2023-24 NAIA Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athletes
SEWARD, Neb. – A group of 13 Bulldogs from the Concordia University Women’s Basketball program have been honored as 2023-24 Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athletes, as announced on Wednesday (March 20). That number ranks second best among all NAIA women’s basketball programs. Head Coach Drew Olson’s program increased its number of Scholar-Athletes from last year’s 11. Eight of the honorees are repeat award winners.
The 2023-24 list of women’s basketball honorees features 887 total student-athletes. In order to be nominated by an institution’s head coach or sports information director, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale, must appear on the eligibility certificate for the sport and have attended one full year at said institution.
The full list of Scholar-Athletes from the women’s basketball program can be found below. The repeat NAIA Scholar-Athlete award winners are Kendal Brigham, Carolyn Esh, Abby Heemstra, Maggi Hughes, Elayne Poppe, Sadie Powell, Hanna Spearman and Reece Snodgrass. Brigham and Powell were also recognized as 2022-23 Academic All-District selections by College Sports Communicators.
Concordia University ranks as the NAIA’s all-time leader in number of Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes with 2,322 entering the 2023-24 academic year. The school record for number of Scholar-Athletes in one academic year is 226 achieved in 2019-20. Concordia has been a regular national leader for both Scholar-Athletes and Scholar-Teams.
2023-24 Women’s Basketball NAIA Scholar-Athletes
· Megan Belt (Papillion, Neb.)
· Kendal Brigham (Wahoo, Neb.)
· Carolyn Esh (Loveland, Colo.)
· Abby Heemstra (Rock Valley, Iowa)
· Maggi Hughes (Sabetha, Kan.)
· Cylee Jameson (Thedford, Neb.)
· Kiera Moes (Osmond, Neb.)
· Elayne Poppe (Lincoln, Neb.)
· Sadie Powell (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
· Reece Snodgrass (West Point, Neb.)
· Hanna Spearman (Gretna, Neb.)
· Kristin Vieselmeyer (Holyoke, Colo.)
· Gabrielle Wagner (Sioux City, Iowa)