CCGA golf has three All-Americans
The national championship streak might be over, but the run of Coastal Georgia golfers as NAIA All-Americans is still alive.
Three Mariners earned their way onto the all-NAIA squads after they played to an 11th-place finish at the national championship tournament last week in Silvis, Ill. Dillon Board and Seth Sanders, both first-time members of the team, received second-team recognition for their contributions this season. Trevor Smith, who was a third-team All-American last season, was able to do the same in 2016, earning a third-team honor again.
The NAIA released its All-American list Wednesday. There were 45 players named to the three teams with 15 golfers per team.
All three of those players also received all-conference team honors in the Southern States Athletic Conference. Board was the SSAC player of the year. Sanders was the newcomer of the year. Smith received the team’s men’s student-athlete of the year.
Board will now embark on a professional career, terminating his eligibility a season early. Smith will take a similar route after a four-year Coastal Georgia career. Sanders, who had the best finish at nationals, will return next season along with Harrison Stafford and Eamon Owen who also played in the lineup at the national tournament.
The All-American trio led the Mariners to five wins in 2016, including a stretch of three straight during the spring. Coastal Georgia took second at the SSAC tournament and earned an at-large bid to the national competition.
The three golfers weren’t the only spring athletes at the school to receive postseason All-American recognition Wednesday.
Softball standout Taylor Horne was named a Daktronics-NAIA scholar-athlete. The NAIA released its scholar-athlete list Wednesday, and a total of 397 players across the nation got the distinction.
To qualify, a student-athlete needs to maintain a 3.5 grade-point average with at least a junior-year academic status.
Horne, a McIntosh County Academy graduate, finished her junior season with the Mariners as the first softball player in school history to receive the award.