Originally published May-June 2003 (vol. 1, no. 10) in The Bootleg
Magazine. "The Bootleg's Honor Roll" by Lars Ahlstrom
In our never-ending quest to promote Stanford sports and recognize athletic
excellence on The Farm, we have created a brand new, unprecedented and
prestigious award, officially dubbed, "The Bootleg’s Honor Roll."
The criteria are as follows:
Each academic year, The Bootleg’s Honor Roll will recognize the top ten
Stanford student-athletes who have performed at an exceptional level, with
athletic accomplishments that are both extraordinary and inspirational. While
achieving athletic success, these athletes should also have displayed uncommon
leadership, sportsmanship and respect towards their fellow teammates and
opponents. Finally, these honorees’ performances and actions should also
demonstrate their love for their particular sport as well as their school pride,
the famed "Spirit of Stanford."
Athletic achievement is recognized in several ways for all varsity sports at
Stanford. There are team MVP awards, the Athletic Board’s year-end awards and,
later on down the road, the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame. Team MVP awards
recognize "impact" players in each individual sport. The Athletic
Board’s awards aim to honor athletes in many sports, but except for the highly
coveted Al Masters Award, the other awards are and fairly specific in their
recognition (e.g., outstanding male and female athletes of each class, best
competitive attitude, highest GPA, etc.). Finally, the Hall of Fame recognizes
excellence over an entire career.
In contrast, the goal of The Bootleg’s Honor Roll is to recognize
the top ten athletes across all sports at Stanford for any particular school
year, regardless of class year, overall career, or "reputation." Which
players were the real "difference makers" for Stanford – the ones
that made our opponents change their game plans and generally shake in their
boots, puddle their pads, or shiver in their bathing suits? Who simply had a
huge year?
With our criteria in mind, we hereby put forth our list of 30 finalists
(opposite page). This task created a lot more internal editorial anxiety than we
anticipated and unquestionably, we have left some well-deserving athletes off
our list. We never said life was fair and it’s a good lesson to teach our
student-athletes. Nevertheless, the tough choices had to be made and this is the
group of athletes who have made our critical cut. Keep in mind, this award is
based on performance during the 2002-2003 school year only. Interestingly, there
are more juniors (12) than seniors (11) on this list and not a single freshman
made the cut. As you might expect, a good portion of these athletes hail from
California (13) while New Jersey was the only other state to have more than one
finalist. Finally, with the extensive international representation on the
Stanford campus, the big surprise was that only one finalist (gymnast Lise
Leveille of British Columbia, Canada) was from outside the United States (no,
you old timer red-hots, Canada is not a "state").
As you can imagine, space does not permit us to chronicle all of these
outstanding athletes’ achievements during this past school year. Suffice it to
say that every one of them has been recognized as a team captain, MVP,
All-Conference, All-Region or All-American. This is truly a special collection
of superior athletes selected from the finest group of amateur athletes of any
university on the planet.
From this list of 30 finalists, our top-secret, highly-paid panel will select
the ten winners who will make up The Bootleg’s Honor Roll 2002-2003
class. This perilous process will be even more demanding as we must eliminate 20
of these 30 top-notch athletes. "The Bachelor" has it a lot easier
that we do! The announcement of the winners will be made in June. Since this is
our last magazine issue of the current school year, this feature will be
published proudly on our award-winning website*, at www.TheBootleg.com.
[* TheBootleg.com was recently voted the premier Stanford sports website in
North America by the Des Moines Register]
We congratulate all the Fab Farm FinalistsÔ as
well as all hardworking student-athletes who always represent the Cardinal well
and continue to make us proud of our truly incomparable university.
|
Candidate |
School Year |
Hometown |
Sport |
|
Tony Azevedo |
Sophomore |
Long Beach, CA |
Men's Water Polo |
|
Randall Bal |
Senior |
Fair Oaks, CA |
Men's Swimming & Diving |
|
Julius Barnes |
Senior |
Rowland Heights, CA |
Men's Basketball |
|
Lauren Barnikow |
Junior |
Woodbridge, NJ |
Women's Tennis |
|
Josh Childress |
Sophomore |
Lakewood, CA |
Men's Basketball |
|
Alicia Craig |
Sophomore |
Gillette, WY |
Women's Cross Country |
|
Todd Dunivant |
Senior |
Wheat Ridge, CO |
Men's Soccer |
|
Lauren Fleshman |
Senior |
Canyon Country, CA |
Women's Track & Field / Cross Country |
|
Ryan Garko |
Senior |
Walnut, CA |
Baseball |
|
Matt Gentry |
Sophomore |
Grants Pass, OR |
Wrestling |
|
Dan Gill |
Junior |
Fairfax, VA |
Men's Gymnastics |
|
Tara Kirk |
Junior |
Bremerton, WA |
Women's Swimming & Diving |
|
Lise Leveille |
Junior |
Burnaby, British Columbia |
Women's Gymnastics |
|
Louis Luchini |
Junior |
Ellsworth, ME |
Men's Track & Field / Cross Country |
|
David Martin |
Senior |
Tulsa, OK |
Men's Tennis |
|
Sara McGee |
Junior |
Davis, CA |
Women's Volleyball |
|
Casey Moore |
Senior |
Largo, FL |
Football |
|
Nicole Powell |
Junior |
Phoenix, AZ |
Women's Basketball |
|
Carlos Quentin |
Junior |
Chula Vista, CA |
Baseball |
|
Grant Robison |
Junior |
San Angelo, TX |
Men's Track & Field / Cross Country |
|
Don Sage |
Junior |
Elmhurst, IL |
Men's Track & Field / Cross Country |
|
Greg Schindler |
Senior |
Morgan Hill, CA |
Football |
|
Jamie Schroeder |
Junior |
Wilmette, IL |
Men's Crew |
|
Dana Sorensen |
Junior |
San Diego, CA |
Softball |
|
Logan Tom |
Senior |
Salt Lake City, UT |
Women's Volleyball |
|
Curt Toppel |
Senior |
Pacific Palisades, CA |
Men's Volleyball |
|
Kelsey Twist |
Sophomore |
Baltimore, MD |
Women's Lacrosse |
|
Brenda Villa |
Junior |
Commerce, CA |
Women's Water Polo |
|
Marcia Wallis |
Senior |
Los Gatos, CA |
Women's Soccer |
|
Iris Zimmermann |
Sophomore |
Rochester, NY |
Women's Fencing |
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