MOUNT VERNON – Cornell College's Athletics Department presented special individual awards during its annual Homecoming C Club Breakfast Saturday morning in Smith Dining Hall.
Springville High School volleyball coach Claude Howard '97 was honored as Alumni Coach of the Year.
Howard is in his 10th season heading Springville volleyball, one of Iowa's top small-school programs over the past decade. His 35-3 Orioles are currently ranked No. 1 in Class 1A, one year after taking runner-up in the state tournament.
The 2021 Class 1A Coach of the Year, Howard has fashioned a 292-94 career record at Springville. He's piloted the Orioles to seven state tournament appearances and five Tri-Rivers Conference Tournament championships. Howard has been tabbed Class 1A District Coach of the Year four times.
The Orioles have produced 17 all-state players, 23 all-district performers and 50 all-conference honorees with Howard at the helm. Howard's teams have reached the 25-win mark eight times, highlighted by a school-record 39 victories in 2017.
Howard graduated from Cornell in 1997 with a degree in sociology. He was a three-year member of Cornell's track & field program and played men's club volleyball two seasons while on the Hilltop.
Cornell seniors Sydney Hancox (women's soccer) and Nathan Phillips (football) were recipients of the Paul Maaske Scholar-Athlete Awards, recognizing the male and female student-athlete, who in their academic junior year, accumulated the highest grade point average.
Hancox, a Cedar Rapids native and fourth-year letterwinner on the women's soccer team, holds a 3.81 cumulative grade point average. She's majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology and minoring in kinesiology.
Upon graduation, Hancox plans to take a gap year to work and volunteer. She then intends to apply for physician assistant school.
Hancox has made 54 career soccer starts for the Rams, totaling four goals and five assists. The midfielder is a two-time academic all-Midwest Conference performer. Hancox earned the team's Lion Heart Award in 2021.
Phillips, of Colorado Springs, Colo., is a fourth-year football letterman on Cornell's offensive line. He carries a 3.98 cumulative GPA.
Phillips is majoring in wildlife health and conservation ecology. He plans to work in wildlife medicine or in the zoo industry.
Phillips has started 24 career games for the Rams, including the last 19 in a row. He was named 2021 CoSIDA Academic All-District and is a two-time academic all-Midwest Conference honoree.
