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NCAA News Archive - 2006
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The NCAA News
When the 2006 Woman of the Year is revealed later this month, she will be the first produced by a new process that determined recipients by conference rather than by state.
This year, 121 conferences nominated at least one female student-athlete in a revised process asking every NCAA conference to name its Woman of the Year and submit that student-athlete for consideration at the national level. Conferences that nominated one ethnic minority were allowed to submit an additional nomination. From the more than 100 conference nominations, the Woman of the Year selection committee chose the top 10 winners from each division. The nine finalists — the top three from each division — were chosen from that group of 30 conference nominees.
Most of those close to the new selection process thought it achieved most, if not all, of the objectives the Committee on Women’s Athletics envisioned when it announced that conferences would play a large role for the first time in the award’s 16-year history. The change was motivated partly by the committee’s belief that routing selections through conferences was more equitable than the previous practice of choosing one winner per state since some states have more NCAA institutions than others. CWA also believed that organizing the process by conference and division would give student-athletes and institutions a better chance of advancing.
Until now, schools submitted nominations directly to the NCAA national office and a winner was chosen to represent each state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. From those state winners, 10 finalists were chosen, and the overall winner was selected from that group of 10.
Donna Ledwin, commissioner of the Allegheny Mountain Athletic Conference, said the new system does provide opportunities for more student-athletes to be recognized. She acknowledged, though, that the process could be more streamlined. This year, schools submitted nominations to conferences through a Web-based system. Once the league’s decision was made, conference officials were charged with re-entering the information into a different database.
Another concern was the timing. The nomination cycle began at an awkward time in the spring. Many conferences had already concluded their meetings, and others were not going to conduct them until much later.
America East Conference Commissioner Pat Nero agreed that the schedule was tight, but he said that the league-wide exposure the winner received was one of the high points of the new process.
Nero, also a member of the CWA, said his conference’s selection process was modeled after the national one, with the league’s senior woman administrator working through her counterpart on each campus. All nine America East schools submitted a candidate. The conference recognized each institution’s Woman of the Year through a press release and online. That announcement was followed by one highlighting the three finalists, who were introduced at the league’s annual banquet. The winner also was announced at the event and given an opportunity to address the crowd of more than 150 administrators and coaches.
"Bringing the finalists to a league meeting where every athletics director and most other administrators are there as well as coaches of other sports was very effective. Many of those people hadn’t heard of the award before," said Nero. "The whole process has allowed for not only better recognition of the entire award and its meaning, but also better recognition for the hundreds of young women who have established themselves on our campuses."
Kyle Kallander, the Big South Conference commissioner and a member of the CWA, said the new system has engaged campuses in identifying outstanding student-athletes and those who deserve to be nominated for the NCAA award.
The Big South has recognized a conference Woman of the Year for the last two years. Conference officials thought that honoring each institution’s nominee as its Woman of the Year would encourage schools to become involved in the process and would further identify deserving student-athletes. This year, Kallander said eight of the nine institutions nominated a student-athlete, the highest level of participation yet.
"There’s clearly a higher recognition of the NCAA Woman of the Year award and nomination process," he said. "There’s been a lot more talk by our members about who these individuals are and how they should be recognized."
Kallander believes the new approach should be retained for the foreseeable future.
"We just need to refine it a little bit and work out some of the bugs," he said "If your institution is not going through this process of nominating a Woman of the Year candidate, you’re in the minority. I would encourage everybody to do that because everybody’s got deserving and qualified student-athletes on their campuses."
| Conference (division) Nominee School Sport(s) |
| ACC (I).......................................... Anne Bersagel* Wake Forest Cross country, indoor and outdoor track |
| ACC (I).......................................... Courtney Bumpers |
| Colonial (I)................................... Janelle Engle* Old Dominion Field hockey |
| GLIAC (II) ..................................... Jennifer Irwin* |
| GLVC (II)....................................... Amanda Newton Drury Basketball |
| Gulf South (II).............................. Alyse Hasty |
| Independent (II) ......................... Bethany Rehm* Texas Woman’s Gymnastics |
| Independent (II) ......................... Nicole DeYong Alas. Anchorage Skiing, cross country |
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| MIAC (III) ...................................... Angela Pfeiffer* Concordia-M’head Indoor and outdoor track |
| Mountain West (I)....................... Maja Kovacek |
| NESCAC (III)................................ Elizabeth Guernsey Trinity ( |
| North Central (II)......................... Lindsey Dietz |
| Northeast-10 (II)......................... Maureen Burns Bryant Field hockey, lacrosse |
| Northwest (III).............................. Cortney Kjar |
| Pacific-10 (I)................................ Kate Richardson UCLA Gymnastics |
| Patriot (I)....................................... Keira Carlstrom American Cross country, indoor and outdoor track |
| RMAC (II)...................................... |
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| SEC (I).......................................... Angela Homan* Auburn Cross country, indoor and outdoor track |
| SEC (I).......................................... Sarah Lowe |
| Southern Collegiate (III)............ Christyn Schumann* Trinity ( |
| Southern (I).................................. Shannon Wommack Chattanooga Cross country, indoor and outdoor track |
| SUNYAC (III)................................ Adrianne Musu |
| Jackson-Buckner* |
| SUNYAC (III)................................ Jodie Schoppmann Potsdam St. Cross country |
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| UAA (III)......................................... Renee Neuner |
| West Coast (I)............................. Christine Sinclair |
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