BATON ROUGE — LSU pitcher Louis Coleman is one of 30 candidates for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, presented to an NCAA Division I senior baseball player who distinguishes himself in four areas of excellence: classroom, character, community and competition.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages those leaders to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact on their circle of influence.
Coleman, a native of Schlater, Miss., leads the Southeastern Conference this season with six victories in seven decisions, and he is also No. 1 in the league in opponent batting average (.181). The right-hander has a sparkling 1.23 ERA in 36.2 innings with 10 walks and 50 strikeouts.
Coleman is majoring in agricultural business at LSU, and he is one of the leaders in implementing the baseball squad’s community service program.
The 30 student-athletes will be narrowed down to 10 finalists in mid-April, and those 10 names will then be placed on the official ballot. The ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select the candidate that best exemplifies excellence in the “Four C’s” of Classroom, Character, Community, and Competition.
The 2009 candidate class has representatives from thirty different NCAA? Division I schools, each of which has outstanding accomplishments on and off the field. The award winner will be announced and recognized at Omaha’s Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium during the 2009 NCAA? Men’s World Series.
Lowe’s, an official Corporate Partner of the NCAA?, expanded the award program in 2007 to include numerous NCAA? Division I sports – men’s and women’s soccer, men’s ice hockey, men’s lacrosse, baseball, and softball in addition to men and women’s basketball. With the addition of football this year, the number of sports encompassed by the nation’s premier award for seniors reaches nine.
This marks the third year for the baseball division of the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. Rice University pitcher Cole St.Clair received the title of “Nation’s Premier Senior Student-Athlete” for the 2008 season and University of Alabama infielder Emeel Salem took home the inaugural baseball award in 2007.