DAPHNE, Ala. – The United States Sports Academy needs your help as it seeks nominations for the prestigious Alumni of the Year Award, given each year to the most outstanding graduate who represents the ideals of sport and of the Academy.

The Academy would like to hear from you if you have noteworthy achievements so that we may consider you for the annual award. Or, if you know of an alumnus or alumna who has significant accomplishments, let the Academy know as well.

The Academy also needs your help in identifying candidates for additional honors under the 2018 Academy’s Awards of Sport program.

Nominations can be submitted by any member of the Academy’s worldwide family. This includes faculty, staff, students, alumni, administration, National Faculty and advisory boards that serve the Academy. Screened and selected by the Academy’s Awards of Sport Committee, candidates are ultimately approved by the Board of Trustees.

Past recipients of the Alumni of the Year Award have included graduates representing all areas of the sport profession including coaches; athletic directors and administrators; athletes; military leaders; college faculty, administrators and researchers; sports entrepreneurs; media professionals and many others. For a full list of previous Alumni of the Year honorees, go to    www.asama.org/awards-of-sport/alumni-of-the-year/.

The Academy’s 2017 Alumnus of the Year Award went to nationally acclaimed track and field leader, coach and professor Dr. Dave Shrock. Shrock has served in numerous leadership roles for USA Track & Field (USATF) and has coached track and field at various levels for more than four decades. He earned his Doctor of Education degree in sports management from the Academy in 2009.  He serves on the Academy’s National Faculty and has taught sports marketing and sports leadership for the institution’s international sport education programs in Thailand, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. He currently serves on the faculty at Modesto (Calif.) Junior College, where he coached track and field for more than 20 years.  In 2017 Shrock was elected chair of the USATF National Associations Committee at the group’s annual meeting, where was also awarded the McGill Legacy Coaching Award, given annually by the USATF Coaching Education Committee, in recognition of his “passion and leadership nationally for the promotion of USATF coaching education.”  To see a video of Shrock receiving the award at the 2017 Academy’s Awards of Sport program, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAknCmzB29k&feature=youtu.be.

The Academy’s Awards of Sport each year serve as “A Tribute to the Artist and the Athlete.” The Academy presents the awards to pay tribute to those who have made significant contributions to sport, in categories as diverse as the artist and the athlete in several different arenas of sport. The awards honor exemplary achievement in coaching, all-around athletic performance, courage, humanitarian activity, fitness, and media, among others. The Academy’s American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) annually recognizes these men and women through its Sport Artist of the Year, Honorary Doctorates, Medallion Series, Distinguished Service Awards, Outstanding Athletes, and Alumni of the Year awards.  For more details about the awards, go to www.asama.org/awards-of-sport/.

Nominations and suggestions for the Alumni of the Year and all other Awards of Sport should be submitted to communications@ussa.edu.

Founded in 1984, ASAMA is dedicated to the preservation of sports art, history, and literature. The ASAMA collection is composed of more than 1,700 works of sport art across a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, assemblages, prints and photographs. The museum is open free to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. For more information, go to www.asama.org.

The United States Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and world with programs in instruction, research and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports.

The Academy is based in Daphne, Ala.  For more information, call (251) 626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu.