Wingate’s Anna Atkinson Named SAC Woman of the Year

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.----The NCAA has announced 418 college and university nominees for the 19th annual NCAA Woman of the Year award. Wingate University senior women's basketball student-athlete Anna Atkinson (Marion, N.C.) is the South Atlantic Conference's nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, officials announce Wednesday.

The NCAA Woman of the Year award honors senior student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership. The daughter of Tom and Kathy Atkinson, Anna Atkinson was selected as the SAC nominee by the league's Senior Woman Administrators (SWA) during the SAC summer meetings in Asheville.

Nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year award represent all three divisions. In order to be eligible for the award, female student-athletes must have completed intercollegiate eligibility in her primary sport by the end of the 2009 spring season, graduated no later than the end of the summer 2009 term and achieved a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 2.5.

The top 10 honorees per division will be announced in August, followed by the top three honorees per division in September. The top 10 honorees and the nine finalists from Divisions I, II and III will be honored and the 2009 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced at a dinner in Indianapolis on October 18.

In April, Atkinson earned an NCAA postgraduate scholarship for excelling academically and athletically throughout her Bulldog career. The NCAA awarded educational grants to 58 winter sports student-athletes through the NCAA postgraduate scholarship program. The winners (29 men and 29 women) will receive one-time, non-renewable grants of $7,500. The Association awards up to 174 postgraduate scholarships annually, 87 for men and 87 for women.

Earlier this month, Atkinson won the 2008-09 South Atlantic Conference Presidents' Award. The league's Faculty Athletic Representatives tabbed Atkinson for this honor. The SAC Presidents' Award is considered one of the most prestigious awards the conference awards to its student-athletes. It exemplifies the finest combined qualities of excellence in athletics, academics and community leadership.

Atkinson wins the SAC Presidents' Award for the second year in a row. She becomes the seventh person in SAC history to win the award twice.

At Wingate's 2009 athletic awards ceremony, Atkinson won the Joyce Gragg Pipes Award for female athlete of the year. In addition, she received the C.B. and Beadie Haskins Award for the senior student-athlete with the top GPA. During Wingate's 2009 commencement exercises, Atkinson won the H.K. Hendricks Award for the graduate with the top GPA.

The 2009 South Atlantic Conference Player of the Year, Atkinson is one of the most decorated student-athletes in league history. In March, the McDowell High School product was named to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) NCAA Division II State Farm Coaches' All-America honorable mention team. Atkinson was also named to the 2009 Daktronics All-Southeast Region first team during March, in addition to her WBCA regional finalist for All-America distinction.

A two-time SAC Player of the Year, Atkinson was also selected the SAC Scholar-Athlete Award winner for the third consecutive year. She shared the 2009 SAC Scholar-Athlete Award with Newberry's Laura Marquardt. Wingate's playmaker is only the second women's basketball player in league history to win the prestigious SAC Scholar-Athlete Award three years in a row. Tusculum's Julie Maples won the award three times from 2003 through 2005.

A two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® first team selection (college division), Atkinson is a Biology major with pre-dental specialization. She sports a perfect 4.00 GPA. Atkinson hopes to attend dental school in the future.

Atkinson is the first student-athlete in SAC women's basketball history to win both marquee awards in back-to-back years. The only other women's basketball student-athlete to earn both Player of the Year and SAC Scholar-Athlete Award honors in the same year was Catawba's Jowita Sokolowska in 1997.

During the NCAA Division I Final Four in Saint Louis, Atkinson was recognized as one of two recipients of the 2009 WBCA Scholarship Award. This scholarship is presented annually to two women's basketball players in any of the five WBCA collegiate divisions (NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA and Junior College/Community College) who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to the sport of women's basketball and to academic excellence.

Outside of academics and basketball, Atkinson has spent time volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, helping to build homes for local residents. She was a Union County Public School System volunteer, spending one year as a reading mentor at Wingate Elementary School. Last summer, Atkinson served as a Vacation Bible School volunteer at First United Methodist Church in Marion.

A four-year starting point guard for the Bulldogs, Atkinson led the SAC in assists per game (6.6), steals per game (3.5) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.5) this year. She was ranked first in the NCAA Division II national rankings in assist-to-turnover ratio and fourth in assists per game. Atkinson set the SAC career steals record Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009. A four-year All-SAC performer, Atkinson averaged a career-best 16.3 points per game her senior year.

In 2008, Atkinson and her teammates led the Wingate women's basketball team to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight. Atkinson earned the South Atlantic Conference Female Athlete of the Year Award and the South Atlantic Conference Presidents' Award, presented to the conference's top female scholar-athlete. She is only the third person in conference history to win both of the league's prestigious post-season awards.

The SAC double-double was not Atkinson's only academic and athletic double-double during 2008. She was an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® first team selection. A third team Daktronics All-American, Atkinson was one of only three NCAA Division II women's basketball student-athletes to earn All-America honors on the court and in the classroom during the 2007-08 campaign.