Sports

Former UConn Star Kemba Walker to be Honored By Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance

Walker has been been named the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance Male Athlete of the Year and will honored at the organization's 71st annual Gold Key dinner on April 29 at the Aqua Club in Southington.

Press release from the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance:

, who almost singlehandedly led the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team on a magical ride to the national championship, and track star Shannon Gagne have been selected as the 2011 Athletes of the Year by the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance.

Walker, now a member of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, will receive the Bill Lee Male Athlete of the Year Award while Gagne, who captured five NCAA individual championships in track and field for the University of New Haven, is the  recipient of the Hank O’Donnell Female Athlete of the Year Award.

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In addition, Masuk High School quarterback Casey Cochran has been named the inaugural recipient of the newly created Hal Levy High School Athlete of the Year Award, named in honor of the late Shore Line Newspapers sports editor and former CSWA president and longtime member.

All three award winners will be honored at the 71st annual Gold Key Dinner on April 29 at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington.

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Walker put together one of the most remarkable postseason runs in college basketball history as the junior guard led UConn to 11 straight wins. The first five came in the Big East Tournament where the ninth-seeded Huskies, after losing  four of their last five regular-season games, all against conference opponents, became the first school to win five games in five days en route to the title.

Walker, the tourney MVP, set a Big East Tournament record with 130 points in the five games, including 26 against DePaul and 28 versus Georgetown in the first two rounds, and then 24 points, including the game-winning shot as time expired, against top-seed Pittsburgh in the quarterfinals. He followed that up with a 33-point, 12-rebound, five-assist performance in the semis against Syracuse, and then had a game-high 19 points and three steals in the 69-66 championship-game win over Louisville.

He was just getting started, however. Walker sparked UConn to six more consecutive wins in the NCAA tournament, culminating with a a 53-41 win over Butler in the finals in which he had a team-high 16 points and nine rebounds as the Kuskies claimed their third national championship.

Walker was named the Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four, a week after earning the West Region MOP.  The only Husky to start all 41 games, the Bronx native set a single-season UConn record with 965 points, averaging 23.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists. He was named the Big East Conference Player of the Year, a consensus First-Team All-American, and was a finalist for the College Basketball Player of the Year.

He was also the winner of the Bob Cousy Award as the top point guard in the nation. Walker, who turns 22 in May,  entered the NBA Draft in June and was the ninth overall pick in the first round by the Bobcats.

While Walker left college after three years, Gagne returned to the University of New Haven for a fifth year in 2010-11 to complete her Master’s degree in Homeland Security after earning her Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice.

And with a year of eligibility left in both indoor and outdoor track, Gagne competed for a fourth season in both sports. All she did was capture three national titles in indoor track and two more in the outdoor season, making her only the third athlete in Division II history to win five national championships in one year.

A four-year letter winner in track and field at Lyman Hall High School in Wallingford, where she was all-state and all-New England, Gagne made the outdoor track team at UNH as a freshman “walk-on” in the spring of 2007. As a sophomore, she joined the indoor track team and promptly set a new school record in the long jump. That spring, in only her second outdoor season, Gagne established three new UNH marks in the 100 and 200 meter dashes and the long jump. As a junior, Gagne set four new school records in indoor and three more in outdoor.

During the indoor season, she finished seventh in the 200-meter dash at the NCAA Division II National Championships, becoming the first University of New Haven women’s track and field athlete to score points at the national meet and earn All-American honors. She added another All-American honor in outdoor season with a fifth-place finish in the 200m dash at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

She only competed during the indoor season her senior year, but returned the following year while studying for her Master’s and made history, winning the 200 and 400 meters and the long jump at the NCAA Division II women’s indoor championships in Albuquerque, N.M., and adding national titles in the 200 and 400 meters at the NCAA outdoor meet in Turlock, Calif. She finished her illustrious career as a nine-time All-American.

Besides being UNH’s most decorated track athlete in history, Gagne was also recognized, along with UConn’s Maya Moore, as the Capital One Academic All-American of the Year recipients. And in January, Gagne was honored in Indianapolis where she received the prestigious NCAA Top-8 Award, which recognizes only eight collegiate athletes nationwide regardless of gender or division.

Cochran recently completed one of the most successful high school football careers any quarterback from Connecticut every enjoyed, finishing as the state’s career leader in passing yards, completions and touchdown passes. This past season at Masuk High School, Cochran passed for 3,041 yards and 37 touchdowns while completing 152-of-225 yards (.713). He also rushed for five TDs as he led the Panthers to an 11-1 record and the Class L state semifinals.

That came on the heels of an outstanding junior season in which the all-state QB connected on 200-of-295 pass attempts (.689) for 3,345 yards and 40 touchdowns. He ran for seven more scores as he directed Masuk to a perfect 13-0 record and a state championship. Cochran, the state championship game MVP, was named the Gatorade Player of the Year for Connecticut in both 2010 and 2011.

When you factor in the 1,387 yards and nine touchdowns he passed for as a freshman for Class SS state champ New London, and the 2,969 yards and 24 TDs he threw for as a sophomore after transferring to Masuk, Cochran finished his four-year career with 10,741 passing yards and 110 touchdown passes. He completed 650-of-982 attempts (.662), ran for 19 TDs, and led his teams to three league championships, two state crowns, and an overall 40-4 record.

The 6-foot-1, 205-pound Cochran, who was named the 2010 Walter Camp Foundation Player of the Year for Connecticut, will continue his football career at the University of Connecticut.

In addition to Walker, Gagne and Cochran, the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance will be presenting Gold Keys to Kristine Lilly, Dave Shea, John Dunham and Mike Walsh.

In addition, Granby Memorial field hockey coach Sandy Wickman Mason will receive the Doc McInerney High School Coach of the Year in a female sport, while Manchester High boys track and field coach will be honored as the Doc McInerney High School Coach of the Year in a male sport. Other award winners will be announced in the next few weeks.

Tickets to the 2012 Gold Key Dinner, which begins at 4 p.m., can be purchased by contacting either CSWA President George Albano of The (Norwalk) Hour at Truckin114@AOL.com, or Vice President and Dinner Chairman Bob Ehalt of The New Haven Register at Ehalt.Bob@sbcglobal.net. Tickets can also be obtained by mailing a check to Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance, P.O. Box 70, Unionville, CT 06085. For more information on the history of the dinner, visit the Alliance web site at ctsportswriters.org.


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