Student Athletes Recognized at York’s YESPYS Awards Ceremony
Photo By: York Athletics Dept.
By Kiara Gonzalez
On April 8 2021, York College athletics held a virtual award show dedicated to the 2019-20 season. Hosts and student athletes, Cami Melson (Women’s basketball) and Anthony Nazario Jr. (Men’s Swimming and Volleyball) opened up the show and introduced all of the sports for the different coaches.
The award ceremony, also known as the YESPYS, included a guest appearance from the York Athletics Director, Carl Christian, who helped open up the show also while honoring and celebrating the athletes.
“Tonight we will celebrate our successes along with your resilience and determination to succeed despite the transition to distance learning, the loss of college sports, not to mention the political and social unrest, through it all you persevered and remain committed and succeeded academically which is the true testament to your character and exemplifies the qualities we look for in our student athletes” said Christian while congratulating the accomplishments of the student athletes.
In the beginning of the ceremony, there was an introductory video that previewed all of the highlights from each sport to show the Cardinal spirit. Jeremy Sapeg, a member of the Men’s Swim team won the I Am A Cardinal award which represents the adversity, resilient, brave and supportive qualities that the student athlete presented throughout the Men’s Swimming Season season and off-season.
Head coach of the Women’s Basketball team, Anastasia Bitis, won the Coach of the Year award for the second year in a row. She has broken many records and brought a huge impact and success to the Women’s Basketball Team and deemed the Coach of the Year.
The Women’s Basketball Team won the Team of the Year award by representing consistency and hard work with 11 wins in the season, being the program’s highest win in a season. The York Cardinals held the number five seed in CUNYAC for the 2019-20 season.
Female student-athlete of the year went to Women’s basketball team member, Mac-Dege Dessources, who received this award for the second year in a row. The Male student-athlete of the year award goes to Shevon Walker, a member of the Men’s Track and Field team. Both players have had successful seasons and showed strength, elevated their game and won All-star statuses for CUNYAC.
“I would like to thank our amazing student athlete MC’s, Cami and Anthony, for doing such a great job in hosting our 2019-20 awards show,” said Christian as the ceremony wrapped up.
He also shared his gratitude with the athletics staff such as Assistant Athletics Director, Harris Rappel, for his role in organizing the ceremony and shared his appreciation for the Athletics staff and coaches, and President Eanes’ leadership in the pandemic. Christian also made the effort to congratulate all the student athletes for their hard work in light of the pandemic and still excelling academically.
“I’m proud of all that we’ve accomplished in such a difficult and unprecedented year and look forward to the day we can finally return to campus, resume competition and get together in person once again. Until that time, keep up the great work, take care and stay strong. Remember we are, one York, go cardinals!” said Carl Christian.The awards ceremony can be found on the York Athletics Youtube channel.
