Gaye and Coles Named MAAC Honorees for NCAA Woman of the Year
MAAC Sports
EDISON, NJ - The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) has named Marist College’s women’s cross country/track runner Michelle Gaye and Siena College’s women’s basketball standout Tehresa Coles as honorees for the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year.
Now in its 25th year, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award recognizes graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.
The duo is just two of a record 147 NCAA female student-athletes that have been named 2015 Woman of the Year honorees by conferences and independent schools. These honorees were selected from a record 480 school nominees, and are represented by college athletes from 18 different sports spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of those recognized, 57 honorees competed in Division I, 39 in Division II and 51 in Division III.
Gaye finished her athletic career as the top distance runner in program history. In the 2014-15 school year, she became the first runner in program history to win an individual ECAC championship in cross country and qualify for NCAA Regionals in outdoor track & field. Gaye also is the first runner in program history to finish in the top 10 of the MAAC Cross Country Championships four times. She holds the school record in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters indoors, as well as the 5,000 and 10,000 meters outdoors. Gaye was named Female Sportsperson of the Year at this year’s Marist Senior Awards Banquet.
In the 2014-15 school year, Gaye was named CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District, earned U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association All-Academic honors, and was named Student of the Month by the Marist Student-Athlete Enhancement Center. Gaye was a three-year MAAC All-Academic Team selection. She graduated in May with a degree in Business Administration/Finance.
Gaye was active in community service activities in her time at Marist. She participated in the Girl Scouts Sports Sampler, Haviland Middle School Sportsmanship Day, Run for Home Charity Race, the Red Fox Trot, Teach for America Pen Pal Program, the Hunger Walk, Poughkeepsie Children’s Home Halloween Night, and Nassau Spackenkill Elementary School “No Name Call Week.”
Coles, the Siena College’s 2014-15 Female Student Athlete of the Year has exemplified the NCAA Woman of the Year qualifications of excelling in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.
In the classroom, Coles finished her undergraduate degree in just three years and received her M.S. in Accounting from Siena College this spring. A consummate student athlete, she graduated with a 3.45 cumulative GPA and was a three-time MAAC Academic Honor Roll selection. A 2014 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar, Coles was also tabbed Siena College’s December 2013 Leo Dufort Student Athlete of the Month.
Coles completed a prestigious two-year financial counseling internship at the Ayco Company, L.P. in which she was promoted to a Level 2 intern with the company. She was tabbed a student member of the New York State Certified Public Accountants last summer and earlier this month began her professional career as an assurance associate for Marvin and Company in nearby Latham.
On the court, Coles captained the women’s basketball team to the program’s first winning season in 11 years and most victories in a dozen seasons in leading the Saints to the championship game of the Women’s Basketball Invitational. Coles led the Saints to 22 victories which marked a 13-win improvement from the previous year and tied for the second best turnaround in all of Division I and Siena ranked tied for fourth nationally with 12 true road wins.
Named the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year, a Second Team All-MAAC and both a MAAC and WBI All-Tournament Team selection, Coles broke both Siena’s single season (98) and career (308) records for steals and ranked first in the MAAC (21st nationally) in steals (2.9), third in free throw percentage (.836) and sixth in scoring (13.2). Coles graduated as one of just four players in MAAC Women’s Basketball history to eclipse 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 300 steals and 250 assists for her career.
In the community, Coles gave back in a number of ways as an active participant in Siena Athletics’ Blue Shield of Northeastern New York “Saints in the Community” program. She cooked dinners and helped clean the local Ronald McDonald House, ran a clinic for children with special needs, visited assisted living homes, served meals at a soup kitchen and volunteered at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Upstate New York’s Annual “Light the Night” Walk and at the Troy Boys and Girls Club.
Along with teammates, Coles was an integral part of the Saints’ annual “Stomp Out Homelessness,” Blue Shield of Northeastern New York’s “Kid’s Day” and Berkshire Bank “Pink Zone” games. The “Stomp” game helped raise money and awareness for Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless, which Coles in turn visited cooking meals and cleaning up the facility for those who lived there. As part of “Kid’s Day,” Coles and her teammates made local schools visits each year, reading to and playing games with the schoolchildren while preaching the importance of hard work and strong academics. The “Pink Zone” game raised $111,419 for Capital Region Action Against Breast Cancer (CRAAB!) over Coles’ four years and each year she personally knit pink clothing accessories to be auctioned off with all proceeds going to the organization.
From a leadership standpoint, Coles was a two-time captain and three-year member of head coach Ali Jaques’ leadership council on the women’s basketball team. She also spent three years serving as a Siena College Student Athlete Mentor.
The Woman of the Year selection committee will next select the top 10 honorees in each division. These top 30 honorees will be announced in early September. The selection committee will then choose and announce the nine finalists (three from each division) at the end of September. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will cast votes among the nine finalists to determine the 2015 Woman of the Year.
The top 30 will be honored and the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual ceremony in Indianapolis on Oct. 18.