LA GRANDE, Ore. – Shining as examples of what the NAIA’s Champions of Character initiative is all about, three student-athletes have earned the Cascade Conference Les Schwab Champions of Character Award, as announced by the conference office on Monday morning.
Northwest Christian senior volleyball player Janel Fetters earned the female award after spending her entire Beacon career making her community better. For four years, she has been part of the leadership for “Embrace the Community Day,” when all afternoon classes are cancelled and members of the NCU community join together to serve throughout Eugene and Springfield.
Fetters has also traveled to Cambodia twice as part of the NCU Summer Missions Team to work hands on with young girls who have escaped the sex trade industry, working alongside organizations whose sole mission is to improve the lives of these victims. She will once again travel to Cambodia this year. In addition, she has served as Chaplain Captain for the volleyball team for three seasons, leading the squad through numerous service projects around Lane County. Despite her commitment to community service, she has also found time to coach a U14 girls club volleyball team for the past three years and she leads NCU’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which she helped launch in 2011.
The first of two male athletes honored is Concordia senior Anthony Holton. Holton is the Cavalier men’s basketball team’s representative for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and has spent time traveling with Athletes in Action to the Republic of Moldova, volunteering at the basketball clinic for youth in the capital city of Chisinau.
Stateside he has participated in Night Strike, volunteering 20 hours working with the homeless population of downtown Portland. On the court, he started 31 of 32 games for CU, advancing to the NAIA National Championships.
The second male athlete honored is senior Brady Espinoza of Evergreen. Espinoza spent the summer of 2013 working with the Gateways for Incarcerated Youth Program, mentoring youth in a Juvenile Detention facility with the hope of supporting the youth so they can successfully move into the classroom upon release.
He also worked on a group project to design and build a crossfit space in the Costantino Recreation Center on campus. The 2012 CCC Men’s Soccer Defender of the Year has been engaged on campus, in the community and as a student-athlete during his two years at Evergreen.
The Champions of Character program helps participants find the balance by keeping five core values - integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership - at the heart of the athletics experience.
Students learn to understand how the values play out in both practice and competition. Coaches are taught how to intentionally define, model, shape and reinforce the values through their coaching and mentoring. Parents learn how their behavior is key to supporting their athletes.
For more than a decade, Champions of Character has been making a difference in developing athletes, coaches and parents of character.
Les Schwab is one of the leading independent tire dealers in the U.S. It has more than 7,000 employees and 400 store locations in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, Colorado, California, Nevada and Utah.
For more information on the Champions of Character program, visit
www.championsofcharacter.org. For more information on Les Schwab Tires, visit
www.lesschwab.com.