NAIA honors a Westmont coach and two Warriors athletes
Article courtesy Westmont Athletics:
Westmont senior Libby Dahlberg, a middle blocker on the Warrior volleyball team, was named the recipient of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ Leroy Walker Champions of Character Award. Dahlberg is the first Westmont student-athlete to receive the award.
The award was created to honor Dr. Leroy Walker, a former president of the NAIA and President emeritus of the United States Olympic Committee. It recognizes a current student-athlete with at least a junior academic status who has demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, campus and community leadership embracing the five core character values of the NAIA Champions of Character initiative, athletic achievement and future ambition.
Westmont junior Cassidy Rea, a right side hitter of the Warrior volleyball team, was named the female recipient of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ A. O. Duer Scholarship Award. Rea is the first Westmont student-athlete to receive the award.
Named in honor of the NAIA’s former executive secretary who served the association for 26 years, the A. O. Duer Scholarship Award presented by Daktronics has been annually given since 1967 to a male and female junior student-athlete in any sport who has excelled in scholarship, character, and citizenship.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Westmont Women’s Basketball head coach Kirsten Moore was named the 2019 NAIA Coach of Character. Moore will be honored at the NAIA National Convention to be held in West Palm Beach, Florida, next April.
Moore joins 14 previous recipients of the NAIA Coach of Character Award including Westmont’s Russell Smelley, the 2015 honoree. The annual award is given to a head coach of an NAIA institution who has been outstanding in embracing the five core values of the NAIA Champions of Character initiative, using methods of teaching character through sport, and in community leadership through volunteering or service.
