As the 2016-2017 academic year wraps up, the St. Bonaventure University athletics department will host the second annual Bonnie Awards to commemorate athletic accomplishments from students throughout the year.
In previous years, the school would put together an end-of-the-year senior banquet to honor the graduating seniors with a dinner and to thank them for the commitment of being a student-athlete at Bonaventure.
However, Assistant Athletic Director for Academic Support and Student Services Heather McDivitt didn’t feel the banquet was very inclusive and wanted to get younger students involved.
“We realized, as a department, we didn’t really have any big event where we all got together and celebrated anything,” McDivitt said. “We noticed a lot of schools in the Atlantic 10 and in other conferences have end-of-the-year, department-wide, big banquets. So we decided to shift from just a senior-only banquet to open it up to everybody.”
McDivitt and student-athletes on the Student Athletic Advisory Council (SAAC) began planning for the first annual Bonnie Awards at the end of the 2015-2016 school year. The event was held in the Quick Center for the Arts and invited all the student-athletes to attend, which SAAC president Imani Outlaw found to be incredibly cool to see.
“We all get so consumed with our sport and school, so it’s nice to have all the athletes together for a night and enjoy our accomplishments,” Outlaw said.
McDivitt, Outlaw and the rest of the members of SAAC wanted to go bigger and better for this year’s edition of the ceremony. This year, in order to take advantage of the new video board, the awards will be in the Reilly Center.
“We’re going to have a lot of video skits and a lot of fun highlights,” Outlaw said. “It’s just going to be a lot more video-based production that we couldn’t do last year.”
For the awards, Outlaw said she took inspiration from the ESPY awards, which is an athletic awards show featuring teams and players from major sports, college athletes and Olympians.
At the Bonnie Awards, there will be nine different awards: Rookie of the Year, Rising Star, Most Changed Since Freshman Year, Best International Athlete, Breakthrough Performance, Most Spirited, Courage Award, Unsung Hero and Reilly Award. All the awards will have a male and female recipient.
Rising Star will go to a sophomore or junior who has played well in their sport and has hopes for future success, Breakthrough Performance will go to an athlete who displayed significant athletic success and the Courage Award will go to an athlete who has overcome adversity.
The Reilly Award, though, is the hallmark award at the event.
“I would say [the Reilly Award] is the most prestigious award,” Outlaw said. “It is for someone who encompasses everything that it means to be a Bonnie.”
The awards are also student-nominated, meaning all the student-athletes pick teammates for the awards, and the winners are selected from those nominations.
Other additions to this year’s edition include a DJ during the red carpet before the awards and pictures and videos of all the nominees, McDivitt said.
“We’re going to do a slideshow of all our international students to honor and recognize them,” McDivitt said. “We have a lot of Canadians from up near Toronto, so they might not have experienced a major culture shock, but we have some kids who have had a lot of language and culture changes, and it’s a real sacrifice for them to come here.”
The senior segment of the show will not be lost either. McDivitt said each senior from every team will be recognized and be given a senior gift.
“If they come in on time, we’re going to recognize our graduates with stoles that say ‘student athlete’ and have the Bona Wolf on it,” McDivitt said. “That’s a new initiative we’re doing going forward as something they can wear over their gown as a student-athlete to show what they’ve contributed to the university by being a student athlete and the time they spent representing the university.”
In the future, McDivitt hopes to add even more awards, such as for faculty and coaches of the year, the team of the year or a “beast in the weight room” award from strength and conditioning coach Darryn Fiske.
The Bonnie Awards will be handed out May 1 at 7 p.m. in the Reilly Center.
signorra15@bonaventure.edu
