May 16, 2007
FRISCO, Texas -- UTSA's Kurt Attaway and UT Arlington's Dee Jay Nelson have been chosen as the 2007 recipients of the Southland Conference's Steve McCarty Citizenship Awards. The pair will be recognized at the SLC Honors' Ceremony on May 31 in Galveston, Texas, at the San Luis Resort Spa & Conference Center at 7:15 p.m.
The Steve McCarty Citizenship Award recognizes a Southland Conference male and female student-athlete who exhibits outstanding qualities in citizenship, sportsmanship, leadership and community service. In addition to the overall conference recipients, others nominated will also be honored with campus awards.
McCarty retired from SFA on August, 31, 2005. The Alto, Texas, native had been with SFA for 21 years, the last 15 as athletics director. McCarty is a two-time graduate of the university and is also a member of the SFA Alumni Association's "Football Coaches Hall of Honor." In addition, he was inducted into the Southland Conference Hall of Honor in 2006.
"We are thrilled to honor Kurt and Dee Jay with the Steve McCarty Citizenship Awards," Southland Commissioner Tom Burnett said. "When the McCarty Award was originated in 2005, these were exactly the kinds of student-athletes we wanted to honor. Both Kurt and D.J. have performed admirably in the classroom and the athletic arena, but what sets them apart is their commitment to and involvement with others."
Nelson has served as a leader and captain both on and off the softball field. While establishing a new career home run record at UT-Arlington during her senior year, Nelson has shown great sportsmanship, often deflecting compliments by asking what else she can do to help the team.
A first baseman on the regular season champion Mavs, Nelson serves as the UTA representative on the SLC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and has been on the school's SAAC for four years. She is also a part of the UTA Intercollegiate Athletics Compliance Committee where she represents the interests of the student-athletes. She is the first female athlete to be a two-time recipient of the BG Wilson Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, which requires excellence in sports, academic and citizenship.
Nelson's community service projects have created an atmosphere of giving among her teammates. Her leadership inspired the creation of the STAR award for team excellence, which was given to the softball team in 2005-06 to commemorate their outstanding community service. Under her leadership, the softball team has participated in the Love Luggage Project (hand painted hard side luggage for Foster Children of Texas). This luggage was on display in the Longview Museum of Art for fundraising efforts during Foster Children Awareness Month. The team also decorated Luminaria bags for Relay for Life (over 500 bags which were sold in honor or in memory of a cancer patient).
Nelson and her teammates also participated in Dark in the Park Halloween activities for the Boys and Girls Club of Arlington, Walk for Shoes to raise funds to buy shoes for needy children and collected canned food for Mission Arlington.
All this while maintaining an "A" average in her economics major.
Attaway, a men's basketball player from Pearland, Texas, is a two-time SLC Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Year and three-time SLC All-Academic First-Team member. He has a perfect 4.0 grade point average in his psychology major and recently graduated with his bachelor's degree.
