Saturday, June 4, 2011

2010-2011 Cavalier of the Year nominations

Wednesday, June 8, is this blog's official third birthday.  Party hats, birthday cake, and noisemakers all considered appropriate.  But the centerpiece of the celebration is the awarding of the third annual FOV Cavalier of the Year award.  It's just for fun and the only reward is a goofy bad Photoshop of the winner, but I also take this seriously as a way to highlight the achievements of everyone suiting up for the Hoos and the outstanding and highly successful commitment to excellence in all aspects of competition that the University demonstrates.  Bob Molinaro can shove it where the sun will never shine.

As before, I've nominated twelve of the University's elite student-athletes from the past season, and as always, it's a strong selection.  These athletes have received an eye-popping assortment of conference and national accolades while representing the school on the highest stage.  The only hard-and-fast rule I have when I consider these nominations are that only one athlete per sport can be nominated (with the exception that, in the past, I've nominated tennis doubles teams, but not this year.)  Other than that, it's rather subjective, but then, it's usually pretty evident who stands head and shoulders above the rest.  These guys and gals are the cream of the crop, and without further ado, this year's nominations in alphabetical order:

Robby Andrews - men's track - 2nd nomination
Liz Downs - women's lacrosse - 1st nomination
Mustapha Farrakhan - basketball - 1st nomination
Sinead Farrelly - women's soccer - 1st nomination
Danny Hultzen - baseball - 3rd nomination
Matt McLean - men's swimming - 2nd nomination
Brian Ownby - men's soccer - 1st nomination
Keith Payne - football - 1st nomination
Lauren Perdue - women's swimming - 2nd nomination
Paige Selenski - field hockey - 3rd nomination
Michael Shabaz - men's tennis - 3rd nomination
Steele Stanwick - men's lacrosse - 1st nomination

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll feature each of these athletes, two at a time and in random order, and make the case for each.  After that, you get to vote.  I don't choose the winner; you do.  For me, that's part of the fun - seeing who the fans think is most deserving, the best of the best.  You've chosen wisely the past couple of years.  Let the competition begin and the best (wo)man win.

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