Southeast Missouri State kicker Ryan McCrum named to Fred Mitchell Award Watch List

Southeast Missouri State junior kicker Ryan McCrum was named to the 2015 Fred Mitchell Award Watch List on Wednesday.

He's one of 41 kickers selected to the list, which consists of 12 from the Football Championship Subdivision, 11 from Division II, 12 from Division III, five from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and one from the National Junior College Athletic Association.

"These placekickers are impressive on the football field and off the field representing their schools, their football teams, their conferences, their communities, their families and themselves," Fred Mitchell Award selection committee chairman Chris Kearney said in a press release. "We look forward to following their accomplishments during the next few months."

McCrum, who was a first-team All-Ohio Valley Conference selection and was named a third-team All-American by The Sports Network, was one of 10 finalists for the award last season.

He made 18 of 23 field goals as a sophomore, breaking Southeast's single-season record for field goals made, and he was tops in the conference. Four of his field goals were 50 or more yards. McCrum, who received a full scholarship during the team's banquet at the end of the year, made 42 consecutive PATs before missing his final attempt of the season.

He was one of four Redhawks who were named preseason all-conference at the OVC football media day on July 20. Southeast was predicted to finish sixth in the conference preseason poll.

The Redhawks begin their season Sept. 5 at Missouri. Kickoff is slated for 3 p.m.

Volleyball team earns academic honors

The Southeast volleyball team was recognized by the American Volleyball Coaches Association as a recipient of an AVCA Team Academic Award.

For the eighth consecutive season, the Redhawks were honored for having a team GPA of 3.30 or higher.

Southeast's squad had a 3.4 GPA in 2014-15.

"We are honored to receive the AVCA Team Academic Award once again this year," coach Julie Yankus said in a press release. "We had a lot of young student-athletes this year who had to deal with the transition to college. I'm proud of the determination our athletes had to improve academically throughout the year. They improved so much over the year that seven of our 15 players earned a perfect 4.0 in the spring semester. I'm very proud of their academic success."

There were 752 college and high school teams that received the Team Academic Award from the AVCA, which broke the record of 676 from last year. There were 146 Division I programs -- the most in the history of the award -- that received the award, and eight Ohio Valley Conference teams were receipients.

The Redhawks have received the award 15 times since it began in 1992-93.