Daniel Zeiders receives John Egli Award

Penn State Mont Alto Athletics is proud to announce that Daniel Zeiders is the 2010-2011 male recipient of the John Egli Outstanding Scholar-Athlete Award.  Daniel was presented with this award at the 2010-2011 Penn State University Athletic Conference (PSUAC) Awards Luncheon. 

The John Egli Outstanding Scholar-Athlete Award was proposed by the Council of Athletic Directors in 1982, and was approved by the Dean of the College of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER).  The award will be given annually to the outstanding PSUAC female and male scholar-athletes in the Conference.  The award was established in honor of Assistant Professor John Egli in recognition of his long standing dedication and devotion to The Pennsylvania State University where he served as a student, athlete, faculty, and coach. Particularly noteworthy and significant was his service and contribution as the first Commonwealth Campus Coordinator of Athletics. Mr. Egli was responsible for the establishment, growth, and development of the high quality athletic programs currently enjoyed by all PSUAC student athletes.

1. Criteria
Selection will be based on the following criteria:
a. A distinguished athletic career in the PSUAC
b. A minimum grade point average of 3.00
c. A full-time student who has completed at least two semesters.
d. Being active in other campus activities in addition to athletics.
e. Exemplify high moral standards, leadership qualities, and outstanding personal character.

2. Procedures
a. Each campus may nominate only (one) outstanding female or male student athlete.
b. A student may receive the award only once.
c. Nominations and supporting documentation should be forwarded to the Chair of the Awards Committee by April 1 of the spring semester.
d. Nominations must be made by the campus athletic director. The campus DAA or representative must attest to the student's high academic standing and the Dean or Chancellor must signify overall approval.
e. The documentation for the nomination cannot be over one (1) page long and should follow the format established in the criteria section above.
f. Evaluation of each candidate will be based on the above criteria using a scale ranking from 1 to 5, 5 being the highest. The student receiving the highest overall rating from the committee members will receive the award. The results of the evaluation by the Awards Committee will be forwarded to the Coordinator of Athletic.
g. Upon selection, the award will be presented to the Annual PSUAC Awards Luncheon held at University Park at the end of the spring semester each year.

Daniel has been very successful in his past two years at Penn State Mont Alto.  He is a very focused and determined individual.  He has impacted the Golf Team tremendously as well as kept his academic responsibilities his first priority.  Daniel has not only played a major role in the athletic department through the golf team, but he also was an employee and statistician.

During the 2010 Golf season, Daniel was the only upperclassman on the team.  He was named the Captain and was a leader to the rest of the team, who were all incoming freshmen.  Daniel had played his freshman year and was prepared to be the leader.  A few of the players came from out of state, as well as one from out of the country.  Daniel was able to relate with all of the athletes and help them become friends and a team in no time at all.  With his leadership, the team won three out of the four regular season matches.  But the winning did not stop there.  They went into the PSUAC Championship and won the tournament for the second year in a row.  Not only did the team win it all, but Daniel was named the PSUAC Individual Champion.  The team finished 5^th overall for the USCAA rankings and Daniel was the USCAA Individual Runner-up.  Along with those honors, Daniel was also named USCAA All-American and PSUAC All-Conference.  The team may not have come together so well without the leadership and example of success from Daniel.  He was able to accomplish a lot individually, as well as for the team as the captain.

When it comes to academics, Daniel is just as successful and puts even more time and effort into his classes.  Balancing course work and sports is a challenge but Daniel makes it look easy.  He met the USCAA requirements of maintaining a 3.5 GPA or above to earn USCAA Academic All-American and PSUAC Academic All-Conference.  Majoring in Civil Engineering, Daniel has spent many hours studying and has reached his goal of finishing the last two years of his major at University Park starting in Fall 2011. 

Daniel found time after the golf season to get involved, playing a key role in working for the Athletic Department.  During Men's and Women's Basketball, Daniel was at all of the home games serving as one of our official stat keepers.  He learned the Stat Crew software within days and was able to keep accurate stats for the team and the athletic department.  He continued to help keep stats as well as serve as scoreboard operator and announcer for the baseball team.  Daniel also was a building supervisor in the Multipurpose Activities Center, with responsibility for all of the activity in the building during his hours of work. 

Daniel is the third Mont Alto student-athlete to be honored with this award.  Jason Shambaugh played golf at Mont Alto and was the male recipient in 2001-2002.  As a sophomore volleyball player, Jenn Stremmel was the female recipient in 2009-2010.  Being selected out of all of the student-athletes in the PSUAC is a great honor, and Mont Alto Athletics is proud to have three recipients from our campus.