Georgia Southern’s athletics department honored its scholar athletes of 2011-12 at its annual awards banquet Tuesday night in the university’s Nessmith-Lane Ballroom.
Men’s tennis player Alain Garrido and volleyball’s Moriah Bellissimo were selected by the university athletics committee as the 2012 GSU Scholar-Athletes of the Year for their outstanding work in the classroom and on the playing field.
Garrido earned the first Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor for the men’s tennis team since 2006, when Vincent Patry picked up the honor.
This year, Garrido has moved up to the No. 1 position on the tennis team and has 10 wins in doubles play.
Garrido will graduate this spring with a degree in accounting, posting a 3.72 grade-point average through the fall semester.
He has been active on the Student-Athlete Advisory Board during the past two seasons as the men’s tennis representative.
Garrido also has served as the Eagles’ team captain this year.
Bellissimo is in the final weeks of her junior season at GSU with a perfect 4.0 GPA in nutrition with a minor in marketing.
She is the fifth student-athlete from the volleyball team to earn Student-Athlete of the Year and the first since Erin Martin in 2004.
From her outside hitter position, Bellissimo played in every match, scoring 25 aces and earning Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors Nov. 14, 2011.
Off the court, Bellissimo is involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and has attended its leadership camp for the past two years. She also has worked with Awana, a program for disadvantaged youth in Bulloch County.
GSU also honored 11 scholar-athletes as nominated by the head coach of each sport.
The 2011-12 GSU Athletics Eagle Honor Roll was introduced with its 105 members, led by 13 student-athletes from the football team.
Members of the honor roll had at least a 3.0 GPA in the spring and fall semesters of 2011.
The recipients of Scholar-Athlete Endowment Scholarships also were recognized.
Scholar-Athlete of the Year nominees included Cameron Baskerville (men’s basketball); Courtney Collins (women’s soccer); Sara Curry (track/cross country); Alessandra Dzuba (women’s tennis); Will Evans (golf); Derek Heyden (football); Hunter Norton (men’s soccer); Eric Phillips (baseball); Rachael Stockwell (swimming and diving); Mackenzie Williams (softball); and Samantha Williams (women’s basketball).