Two Sinclair Athletes Receive OCCAC Sportsmanship of the Year
The Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) announced July 13 that it has awarded five individuals with the Sportsmanship of the Year award in their respective sports, and an All-Sportsmanship conference team as part of the conference's inaugural Sportsmanship honors.
Two of the honored athletes earning the Sportsmanship of the Year award are from Sinclair, with three of our Sinclair athletes being named to the OCCAC All-Sportsmanship team for 2016-17.
Jackson Pietrzak (6-0/SO – Dixie H.S.) - men’s basketball
Jackson graduated May 7, 2017 with an Associate of Applied Science (Architecture) and earned NJCAA 3rd team All-Academic honors. After starting his career as a student-manager and a student worker in the Sinclair equipment room, he worked his way into a non-scholarship spot on the roster and was a member of the 2015-16 OCCAC regular season championship. He was named to the dean's list both semesters this year and earned OCCAC All-Academic team honors twice.
As a sophomore, he was one of the team's tri-captains, and he was always front and center during the team's many community service projects including visiting the Vets at the Dayton VA, helping coach youth basketball once a month and spending Thanksgiving Day serving dinner to 6,000 people during the Feast of Giving at the Dayton Convention Center. He will continue his education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Lauren Roetgerman (5-10/SO – Minster H.S.) Women’s basketball
Lauren was a member of the women's volleyball team the past two seasons and the women's basketball team this past season. She also has been very active with the local churches, served dinner on Thanksgiving Day, visited with the veterans at the VA and participated in numerous breast cancer awareness walks with her teams.
She also graduated with honors May 7, 2017 with an Associate of Science (Business Administration). In her only season playing basketball at Sinclair, she earned Honorable Mention All-Conference and helped lead the team to a 20 win season. This summer she received her 2nd NJCAA All-Academic award after collecting fall and spring OCCAC Academic All-Conference honors. Her distinguished academic career included never missing the Sinclair Dean’s List in four semesters.
Three other Sinclair student-athletes were named to the OCCAC All-Sportsmanship Team for 2016-17. Cody Dennis (FR/SS – Licking Valley H.S.) of the baseball team, Jazzlyn Petry (FR/C – Greenville H.S.) of the softball team and Meg Reineke (SO/OH – New Knoxville H.S.) of the volleyball team all were nominated and earned OCCAC recognition.
This is the inaugural year for the OCCAC Sportsmanship awards and was intended to recognize student-athletes in OCCAC conference championship sports who best exemplify good sportsmanship. Each sport voted on a Sportsmanship of the Year award and all other nominees received All-Sportsmanship honors. The award was open to student-athletes in sports that crown a conference champion this year and will expand next year to include one male and one female at-large candidate in other sports.
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