MILITARY ROLL OF HONOR
>> U.S. Air Force Airman Ricardo S. Cabezas graduated from basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, San Antonio.
Cabezas is the son of Ricardo Cabezas of Odessa and Cynthia Guadarrama of Hutto. He is the husband of Samantha Houser of Odessa.
The airman is a 2017 graduate of Permian High School.
AWARD
>> JCPenney general manager Richard Galan from Music City Mall was recently awarded the company’s prestigious Founder’s Award for outstanding accomplishments in 2018. The Founder’s Award highlights store leaders excelling in the areas of financial performance, customer and client service and business expertise. With more than 860 JCPenney stores across the country, Galan was one of 80 leaders presented with the Founder’s Award earlier this month in celebration of this special milestone.
“The 2018 Founder’s Awards recipients have played a key role in driving the JCPenney business, embodying our Warrior values of loyalty, passion, service and courage,” said Brian Flanagan, Southwest regional vice president for JCPenney, in a prepared statement. “The Founder’s Award is the company’s highest honor, recognizing leadership excellence. I’m proud of our talented group of associates at the JCPenney in Odessa who earned this special recognition, and look forward to another successful year in Odessa.”
SPEAKER
>> ALPINE Three-time graduate Eddie Sandoval of Arlington, who has combined a lengthy career in education with his work as a Native American preservationist, delivered the commencement address at Sul Ross State University-Alpine’s spring graduation exercises May 17.
Sandoval, who holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in industrial technology as well as a master’s degree in educational counseling from Sul Ross, spent more than 40 years in secondary and higher education. After teaching and coaching for five years in San Antonio, he worked nearly 40 years at Tarrant County College, Fort Worth, retiring in 2011 as head of counseling.
Alongside his education and counseling careers, Sandoval, who has ancestors in the Mescalero and Chiricahua Apache tribes of Geronimo, has become well known as a Native American preservationist and historian. He also became a Sun Dancer at Pine Ridge, South Dakota in the early 1990s, a distinction enabling him to carry out numerous ceremonies and blessings.
For his decades of work advocating for the people of Tribal Nations and representing and preserving Native American heritage, Sandoval was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame on May 14, 2018. The Trail of Fame honor comes with a bronze marker inlaid at the historic Fort Worth Stockyards.
MEDAL OF HONOR
>> ALPINE Fabian Baeza (football) and Kelly Swenson (women’s soccer), Sul Ross State University student-athletes, have been named recipients of the American Southwest Conference Scholar-Athlete Medal of Honor in May.
Baeza and Swenson joined 26 other ASC student-athletes on this year’s Medal of Honor list.
Baeza (Van Horn/VHHS) is a Kinesiology major and has been involved in several service projects at Sul Ross including painting a daycare center, highway cleanup projects, coaching local youth teams, volunteering with Kiwanis and on-campus projects. He was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and was selected to the ASC Academic All-Conference team. He was also an ASC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete nominee. Baeza also conducted research as a McNair Scholar on football concussions.
Swenson (Round Rock/Texas Virtual Academy) is also a Kinesiology major and was on the Dean’s List and a member of the Honor Society during all four years of competition at Sul Ross. Swenson earned the W.H. Perryman Outstanding Kinesiology Student award and was a part of the National Society of Leadership and Success with Sigma Alpha Pi. She was a three-time ASC Academic All-Conference selection and a Distinguished Scholar-Athlete. She served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for four years including two years as an officer. Swenson was a peer mentor for two years and was a part of the Dean’s Student Council for Kinesiology for two years. She also performed several service projects on campus and helped within the community with trash pick-up and volunteered at the Alpine Food Pantry. On the field, Swenson was a two-time ASC All-Conference goalkeeper.
The ASC Scholar-Athlete Medal of Honor is presented to one male and one female member of the graduating class who has compiled the most outstanding record in academics, athletics and leadership over their collegiate careers. The award is presented annually by the Faculty Athletics Representative at each conference member institution.
Recipients of the 20018-19 ASC Scholar-Athlete Medal of Honor represent 13 different conference sports and include individuals who graduated with academic honors, hold admission to graduate-level programs, are members of academic honor societies and campus organizations and who served as volunteers, tutors and mentors within the campus and the community.
ALL-AMERICAN
>> ALPINE Sul Ross State University sophomore first baseman Tim Johnson has garnered his second, First Team All-American honor.
Johnson was named an American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Rawlings First Team All-American on May 31.
Johnson was named a First Team All-West Region by ABCA/Rawlings earlier this week and was also named a D3Baseball.com First Team All-American.
An ASC Newcomer of the Year and an American Southwest Conference First Team All-Conference selection, Johnson leads the ASC with a .443 batting average. His 2019 average also ranks him third in Sul Ross single season batting averages since the Lobos joined the NCAA in 1997.
Johnson’s .779 slugging percentage and .517 on-base percentage also sits him atop the ASC rankings and third and second respectively in All-Time Sul Ross single season records.
He registered a third ASC-best 66 hits on the season and also a third ASC-high 49 RBI. He also leads the conference with 19 doubles and a third ASC-high 116 total bases along with a team-leading nine home runs.
Johnson secured an inside-the-park grand slam home run in an 18-7 victory over defending National Champion U.T. Tyler in Sully’s regular season finale at Kokernot Field, April 27.
The ABCA, founded in 1945, is the primary professional organization for baseball coaches at the amateur level.
Its more than 11,000 members represent all 50 states and 25 countries. Since its initial meeting of 27 college baseball coaches in June 1945, Association membership has broadened to include eight divisions: NCAA Division I, II and III, NAIA, NJCAA, Pacific Association Division, High School and Youth. The 76th annual ABCA Convention will be held Jan. 2-5, 2020 in Nashville, Tenn.
The Sul Ross State University softball and men’s tennis teams were the spring 2019 recipients of the ASC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Team Sportsmanship Awards in an announcement May 29.
