Bishops' Holliday Receives
NCAC's Don Hunsinger Award

June 24, 2009

Ohio Wesleyan University senior Kyle Holliday (Van Wert) has been named the winner of the North Coast Athletic Conference's Don Hunsinger Award for 2009, it was announced by the NCAC.

Holliday starred for the Battling Bishop men’s basketball team for four years, serving as team captain as a senior. A 2-time All-NCAC selection, he earned first-team honors and was named All-Great Lakes District as a senior, and led Ohio Wesleyan to the conference tournament title and an NCAA Division III tournament bid in 2007-08. He was president and treasurer of the Athletes in
Action Student Leadership team, president of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and was a member of the Ohio Wesleyan Athletic Council.

In the classroom, he posted a 3.87 grade-point average in accounting, with a minor of economics management. He was a 2-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District IV honoree, and earned ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America recognition as a senior. Selected to the Sigma Beta Delta business honor society, Holliday was named an Ohio Wesleyan Top 50 Scholar-Athlete 3 times, was recognized as the senior male Ohio Wesleyan scholar-athlete with the highest grade point average, and was named one of 10 male NCAC Scholar-Athlete Award winners. Crowning those achievements was Holliday’s selection as a recipient of a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.

In addition to his success on the court and in the classroom, Holliday found time to be a student mentor for a Delaware-area elementary school throughout his collegiate career, helped organize a Special Olympics event, and participated in ALS and Relay For Life walks. He plans to join GBQ Partners in Columbus, Ohio, this fall, while preparing to take his CPA exam, and will then enroll in graduate school.

The Don Hunsinger Award is named in honor of the former Oberlin administrator and coach, who had a far-reaching influence on the athletes he coached in a wide variety of sports. Over more than 3 decades, Hunsinger served Oberlin as athletic director, chairman of the department of physical education, had stints as head coach for Yeoman football, baseball, and men’s and women’s tennis, and assisted with the men’s and women’s basketball programs. He earned NCAC Coach of the Year recognition 4 times, twice in men’s tennis and twice in women’s tennis. Hunsinger, who retired from Oberlin in 2008, continues to serve the conference as Director of Tennis and assists in the administration of the conference’s swimming & diving championship.

The award recognizes one male senior student-athlete who has distinguished himself throughout his collegiate career in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service, and leadership. Each conference institution can nominate a distinguished male student-athlete for the honor. A committee of NCAC administrators, in conjunction with the conference office, makes the selection.