Katie White Named Big South's Christenberry Award Recipient
4/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 28, 2011
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Coastal Carolina senior women's basketball standout Katie White has been named one of five Big South Conference prestigious George A. Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence winners.
Big South member institutions nominate one male and one female student-athlete for the annual Christenberry Award. The award is given to the male and female student-athletes who attain the highest GPA during their college careers and are graduates of a member institution during the past year. In case of ties, additional awards are provided. The 
honor is named for George A. Christenberry, the former President of Augusta College (now Augusta State University) and one of the founders of the Big South Conference. A member of the Big South Hall of Fame, Christenberry served as the league's first President from 1983-86. It is the eighth time in the last nine years that more than two student-athletes have been honored.
White, a native of St. Charles, Ill., is a 4.00 student in accounting and is Coastal Carolina's all-time leading shot blocker with 209, which ranks sixth in Big South Conference history. She finished the 2010-11 campaign ranked 26th in the NCAA with 2.3 blocks per game, and her school-record 67 blocked shots this past season ranked third in the league. She blocked a single-game, school-record eight shots against Campbell on Nov. 23, and eventually broke Coastal's 28-year old career blocks record on Jan. 29 with seven rejections against Radford.
White started 26 of 28 games in 2010-11 and averaged 4.3 points and 3.7 rebounds her senior season. She also tallied career-highs with 121 total points, 25 assists and 24 steals on the season. A two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District selection, she was the Big South Women's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2010-11 and has been named to the President's List each semester at Coastal Carolina. White was recently honored by the Coastal Carolina Department of Athletics as the only Chanticleer senior in the class of 2011 to amass a perfect 4.0 GPA through her first seven semesters of coursework. She is a member of the Beta Alpha Psi and Beta Alpha Sigma international honor societies and intends to pursue her MBA in accounting. White averaged 3.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.97 blocked shots in 106 career games with the Chanticleers, which included 66 starts.
"This is a great honor for Katie and our program," said women's basketball head coach Alan LeForce. "Katie's hard work in the classroom has raised the bar for all current and future student-athletes of Coastal Carolina. I am proud to have coached such a fine person that exemplifies the word student in student-athlete."
Coastal Carolina female athletes have won Christenberry Awards in each of the past four years and six of the last nine years. Since the inception of the award at the conclusion of the 1985-86 academic year, a total of nine male and six female Coastal Carolina athletes have garnered the prestigious award. The Chanticleers' 15 total award winners are more than any other current or former Big South institution. Other Coastal Carolina Christenberry Awards winners include Mikaela Terry (2009-10), Marcie Veitch (2008-09), Felicitas Mensing (2007-08), Brittany Nelson (2005-06), Kara Koppel (2002-03), Anthony Franklin (2006-07), Keith Garramone (2003-04), Tomas Malik (1996-97), Ronald Ohrel (1991-92), Bjorki Johannesson (1990-91), Thomas Henderup (1989-90), Thomas Drake (1987-88), Herbert Jolley, Jr. (1986-87) and Donald Pokorny (1985-86).
Also receiving the awards were Liberty's Jeremy Anderson (men's basketball), Gardner-Webb's Carrie Long (women's track & field), Liberty's Panashe Nhekairo (men's soccer) and Presbyterian College's Meghan Skinner (women's soccer).
The conference will formally present the awards on June 2 in Hilton Head as part of the league's spring meetings and Hall of Fame Dinner.
