BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Texas A&M quarterback Trevor Knight was named to the Southeastern Conference Community Service Team for football, which highlights an athlete who gives back to his community through superior service efforts.
Knight, a graduate transfer from San Antonio, Texas, is also a finalist for the Wuerffel Trophy, which is known as “College Football’s Premier Award for Community Service.” The winner of the 2016 Wuerffel Trophy will be announced at the National Football Foundation’s 59th Annual Award Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City on Monday, Dec. 6.
Knight was instrumental in the organization of a diverse group of Texas A&M student-athletes that went on a humanitarian trip to Haiti last summer and Knight has been a part of four excursions at Texas A&M and OU to the impoverished island nation. He’s also been extremely active with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at both schools.
The 2016 SEC Football Community Service Team is as follows:
O.J. Howard, Alabama
Has spent extensive time working with the elderly and youth organizations across Alabama … Regularly visits children’s hospitals in Birmingham … Spent time at the children’s hospital in New Orleans during the team’s two trips to New Orleans and also spent time at the Dallas children’s hospital during the trip to the 2015 Goodyear Cotton Bowl … Volunteered numerous hours at retirement homes across Tuscaloosa … Made visits to the Tuscaloosa VA hospital in each of the last three years … Most recently, spent a day this summer doing a Habitat for Humanity build with his teammates … Also helped in packing up football equipment for schools in West Virginia affected by the significant floods that affected the state over this past summer.
Brooks Ellis, Arkansas
2016 William V. Campbell Trophy Finalist … 2016 Wuerffel Trophy Semifinalist … Leverett Elementary School and Lifestyles group (people with disabilities) … Participated in “Book Hogs Read to Win” and “Book Hogs Pizza Party” with local elementary school students … Reading with Razorbacks initiative … Spent time with kids at Special Olympics Arkansas and MLK Youth Day … Signed autographs in conjunction with the Brandon Burlsworth Foundation as well as Big Brothers and Big Sisters or Northwest Arkansas … Volunteered with Mayflower Tornado Relief … Assisted Coach Bielema at the Susan G. Komen Ozark Affiliate “Football 101” benefit … “Be with Becca” fundraiser; Participated in Boys & Girls Club food giveaway and on-campus trash pickup.
Daniel Carlson, Auburn
Has participated at Champions of Chemo Lake Party for children fighting cancer and is a regular visitor at Birmingham Children’s Hospital … Active in Fellowship of Christian Athletes … Involved in the SAAC holiday toy and clothing collections and the Beat Bama Food Drive.
Jarrad Davis, Florida
Has spent more than 25 hours volunteering at Shands Hospital, Boys & Girls Club, Williams Elementary School, Habitat for Humanity and the Newberry Library … Named as one of 19 finalists for the Lott IMPACT Trophy, one of five finalists for the 2016 Pop Warner College Football Award and Butkus Award, and a semi-finalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, has been one of Florida’s leaders on and off the field this season … Advertising major at the University of Florida and was named to the SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll in 2013 … Has spoken to a Little League team, among other activities.
Jeb Blazevich, Georgia
One of 12 players nationwide named to AFCA Allstate Good Works Team … Included as a 2016 Wuerffel Trophy semifinalist … Worked with “Learn, Play, Excel” to educate and provide leadership for elementary and middle school students … Visited Camp Sunshine and spent time with children who have cancer … Volunteered for Countdown to Kickoff, a benefit for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Georgia Transplant Foundation and the UGA College of Education … Worked with Extra Special People, an organization assisting individuals with developmental disabilities and their families, among other charities.
Courtney Love, Kentucky
Participated in a service/educational trip to Ethiopia … Serves in a mentoring program with high school students … Participated in an event at the Indian Summer Camp for children who are cancer survivors or currently have cancer … Has taken part in events with the UK Children’s Hospital, Read Across America, Special Olympics and “Champ’s Camp” youth football camp, along with other service activities … Nominee for the Danny Wuerffel Trophy for academic, football and community service excellence … A transfer from Nebraska, he was active there as well, earning a Student-Athlete Hero Leadership Award and being named to the Tom Osborne Citizenship Team.
Danny Etling, LSU
Member of the Boys Scouts and achieved Eagle Scout status … Routinely spends free time in community giving back and using his LSU accomplishments to help inspire others … Active participant in LSU’s CHAMPS program.
Evan Engram, Ole Miss
Has been very active in the community during his time at Ole Miss, while showing a special passion for physically and mentally handicapped people … Volunteered his time with the Special Olympics, including the 2014 and 2015 Unified Egg Bowl events, which pit Special Olympics athletes from Ole Miss and Mississippi State against each other for a flag football game to raise funds for those programs at both schools … Has spent time with adults at the North Mississippi Regional Center and children at the C.M. Scott Center in Oxford … Participated in Reading with the Rebels and made several appearances at local schools, stressing to students the importance of good health and education … Camp counselor for an FCA football camp, has helped needy families at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and has visited patience at children’s hospitals in Jackson, Mississippi, and New Orleans.
Brandon Holloway, Mississippi State
Since the summer of 2015 has volunteered at 15 different community event … This fall, participated at the Henderson Walk to School Day with elementary kids and the TK Martin Super Fun Run … Spent three hours working the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign and at Camp Rising Sun … Visited with patients at Levine Children’s Hospital and Mississippi State Dance Marathon (a movement of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, a non-profit organization that raises funds and awareness for more than 170 pediatric hospitals) … MSU’s representative for the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team and Wuerffel Trophy.
Michael Scherer, Missouri
Serves on team’s discipline council … Works with “Moving Ahead Program” where he interacts with underprivileged children (9-11 ages) in after school program, tutoring and encouraging/mentoring them … Caleb’s Pitch charity – helping children battling cancer to fun artwork projects in hospital … Mid-Missouri Food Bank – worked in warehouse packaging food for distribution to needy families in the Columbia community … Big Brother/Big Sisters – worked at kids football clinic … Granny’s House – mentored young children after school … Special Olympics – served as athlete buddy and coach … Coyote Hill Children’s Home – mentored children displaced from their homes due to various reason.
Elliott Fry, South Carolina
Nominated for AFCA Good Works Team … Two-time member of SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll; School’s all-time leading scorer … Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a seven-year old, now is active with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) … 2016 Wuerffel Trophy nominee.
LaTroy Lewis, Tennessee
Started his own charitable organization – Project Elevate – which is a non-profit organization that focuses on mentoring local children and helping them with goal setting and goal achievement … Organized and ran “Hero Day” on Oct. 22 at Lonsdale Park where he and fellow student-athletes ran a special community service event in honor of the late local hero Zaevion Dobson, who died last December while shielding friends from gunfire … Spoke about the importance of helping others and created activities at “Hero Day” like washing cars and picking up trash around the neighborhood for local children to participate in so they could understand the value of giving back to the community; charitable donations from the event went directly to Lonsdale Elementary School … Spends every Wednesday as a mentor for a group of fourth graders at Lonsdale Elementary to discuss their dreams and goals and what they can do to achieve them.
Trevor Knight, Texas A&M
Finalist for the Wuerffel Trophy … Helped organize mission trip to Haiti for Aggie student-athletes, has spoken to many FCA and other community groups and assisted with Aggie Athletes Involved.
Oren Burks, Vanderbilt
2016 Allstate-AFCA National Good Works Team recipient (FBS) … 2016 Wuerffel Trophy nominee … Co-founder and program director for REVAMP (Revitalizing & Empowering Vanderbilt’s African-American Male Population); it was voted top new organization on campus for 2015-16 school year … Current President, Vanderbilt Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) … Helped organize shoe drive in association with Soles4Souls national organization for 2016 season opener vs. South Carolina.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Texas A&M senior middle blocker Jazzmin Babers has been named to the SEC Volleyball Community Service Team, the Southeastern Conference announced today.
The SEC sponsors Community Service Teams for all 21 league sponsored sports. The Community Service Team looks to highlight an athlete from each school who gives back to their community in superior service efforts. The 14th annual women’s volleyball Community Service Team follows:
Brittany Thomas, Senior, Outside Hitter, Alabama
Thomas led the team in volunteer hours over the calendar year, giving her time to a number of worthy causes. In the spring, she volunteered with the East Tuscaloosa Community Soup Bowl, which serves hot meals twice a week and sack lunches on Sundays, a tradition that has continued ever since the devastating tornado that hit Tuscaloosa in April of 2011. Thomas also volunteered along with numerous other student-athletes at gymnastics’ annual Power of Pink meet, helping light luminaries along the front steps of the coliseum in honor of those who lost their lives in the fight against breast cancer. Even during the volleyball season, Thomas managed to find time to help with the annual Halloween Extravaganza event, joining more than 250 other student-athletes who wore costumes and played games with area youth.
Breana Jones, Senior, Middle Blocker, Arkansas
As part of Arkansas’ Family Fun Day initiative, Jones and other Razorback student-athletes distributed backpacks and school supplies to elementary students prior to the 2016-17 academic year. She has also continued her role in the Book Hogs program with visits throughout the semester to local elementary schools to read to children. In pursuing her degree and goal of becoming a teacher, Jones currently spends 3-4 days a week as a student teacher at Sonora Elementary School in nearby Springdale, Ark. She is a member of Arkansas’ Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), and carries a 3.628 cumulative grade-point average as an elementary education major. Jones is a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. During her playing career at Arkansas, she has amassed more than 500 kills, 200 blocks and is on pace to record a top-five hitting percentage in program history.
Stephanie Campbell, Senior, Middle Blocker, Auburn
Campbell serves as the Co-Community Service Coordinator for Student-Athlete Advisory Community (SAAC), planning community service events for all Auburn student-athletes. She volunteers with canine performance sciences, working with bomb detection dogs. Campbell has worked with Bravehearts, an organization that gives teenagers with disabilities the opportunity to participate in art, music, and dance. She also volunteers at the BIG event on a yearly basis, going out into the Auburn community and fixing up parks, picking up trash, and doing painting projects for the city. Campbell helps coordinate the annual Toys for Tots toy drive and participates in Holiday visits to the local hospital and nursing homes. She was named to the 2013, 2014 and 2015 SEC Academic Honor Roll, and has earned spots on the 2014 and 2015 CoSIDA Academic All-District Teams.
Shainah Joseph, Redshirt Junior, Outside Hitter, Florida
Joseph has totaled 53 service hours since April 2014. Her projects include: Girls Place Clinic, mentoring at Duval Elementary, Hidden Oak Elementary, Lincoln Middle School, Williams Elementary, J.J. Finley Elementary. Joseph has also participated in a Special Needs Prom, Climb For Cancer (2015 and 2016), Dreamer’s Foundation Prom and Baby Gators Field Day. She has made multiple visits to UF Health Shands Hospital. Joseph currently serves as Vice President of SAAC.
Elle McCord, Senior, Defensive Specialist, Georgia
McCord has worked with Athens Stomp Poverty, a program designed to help impoverished families in the Athens-Clarke County area with groceries, housing maintenance and social time. She has also worked with Jam Quest Hoops, a program that helps with children in Kenya by raising money and awareness through basketball. The Georgia native also helped organize the Relay for Life Date Auction and serves on the Relay for Life Athletic Recruitment Board Committee. She attends the annual Special Olympics prom and spends times with the children at the Special Olympics Home Runs for Hometown Rivals Baseball Game. She is also actively involved in the “End It” and “No More” campaigns. McCord has served as a volleyball representative on SAAC since 2013 and served as the committee’s marketing chair. She is a part of the LEAD Society, UGA’s Honor Society and an inductee to the Delta Epsilon Iota Honor Society, Golden Key Honor Society and Sigma Alpha Lambda Honor Society. McCord has been named to the Athletic Department’s Honor Roll five times and to the SEC Fall Honor Roll. McCord has also studied abroad in Australia/New Zealand to learn about business and different cultures at the global scale.
Darian Mack, Junior, Outside Hitter, Kentucky
Mack is involved in several different community service initiatives. She has served as a walk-a-child to school volunteer and worked at the Ronald McDonald house. Mack has also spent many different days at the elementary schools in the area, talking to you kids about the importance of eating healthy, helping kids make snacks and give volleyball lessons. She spent time Bell ringing for the Salvation Army, and made blankets for Kentucky Children’s Hospital patients.
Kelly Quinn, Junior, Libero/Defensive Specialist, LSU
Quinn joined the LSU volleyball team in more than 15 hours of volunteering after the Baton Rouge Flood in August. She helped multiple LSU volleyball fans clean out their homes, which had been destroyed from the flood. Once a month, Quinn attends a local middle school and assists in teaching a physical education class. She also attends lunch with the Tigers once a month at a local elementary school where she eats lunch and plays with kids during recess. Quinn joined student-athletes from every sport in moving in LSU freshmen in August. She serves as Secretary of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the Volleyball representative to SAAC.
Aubrey Edie, Senior, Setter, Ole Miss
Edie has participated in More than a Meal, Groovin at Move-in and Reading with the Rebels. She is a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Edie is a CoSIDA Academic All-American and a three-time member of the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team. She is the school record holder in career, single-season and single-match for assists. Edie is currently fourth in the NCAA in active career assists.
Khris Carr, Sophomore, Outside Hitter, Mississippi State
Carr has participated in Camp Rising Sun, which is a camp for children living in Mississippi, Alabama and southwestern Tennessee who have been or are currently being treated for cancer. She served breakfast to local Starkville elementary school children during the annual Breakfast of Champions event. Carr Joined fellow MSU student-athletes in Walk To School Day, walking with local Starkville school children to school. She teamed up with other MSU students and the Starkville Police Department to collect water for residents of Flint, Mich. Several times throughout the year, Carr has participated in Gameday Carpool, meeting and greeting children as they arrive to school. She participated in Chick-Fil-A Family Night and took part in the Student-Athlete Panel at Mississippi State, volunteering to speak to a group of freshmen student-athletes this summer to prepare them for their new lives in college, addressing issues like academics-athletics balance, service opportunities, time management, and general student-athlete preparedness concerns. Carr took part in Project Linus, which collects blankets and distributes them to children in hospitals, shelters, social service agencies, or anywhere that a child might be in need. She is a second-generation Bulldog, as her mother lettered in basketball from 1987-90 and her father lettered in football from 1990-92. Her mother, Ann Carr, is a senior associate athletic director and the senior women’s administrator at Mississippi State, while also overseeing student-athlete services. Carr is majoring in communication with an emphasis in broadcasting.
Emily Thater, Senior, Middle Blocker, Missouri
Thater has volunteered for numerous events during her college career, accumulating 66 hours of community service. She served as a NSAD Special Olympic Buddy, and was a volunteer at the Children’s Hospital Street Party, the Benton Elementary Summer School and Going Bonkers Volunteer. Thater has participated in the Girl Scout Volleyball Clinic, the Black & Gold Youth Clinic and the Mizzou Volleyball Youth League Open House. She visited a young Tiger fans’ birthday party with other team members, and was a part of a visit to the American Legion and a Meet and Greet Autograph Signing at Columbia Ball. Thater worked the Mizzou Athletics’ Back to School BBQ, the Tiger Scholarship Fund Thank-A-Thon and the Mizzou Athletics’ Women 4 Women. She is regularly recognized as one of the Tigers’ top community service participants and leaders. Thater owns a 3.2 cumulative GPA in the nationally regarded University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Megan Kirkland, Senior, Defensive Specialist/Libero, South Carolina
Kirkland Has totaled over 200 hours of community service through the first three seasons at South Carolina, including 126 hours alone as a junior in 2015-16. Her service projects include work at the Harvest Hope food bank, the Christopher Towers senior living home, the local homeless shelter, Transitions, and the local Meals on Wheels program. She has also gone out to local elementary schools representing the team, delivering books and reading to the children. Through her work with the school’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and with the team, Kirkland has also helped to organize numerous other fundraisers and events on campus. She has been an active member of South Carolina’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee throughout her career. Kirkland carries a 4.0 cumulative grade point average and made the CoSIDA Academic All-District team this season. She is a member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll for each of her first three seasons and represented South Carolina on the 2014 SEC Community Service team.
Claudia Coco, Junior, Defensive Specialist, Tennessee
Coco has logged more than 30 hours of service this year. She helped with the reintroduction of mussels into the wild and composted at a local Knoxville Select Sport Horses farm. Coco taught Pond Gap Elementary School students about endangered species. She also organized the volleyball’s toiletry item drive for the Tennessee Holiday Meal and assisted with Vol-oween, Tennessee’s Halloween event for children of university faculty and staff. A member of the 2015 SEC Academic Honor Roll, Coco serves as the team representative on Tennessee’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
Jazzmin Babers, Senior, Middle Blocker, Texas A&M
Babers is a member of the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes leadership team and is responsible for community outreach. She also serves as a speaker, sharing testimonies at local schools and churches. In May, Babers and several teammates went on a mission trip to Haiti to spread the gospel and do manual labor. Other charitable activities she has participated in include spending time at the Bryan Adult Learning Center, where she volunteered in an adult ESL class, taught lessons and helped with one-on-one work; Aggies Move, teaching elementary children how to live active lives and stay healthy while also teaching them basic volleyball skills; Science Olympiad, a science competition for middle school and high school students from throughout Texas in which she helped with set up and take down, monitored and distributed tests, graded tests and was an overseer and judge for certain science competitions; The Big Event in which she helped an elderly couple prepare their home for moving out, painting, cleaning windows and boxing up their items; Residence Hall Move-In Assistance Day, helping new and returning Aggies move into their dorms; Aggies CAN, a student-run food drive; and the Brazos Valley Food Bank, where she packed family food boxes. She also has volunteered at a local elementary school, working one-on-one or in small groups with students needing extra help or with advanced students needing more challenging work. A 2015 AVCA second-team All-American, Babers is one of 10 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, which focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. She is a three-time member of both the All-SEC Team and the SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll. Babers holds numerous Texas A&M records, including most recently shattering the all-time career record for total blocks.
Babers, from Syracuse, New York, and the Aggies return to the court on Friday as they open NCAA Championship first-round action against SMU. First serve is at 4 p.m. at Gregory Gym in Austin.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M volleyball. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M volleyball team on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram by following @AggieVolleyball.
Stories courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics