HAMMOND, La.  – Southeastern Louisiana Athletics celebrated its student-athletes' achievements in all facets of being a Lion or Lady Lion at the inaugural Lion Choice Awards presented by Chick-fil-A Monday evening at the War Memorial Student Union Ballroom on campus.
 
The Lion Choice Awards replace the traditional annual Academic Banquet. The new event is designed to celebrate accomplishments in all three principles of the Southeastern Athletics' mission statement.
 
"Our mission statement is for our student-athletes to excel in the classroom, in the community and in competition," Southeastern Director of Athletics Jay Artigues said. "We're proud to partner with Chick-fil-A to put on an event that recognizes our performance in all those areas."
 
Southeastern's over 300 student-athletes walked the red carpet into the event. Following dinner, Artigues started the event by recognizing the student-athletes who helped SLU to its highest-ever department grade point average in 2018.


 
For the year, over 50 percent of Southeastern student-athletes posted a GPA of 3.00 or higher. In the spring 2018 semester, 22 Lions and Lady Lions had a 4.0 GPA with 132 topping a 3.0. Those numbers grew to 32 (4.0) and 167 (3.0 or higher) in the fall 2018 semester.
 
The Southeastern women's tennis team was honored for having the department's highest team GPA (3.71). The Lion baseball team boasted the best GPA in the department among male teams in 2018.


 


The male and female student-athletes with the highest GPA's who are graduating this year were also recognized on Monday. The honorees were women's cross country's Clarissa Smith (3.848, Chemistry) and baseball's Corey Gaconi (3.917, Marketing).


 


Southeastern Athletics averages 15 hours of community service per student-athlete. The team with the highest average hours per student-athlete was the SLU softball team, which received the Community Service Award.


 
The next award presented was the Sandy Goodwin Award. The award is given annually in memory of the late Sandy Goodwin, a long-time supporter Southeastern Athletics and the wife of legendary former athletic trainer Robert "Doc" Goodwin, to the student-athletes who best embody Goodwin's spirit by "Bleeding Green and Gold". This year's recipients were seniors Jaclyn Scholvin (women's basketball) and Scottie Sanders (baseball).


 
Several new awards were presented to recognize 2018 achievements in competition. 2017-18 Southeastern Athletes of the Year Marlain Veal (men's basketball) and Mahalia Gibson (softball) were recognized. Veal also won Play of the Year for his game-winning three in SLU's 62-61 win at Tulane on Dec. 1.


 
The Game of the Year was also awarded for the first time. The Southeastern baseball team took it home for its 5-4 win over then-No. 14 LSU on Feb. 28, 2018.
 
The evening's final award was the Heart of the Lion Award, presented to SLU baseball senior Brennan Breaud. Last January, Breaud was driving and saw Phil Graziano, longtime Southeastern Athletics supporter and owner of Murphy's Seafood, unconscious on the side of the road.
 
Showing the same demeanor he has a starting infielder during his time on the diamond at SLU, Breaud called for help and stayed with Graziano as he awaited the arrival of paramedics and his family. In an emotional video that closed the inaugural event, a tearful Graziano credited Breaud's actions for saving his life.


 
"There's not a doubt in my mind," Graziano said. "If that young man hadn't found me, I would not be alive today."