All-Time Golden Wings Award Winners
By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech Athletics continued its recognition of the best and brightest of its more than 300 student-athletes by releasing six more winners of its 2021 Golden Wings Awards.
On Friday, it was announced that the Community Service Award winner was the softball team. Five more Golden Eagle Award winners were released as well, spanning three winter sports programs including men's basketball, women's basketball and track & field, as well as the cheer and dance teams.
The softball team was the winner of the 2021 Community Service Award, which recognized teams for their finish in a t-shirt/clothing collection competition sponsored by the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) to support the Cookeville Rescue Mission. It marked the fourth time the softball team earned the honor in six years.
The Golden Eagle softball squad collected 351 items of clothing for donation, averaging 15.95 items per student-athlete. Softball edged out the soccer team, which collected 14.07 items per student-athlete and the volleyball team, which tallied and average of 9.56 items per team member.
An honor created by members of the Tennessee Tech Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), a Golden Eagle Award is presented to each of Tech's 13 teams (indoor and outdoor track & field are combined), as well as the Golden Eagle cheer and dance teams. The teams each vote to select one member of the roster whom they would hold up with pride to represent the team, who is always positive and giving 110 percent, supporting their teammates, win or lose, and serving as the "heart" of the team, no matter whether they were a star or a seldom-used backup.
Following the inaugural show in 2016, Tech's SAAC voted to include both the Golden Eagle cheer and dance teams into the Golden Eagle Awards as a way to honor the two squads that support Tech Athletics year-round. One winner is selected by the members of each team, adding up to a total of 15 winners each year.
Senior Megan Clark was selected as the women's basketball team's Golden Eagle Award winner, her first such honor. The guard played in 24 games for the purple and gold on the year, averaging career-highs of 15.9 minutes, 4.3 points and 2.3 rebounds per game while shooting 42.1 percent from downtown.
Selected by the Tennessee Tech cheer squad as their Golden Eagle Award recipient was Michael Hesson, the first male member of the team to earn the honor. The TTU dance team picked Jenna Luna as their Golden Eagle Award winner.
A native of Portland, Ore., Tieara Norman was the track & field team's choice for its Golden Eagle Award winner. The senior finally earned a chance to compete outdoors after transferring in from Fresno State in 2019-20 and losing her outdoor campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She placed third at the Ohio Valley Conference Championships in the 400m hurdles.
The Golden Eagle Award winner for the men's basketball team was senior Maverick Smith. The Oakdale, Tenn. native played 17 games with seven starts, the first of his career. He also served as a team captain for the second straight year while earning a scholarship prior to the season after competing as a walk-on for three years.
All-Time Golden Eagle Award Winners
The Golden Wings Awards, which enters its sixth year, is an end-of-the-year award ceremony for the Tennessee Tech University student-athletes to honor and celebrate their academic and athletic accomplishments over the past complete seasons. With the cancellation of last year's spring seasons due to COVID-19, this year's awards time frame became simpler than in year's past when multiple years were used to allow for a more complete and fair field of choices. This year, all awards were selected from the accomplishments from the 2020-21 athletic year.
Previously, baseball, softball, outdoor track & field, men's golf, women's golf and tennis nominees were selected from their prior year of competition to allow a more complete campaign from which to gather nominees. The annual awards show was officially cancelled for a second year due to complications with scheduling and COVID-19 protocols. Like the 2020 awards, the choice was made to still honor the student-athletes for their accomplishments from one of the most unique athletic years in history.
Prior to the first Golden Wings Awards show, Tennessee Tech Athletics annually presented four awards to deserving student-athletes, including Male Athlete of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year, Man of the Year and Woman of the Year. The first honor established, for the 1990-91 academic year, was the Woman of the Year Award, coinciding with the first NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Two years later, in 1992-93, Tech established its Man of the Year Award. Both the Male Athlete of the Year and Female Athlete of the Year honors were added for the 1993-94 academic year. The four honors were officially adopted into the Golden Wings Awards, including criteria, for the 2016-17 academic year.
