Hokie ClubINDIANAPOLIS – Former Virginia Tech standout pitcher Angela Tincher has won yet another award for her academic and athletic excellence as the NCAA has named the winners of the NCAA Today’s Top VIII Awards.
The Today’s Top VIII award recognizes current student-athletes who have completed their athletics eligibility for their success on the fields and courts, in the classroom and in the community. Recipients will be honored at the NCAA Honors and Delegates Celebration on Jan. 15 at the NCAA Convention in Washington, D.C.
This year’s selections are, in alphabetical order: Yael Averbuch, North Carolina (soccer), Kirby Blackley, Findlay (outdoor and indoor track and field), Dylan Carney, Stanford (gymnastics), Gregory Michell, Mount Union (football), Kristi Miller, Georgia Tech (tennis), Louie Sakoda, Utah (football), Katy Tafler, Grand Valley State (soccer) and Angela Tincher, Virginia Tech (softball).
“We are thrilled that Angela Tincher has been awarded the highest honor in the National Collegiate Athletic Association when she was named one of the Top VIII student-athletes,” Virginia Tech Director of Athletics Jim Weaver said. “This award could not have been granted to a more deserving student-athlete than Angela. This award caps a brilliant senior year for her.”
In addition to their athletics accomplishments, the NCAA Today's Top VIII recipients have earned numerous academic honors, have volunteered countless hours to community projects and have served as role models for their academic institutions and to their peers.
For Tincher, it’s another in a long line of awards for her. She has already collected national player of the year honors from USA Softball, been named a first-team All-American as both a pitcher and as a student-athlete, earned Academic All-American of the Year honors from ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA, won the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, led the Hokies to the Women’s College World Series for the first time in program history, signed to play professionally in Japan’s top division and had her number retired by the Tech Athletics Department. She also is the recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and graduated last spring summa cum laude with a degree in finance.
But this honor is considered THE highest award given by the NCAA.
The Eagle Rock, Va., native becomes the second Virginia Tech student-athlete in school history to be given this honor. Football player André Davis, who is playing in the NFL for the Houston Texans, was a Top VIII award winner in 2002.
“We’re extremely proud of Angela for winning this award,” Tech head softball coach Scot Thomas said. “It’s the highest achievement you can get as a student-athlete through the NCAA and it’s a credit to her and is a tremendous achievement for our program. It’s a representation of what she’s about, what her family is about and how she grew as a player and student-athlete here. Hokies everywhere should be really proud of her.”
The Today's Top VIII Award is given each year by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to honor eight outstanding senior student-athletes of the preceding calendar year with weighted criteria including athletics ability and achievement, academic achievement and character/leadership. Notable athletes to receive the honor include John Elway (1983), Rebecca Lobo (1996), Peyton Manning (1998) and Cat Osterman (2007).