Awards

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Posted: 4/24/08

Coach of the year

It's not too often that team can go 11-19 in a season and their coach can win a coach of the year award, much less be in consideration.
However, the job Mack McCarthy did during his first season as head coach of the Pirates' basketball team was tremendous. Five of the Pirates wins came in Conference USA, which matches the highest total ever for the program since joining the conference in basketball in the 2001-02 season. ECU also had a three-game C-USA winning streak for the first time in four years.
The biggest win of the season however came against ACC member NC State. The win marked the first time an ECU squad has ever beaten an ACC foe. With the strides the program took in 2007-08, McCarthy was given a five-year contract to remove the interim tag from his name and hopefully help build the basketball program to a level of respect.

Freshman of the year

Seth Maness, the Pirates' freshmen right-handed pitcher, has had a stellar start to his career at ECU. Maness, as of April 23, displays a 6-0 record in nine appearances with a 3.12 ERA. Maness also leads the pitching staff in strikeouts with 52. In his high school career, Maness had a 49-19 overall record in his sophomore, junior and senior seasons. Coming out of high school, he was rated in the top 40 overall baseball players in North Carolina by Impact Baseball.

Female Athlete

ECU volleyball player Kelly Wernert ended her career with an exceptional season. In a display of her skills, Wernert had a 31-kill performance against UNCW early in the season. The performance set the record for most single-match kills in ECU history. On the a season, the left-hander also set the ECU record for single-season kills with 627, which is 100 more than the previous record holder, Wendy Schultz, who set the previous record in 1992. In honor of her outstanding season, C-USA named Wernert to their postseason first team. She also received all-tournament honors at Duke, N.C. State and George Washington while also being named the MVP in the latter.

Most improved player of the year

ECU baseball infielder Corey Kemp is certainly having an outstanding season for the Pirates so far. As of April 23, Kemp leds the Diamond Bucs, and Conference USA, in homeruns with 12, and also has driven in an exceptional 46 runs so far while hitting .340. In the 2006-07 campaign, Kemp ended the season with five homeruns and 41 RBI, numbers the senior has already demolished with 15 games left in the regular season. Kemp has gone from being one of the better players on the Pirate roster to perhaps the best in the span of one season.

Male athlete of the year

ECU senior running back Chris Johnson had one of the best seasons in the history of ECU football this Fall. Johnson was the backbone of the team all season and led ECU to many victories. He led the nation in all-purpose yards, averaging around 227 per game. On the ground, Johnson ran for 1,468 yards and 17 touchdowns. The versatile running back also caught 37 passes for 528 yards and six touchdowns. He also retunred kickoffs, averaging 28 years per return and took one back for a touchdown on the year. Against Boise State, the senior set an NCAA bowl record with 408 all-purpose yards. He ran for 223 yards, 181 of which came in the opening half, caught three passes for 32 yards and returned six kickoffs for 153 yards in the bowl victory.

Team of the year

The 2007-08 Pirate football team in many ways exceeded expectations this past season and in the end picked up an impressive win over Boise State, 41-38, in the Hawaii Bowl.
Things didn't start out great for Skip Holtz and crew as ECU struggled to a 1-3 start, but the one win was a memorable one as the Pirates defeated bitter in-state rival UNC 34-31 in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. After the rough start, ECU was able to win six of its last eight to earn bowl eligibility and also compete for a possible Conference USA title up until the final weeks. While that goal wasn't accomplished, ECU had a successful season capping it off with the Hawaii bowl win for the program's first bowl victory since the 2000 Galleryfurniture.com Bowl.
In the end, ECU finished 8-5 overall, which was its highest win total since 2000, and a 6-2 mark in C-USA.