournament bids. Eight different programs received NAIA Top 25 rankings during the year.
Watson also helped create the first scholarship collegiate wrestling program in the state of Florida in nearly 30 years. Outside of competition, 63 student-athletes were named Academic All-Sun Conference, and the department registered a 3.03 grade point average.
Jarrett was voted the league’s Sports Information Director of the Year for the second consecutive year in voting by his peers. In addition to providing sports information and communications coverage for the Sand Sharks’ nine athletic teams and serving as USCB’s director of athletics marketing, Jarrett also doubles as the Sun Conference Sports Information Director, overseeing the many duties of the conference's sports information office, including coordination of preseason polls, All-Conference nominating and voting, Athlete of the Week awards and much more.
In his time at USCB, Jarrett has successfully promoted Sand Shark athletics with content and features that have gained national attention and further accolades from his peers at the national level. This May, Jarrett was named the CoSIDA Stabley Writing Contest District 3 winner for a season preview/recap for his end of year article on the 2015 USCB’s women’s soccer season and earned runner-up honors for his feature story on USCB cross country and track star Betsy Douglas. Earlier this month, Jarrett won three awards in the NAIA-SIDA Publications and Media Contest, including first place for his feature story on Douglas, fifth place for his women’s golf round recap infographic, and seventh place for his women’s soccer season recap.
“It’s extremely humbling to be recognized by my peers, especially because we have such an outstanding group of sports information professionals in this conference,” Jarrett said. “Taking over the sports information responsibilities for the conference has been a rewarding experience because it has allowed me to work more closely with the other SIDs, several of whom are equally deserving of this award. The work that Donnie Smith at Southeastern, Taylor Hodge at Ave Maria, and Kevin Devrient at Keiser – in particular – have done at the conference level while continuing to do an outstanding job of promoting their schools should not go unrecognized.”
Watson and Jarrett now advance to the NAIA Athletic Director of the Year and Sports Information Director of the Year ballots.
Donnie Smith, Kevin Devrient, Taylor Hodge and Justin Jarrett contributed to this report.