From now until Jan. 2, the Carson-Newman Athletic Communications Department will debut the Frosty Award nominees for the fall semester. These are the fall nominees for Coach of the Year. Saturday, we'll unveil the candidates for Team of the Year.
The fifth annual Frosty Awards will take place in early May and honor athletic excellence in Carson-Newman's athletic department.
Categories:
- Team Performance of the Year
- Female Newcomer of the Year
- Male Newcomer of the Year
- Coach of the Year
- Team of the Year
- Game of the Year
- Play of the Year
- Male Freshman of the Year
- Female Freshman of the Year
- Upset of the Year
- Comeback of the Year
- Male Performance of the Year
- Female Performance of the Year
- Female Athlete of the Year
- Male Athlete of the Year
Coach of the Year
Chuck Benson: Chuck Benson has guided the Carson-Newman men's basketball program to an 11-2 start, the best start for the program since moving to NCAA Division II. The Eagles have been ranked as high as 20th in the D2SIDA Media Poll and 23rd in the NABC Coaches Poll. The Eagles have won 14 consecutive games inside of Holt Fieldhouse and have the country's second most efficient offense, averaging better than 53 percent from the field. The architect of an offensve that shared the ball, Carson-Newman ranks 10th in the country in assists leading to the 14th best three-point shooting team in the country.
Simon Duffy: The first-year head coach set about every single season record at C-N in a four-month span. Duffy helped guide the Eagles to a program record 21 wins and their third-consecutive regular season and tournament championship. They are the only team to finish the regular season and conference tournament unbeaten in league history. The native of Navan, Ireland became the first coach in the history of the program to collect the regular season or conference championships in their first year. The 22-straight games unbeaten also notched a program record. His team trailed for a total of 42:44 this season out of a possible 2112 minutes. Duffy led the team to a No. 2 national ranking, the highest ever in women's soccer history at C-N. The 2017 Eagles became the first team in the history of women's sports at C-N AND the South Atlantic Conference to make it to the National final. His team collected 31 awards since the end of the regular season, shattering the previous record of 19 set in 2009 and 2016. He was named the SAC's Coach of the Year, the first C-N coach to be named to the award in his first season.
Dave Franklin: The second-year head coach guided the Eagles back to the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championships for the seventh time in the history of the program after finishing fourth in the SAC regular season standings. C-N reached the SAC Tournament title match for the fifth time in program history. Franklin helped guide a trio of players to conference postseason laurels as Morgan Ballard earned a spot on the first team, Marnie Streeter was on the second unit and Megan Oldenburger finished on the freshman team. The mentor saw his team finish in the top 10 nationally in digs while ranking third in opponent hitting percentage.
Mike Mincey: As of the architect of the sixth-ranked team in the WBCA coaches' poll, Mincey has the Lady Eagles off to a 13-0 start to a season for the third time in school history while notching their highest ranking as a member of Division II. The high mark for an opening to a season is 16-0 set in 2009-10. Carson-Newman is one of 12 remaining undefeated teams in the country while ranking second in the nation in points per game at 96.6. Mincey's unit has five outings with at least 100 points marking the most in a single season in school history passing the 1979-80 team's four. Entering this season, the program has scored at least 110 points seven times. The 2017-18 group has done so in four times. Among many big moments, the team set the program record for three-pointers in a game with 17 against Shorter on Nov. 21. C-N has also scored the third and fourth most points in the history of the school with 119 against the reigning region titlists Columbus State on Nov. 26 and 115 against Georgia College on Nov. 18
Mike Turner: Mike Turner took over a team that won four games in 2016 and doubled the Eagles win total in 2017. Carson-Newman finished 8-3 and narrowly missed out on making the NCAA playoffs for a 15th time in school history. Along the way, the maestro of Carson-Newman's veer option attack turned into a defensive head coach. The Eagles finished the year as the top defense in the South Atlantic Conference and had the league's best rush defense. The Eagles allowed the second fewest rush yards per game on the year with 94 since the year 2000. Turner coached 10 All-SAC performers and four all-region honorees.
Stephen Lyons: In his first season at the helm of the Carson-Newman men's soccer program, the Middlesborough, England native coached the Eagles to a 9-7-2 overall record, 6-2-2 in the conference, with a trip to the South Atlantic Conference tournament. His inaugural season marked the most successful of any first year coach in program history. The Eagles amassed a streak of eight consecutive clean sheets through the season, including a 1-0 shutout victory over No. 5 Lenoir-Rhyne.
