Golfer Josh Simer picked as Tech's NCAA Man of the Year
Senior golfer Josh Simer is Tennessee Tech's NCAA Man of the Year for 2010, winning the honor from a field of seven finalists.
by Thomas Corhern
Cookeville Herald-Citizen
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- In college athletics, it's not just about
being the best athlete or the best student as one can be.
Sometimes, the important thing is to just go out and have a little
fun.
Throughout this recent campaign, senior Tennessee Tech golfer Josh
Simer made that a priority. With that, Simer had a breakout year on
the course, as well as perfect scores in the classroom and a busy
schedule of giving his time back to the community.
Through those efforts, Simer was selected as the winner for the
2010 Tennessee Tech Man of the Year award.
Simer had some tough competition for the award, including Taylor
Askew (football), Frank Davis (basketball), Lee Henry (baseball),
Tate McMillan (baseball), Elijah Muhammad (basketball) and Jarrad
Read (cross country).
"It's a great honor," Simer said. "I know was a finalist with
several other outstanding athletes, and certainly being selected as
the winner among those guys is pretty neat.
"It's really been a great year from start to finish. I went through
this season with a different mind-set and it was more about having
fun on the golf course. I will definitely concede that it wasn't my
play on the golf course that have gotten me most of my accolades --
it's been in the classroom, and I've focused on that my entire
career."
Simer is the first winner of the Man of the Year award from the
men's golf program. Previous winners include: Ben Holt (1993,
baseball), Mike Kinney (1994, baseball), Willie Queen (1995,
football), Gerald Bentley (1996, football), Robert Taylor (1997,
football), Jeff Norman (1998, football), T.J. Christian (1999,
football), Wes Gallagher (2000, football), Larrie Smith (2001,
basketball), Grant Swallows (2002, football), Brent Jolly (2003,
basketball), Luis Aguerrevere (2004, tennis), Brett Vavra (2005,
football), David McMahan (2006, football), Anthony Ash (2007,
football), Thomas Nelson (2008, baseball) and Bradley Thompson
(2009, football).
"When I started and took over the team two years ago after (former
Tech golf coach) Bobby (Nichols') passing, I inherited the best 15
guys at that time," said TTU golf coach Craig King. "Through
graduation and those sorts of things, as well as learning about
everyone of them, Josh has always been at the forefront on the
academic side, of course, with a 4.0 grade point average. He's
always been very dedicated and conscientious of that. He's also
shown a lot of passion for his golf and I think he really showed it
in this last year."
