Bobcat athletic director Steve Schneider recently announced that Peru State golfer Emily Whipple (Lincoln) and football player Gunnar Orcutt (Omaha) were selected as the July Athletes of the Month. They were picked based on their honors earned during the past month.
Whipple and Orcutt were the athletic department’s selections for the Heart of America Athletic Conference (Heart) A.O. Duer nominations. Orcutt eventually was named as the Heart’s winner on July 31. The Duer award was named in honor of the NAIA’s former executive secretary for his 26 years of service to the association. The award is presented annually to one male and one female junior student-athlete in any sport who has excelled in scholarship, character, and citizenship.
Whipple, who will be a junior eligibility-wise for the ‘Cats, was Peru State’s female nominee for the award. She currently carries a 4.0 and is a middle grades education major with a concentration in mathematics. Whipple is a Board of Trustees Scholar and is a participant in the College’s Honors program. She has been a resident assistant and student ambassador and this past year was selected to serve as the president of the Peru State Education Association (PSEA). In addition, Whipple is a member of Christian Student Fellowship and will be the golf team’s representative on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) this fall.
“Peru State truly embraces the importance of the term ‘student-athletes’ and Emily and Gunnar both embody this principle,” noted Schneider when announcing his July selections.
