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MMI’S SOFTBALL AND MEN’S TENNIS NJCAA ACADEMIC TEAMS OF THE YEAR
Marion Military Institute’s men’s tennis and softball teams have been named as National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Academic All-American squads for the 2009-2010 season. Individual student-athletes from both teams also were named to the NJCAA Spring Academic All-American Teams. The men’s tennis team, coached by Charles Wright, finished 7th nationally with an overall team GPA of 3.10 while the lady tiger’s softball team, coached by Joe Guthrie, finished 26th nationally with an overall team GPA of 3.24. To be nominated for Academic Team of the Year honors a team must have earned a cumulative GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale). All courses completed at the college level are included in the overall grade point average and the team must have completed a full competitive schedule.
Sallie Kimbro (softball) earned NJCAA Distinguished Academic All-American honors for the 2010 season while teammates Sara Davis and Nicole O’Grady earned NJCAA Academic All-American honors. Men’s tennis player Andrew Bryson also earned NJCAA Academic All-American honors. To be nominated for Academic All-American awards a student-athlete must have competed in one complete season, have completed a minimum of three full time semesters in college and earned a minimum GPA of 3.60 (on a 4.0 scale).
MMI’S LUIS POLLORENA NAMED ACCC BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Marion Military Institute’s Luis Pollorena was named the Alabama Community College Conference (ACCC) Player of the Year for the 2010 season. Pollorena was the leadoff hitter for the tigers, hitting .396 from the plate with 27 RBIs. As a starting pitcher Pollorena finished with an 11-2 record and a 1.77 ERA. He has signed to play at Mississippi State University.
Craig Herrmann, sophomore shortstop, was named to the ACCC Second Team All-Region Team and First Team All-League (Northern). Herrmann, a Delta State University signee, finished the season with a .388 batting average with 37 RBIs and 5 Home Runs. Sophomore utility player Chris Allen and sophomore pitcher Jordan Langley were named to the Second Team All League (Northern). Allen hit .375 for the tigers with 8 home runs and 57 RBIs while playing multiple positions in the infield. He has signed with Palm Beach Atlantic University. Jordan Langley appeared in 15 games for the tigers, finishing with 6 wins, 2 losses, and 1 save. He had a 5.40 ERA for the 2010 season and has signed with the University of Texas at San Antonio.
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Rachel Rossi Completes Stellar Tennis Career at MMI
Marion, AL—Rachel Rossi, MMI’s No. 1 singles player for the last two years, has ended her career as the most dominant and decorated tennis player in the three-year history of the women’s tennis program.
Rossi is a two-time ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) Regional Singles Champion, two-time ACCC (Alabama Community College Conference) First-Flight Singles Champion, and two-time ACCC MVP. She is also, with her doubles partner Ashley Grafton, an ITA Regional Doubles Champion and ACCC First-Flight Doubles Champion for the 2009-10 season.
In her two years of ACCC play, she has an unblemished singles record in conference play, and she has lost but one doubles match. Rossi finished as the 20th-ranked NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) player in the 2008-09 Campbell/ITA College Women’s Tennis Rankings. For the 2009-10 season, Rossi landed in the 21st slot in singles play, and in doubles action, she and Grafton wound up in the 13th spot.
Because of her extraordinary competitive spirit and her unparalleled prowess on the tennis court, Rossi was presented with the Tommy Murfee Award for Outstanding Student-Athlete at MMI’s Athletic Awards Ceremony, held in the MMI Chapel, on April 26, 2010.
Bryson Receives University of Alabama Presidential Scholarship
Marion, AL—A two-year tennis letterman, Andrew Bryson recently received the University of Alabama Presidential Scholarship to attend the University in the fall. The Presidential Scholarship is awarded to those students (one student from each of the community colleges in Alabama) who have a 3.0 GPA or better and who desire to attend the University of Alabama.
“Bryson was selected for this prestigious honor because of his strong moral character and his strong academic prowess, in addition to his overwhelming desire to attend the University of Alabama,” said CPT David Ivey, MMI’s Transfer Coordinator/Psychology and Sociology Instructor.
Bryson will put the scholarship to good use and major in German and minor in either mathematics or physics.
Six Tennis Players Secure Appointments to Service Academies
Marion, AL—It was a banner year for the men’s and women’s tennis teams as they sent a bumper crop of players (six all told) to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (Austin Dean, Karlin Joh, and Mariclair Vaillant), the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (Phillip Le and Chad Llewellyn), and the U.S. Naval Academy (Ashley Grafton).
All six of the aforementioned student-athletes participated in Marion Military Institute’s elite and prestigious Service Academy Preparatory (SAP) program, which, according to MMI’s Web site, “entails a solid academic core, an outstanding military program, and intensive courses to improve your test scores.”
Upon satisfactorily completing the program, an SAP student matriculates into one of the following five service academies: the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, or the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
Chad Llewellyn, MMI’s No. 1 tennis player and a graduate of the SAP program, shared his thoughts about his MMI experience: “My time at MMI was a really good experience for me. As a student-athlete in the SAP program, I learned a lot about time management and prioritizing. I tried to balance it all—academics and athletics—and excel. Academically, the teachers were good—great, in fact.”
MMI Men’s Tennis Team Finishes 13th in Nation
Plano, TX—The MMI men’s tennis team tallied 12 points on the first day of play in the 2010 NJCAA Men’s National Tennis Tournament and then notched another five points over the remainder of the tournament schedule to score an impressive 17 points and a 13th-place finish in the tournament. Tyler Junior College, Laredo Community College, and Collin College finished in a three-way tie for first with 40 points each.
On the first day of play, the Tigers came up big with four out of five wins in singles action. Chad Llewellyn, MMI’s No. 1 player, bested Craig Greenwald (McHenry County College), 6-3, 7-6 (3). MMI’s Austin Dean, at Line 2 Singles, demolished Kaskaskia College’s Corey Arnold, 6-0, 6-2. MMI’s third-singles player, Tyler Cobb, downed Moraine Valley’s Marco Reynoso, 6-0, 6-4. And Joseph Jeong, MMI’s fourth-seeded player, outlasted Pete Danos of Moraine Valley, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
In doubles action, the Tigers produced two more opening-day wins, with the MMI duos of Dean/Jeong and Llewellyn/Cobb producing identical 6-1, 6-0 victories over Waubonsee Community College and Moraine Valley Community College, respectively.
Andrew Bryson picked up a pair of points at No. 5 singles with a 7-6 (2), 6-2 win over Matt Lancaster of Pima Community College and at No. 3 doubles (with Kyle Justice) with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Danny Becker/Romeo Pahati from Oakton Community College.
Having received a bye in the first round, Kyle Justice, MMI’s No. 6 player, had to come up big on the second day of play. A win would produce three points, and a loss, zero.
“Kyle was placed in the precarious and incredibly difficult situation of either winning or winning,” said MMI coach Chuck Wright. “In order for us to be very successful, as opposed to being just plain successful, Kyle had to win his match against Gadsden. I knew going in that it was going to be a tough and an extremely close match. There was a great deal of pressure on Kyle, but if I had to choose one player to come through in a clutch situation, I would choose Kyle, because he’s one heck of a competitor.”
Justice did not disappoint. He won 7-6 (5), 7-5.
And the MMI men’s tennis team did not disappoint, either. They went big, and then they went home, ranked 13th in the nation.
Softball Players Earn All-Conference Honors
The Marion Military Institute softball team, fresh from their first ACCC conference tournament appearance, had five players earn All-Conference honors. Pictured (L to R) are: Head Coach Joe Guthrie, sophomore outfielder Jessica Kallander (Oak Harbor, WA), sophomore infielder Ashley Clontz (Fayetteville, GA), sophomore pitcher Sara Davis (Demopolis, AL), sophomore infielder Lauren Lewis (Saraland, AL), freshman infielder Alex Sullivan (Crystal River, FL), and Assistant Coach Brittany McGee. Kallander finished the season with a .368 batting average and was ranked in the Top 10 in the ACCC in triples and doubles, and in the Top 15 in runs scored. Clontz batted .383 for the season and ranked in the Top 5 in triples and the Top 10 in runs batted in and total hits. Davis finished the year with an 11-7 record and a 2.99 ERA and was ranked in the Top 10 in innings pitched and in the Top 15 in total wins. Lewis finished with a .397 batting average and ranked in the Top 15 in total hits and batting average. Sullivan batted .412 in her first season with the Lady Tigers for 7th in the ACCC. She also finished in the Top 10 in total hits, runs batted in and total assists. Congratulations to these MMI Lady Tigers and the entire softball team!
