By Rob Schabert, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – A player who fulfills his role on the baseball diamond, Tyler Brazelton’s leadership is also a vital element in assisting the Tennessee Tech coaching staff’s efforts to instill and develop a positive attitude for the Golden Eagles.
Those attributes have earned Brazelton, a junior from Huntsville, Ala., selection as the Tennessee Tech Athletics Unsung Leader Award recipient for the month December.
“Tyler has been a consistent team leader and an outstanding student-athlete,” said Larry Bragga, director of baseball operations who submitted the nomination. “He has worked diligently to improve his baseball skills, and he is critical to a positive climate in the clubhouse.”
Following a redshirt season in 2013, Brazelton became a starter as a freshman in 2014 and continued that role last season. The projected starter in left field, the 5-foot-6 sparkplug finds ways to get on base and will bat in the leadoff or number two spot in the batting order.
“He has shown a measurable improvement in his 60-yard speed, cutting it from 7.25 seconds down to 6.82 seconds, which is a significant difference,” Bragga said.
Last season, Brazelton led the team on on-base percentage with a mark of .468. He combined a .315 batting average with 21 walks and a team-leading 12 times being hit-by-pitch to reach base 88 times. He ranked second on the team with 39 runs scored.
In fact, he has led the team each of the past two seasons in being hit-by-pitch and his patient approach at the plate has provided 51 walks and only 31 strikeouts.
His leadership was evident during the fall semester when he led a caring campaign and organized a program in which most members of the baseball team wrote notes and sent texts to an elderly woman with serious health issues. His leadership lifted her spirits and proved special to her recovery.
The son of Angela Brazelton, Tyler is a 2012 graduate of Sparkman High School in Huntsville, where he was a three-year letterman as a left fielder. He wrapped up his prep career with a .395 batting average.
He is majoring in EXPW with a concentration in pre-physical therapy, and has achieved the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll in each of his seven semesters at Tech, in addition to the OVC Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll.
The Unsung Leader Award was created in 2014-15 in order to recognize leadership by Tech’s student-athletes. An award presented each month throughout the academic year.
“This award recognizes leadership, which many times isn’t reflected in headlines or other ways,” said Director of Athletics Mark Wilson. “Sometimes it’s behind-the-scenes leadership that makes everybody better.
“These young men and women are leaders, pure-and-simple, not doing the right thing for recognition but to make themselves, their teammates, and their teams better,” Wilson said.
One student-athlete each month, nominated by members of the athletics staff, is selected and recognized for exemplifying outstanding leadership qualities. The leadership can be shown on the field, in the weight room, at practice, in the classroom, in study hall, on campus, in the community, for a student club or organization.
This award honors a varsity student-athlete who has made a positive impact on their team and the Tennessee Tech community as a whole, through his or her dedication to demonstrating leadership traits, such as:
* Keep Learning, Growing, and Improving
* Follow Through with Excellence
* Accomplish More than Expected
* Inspire and Motivate Others
The previous Unsung Leader Awards for 2015-16 have gone to McKenzie McCloud (occer in September), Luke Woodason (football in October) and Stephen Bush (football in November).
Unsung Leader Award winners in the initial season in 2014-15 were Ellen Conti (volleyball in September), Austin Tallant (football in October), Geoffrey Sambu (cross country in November), Courtney Smith (volleyball in December), Jordan Hopkins (baseball in January), Olivia Bennett (softball in February), Haley Davidson (golf in March), and Mariah Dean (basketball in April).
