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 two more winners of its 2021 Golden Wings Awards.
On Wednesday, the Golden Eagle tennis team was recognized as the Team of the Year. Also released was the Play of the Year winner, going to soccer's Gabby Garcia for her golden goal in Tech's overtime win over Eastern Illinois.
For the tennis team, it represented the fifth time in six years claiming Team of the Year honors, sharing the recognition in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and taking the award outright in 2020. The Golden Eagles claimed its eighth OVC regular-season title in the last 10 full seasons following another undefeated conference slate that saw Tech post a 5-0 record in league play.
After starting the year 0-5, with all five losses to "Power 5" schools, the Golden Eagles ended the regular season on a nine-match winning streak. TTU outscored its opponents 31-5 in conference action. Winning 10 straight matches overall, Tech fell in the OVC Tournament championship match against Belmont after COVID-19 protocols forced the purple and gold to compete with just five players. Tech was narrowly edged by the Bruins, 4-3, despite what seemed like insurmountable odds.
In the club's first home action since Oct. 25, 2019, the Golden Eagle soccer team gave their fans more than a fair share of dramatics, as Garcia scored four minutes into overtime to push Tech to a 1-0 win over Eastern Illinois. The freshman chipped in the game-winner over the outstretched hands of the Panther goalkeeper from 20 yards out to provide the thrilling victory.
Garcia's first career goal lifted the purple and gold to a 3-0-0 start, marking the first time since 2015 in which Tech has started OVC play with three consecutive wins and the first time since 2004 that TTU has started a season 3-0-0. The Golden Eagles won all three matches by 1-0 margins to become the first purple and gold squad in program history to start a season with three straight shutouts.
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.
