A number of players, coaches and teams earned awards at the second annual Chirpies award ceremony. The student produced athletics award show focuses specifically on Ball State athletics and aired on ESPN3 April 11.
Here is a list of some of the award winners from the show.
Cardinal Cup Award - Women's Tennis
The women's tennis team is still in season this spring but has already broken an all-time season win record. Ball State's 15-match win-streak is the best in program history, and it boasts an 18-3 overall record with a 5-1 mark in Mid-American Conference play after dropping its first conference match of the season against Buffalo April 10. The Cardinals have two more regular season matches remaining this season.
Breakthrough Athlete Award - Bo Calhoun
After starting in only eight games the previous season, senior forward Bo Calhoun played all 35 games on the men's basketball schedule, starting 31 of them. In the 2015-16 season, Calhoun averaged 10.7 points per game on with a .460 field goal percentage and .353 3-point shooting percentage and led Ball State in rebounds with 296.
Female Top Team GPA - Women's Swim & Dive
Ball State boasted 17 of its members to the MAC Academic All-Conference team, leading all other MAC schools for individuals who made the list. Four student-athletes earned a perfect 4.0 GPA and the team earned a collective 3.62 GPA in the fall semester, which named them as a College Swimming Coaches Association of America Scholar All-America Team. The team's GPA was highest overall across the board of Division 1 women's programs in the fall.
Male Top Team GPA - Men's Tennis
During its 2014-15 season, the Ball State men's tennis team boasted a 3.389 team GPA, which earned them Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic Team honors. Four individual members also earned ITA Scholar-Athlete accolades, which requires a minimum GPA of 3.5.
Caring Cardinal Award - Tanner Barton
Junior men's swimmer Tanner Barton set the second fastest 200m fly in program history at the 2015 MAC Championships with a time of 1:50.09. Outside of his success in the pool, Barton serves on the international council for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He traveled overseas last semester to represent the United States on World Diabetes Day.
Comeback of the Year Award - Men's Basketball
The men's basketball team was the fourth most improved team in the NCAA this season. After going 7-23 last season, Ball State went 21-13 while earning its first postseason bid since 2002. The Cardinals were also predicted to finish last in the MAC, according to the MAC Coaches Preseason Rankings, but finished tied for first in the MAC West Division with Central Michigan.
Coach of the Year - Craig Roberts
Head coach Craig Roberts led the Ball State soccer team to on of its best seasons in program history. The Cardinals won the regular season MAC championship for only the third time in program history, the only two others came in 2006 and 2007. Ball State finished its season 14-3-3, with its 14 wins trying for second most in team history. Roberts also serves as the assistant coach for the Haiti women's national team, a position he has held since 2014.
Male Student-Athlete of the Year - Johnny Watts
As a freshman, Johnny Watts became the third Ball State player to win the MAC individual title. During his first year, Watts earned a number of other awards as well : NCAA Regional Participant, MAC Championships Medalist, All-MAC First Team and MAC All-Tournament Team. On Nov. 9, 2015, he was named MAC Golfer of the Week after finishing third out of 102 golfers at the Ka'anapali Collegiate Classic in Maui.
Female Student-Athlete of the Year - Nathalie Fontaine
During her four seasons at Ball State, senior guard Nathalie Fontaine led the Cardinals to four straight Women's National Invitational Tournament bids. She broke the all-time scoring record in the program's history with 2,166 career points. She also earned MAC Player of the Year honors along with AP All-American Honorable Mention awards. She was also an all-region nominee for the 2016 Women's Basketball Coaches Association Division 1 Coaches' All-American Team.
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