Big South Announces 2013-14 Athletes of the Year
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Coastal Carolina football player Lorenzo Taliaferro (Virginia Beach, Va.) and Winthrop women’s basketball player Dequesha McClanahan (Oak Ridge, Tenn.) have been voted the Big South Conference Male and Female Student-Athletes of the Year for the 2013-14 season by the League’s Athletics Directors, Senior Woman Administrators and Sports Information Directors, it was announced today by the Conference office.
Taliaferro earned 80 points and eight first-place votes in capturing the Howard Bagwell Male Student-Athlete of the Year award, becoming the second consecutive football player to receive the honor. Taliaferro finished ahead of Coastal Carolina soccer All-American Pedro Rebeiro, who tallied 68 points in the voting. Liberty baseball All-American Ryan Seiz was third in the voting with 52 points, followed by High Point basketball player John Brown (45 points). Radford track All-American Vincent Wyatt received 32 points to round out the top five male vote-getters.
McClanahan is the first Winthrop student-athlete to win the Conference’s Female Student-Athlete of the Year award, as she received 119 points and 18 first-place votes. She is also the first women’s basketball player to win the honor since 2009. McClanahan finished ahead of Campbell golfer Kaylin Yost, who was second with 46 points. Winthrop soccer player Krystyna Freda was third with 38 points, followed by Coastal Carolina softball player Kiana Quolas (33 points). Radford soccer player Che’ Brown and Highlanders’ volleyball player Rachel Wiechecki tied for fifth in the voting with 28 points each.
Taliaferro was a finalist for the Walter Payton Award as the top player in the FCS, a consensus All-American and the Big South’s Offensive Player of the Year. Taliaferro led the Chants to a 12-3 record and a quarterfinal appearance in the NCAA Division I Football Championship, the best football playoff finish by any Big South member. He additionally shattered 12 CCU single-season records and broke seven Big South single-season records in 2013, including points scored -- eclipsing the previous CCU mark by 88 points and the League mark by 36. Taliaferro ranked second in the nation in scoring (11.6 ppg) and finished the regular-season with Big South records of 27 total touchdowns and 25 rushing touchdowns. He scored a touchdown in 14 of 15 games and posted nine multi-TD efforts.
Taliaferro led the Big South with a school-record 1,487 rushing yards, which ranked third in FCS, and 1,596 all-purpose yards. He tied a League record by being a five-time Big South Offensive Player of the Week honoree and rushed for more than 100 yards a League-best nine times, facing six teams that finished among the FCS top 40 in rushing defense. In his five Big South appearances, Taliaferro was tops in the Conference with 636 rushing yards (127.2 per game) and 10 scores to help the Chanticleers claim their second-straight Big South championship. Taliaferro was selected to play in the Senior Bowl and was later drafted in the fourth round by the Baltimore Ravens.
McClanahan is just the second player in Big South history to earn three-straight Big South Player of the Year nods. She also became the Conference’s all-time scoring and assist leader with 2,277 points and 744 assists during the 2013-14 campaign. She led the Conference in scoring and assists for the third-straight year, averaging 17.8 points and 6.6 assists per game. Her assist average ranked her eighth in the nation. She was named a First Team Mid-Major All-American by College Sports Madness and was also selected to the Division I-AAA Scholar-Athlete Team. The guard turned in 12 20-point games this past season, to go along with 10 double-doubles and six games with at least 10 assists. She turned in a triple-double of 25 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists on her Senior Day as Winthrop downed Campbell on March 1.
She also led Winthrop to its first-ever Big South Conference women’s basketball championship and NCAA Tournament appearance. McClanahan closed out her collegiate career with a 22-point, 6-assist performance against No. 2 seed Duke in the first round of the NCAA Championship Tournament.
In March 2000, the Big South Conference Executive Committee voted to create an annual Male and Female Student-Athlete of the Year award, and name the male award in honor of former Charleston Southern Athletic Director Howard Bagwell, who was one of the founders of the Big South Conference. The annual candidates for the award consist of the Players of the Year from each sport for the season most recently completed.
HOWARD BAGWELL MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
2013-14 - Lorenzo Taliaferro, Coastal Carolina (football)
2012-13 - Miguel Maysonet, Stony Brook (football)
2011-12 - Ashton Bennett, Coastal Carolina (soccer)
2010-11 - Sam Chelanga, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2009-10 - Sam Chelanga, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2008-09 - Sam Chelanga, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2007-08 - Josh McDougal, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2006-07 - Josh McDougal, Liberty (track & field)
2005-06 - Josh McDougal, Liberty (track & field)
2004-05 - Mike Costanzo, Coastal Carolina (baseball)
2003-04 - Joseph Ngwenya, Coastal Carolina (soccer)
2002-03 - Joseph Ngwenya, Coastal Carolina (soccer)
2001-02 - Justin Owens, Coastal Carolina (baseball)
2000-01 - Jason Colson, Winthrop (baseball)
1999-00 - Keith Butler, Liberty (baseball)
FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
2013-14 - Dequesha McClanahan, Winthrop (basketball)
2012-13 - Brooke Short, Longwood (softball)
2011-12 - Gabrielle Houston, Charleston Southern (track & field)
2010-11 - Natalie Pearson, UNC Asheville (track & field)
2009-10 - Kristen Shifflett, Radford (softball)
2008-09 - Megan Frazee, Liberty (basketball)
2007-08 - Megan Frazee, Liberty (basketball)
2006-07 - Aruka Felgueroso, Coastal Carolina (golf)
2005-06 - Tiffany Evans, Radford (track & field)
2004-05 - Katie Feenstra, Liberty (basketball)
2003-04 - Katie Feenstra, Liberty (basketball)
2002-03 - Amber Campbell, Coastal Carolina (track & field)
2001-02 - Heather Sagan, Liberty (track & field)
2000-01 - Amber Campbell, Coastal Carolina (track & field)
1999-00 - Anthonia Akpama, Liberty (volleyball)