Conference Carolinas Honors Milestone and Legend Award Winners at Annual Banquet
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Conference Carolinas honored its latest Milestone and Legend award winners as part of its annual awards ceremony on Tuesday, May 16 at the Embassy Suites in Concord, North Carolina.
The Milestone and Legend awards are presented to deserving coaches and administrators that have made a long-standing impact within Conference Carolinas.
Conference Carolinas presented one Legend award at its annual awards ceremony with Barton men’s and women’s tennis head coach
Lee Underwood garnering the prestigious honor.
Underwood just recently completed his sixth year as head men’s and women’s tennis head coach at Barton. He has picked up 65 wins as the men’s head coach at Barton, while compiling 67 wins as the women’s head coach. Prior to joining Barton, Underwood spent seven years at Edinboro where he was named Coach of the Year seven times in the PSAC and led the Fighting Scots to a combined 169 victories. He was the head coach at West Virginia Wesleyan prior to that, combining for 134 wins in his six years on campus. He began his career at Davis & Elkins where he totaled 272 victories during his 13 years at the institution. He has picked up over 700 combined wins in his illustrious career.
The conference presented five Milestone awards at the annual awards ceremony.
Jenn Bell of Converse entered her fifth year as the Director of Athletics during the 2022-23 academic year. She has also served in the athletics department at former Conference Carolinas member institutions Anderson and Coker. Bell recently was named one of the recipients of the Cushman & Wakefield AD of the Year Award for NCAA Division II. Bell was originally nominated for the award after receiving the honor from a vote among the current Directors of Athletics in Conference Carolinas. Under Bell's leadership, Converse Athletics has developed a winning culture - in the classroom, in the sports venue and in the community. Throughout the institution's recent model change, Bell led the department through a successful transition from a single-gender athletics program to a coed program by adding six male sports, esports and a spirit squad to the list of athletic programs offered at Converse. With these eight additions, Converse athletics now offers 21 athletic programs, which more than doubled the number of student-athletes within the department over the last couple of academic years. As the new programs have been added, more staff members have been brought on board and the department has nearly doubled in size with the addition of assistant coaches and additional administrators.
Jan McDonald has been a vital part of North Greenville athletics for 38 years overall. She is in her 23
rd year as the Director of Athletics at North Greenville. McDonald started the softball program at North Greenville in 1985. She led the softball team to two NJCAA Region X titles (1990 and 1996) while North Greenville was a junior college. She was also named the NJCAA Region X Coach of the Year three times. After North Greenville became a four-year institution, the two-time Mid-South Coach of the Year led the Crusaders to the 2000 Mid-South Conference Championship. In addition to softball, McDonald has coached basketball and volleyball as an assistant and started the women’s soccer program in 1986. Under her leadership, North Greenville has risen from a junior college to a NAIA institution to an NCAA Division II institution. She also played an integral role in North Greenville's move from independent to Conference Carolinas and Gulf South (football only) members. Since 2011, North Greenville teams have won eight Conference Carolinas team championships, including four in baseball and two in golf. McDonald was honored in 2016 as the namesake for NGU's new softball field, part of an ongoing project to upgrade each of its facilities. In her time, NGU has added three new on-campus facilities, including Younts Stadium (2005), Pepsi Stadium (2005), the track-and-field facility (2015) and the Angie and Sam Kelly Strength & Conditioning building (2015). North Greenville has started several new sports during her time as AD and the school also won its first NCAA championship in baseball last year.
Nate Moorman joined the Emmanuel College family during the summer of 2014 as Emmanuel College’s sixth Director of Athletics, before being promoted in 2021 to the first Vice-President of Athletics at Emmanuel. Moorman also served as an Assistant Athletic Director and head men’s wrestling coach at Conference Carolinas member King University before joining the Emmanuel athletics department. The Emmanuel athletics department has experienced an abundant growth since Moorman’s arrival, including: an increase in enrollment from approximately 350 student-athletes to over 600 student-athletes, a rise in revenue production for the institution from roughly $4.5 million to nearly $10 million and an expansion in athletic staffing from 21 full-time staff members to 49 full time staff members. New programs have also been added to Emmanuel since Moorman’s arrival, including the addition of men’s and women’s wrestling, men’s and women’s triathlon, bass fishing and acrobatics and tumbling. Emmanuel athletics has also seen a continual and successful effort to increase student-athlete graduation rates from 29.5 percent to 54 percent. The student-athlete GPA has remained at its peak for the last five years. Moormab currently serves on the Emmanuel College Senior Leadership Team, is the AD liaison for Conference Carolinas wrestling, serves as chair of the Conference Carolinas Student-Athlete Affairs Committee and is an active member of the Conference Carolinas Assessment and Planning Committee. In addition, Moorman serves as a member of the executive board and championship committee for the NCAA Emerging Sport, women’s wrestling.
Mark Peeler is in his 20
th year as the leader of Erskine athletics. He has been on staff at Erskine for 24 years overall, which includes serving as the men’s basketball coach for 19 years. He is returning back to his role as head men’s basketball coach in the upcoming academic year after serving the last three years as women’s basketball head coach. Peeler has directed an incredible transformation of the Flying Fleet athletics program. Erskine has increased the number of student-athletes since 2000 by 80 percent and seen record-breaking fundraising totals. The Fleet participated in 10 intercollegiate NCAA Division II sports in 2004 but now compete in 24 programs. Erskine athletics teams have seen unprecedented success in NCAA Division II under Peeler's watch. Erskine has won 24 Conference Carolinas championships, participated in 25 NCAA Division II Southeast Regionals and won two National Christian College Athletic Association National Championships. The architect of "The Fleet Way," Peeler helped bring back a piece of Erskine history with the return of football.
Chip Spiron was a student-athlete on the Mount Olive men’s golf team before returning to his alma mater as the men’s coach in the fall of 2022. He added women’s golf coaching duties in 2004. Spiron is one of only three head coaches in Mount Olive history to earn conference coach of the year honors in two different sports. Spiron was named the 2007 Conference Carolinas Men’s Golf Coach of the Year and was named the Conference Carolinas Women’s Golf Coach of the Year three consecutive years in 2011, 2012 and 2013. During the 2020-21 season, the men's team captured their first Conference Carolinas Tournament Championship and the team at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Legend Award Winners
2015-16 Class: (First Year)
George Pitts (King)
Carl Lancaster (Mount Olive)
Bob Reasso (Pfeiffer)
2016-17 Class:
Rita Smith (Lees-McRae)
Todd Wilkinson (Barton)
2017-18 Class:
Br. Paul Shanley, O.S.B. (Belmont Abbey)
2021-22 Class:
Mike Bona (Emmanuel)
Jeff Eisen (Mount Olive)
2022-23 Class:
Lee Underwood (Barton)
Milestone Award Winners
2015-16 Class: (First Year)
Ron Lievense (Barton)
Sheryl Neff (Barton)
Wendee Saintsing (Barton)
Alleen Hawkins (Erskine)
Kevin Nichols (Erskine)
Charles Wimphrie (Southern Wesleyan)
2016-17 Class:
Tina Parks (Mount Olive)
2017-18 Class:
Debbie Bost (Belmont Abbey)
Paul Lyon (Belmont Abbey)
Stephen Miss (Belmont Abbey)
Craig McPhail (Lees-McRae)
Dennis Bloomer (Limestone)
Mike Cerino (Limestone)
J. B. Clarke (Limestone)
Corey Fox (Limestone)
Jimmy Martin (Limestone)
Scott Tucker (Limestone)
Dr. Brenda Cates (Mount Olive)
Wendy Lee (Mount Olive)
2021-22 Class:
Kevin Coghill (Mount Olive)
Dr. LaToya Lindsey (Mount Olive)
Calhoun Parr (Erskine)
Shelia Crockett (King)
2022-23 Class:
Jenn Bell (Converse)
Jan McDonald (North Greenville)
Nate Moorman (Emmanuel)
Mark Peeler (Erskine)
Chip Spiron (Mount Olive)