#SummitMBB Trio Nominated for NABC Good Works Team

Denver's Brett Olson

INDIANAPOLIS – Denver’s Brett Olson, Omaha’s Kyler Erickson and South Dakota’s Brandon Bos represent The Summit League among the 158 student-athletes named by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and Allstate Insurance Company as nominees for the 2015 Good Works Team.

This prestigious community service award recognizes a distinguished group of student-athletes who have demonstrated a commitment to enriching the lives of others and contributing to the greater good in their communities.

College sports information directors and basketball coaches across the country nominated players who exhibit exceptional leadership skills and an unwavering commitment to volunteerism. From the 158 NABC nominees, distinguished voting panels will select five student-athletes from the NCAA® Division I level. The final roster of 20 award recipients will be unveiled in February.

Former Duke University student-athlete, two-time NCAA champion and seven-time NBA All-Star Grant Hill will headline the Allstate NABC Good Works Team® voting panel.

More information about the Allstate NABC Good Works Team® and the Allstate WBCA Good Works Team® is available at www.nabc.org and www.wbca.org.

DU's Wirth, SDSU's Stuart Nominated for WBCA Allstate Good Works Team

2015 Allstate WBCA Good Works Team®

DU's Theresa Wirth

Denver's Theresa Wirth and South Dakota State's Megan Stuart were named two of the 251 nominees for 2015 Allstate Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and National Association of Basketball Coaches Good Works Teams® Wednesday.
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Wirth, a Pioneer forward on the court, spends her time off the court volunteering for a number of organizations. She has served meals at the Denver Rescue Mission, visits children at Children’s Hospital Colorado and talks to students at local elementary schools about being a collegiate student-athlete. During the summer of 2013 Wirth interned with Special Olympics Colorado and volunteered at a number of their events. She cooks meals for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House of Charities and helped get Athletes in Action recognized as an official club on the University of Denver campus.

Stuart spent this past summer as an intern with the Sanford Arts in Healthcare at the Sioux Falls Sanford Hospital.

A biology pre-medicine and studio arts double major, Stuart created art—such as painting, paper-crane folding, friendship bracelet making, doodling and molding clay—with cancer patients, family members and healthcare employees at the Sanford Cancer Center and the Sanford Children’s Hospital through the Children’s Hospital Healing Arts program.

SDSU's Megan Stuart

She also helped with programs such as the Survivor's Picnic, The Kindness Challenge and Bottles of Hope workshops. Each program supports cancer survivors and their families by using art as a form of healing. 

As sophomore, Stuart completed a medical mission to Kenya, working with International Medical Aid distributing hygienic supplies to local schools and taught students how to wash their hands and brush their teeth. She also helped paint an orphanage. 

With the Jackrabbit basketball team and as a three-year member of SAAC, Stuart has volunteered at the Special Olympics softball tournament, helped with the Brookings area Harvest Table, participated in Project Joy by purchasing and delivering gifts to local families, read at local elementary schools and decorated a local nursing home for SDSU’s Hobo Day weekend.

This prestigious community service award recognizes a distinguished group of student-athletes who have demonstrated a commitment to enriching the lives of others and contributing to the greater good in their communities.

For the third year, the Allstate WBCA and NABC Good Works Teams® help spotlight the off-the-court good works and service to others that often goes unnoticed and unrewarded. From creating organizations benefitting at-risk youth to volunteering overseas to help impoverished communities, there are countless remarkable stories of service among this year’s group of nominees. As full-time students and athletes, these players choose to dedicate their limited free time to improving the lives of those around them.

Members of the Allstate WBCA Good Works Team® will be recognized during the 2015 WBCA Convention and at the 2015 NCAA Women’s Final Four® in Tampa Bay, and will also participate in a local community project.

IUPUI's Laird to Compete in FINA World Championships

Beginning on Dec. 3, IUPUI women's swimmer Alexus Laird will represent Seychelles when she competes in the 2014 FINA World Swimming Championships.

The FINA World Swimming Championships take place Dec. 3-7, and Laird will compete in the 50 free, 100 free, 50 back, 100 back, 200 back, 4x50 mixed freestyle relay and the 4x50 mixed medley relay.

Laird's first event will be the 100 back, which takes place at 2:00 a.m. in Indianapolis on Wednesday. Laird recently just clocked a NCAA 'B' cut time in the event for the second straight year, and she is the only swimmer in program history to post a NCAA 'B' cut time.
in the 2014 FINA World Swimming Championships.