Sports, Friday, May 15th

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

Iowa Football Communications Office Receives Top Marks:

The University of Iowa football athletic communications staff received a Super 11 Award on Thursday from the Football Writers Association of America.

The award is presented annually to the best performing sports information departments in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

The five first-time recipients in the award series, which dates back to the 2009 season, are Iowa, Appalachian State, California, Memphis and North Carolina State.

Iowa’s athletic communications staff for football is led by Steve Roe, assistant athletics director, athletic communications.

This year’s winners were deemed by FWAA observers to have had good accessibility during the week of the game and after the game — with a program’s players, coaches and assistant coaches.

Bluder Given Girl Scout’s Leadership Award:

University of Iowa women’s basketball head coach Lisa Bluder was named the 2020 recipient of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois Leader Award.

The announcement was made Thursday afternoon.

The annual award goes to a member of the community that instills courage, confidence, and character into young women and girls.

Bluder is a lifetime Girl Scout and a longtime Girl Scout supporter.

Each year, the Hawkeyes host Girl Scout Day at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, where Girl Scouts participate in team activities, interact with Coach Bluder and her student-athletes, and cheer on the Hawkeyes during a game.

NCAA Dead Period Extended:

The NCAA has announced that the recruiting dead period has been extended to June 30th.

The announcement was made Thursday.

This is now the second time in as many months that NCAA officials have come out with an extension to the dead period, which was originally scheduled to end April 15th.

In the past, teams have used June to host camps and official visits.

The NCAA did say they’ll revisit the dead period dates by May 27th.

Two Collegiate Softballers Named Academic All-District:

UNI senior Sammey Bunch and Drake senior Mandi Roemmich have both been named to the CoSIDA All-Academic teams in 2020.

Bunch has a 3.63 cumulative GPA in Movement & Exercise Science.

The senior shortstop was named a MVC First Team Scholar Athlete in 2019 and 2020 and was named the MVC Player of the Year in 2019.

Meanwhile. Roemmich’s honor is just another in a long line of awards this spring.

Roemmich was named the Missouri Valley Conference’s first-ever Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was also selected to the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team for the third time and named Drake’s MVC State Farm Good Neighbor spring award recipient.