The inaugural Buffys Award Ceremony was held Monday night in Seeger Chapel. The event honored athletes, coaches, and teams that have shown outstanding performance in the last year.
During the event, members of the newly formed Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) helped present many of the awards to fellow athletes. Sports highlight clips were also shown throughout the ceremony, and a few songs were performed by Dave Whaley, Valerie Couper, and Will Stockly between the awards.
Awards included Female and Male Academic Team of the Year, Female and Male Rookie of the Year, Comeback Athlete of the Year, Breakthrough Athlete of the Year, Support Staff Member of the Year, Assistant Coach of the Year, Head Coach of the Year, Team of the Year, Individual Performance of the Year and Male and Female Athlete of the Year. A full list of the winners of each award can be found here.
An award titled the Eli Cramer Award was also dedicated to the late cross country runner and will be given to a student-athlete possessing a similar outlook and character as Cramer at future Buffys.
Sophomore Stephen Gilbert (Men’s Swimming) won Male Athlete of the Year and reflected on the work he put in to achieve it.
“Winning this award was honestly an amazing experience,” he said. “It felt great when all the hard work paid off and having my team next to me made it all the more enjoyable.”
Junior Taylor Dawson served as the President of SAAC for the Buffy Awards Ceremony and discussed her thoughts on this year’s ceremony.
“I feel like it was a really good turnout and like Christian [Pope] said, it’s going to be bigger and better every year, so I’m looking forward to the 2023 Buffys,” she said.
To stay updated on all Milligan Athletic events, please visit milliganbuffs.com
Headline photo by Thomas Moore