FULL AMERICA EAST RELEASE

Lake Placid, NY - The America East Conference presented its annual awards during a dinner at Lake Placid Club Golf House as part of its annual meetings. Hartford's Lindsay Makowicki, a rising junior on the women's volleyball team was named the female recipient of the league's Sportsmanship Award.

As a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), Makowicki took the initiative, during the fall 2009 semester, of directing a new event at Hartford, Howie's Sportsmanship Academy. The Academy, which was held in the middle of her volleyball season, turned out to be a huge success, receiving conference recognition.

Makowicki designed the structure for the event, as well as found volunteers, created sportsmanship-specific games and wrote a skit presented by other SAAC members. Because of Makowicki's hard work and dedication to sportsmanship, important lessons were passed on to all the children who attended the academy and the University received many written and verbal thank you's from grateful parents.

Makowicki has shown leadership and sportsmanship on an everyday basis throughout her collegiate career. She is involved with both the SAAC and the Leadership Council on campus, while balancing life on and off the court which is essential to being a phenomenal student-athlete. On the court, she epitomizes sportsmanship with her support for her teammates and of the rules of the game. 

The America East began awarding a conference Sportsmanship Award to a male and female student-athlete for the 2005-06 academic year based on the same principles and criteria as the NCAA Sportsmanship Awards.

Makowicki is the fourth sportsmanship honoree from Hartford, most recently following Rich Leiberman who received the award in 2009. Track & field student-athlete's Latasha Jarrett and Chris Spivey also received the honor in 2008 and 2006, respectively. Spivey was among the first to be honored by the league, while Jarrett went on to be named the NCAA's Division I Sportswoman of the Year.