My Vote for the #ACC’s Anthony J. McKevlin and Mary Garber Awards

Good evening, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) sports fans.  Hope the summer is flying by quickly for you.  Jeff (@TalkinACCSports) and I (@HokieSmash) have some great material coming up this summer on the site – we hope it will get you through to football season 😉

We are at the end of the year where members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association (ACSMA) vote on the top male and female athletes of the year who show exemplary talent throughout the year (yours truly has a vote this year).  Specifically, the ACSMA votes on the 2013-2014 Anthony J. McKevlin and Mary Garber Awards, which go to the most outstanding ACC male and female athletes, respectively.  As always, there are some excellent candidates for each of the awards (@DavidTeelatDP has a great post here on the nominees).

Let’s be clear – my awards ballot is going to have a Florida State type of appeal in a big way.

First, let’s talk about the McKevlin award – this was one of the easiest picks I’ve ever made for any award.  Jameis Winston, a redshirt sophomore QB (who also plays baseball – and is the Seminoles closer as pitcher) and national champion should be pretty much a unanimous vote.  Let’s take a look at his award sheet:

• Heisman Memorial Trophy Winner

• Consensus All-American

• Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award Winner

• Walter Camp Football Foundation Player of the Year

• Manning Award WINNER

• Sporting News Player of the Year

• Maxwell Award Finalist

• Associated Press All-America First Team

• FWAA All-America First Team

• Sporting News All-America First Team

• ESPN.com All-America First Team

• USA TODAY Sports All-America First Team

• Athlon Sports All-America First Team

• CBSSports.com All-America First Team

• SI.com All-America First Team

• Lindy’s All-America First Team

• FoxSports.com All-America First Team

• ACC Player of the Year

• Coaches ACC Player of the Year

• ACC Offensive Player of the Year

• Coaches ACC Offensive Player of the Year

• ACC Rookie of the Year

• Coaches ACC Rookie of the Year

• ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year

• Coaches ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year

• All-ACC First Team

• Coaches All-ACC First Team

• Athlon Sports Offensive Player of the Year

• College Football News Offensive Freshman of the Year

• Walter Camp All-America Second Team

• CBSSports.com Offensive Player of the Year

• Lindy’s Offensive Player of the Year

• FWAA Freshman All-American

Yeah – and, as I said a national champion – that was a no-brainer.

Second, the Mary Garber  was a more difficult choice.  While I think Morgan Brian will win the Garber award (and David Teel has great support in his post for her to win this award), I voted for Lacey Waldrop, the outstanding junior pitcher for the Florida State Seminoles.  Let’s talk about Ms. Waldrop (how did she get out of the state of Virginia?!?!?!):

USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year…NFCA First Team All-American…ACC Pitcher of the Year…Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division I National Player of the Week (March 4)… named to the ACC All-Tournament Team as FSU won its 12th conference title and first since 2011…earned ACC Pitcher of the Week honors seven times in 2014 to set a new conference record for a single season…led Florida State to its eighth trip to the Women’s College World Series and the first since 2004…her 38 victories were the most in the NCAA and broke an FSU single-season record…tossed three no-hitters in 2014 – vs. North Dakota State (Feb. 15), at Virginia (March 9) and vs. Florida A&M (March 26)…finished with a 1.13 ERA, allowing just 43 earned runs over 266.1 innings, which was the third-lowest ERA in the nation…ranked in the top 25 of the NCAA in strikeouts (287 – 12th) and shutouts (8 – 25th)…allowed more than one earned run in only 10 of her 48 appearances…recorded eight wins over ranked opponents, including road wins over both Alabama and Florida who played in the 2014 WCWS Championship Finals…named to USA Softball Selection Camp.

Lacey Waldrop is the most dominating softball pitcher I’ve seen in the ACC since Angela Tincher played at Virginia Tech.  I really think Waldrop can sense that batters fear her – and are intimidated when she is on the field.  Batters are scared of her.

Good luck from all of us at All Sports Discussion to the very deserving McKevlin and Garber nominees!!

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