Asheville's Kevin Vannatta Voted 2017-18 Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – UNC Asheville men’s basketball guard Kevin Vannatta (Upper Arlington, Ohio) has been voted the 2017-18 Big South Conference Male Scholar-Athletes of the Year, it was announced today by the league office. The annual overall Scholar-Athlete of the Year is voted on by the Big South Sports Information Directors from a pool of each sport’s Scholar-Athlete winner from the regular-season.
Vannatta is Asheville’s second-ever recipient of the Big South Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor in the 22-year history of the award. The Big South Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Vannatta was voted a Third-Team CoSIDA Academic All-American this season. He graduated in May with a 3.935 GPA in accounting, and was chosen as the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association (DI-AAA ADA) Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Vannatta was also selected to the DI-AAA Scholar-Athlete Team for the second consecutive year. In 2017-18, Vannatta represented UNC Asheville and the Big South Conference on the NCAA Division I National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, was an official candidate for the 2017-18 Senior CLASS Award and was among the nominees for the NABC’s Give Back Team for outstanding community service efforts. Vannatta ended his prolific UNC Asheville career with 1,243 points, 574 rebounds and 378 assists, and tied for the most games played in program history with 130.
Vannatta finished with 39 points, ahead of Radford soccer player Fraser Colmer (29 points) and Campbell tennis player Dustin Werner (22 points).