Northern Illinois University Chief of Staff Dr. Matthew Streb and Associate Vice-President and Director of Athletics
Sean T. Frazier announced the "LEaD Huskies" for the class of 2019-2020.
Nine sophomore student-athletes have been selected for this prestigious honor of being inducted to this program. The athletes are nominated by their head coaches.
This year's LEaD Huskies are: Kara Apato (Softball), Erik Hedmark (Baseball), Kylee Hermeyer (Women's Soccer), Morgan Hooper (Gymnastics), Mason Kaufmann (Wrestling), Katie Keller (Softball), Tara Kofmehl (Gymnastics), Kaitlyn Lewis (Track), Hannah Ricci (Cross Country).
"I can't wait to work with this new class of LEaD Huskies. If you follow NIU athletics, they are names that you already know well because of their athletic accomplishments. But just as impressive are their academic records and contributions to the community," Streb said.
LEaD Huskies is a program that allows the student-athletes to showcase their leadership throughout the community. The athletes receive mentoring to help them become accomplished outside of athletics and after graduation. For these student-athletes to be nominated they have to excel in both the classroom and within their sport. The requirement to be eligible for this program is a grade point average of 3.5 or higher and having the potential to be honored for significant athletic awards.
LEaD is an acronym that stands for Leadership Enhancement and Development. This program was implemented in the NIU Athletics department by Streb, then the Huskies' faculty athletics representative, to identify student-athletes during their sophomore year that have demonstrated the ability to perform at excellent levels academically, as well as showing the potential to serve in leadership roles in regards to the classroom and on their respective teams.
In the past, LEaD Huskies have won some of the highest awards in the classroom and in athletics, including Academic All-Americans, NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships and All Mid-American Conference selections. These student-athletes have also been a part of teams who have set school records and broken individual records themselves.
