Towson, Md.----Wingate University senior center
Stacie Rhodes (Knightdale, N.C.) has been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III women’s basketball first team (college division), selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Rhodes is a repeat performer; she was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III first team in 2009.
Rhodes is an Accounting major with a perfect 4.00 GPA. The members of CoSIDA selected Rhodes for this prestigious honor. Eleven student-athletes were named to either the first or second team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III women’s basketball honor squads. Rhodes and her four first team cohorts will advance to the national ballot.
The District III College Division consists of all-non NCAA Division I colleges and universities in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia. To be nominated, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore with a 3.30 cumulative grade point average and must be a starter or a significant reserve on her team.
“Stacie Rhodes gives her best in everything she attempts,” Wingate head coach Barbara Nelson says. “She is one of the finest young women I have had the opportunity to meet. Wingate University has been blessed to have her as a student-athlete for four years.”
Rhodes leads the Bulldogs (12-9 overall) in rebounding (7.1 rebounds per game) and blocked shots (2.0 blocks per game). She is second in field goal percentage (52.2) and third in scoring (8.0 points per game). On the SAC charts, Rhodes is second in blocked shots and fifth in field goal percentage. Only Carson-Newman’s Shari Buford has blocked more shots than Rhodes this season.
As a junior, Rhodes led the Bulldogs in rebounding (5.6 boards per game) and blocked shots (36). She participated in the 2008 NCAA Division II Leadership Academy in Naples, Fla. during the fall semester of her junior year.
In 2007-08, Rhodes averaged 4.6 points per game and 3.8 rebounds per game. She netted a season-high 12 points in a huge NCAA Division II regional play-off win over Augusta State University (March 15, 2008).
Rhodes and her teammates advanced to the 2008 NCAA Division II Elite Eight and earned a top 10 ranking in the season’s final poll. The Bulldogs were picked to finish seventh in the preseason SAC poll. Wingate finished the season with a 26-8 record, including a 12-2 mark in league play. The Bulldogs sported a perfect 12-0 home mark.
The South Atlantic Conference was well-represented on the first team, as Newberry College also placed a student-athlete on the honor squad. Scarlet-and-gray senior center
Anita Bulcher (Russia, Ohio) joins Rhodes on the first team. A Chemistry major, Bulcher sports a 3.96 GPA.
The other first team members are Barry (Fla.) University senior
Mariesa Greene, Mount Olive College junior
Brittany Miller and Virginia Wesleyan College senior
Maggie Davis. Mars Hill College junior guard
Brittini Young (Ramseur, N.C.) is one of six student-athletes on the second team.
“Stacie Rhodes is articulate, bright and mature,” Nelson adds. “She enjoys the interaction she has with our faculty members (outside the classroom). Stacie is always looking for ways to stimulate her intellectual growth.”
WINGATE UNIVERSITY
Founded in 1896, Wingate University is a private four-year co-educational institution of 2,159 students offering active learning opportunities through personalized instruction, world travel, career discovery and community service.
Wingate offers more than 40 undergraduate majors in arts and sciences, business, communication, education, fine arts, music and sport sciences. It also offers graduate degrees in business, education, physician assistant studies and sport administration. In addition, the school awards the doctor of pharmacy and the doctor of education degrees.
Bulldog student-athletes compete in 19 NCAA Division II sports. Wingate University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past three years.
Wingate University is ranked number three among NCAA Division II Academic All-America® producing schools in the 2000’s with 34 honorees during this millennium. Only Pittsburg State (Kan.) University and Truman State (Mo.) University have produced more Academic All-America® honorees during this time period. Wingate’s 43 Academic All-America® honorees (lifetime) is tops among all SAC schools.
2010 ESPN THE MAGAZINE ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT III
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAMS (COLLEGE DIVISION)
First Team
Anita Bulcher, Newberry
Stacie Rhodes, Wingate
Mariesa Greene, Barry (Fla.)
Brittany Miller, Mount Olive
Maggie Davis, Virginia Wesleyan
Second Team
Alexis Hargbol, Shenandoah (Va.)
Brittini Young, Mars Hill
Keenan Whitesides, Emory (Ga.)
Amanda Billy, Marymount (Va.)
Dawn Sanderson, Methodist
Allison Sikes, Saint Augustine’s