Athletes of the Week | Josten's Club | Scholar-Athlete Awards |  Achievements

2006-2007 Jostens Cup

The College of St. Scholastica has been named a winner of the Jostens/NADIIIAA Community Service Award, commonly known as the Jostens Cup, for community service by its student athletes. The College community celebrated the honor with a press conference on Wednesday, Jan. 17. At left, senior Mandy Hansen hoisted the trophy after accepting it on behalf of St. Scholastica student athletes.

Learn more about the Jostens Cup award.

Media Coverage Duluth News Tribune KBJR-TV Channel 6 WDIO-TV Channel 10 Press Conference Photo gallery Video of press conference

Jessica Stenberg and Dustin Palm, both of Duluth, received The College of St. Scholastica’s first Scholar-Athlete Award presented at the College’s Senior Awards Convocation Ceremony on May 12.

This is the first year the College has presented the award, which was created last year by the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) faculty athletic representatives to recognize the academic, athletic and service achievements of NCAA Division III athletes.

“A Division III athlete is a well-rounded athlete,” said St. Scholastica’s faculty athletic representative, Kevin McGrew. “Through this award the College recognizes the role athletics plays in developing leaders by rewarding athletes' excellence in the classroom as well as service to the community.”

Students are eligible to receive the award if they have demonstrated a healthy balance between athletics, academics and College or community service, are in their senior year, and have completed at least one season of intercollegiate athletics participation. Next year, each UMAC member will submit their nominations for a conference-wide award.

Stenberg graduated from St. Scholastica in May with a bachelor’s degree in health sciences. She is currently enrolled in the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program at St. Scholastica, a three-year program beginning in the student’s senior year. She is the daughter of Stu and Denise Stenberg of Pike Lake.

Stenberg played basketball at St. Scholastica for four years. She played in every game, was the team’s Rookie of the Year as a freshman, received the Coaches’ Blue Gold Award following the 2003-04 season, earned UMAC Academic All-Conference recognition in 2007, and served as team captain her senior year.

Stacy Deadrick, St. Scholastica women’s basketball coach, said Stenberg led by example. "The minute she walked into practice, Jessie immediately made an impact on our team with her strong positive presence and the ability to make people comfortable around her."

In addition to leading the team “with intensity and zeal,” said Deadrick, “Jessie puts her heart and soul into her work in the classroom and truly enjoys learning." In her first year of the DPT program, Stenberg earned a 3.66 GPA. She also received an Academic Departmental Award from the Department of Physical Therapy at the awards ceremony.

Over the past four years, Stenberg has volunteered at the Benedictine Health Center and at Bay View Elementary School. She is currently serving an internship at St. Mary’s Hospital of Superior.

Palm graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. He was on the Dean's List every semester and achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.97. Palm is a graduate of Duluth East High School, and is the son of Duluth residents Bonnie and Doug Antonich, and Dennis Palm.

Palm played soccer at St. Scholastica for four years and was named to the All-UMAC First Team in 2005. In 2006, he played in all 26 games and received the conference tournament MVP award as well as St. Scholastica’s MVP award. He received the UMAC Academic All-Conference award in 2004, 2005, and 2006 and received the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Scholar-Athlete Award in 2005.

Barry Chastey, St. Scholastica soccer coach, describes Palm as a leader on and off the field, who earned "massive and well-deserved" respect from his teammates. Palm "has managed to combine his athletic and academic workloads and excel in both. He is the complete student-athlete," Chastey said.

Palm also received an Academic Departmental Award from the Chemistry Department at the awards ceremony. He has been accepted in the Integrated Biosciences Graduate Program at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Known as "Doctor" by his teammates, Palm plans to attend medical school at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

While at St. Scholastica, Palm worked as a personal care attendant for Residential Services, Inc., a home healthcare service. As a member of the soccer team, he also volunteered his time working with local youth and participating in the College’s Community Day.

2006-2007 Achievements

Academic Superlatives 

•  79 UMAC Academic All-Conference and 6 NCHA
  All-American Team student-athletes
• A CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine All-District student-athlete

UMAC Honors

• UMAC team champions in baseball (regular season and postseason tournament), men’s basketball (tournament), women’s cross country, men’s cross country, women’s soccer (regular season), men’s soccer (tournament), softball (regular season, tournament), women’s tennis (regular season, tournament), men’s tennis (regular season, tournament), women’s outdoor track and field, men’s outdoor track and field, volleyball (tournament) along with Invitational titles in both women’s and men’s indoor track and field
• 6 UMAC Players of the Year (MTN – Ryan Antony, SB – Rilee Dawson, BB – Blake Eller, WSOC – Robin Johnson, MBK – Will Maupins, WTN – Jess Rich)
• 6 UMAC Coaches of the Year (BB – John Baggs, MTN – Wells Patten, M&W CC – Steve Pfingsten, WSOC– Dave Reyelts, M-TnF – Dave Wicker) 
• UMAC Co-Pitchers of the Year in baseball (Adian Kummet, Chad Weiss)
• Three UMAC Tournament MVPs (BB – Blake Eller, MBK – Derek Johnson, MSOC – Dustin Palm), and a UMAC Championship Performer of the Meet (M-TnF – Alex Tuttle)
• 64 UMAC All-Conference honorees
  

National Recognition 

• NCAA Div.-III National Championship participant Jen Houck (track and field, women’s 10,000 meter run – 12th place)
• USCHO.com Hockey West Rookie Team: Jordan Baird (fr., defense) 
• NFCA/NCAA Softball Midwestern All-Region: Rilee Dawson (UT), 1st team, Erica Kozacek (OF), 1st team 
• NFCA/NCAA Softball All-American: Rilee Dawson (Sr.), 2nd team 
• NCAA Baseball All-Midwest Region: Blake Eller (OF), 1st team; Steve Kraushaar, (OF), Chad Weiss (UT), 2nd team; Adian Kummet (P), Mark Moriarty (P), Brandon Swartz (2B), 3rd team
• NCAA Division III Baseball Individual Category Leader: Blake Eller (Jr.), runs scored
• NCAA Division III Baseball Team Category Leader: scoring, triples per game, slugging percentage, (pitching) strikeouts per nine innings
• CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District: Robin Johnson, 2nd team, district 5
  

UMAC Kruse Award

Not since the initial two seasons of the UMAC all-sports Kruse Award in 1997 and 1998 has St. Scholastica won back-to-back titles. The Saints have finally done it again this year by earning another
Kruse trophy to tack onto the one they earned at the end of the 2005-06 academic year. We had a spring sports season in which every St. Scholastica team – baseball, softball, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s outdoor track and field, women’s outdoor track and field – won their regular season title and clinched the all-sports trophy after they opened the year by capturing three of the five fall sport regular season championships in which they competed.