HIGH POINT, N.C.– Conference Carolinas is proud to announce that Coker College's James Sweeney has been selected as the 2011 Men's Soccer Scholar Athletes of the Year, as recently voted on by the student-athlete affairs committee.  This prestigious award is presented annually to a student-athlete in each sport for recognition of their outstanding academic and athletic achievements.

Coker's Sweeney is a junior mathematics major from Huntington, Md. with a perfect 4.0 GPA. The Cobra goalkeeper was recently named a Capital One Academic All-American First Team selection as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Sweeney was also a first team All-Conference selection, leading Coker to an 18-3 record and No. 18 national ranking. He helped Coker capture both the Conference Carolinas regular season and tournament championships, as well as leading the Cobras to their first appearance in the NCAA Division II Tournament. He also earned Daktronics All-Southeast region honors after posting a 0.61 goals against average that included 10 shutouts and a 0.817 save percentage.

Each school submits candidates that are the best of the best for the conference from their sport while meeting certain qualifications for nomination.  The qualifications include being a junior or senior student-athlete with a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 or higher on a 4.0 scale in all work completed at their member institution that have played in a conference sponsored sport. The GPA is calculated based on the student-athletes cumulative average through the previous semester and each student-athlete must have attended their member institution for at least one academic year. Additionally, in order to qualify for the award the student-athlete must be a current member of the All-Conference Carolinas First, Second, or Third Team that were recently selected by head coaches from conference member institutions that nominate and then vote upon award winners.

Conference Carolinas is a NCAA Division II athletic conference currently made up of 12 teams from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. These institutions consist of: Barton College, Belmont Abbey College, Coker College, Converse College, Erskine College, King College, Lees-McRae College, Limestone College, Mount Olive College, North Greenville University, Pfeiffer University, and Queens University of Charlotte.