TCC’s Megan Oster named Panhandle Conference’s top female scholar-athlete

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (August 3, 2012) – Tallahassee Community College's Megan Oster has been named the inaugural recipient of the Panhandle Conference's Mickey Englett Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. 

The award, voted on by the Panhandle Conference's (PC) five athletic directors, bears the name of Mickey Englett, who retired in April following a Hall of Fame career as athletic director and dean of students at Northwest Florida State College. Englett's distinguished career also included a stint as women's commissioner for the Florida College System Activities Association (FCSAA). 

The Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year is named in honor of recently retired Chipola College athletic director Dr. Dale O'Daniel. Nominees must be the Panhandle Conference sport's scholar-athlete of the year recipient or a non-sanctioned sport/activity nominee. 

Both the Englett and O'Daniel Awards recognize academics, citizenship and community service in addition to the recipient's athletic accomplishments. 

"My parents have always pushed me to do my best and I've always wanted to be on top in the classroom," said Oster, a recent graduate at TCC. 

The Englett Award caps an outstanding semester of academic achievements for Oster. 

In April, she was named TCC's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was a finalist for the FCSAA's Jean Williams Scholar-Athlete Award, given annually to Florida's top softball scholar-athlete. 

In May, she was the Panhandle Conference's inaugural Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. 

Last month, Oster was named to the All-Academic Team by both the PC and FCSAA for the second straight year and received the National Junior College Athletic Association's (NJCAA) Award for Superior Academic Achievement, given to student-athletes who have a cumulative GPA between 3.80 and 3.99 (on a 4.00 scale). 

"Our goal is to graduate young men and women and give them the opportunity to move forward with their college education and, if they so choose, athletics," said Tallahassee athletic director Rob Chaney. "Megan made it a priority to put her academics first and now she's reaping the benefits." 

A native of Clermont, Fla., Oster was a two-year starter at second base for coach Patti Townsend's Eagles. In 93 career games, she batted .300 with four home runs and 28 RBI while earning honorable mention All-Panhandle Conference recognition as both a freshman and sophomore. In 2011, she was a key contributor on the Eagles' NJCAA Region 8B Championship team, which went on to claim a third-place finish at the NJCAA Tournament. 

But Oster's impact as a student-athlete extended well beyond TCC's campus. 

During the past two years, she was an active member of the after school program at Gretchen Everhart School, where she volunteered her time engaging students in physical education activities and assisting with homework assignments. She also volunteered for other special events such as TCC's Student Government Association's Fun-damental Reading Program, the College's United Way Campaign's Fall Festival and Tallahassee's annual Festival of Lights. 

With her associate's degree in hand, Oster will now move on to Morehead State University, where she accepted an athletic scholarship and will pursue a degree in accounting.