PEORIA, Ill. -- For the first time since 1998 and just the third time in the 61-year history of the award, a men's golfer is the winner of Bradley University's most prestigious athletic department award. Coby Thompson (East Galesburg, Ill./Knoxville H.S.) is the recipient of the 2011 Charles Orsborn Award, which is presented annually to the senior Bradley University student-athlete(s) who best combines athletic and academic success with community service.
In other awards presented Tuesday night in the Michel Student Center, the 2011 Bradley Softball Team received the Carl Grose Service Award and former baseball player Lindsey Rolston earned the Orville Nothdurft Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to being a finalist for the Orsborn Award, men's basketball player Dodie Dunson (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington H.S.) was a double-winner Tuesday night, sharing the Megan Fong Inspiration Award with baseball head coach Elvis Dominguez while also being named the male recipient of the Coach Joe Stowell Award. Softball player Kate Singler (Witt., Ill./Nokomis H.S.) was the female recipient of the Coach Joe Stowell Award. Tuesday's ceremony also included the introduction of the candidates for the Male and Female Most Outstanding Athlete Awards, which will be determined after the conclusion of the 2010-11 athletic year later this spring.
Thompson earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors by placing sixth at the 2011 State Farm MVC Championship last week and earned the league's inaugural MVC Elite 18 Award in men's golf by boasting the best cumulative grade point average (4.0) among the top 18 individual finishers. Bradley's leader in stroke average in each of the last two seasons, Thompson boasts seven career tournament top-10 finishes. A chemistry major, who already has been accepted to two medical schools, Thompson was a 2010 first-team CoSIDA Academic All-District V selection and he is expected to earn first-team MVC Scholar-Athlete honors for the third time in his career later this week.
In addition to his work on the course and in the classroom, Thompson is the men's golf team's representative on the Braves Council student-athlete advisory board and has volunteered his time for community service to youth camps, church groups, hospitals and fundraisers in both the Peoria and Galesburg areas.
For background information and all-time lists of winners for Bradley's annual athletic department awards, visit BradleyBraves.com and click the "Awards" tab under the main banner.
