June 16, 2011
ST. LOUIS -
Illinois State's Scott Krapf, a track & field/cross country student-athlete, has been selected as the male recipient of the Missouri Valley Conference's Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete Award, as announced by Valley Commissioner Doug Elgin Thursday. The Valley Faculty Athletics Representatives Committee selected Krapf from a field of league student-athletes who met the Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete Award criteria, which includes academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership.
A native of Danville, Ill., Krapf graduated in May with a Master's Degree in sport management and a 4.00 cumulative grade-point average and plans to pursue a law degree and a career in NCAA enforcement. At Illinois State, he served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council as president and was a member of the Athletic Council. In addition to his tenure as president of the Illinois State SAAC, Krapf represents ISU at the conference level, serving as one of Illinois State's student-athlete representatives to the conference SAAC. He has been representing the Missouri Valley Conference SAAC on the NCAA National Student-Athlete Advisory Council for over two years. Last January, he was named the Vice Chair of the Division I National SAAC and this January he assumed the role as the Chair of the Division I National SAAC.
The 2009 MVC Cross Country Individual Champion, Krapf earned selection to the league's all-conference cross country team three times in his career and was a seven-time all-conference honoree in track and field. Last month, he was named to the Capital One Academic All-District V Team for the third time in his career. He was a CoSIDA ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American in 2009 and was recently selected as a semi-finalist for the John Wooden Cup Award. He is a two-time Scholar-Athlete of the Year award recipient at Illinois State.
The first-ever recipient of the Honda Award of Merit in 1996 for outstanding achievement in women's collegiate athletics, Dr. Charlotte West was a driving force for more than 40 years in the area of advancement of women's sports. On June 30, 1998, she retired from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, after serving in the capacities of head coach, associate athletics director, interim athletics director and senior woman administrator during her 41 years with the Missouri Valley Conference-member institution. West coached five women's sports from 1957-75 and, in 1982, was among the first group of women inducted into the SIUC Athletics Hall of Fame.
During her tenure at SIUC, she became the first female member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and later served on the organization's board of directors. West was also a president of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). In 1991, she was presented with the Administrator of the Year Award by the National Association of Collegiate Women Administrators. West also received the Administrator of the Year Award, given by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association.
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