CSAC Announces 2018-19 Scholar-Athletes of the Year
ROSEMONT, Pa. – Cairn University senior men’s basketball student-athlete Julian Collazo and Centenary University senior women’s soccer student-athlete Sam Bombardiere were selected as the 2018-19 Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Male and Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year following a vote by the conference’s athletic directors and sports information directors.
Collazo was a four-year member of the team, and was the 2018-19 CSAC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year. In addition to being a first-team selection, he was also honored as an NABC and D3Hoops.com second-team All-Region selection. He was voted as the CSAC Rookie of the Year after the 2015-16 season. This year, he was team captain. With one year of eligibility remaining, Collazo has 974 career points, 477 rebounds and 322 assists.
Academically, Collazo was recognized with the Highlander Award at Cairn University. The award goes to the student who displays excellence in leadership, education and student life for the 2018-19 school year. He has been on the Dean’s List for six straight semesters.
He was also active in community service, working with the Christian Academy, Bethany Christian Services, the Water Street Rescue Mission and the Brightside Baptist Church.
Collazo graduated with a degree in business administration with a minor in Bible and carried a 3.75 GPA through the fall semester.
Bombardiere was a three-year starter for the women’s soccer team, missing her sophomore year due to a cancer diagnosis. After sitting out the year, she played 16 of 17 games as a junior and all 21 games her senior year. This year, she led a Cyclone defensive unit that did not allow a goal in conference play or in the conference tournament (10 matches). The Cyclones set the school record for single-season shutouts with 12 in 2018. Bombardiere was honored by the coaches in the CSAC as the 2018 Defensive Player of the Year, in addition with being a first-team All-CSAC selection.
She currently is a finalist for the Honda Inspiration Award, which will be announced later in June.
Bombardiere earned the Centenary Cardy Gemma Award, which is given to a Centenary senior for achievement both on and off the field.
Academically, she earned the Stutzman Prize in Biology and was on the Dean’s List every semester at Centenary. She earned Academic All-District honors from CoSIDA during her senior year, and was a member of the Golden Key Honor Society for three years.
Her community service projects included Love Your Melon Club Ambassador, Pre-Professional Club, Pre-K Soccer Club Mentor and Groundwork Elizabeth.
Collazo is the first student-athlete from Cairn to win the award, while Bombardiere is the second Centenary student-athlete to win the award.
The CSAC Scholar Athlete Award recognizes student-athletes for their academic, athletic and community service achievements. Each institution may nominate one male and one female for inclusion on the ballot produced by the conference office. The ballot is voted on by each Athletics and Sports Information Directors, for a total of two votes per institution per gender.
In order to be eligible for the award, the student-athlete must be a junior or senior with at least one year in residence prior to his/her nomination; have demonstrated athletic success, earned a varsity letter, and been a key contributor to the team; have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.20; and compete in a NCAA sanctioned sport.