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OCC Athletic Department Receives Region XIX Champions of Character Award

The Athletic Department of Ocean County College is honored to receive the 2009 Region XIX Champions of Character Award at the 2009 Region Awards Dinner on October 8th, 2009.  This award recognizes a Region XIX Athletic Program for outstanding results in character development of its student athletes and coaches by embracing the true spirit of competition thru the five core values of respect, responsibility, integrity, servant leadership, and sportsmanship.  The recipients also demonstrate outstanding involvement in the community, which results in positive character development thru sport.

OCC Athletic Administration Ilene Cohen (Athletic Director) and A.J. Trump (Asst. Athletic Director) fell that stressing character in and out of uniform, sportsmanship on the field, and instilling the concept that it is a privilege to wear the Viking uniform helped Ocean County College earn the 2009 Region XIX Champion of Character Institutional Award. Sporting eleven athletic teams, Ocean County College proudly promotes the fact not one athlete or coach was ejected from a contest during the year. Accompanying that feat is that the Viking soccer and basketball teams were among the teams to receive the fewest yellow cards and technical fouls in their respective sport.

OCC student-athletes understand the role of academics. Eight of OCC’s eleven teams received team grade point averages of 3.0 or better this past year with the men’s soccer team ranked 3rd in the country. Twenty-one Viking student-athletes earned the distinction of Academic All-American with ten being Distinguished Academic All-Americans.

Ocean County College student-athletes have used their role to also be active within the community, taking on many community service and volunteer initiatives such as collecting toys, clothing, and donations for Kevin’s Kids Charity, raising and donating money for breast cancer awareness, promoting sportsmanship in athletics to the youth of Ocean County through clinics, volunteered as the welcome staff at the Barnegat Bay Sailing Hall of Fame, and volunteered and spoke at numerous NJSTARS events throughout the state.

As an athletic department, OCC has played important roles in serving as service bureaus for various sports, hosted several Region XIX tournaments and in a couple cases stepped in at the last minute to host Region tournaments on short notice.