The College of Staten Island honored a host of its student-athletes, coaches, and distinguished staff members with its annual Athletics Awards Banquet held at the Sports & Recreation Center earlier this evening.  A total of over 80 award winners were highlighted as part of the gala, among them members of CSI's 13 intercollegiate sports teams in 2010-11.

After greetings from Director of Athletics Vernon Mummert and Vice-President for Student Affairs Dr. Ramona Brown, awards were given for each sport in chronological order beginning with teams last fall, and ending with women's softball, which finalized its season just days ago by celebrating a CUNYAC Championship and advancing to the NCAA Division III Postseason Tournament.

Major awards were presented to Female Athlete of the Year Gabriella Villarruel, senior on both the women's tennis and swimming teams.  Villarruel capped a sensational senior year by earning first-team all-star honors in both sports, finishing with a 20-7 overall record in both No. 1 singles and doubles play in tennis and medalling in her signature buttefly event at the CUNYAC Swimming & Diving Championships in February.  Men's swimming sensation Pavel Buyanov was named Male Athlete of the Year.  The two-time CSI Male Athlete of the Year capped his senior year with six CSI and CUNYAC swim records, taking a silver and bronze medal at this year's national championship in Tennessee in mid-March.

CSI Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors was given to softball star and senior Raechel Strobel.  Strobel, a four-time CUNYAC All-Star and back-to-back recipient of the CUNYAC Softball Sportsmanship Award batted close to .400 this season, and holds a 3.892 GPA majoring in Mathematics in CSI's highly-touted Teacher's Academy. Dr. Susan Holak, CSI Associate Provost, also honored the CSI Men's Cross-Country team for posting CSI Athletics' highest Team GPA, at 3.49.

Dean Kunjravia, junior for men'scross-country , was awarded the 6th Annual Bill Cali/John Scrivani Sportsmanship Award, named after CSI's baseball skippers who earned similar honors from the Staten Island Advance in 2005.  CSI men's basketball head coach Tony Petosa, who won the same honor from the Advance this year, assisted in the presentation. 

Michael Baybusky, the voice of CSI SportsNet, was on hand to offer nearly 30 awards, bestowed to CSI All-Stars scattered throughout the year and the CUNYAC's four Scholar-Athlete of the Year Honorable Mentions – Nikolay Shevchenko, Robert Hargraves, Villarruel, and Strobel.

Throughout the course of the evening, other notable awards were handed out.  A Distinguished Service award was given to CSI student Katrell Lewis, a member of the CSI Association board who has lobbied on behalf of Athletics for increased budget, coaching salary reform, and facilities upgrades, to name a few.

Midway through the ceremony, members of the CSI Student-Athlete Advisory Committee presented their Inspiration Award, given this year to men's baseball freshman Joey Falcome, a six-year serviceman who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan before coming to CSI in the fall of 2010. The SAAC also awarded its second-annual G.L.O.V.E. Award to Head Coach Petosa and the CSI Basketball Team for their model of Giving, Leading, Organizing, Volunteering, and Encouraging.

All tolled, the rousing event was a great success, according to David Pizzuto, Associate Athletic Director, principal organizer and host of the event each year. 

“This is the highlight of our sports year and where we truly gather in one place at one time to showcase our athletes," he said.  "Throughout the night you really get a sense of how special it is to represent CSI and be a part of the family here, and when you take in the breadth of the awards, it really is striking.”

Photos of the event will be posted through a slideshow soon.  An end-of-year highlight video, prepared by CSI Facilities Manager Anthony Avena was the highlight of the evening.  The video is available here.  The CSI academic year will come to a close in the coming weeks, when Commencement will take place on June 2.

Award winners this year include the following: