Big Ten Nominates Jung for NCAA Sportsmanship Award
6/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
June 24, 2010
PARK RIDGE, Ill. -- Senior Jason Jung (Torrance, Calif./West Torrance) of the University of Michigan men's tennis team has been named the Big Ten Conference's male nominee for the NCAA Sportsmanship Award.
The NCAA Student-Athlete Sportsmanship Award honors student-athletes who, through their actions in the competitive arena of intercollegiate athletics, have demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship, including fairness, civility, honesty, unselfishness, respect and responsibility. Selections are made by the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct. This award was first presented in 1999 as the Outstanding Sports Persons of the Year Award and has since been renamed the Student-Athlete Sportsmanship Award. The winner(s) will be announced in August.
Jung has been awarded multiple sportsmanship awards over the past few weeks. In May, Jung was named the national winner of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA)/Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership & Sportsmanship. On June 3, he was chosen as the University of Michigan's male recipient of the Big Ten Outstanding Sportsmanship Award. Jung is aiming to become the second Michigan men's tennis player in history to receive the prestigious NCAA award, joining former Wolverine Brian Hung (2004-07), who won the award in 2007 as a senior.
One member of each varsity sports team across all 11 Big Ten schools were chosen by the institution as a Sportsmanship Award nominee. Two outstanding sportsmanship award winners from each conference school were selected -- one male and one female. All of the sportsmanship award honorees have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior. In addition, these student-athletes must be in good academic standing and must have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting. Jung was selected to be among the 22 student-athletes to receive the award from a conference-wide group of 276, and was chosen out of those final 22 to represent the Big Ten Conference for the NCAA Sportsmanship Award.
Jung played at the top of the lineup for the Wolverines in both singles and doubles during the 2009-10 campaign, leading the team in doubles wins (24) and tying for second in singles wins (21) -- culminating in being named an All-Big Ten selection for the first time in his career. He also qualified for the NCAA Individual Championships in both singles and doubles, reaching the Round of 16 in doubles play with freshman Evan King (Chicago, Ill./Kaplan). Jung was recently named team captain for the upcoming season 2010-11 season.
Q U O T E S
U-M Senior Jason Jung
On representing the Big Ten Conference in sportsmanship ... "I don't know what to say. It's a great feeling. I wasn't expecting it to keep going like this, but I guess something went right. I'm pretty excited about it. I try to represent myself and University of Michigan in the best way possible. It's a big part of my game and means a lot to me."
Michigan Head Coach Bruce Berque
On Jason Jung and his character ... "He's definitely meant a lot to our team in terms of his leadership. He's been a great leader from day one, with his fantastic work ethic, upbeat attitude and superior sportsmanship. This year, he's taken it to another level by being more vocal. What I found for our guys, when Jason speaks up, people listen to him. Everyone on our team holds Jason in an extremely high regard and he has their utmost respect. He's been pretty consistently recognized by the coaches throughout the conference, for not only being one of the better players, but also for his demeanor on and off the court. Jason will not sacrifice his integrity and sportsmanship for anything. He's a great ambassador for our team, our sport and for the University of Michigan. I couldn't be happier for him."
Contact: Brad Rudner (734) 763-4423
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