ATLANTA, GA (February 15, 2019) – The 15th Annual Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup, an award given to the most outstanding role models among athletes, has announced collegiate honorees for its 2019 award ceremony to be held in Atlanta at a date this spring to be announced. Bob Ryan, the famed sportswriter for the Boston Globe and analyst for ESPN, will serve as the Master of Ceremonies.
Founded by Athletes for a Better World (ABW), a non-profit organization committed to changing the culture of American sports, the Wooden Cup is unique in that it is open to athletes in all high school, collegiate, Olympic, and professional sports. Annual nominations are open to every division and conference in college sports, and to athletes in public and private high schools across the country in partnership with the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
John Wooden, who won ten national championships during the years 1964-1975 as basketball coach at UCLA, is commonly regarded as the greatest college coach of any sport who ever lived. Universally regarded as one of the finest human beings to ever grace the world of sports, his character, conduct and selfless gifts stand at the highest level by any standard. When Coach Wooden learned about Athletes for a Better World, he gave authorization to attach his name to this annual award, and he attended and addressed the inaugural event in Los Angeles in 2005. In his honor, the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup is presented to four distinguished athletes, one collegiate, one professional or Olympic, and a male and female from the high school ranks, for their character and leadership both on and off the field.
The 2019 collegiate Wooden Cup recipient will be announced at the awards ceremony.
Finalists for the collegiate division include:
- Abigail Abel, Purdue University
- Nathan Clayberg, Drake University
- Elisabeth Estep, Alfred University
- Malani Lee, University of South Florida
The Semifinalists were:
- Nicholas Ang, Wayne State University
- Daniel Boshart, Peru State College
- Lidia Breen, Lehigh University
- Kenneth Brinson, U. S. Military Academy, West Point
- Kelly Campbell, DePaul University
- Joshua Casher, University of Alabama
- Cierra Couch, Kentucky State University
- Erin Egan, Daemon College
- Julia Hays, University of Delaware
- Ben Harris, King University
- Caleb Kelly, University of Oklahoma
- Patrick Laird, University of California, Berkeley
- Terrence Mann, Florida State University
- Emily Miller, Roberts Wesleyan College
- Nate Renfro, University of San Francisco
- Travis Russell, Ferris State University
- Caitlin Sorensen, Menlo College
- Amanda Thompson, Mercer University
- Jake Thompson, Western Wyoming Community College
- Sam Toney, New Jersey City University
- Drew Tranquill, University of Notre Dame
- Tracy Van, University of California, Riverside
- Brittany Ward, University of Missouri
- Marcus Weymiller, University of Northern Iowa
- Grant Williams, University of Tennessee
- Jessica Wollmann, Radford University
