PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College recently announced its 2015-16 athletic department awards, where six Pirates were honored at the annual Board of Trustees awards ceremony.
The college honors four athletes who best exemplify leadership, sportsmanship, citizenship, academic achievement and athletic ability.
Receiving the Wally Sigmar Award for soccer were Michele Whan and Manny Medina, and receiving the Art Feiro Award for basketball were Amanda Hutchins and Jeremiah Hobbs.
Whan, of Reno, Nevada, was part of a women’s soccer program that won two division championships and placed second and third in the Northwest Athletic Conference.
She was an NWAC All-Academic Team selection and also served as director of records and finance for the student government at Peninsula.
Medina, of Sparks, Nevada, overcame an injury and returned to the field very strong, helping the Pirates win an NWAC men’s soccer championship last fall.
He was an NWAC All-Academic Team selection and an outstanding student.
Hutchins, of Wasilla, Alaska, helped the Pirate women’s basketball team to an NWAC championship in 2015 and a runner-up finish this year. The team won back-to-back North Division titles, and she was an NWAC All-Academic Team selection.
Hobbs, of Seattle, started for the men’s basketball team and helped that team win a division championship this year, and earn trips to the postseason in both of his two years at Peninsula.
Hobbs also made the NWAC All-Academic Team and served the student government as director of event planning.
Peninsula’s other two award winners, Myu Ban of Kyoto, Japan, and Sephora Yayous, of Brussels, Belgium, received the Annie McMullen Award, which was established in 2011 to honor returning female athletes who have overcome challenges through hard work and dedication to be successful in their respective sport.
Ban was an all-star midfielder for the Pirate women’s soccer team and Yayous also is an outstanding athlete who came off the bench for the Pirate women’s basketball team. Both are freshmen.
“Once again, we had an outstanding group of award winners,” said Rick Ross, associate dean for athletics and student Life.
“All four of our teams won division titles this year and we had an all-time high athletic department grade point average, so these six athletes represent the cream of a very strong crop. We’re going to miss them a lot.”
All six athletes will have their names on perpetual plaques that are displayed in the gymnasium foyer.