William Holcomb Honored As Men’s Golf Student-Athlete of the Year
Southland Conference
FRISCO, Texas – Sam Houston State sophomore William Holcomb is the 2017-18 Men’s Golf Student-Athlete of the Year, the league announced Monday with its all-academic teams. All yearly awards are presented by
Ready Nutrition.
Holcomb, the lone automatic selection to the all-academic teams after garnering All-Conference First Team honors, helped lead the Bearkats to their third NCAA appearance in five years. He paced the squad with a team-best 71.64 scoring average, more than three shots better than last season. He record four top-10 finishes, including a runner-up outing at the Bearkat Invitational at Walden while holding a 3.57 GPA in general business. He shot a low round of 66 on the year.
Eight Southland institutions are represented on the all-academic teams.
McNeese’s Reid Giardina is a first-team selection with a 4.00 GPA in accounting. He is joined on the first team by New Orleans’ Homero de Toledo, Abilene Christian’s Garrett Glanton and Southeastern Louisiana’s Joris Etlin.
The Wildcats are the lone team with two selections to the all-academic teams as Bryce Dooley earned a spot on the second team with a 3.85 GPA in finance.
Houston Baptist’s Valentin Almendarez, Central Arkansas’ Rodrigo Rivas, UIW’s Caden Wylie and Stephen F. Austin’s Blake Stock rounds out the second team.
The All-Academic teams are voted on by a head coach, sports information director and academic/compliance staff member from each Southland Conference institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s competition to qualify for All-Academic selection. Nominees who were also named to the All-Conference First Team or CoSIDA Academic All-District team are automatically named Southland All-Academic.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member schools, votes for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.
2017-18 Southland Men’s Golf All-Academic Team
Student-Athlete of the Year: William Holcomb, Sam Houston State
First Team
| Name |
Class |
School |
Hometown |
Major |
GPA |
| William Holcomb* |
So. |
Sam Houston State |
Crockett, Texas |
General Business |
3.57 |
| Reid Giardina |
So. |
McNeese |
Sulphur, La. |
Accounting |
4.00 |
| Homero de Toledo |
Sr. |
New Orleans |
Pinhais, Brazil |
Civil Engineering |
3.95 |
| Garrett Glanton |
Jr. |
Abilene Christian |
Dallas, Texas |
Dual Major: Accounting and Finance |
3.87 |
| Joris Etlin |
Jr. |
Southeastern Louisiana |
Frejus, France |
Finance |
3.70 |
Second Team
| Name |
Class |
School |
Hometown |
Major |
GPA |
| Val Almendarez |
Sr. |
Houston Baptist |
San Antonio, Texas |
Business Management |
3.70 |
| Rodrigo Rivas |
Sr. |
Central Arkansas |
Santiago, Chile |
Marketing |
3.04 |
| Caden Wylie |
Sr. |
UIW |
Boerne, Texas |
Business Administration |
3.93 |
| Blake Stock |
Sr. |
Stephen F. Austin |
Hewitt, Texas |
Sports Business |
3.47 |
| Bryce Dooley |
So. |
Abilene Christian |
Friendswood, Texas |
Finance |
3.85 |
* 2017-18 First Team All-Conference Selection