Willie of Barton and Reitano of Mount Olive
Named 2013-14 Conference Carolinas Athletes of the Year
High Point, NC – Conference Carolinas announced that Nyeshea Willie of Barton College and Bradon Reitano of University
of Mount Olive have been named the 2013-14 Conference Carolinas Female and Male Athletes of the Year as voted on by
the conference Athletics Directors. This prestigious award is presented annually to both a male and female student-athlete in recognition of their outstanding athletic contributions and achievement. In winning the award Barton celebrates
their sixth overall (Bailess, 98-99; Godwin, 05-06; Atkinson, 06-07) and third Female Athlete of the Year (Reid, 01-02;
Vinson, 05-06) while Mount Olive recognizes their fourth overall league Athlete of the Year winner (Mitchell, 07-08) and
third ever Male Athlete of the Year (Sherrer, 07-08; Capps, 10-11).
Nyeshea Willie, Barton
Her selection as 2013-14 Conference Carolinas Female Athlete of the Year caps a remarkable career for Barton College
senior Nyeshea Willie.
In 2013-14, Willie was named Conference Carolinas Women’s Basketball Player of the Year for the second straight season
and All-Conference Carolinas for the fourth year in a row. She was chosen after ranking second in the nation in scoring
at 24 points per game.
In addition to scoring, Willie also led the league and ranked No. 30 nationally in free throw shooting at 87.0 percent.
She also ranked second in the conference and No. 45 nationally in steals with an average of 2.46 per contest, and was
third in the league in 3-point accuracy (36.9 percent), fifth in assists (3.1), sixth in field goal percent (40.6 percent) and
seventh in 3-pointers per game (2.0).
Willie’s play in 2013-14 earned her Second Team All-American recognition by DII Bulletin and Honorable Mention All-American
acclaim by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. She was chosen to the Daktronics All-Southeast Region First Team
for the second straight season and was named All-State First Team by the North Carolina Collegiate Sports Information
Association for the second year in a row.
The 5-8 guard earned the league's Player of the Week honor three times in 2013-14. She reached double-figures in 25 of the 26 games she played this season, the only exception being a contest late in the year in which she
suffered a game-ending injury that caused her to miss Barton's post-season. She scored at least 20 points an incredible
18 times this year, and surpassed the 30-point level in a game on five occasions.
In her final home game of the season, Willie crossed the 2,000-point plateau for her career. She completed her Barton
career just shy of 500 rebounds, 300 steals and 300 assists. The Virginia Beach, Va., resident participated in three
NCAA Division II Southeast Regionals, was the league's Freshman of the Year in 2010-11, and was the Kiwanis Female Athlete
of the Year at Barton each of the past two seasons.
Bradon Reitano, Mount Olive
University of Mount Olive outfielder Bradon Reitano was the 2014 Conference Carolinas Baseball Player of the Year and was also
a consensus All-America this year. He earned All-America First Team honors by two national organizations for the second
consecutive year. Reitano was also a finalist for the 2014 Tino Martinez Award, which is presented to the College Baseball Lineup
Division II Baseball National Player of the Year.
Reitano led Conference Carolinas in two of the three “triple crown” categories, leading the conference with 14 home runs and 67
runs batted in. He ranked among the top 10 nationally in home runs, runs batted in and runs scored. Reitano was a three-time
Conference Carolinas Player of the Week winner in 2014 and won the award five times in the past two seasons.
A senior from Hillsborough, N.C., Reitano helped lead Mount Olive to the 2014 Conference Carolinas regular season and tournament
championships, as well as the Trojans’ fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The Trojans were ranked as high as No. 3 this
season in the Collegiate Baseball Top 30 National Poll.
Reitano, who was at Mount Olive for all four years, finished in the top three in three categories in University of Mount Olive’s all-time
career records list. He finished second in runs batted in with 186 and third in home runs (30) and runs scored (197).
Reitano becomes the third Trojan Male Athlete of the Year and the fourth University of Mount Olive student-athlete in the past seven years to win a Conference Carolinas year-end individual award. Carter Capps, currently a relief pitcher
for the Florida Marlins, won the award in 2010-11. Current University of Mount Olive assistant baseball coach Jason Sherrer won
the 2007-2008 award when he was starting catcher for the Trojans’ national championship team. Women’s volleyball/track and field student-athlete Samantha Mitchell won both the 2007-08 Conference Carolinas Female Athlete of the Year and Murphy Osborne Awards.
PREVIOUS CONFERENCE ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
Year Male Female
Conference Carolinas
2013-14 Bradon Reitano, Mount Olive
Nyeshea Willie, Barton
2012-13
Riley Loewen, Limestone
Kay Schellenberg, Belmont Abbey
2011-12
Jake Ternosky, Limestone
Ashley Alderin-Fleagle, Limestone
2010-11
Carter Capps, Mount Olive
Racquel Prager, Limestone
2009-10
Bryan Fogle, Erskine
Tanya Zeferjahn, Queens
2008-09
Michael Crouch, Queens
Lauryn Wise, Limestone
2007-08
Jason Sherrer, Mount Olive
Samantha Mitchell, Mount Olive
Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference
2006-07
Anthony Atkinson, Barton
Deidra Langston, Anderson
2005-06
Brock Godwin, Barton
Keauna Vinson, Barton
2004-05
Casey Smith, Erskine
LaShonda Chiles, Anderson
2003-04
Spencer Ross, Queens
Tina Gonsalves, St. Andrews
2002-03
Andrew McArthur, Pfeiffer
Jennifer Potts, Longwood
2001-02
Ben Case, Pfeiffer
Shemkia Reid, Barton
2000-01
Colin Ducharme, Longwood
Jen Calderwood, Lees-McRae
1999-00
Nem Sovic, Pfeiffer
Angela Placona, Belmont Abbey
1998-99
Todd Bailess, Barton
Missy Paterson, Coker
1997-98
Soce Faye, Queens
Missy Paterson, Coker
1996-97
Dan Shanks, Coker
Missy Paterson, Coker
1995-96
Brett Speight, High Point
Staci Albright, Coker
Conference Carolinas is a NCAA Division II athletics conference made up of 12 teams from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Tennessee. These institutions consist of: Barton College, Belmont Abbey College, Converse College, Emmanuel College,
Erskine College, King University, Lees-McRae College, Limestone College, North Greenville University, Pfeiffer University,
Southern Wesleyan University, and the University of Mount Olive. Emmanuel College and Southern Wesleyan University are currently
completing the NCAA DII membership process and will be fully competing in league championships beginning in 2015-16.
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