Record 31 Tommies Named 2020-21 CCAA National Scholars

The 2020-21 school year saw 31 St. Thomas University Tommies be named CCAA National Scholars, the most all time.

The CCAA National Scholar Award recognizes the outstanding academic accomplishments of student-athletes. To be recognized, a student-athlete must achieve honours standing at their institution in the current academic year.

Madison Owens (women’s basketball) and Christian Christie (men’s volleyball) were just two of the student athletes to be recognized. An honour that each of them have received each year they have been student athletes.

“Balancing school and playing a sport can definitely be difficult at times,” said Owens, who is entering her sixth year as a Tommie. “A lot of times you can’t do everything you want and have to sacrifice certain things in order to succeed in the classroom and on the court. I think another thing that helps me is taking every opportunity to get some work done.”

Despite the difficulties brought by the 2020-21 academic year, our student athletes rose to the challenge.

“For me adjusting to online studies was a huge difference compared to previous years,” said Christie. “It was completely different learning in my apartment compared to on campus in a classroom. Learning online requires a lot of discipline to ensure that I was staying on top of deadlines while doing my best to understand the material fully.”

With the addition of this year’s 31 award recipients, the Tommies have now accumulated 344 CCAA National Scholar awards since 2004-05.

Jordan Underhill, Basketball
Zachary Vautour, Basketball
Ian Watters, Basketball
Mary Besselink, Basketball
Abigail Draper, Basketball
Morgan McHatten, Basketball
Madison Owens, Basketball
Vanessa Soffee, Basketball
Celine Sterckel, Basketball
Luke Ewan, Soccer
Liam McCann, Soccer
Evan Rees, Soccer
Alex Soulet, Soccer
Brett Springer, Soccer
Jessica McWilliams, Soccer
Kaitlynne Benjamin, Soccer
Abigail Cameron, Soccer
Taylor Clark, Soccer
Nikita McCartney, Soccer
Jazmyne McLaughlin, Soccer
Victoria Muise, Soccer
Christian Christie, Volleyball
Garret Dickson, Volleyball
William LeBlanc, Volleyball
Adam McDougall, Volleyball
Andrea Bell, Volleyball
Krysteena Clements, Volleyball
Hailee Fleck, Volleyball
Danica Godin, Volleyball
Jenicca Jean, Volleyball
Gabrielle Melanson, Volleyball