The Body, Mind, & Soul Dr. Alan Patterson Cup Award
Belmont Abbey College Receives The Body, Mind, & Soul Dr. Alan Patterson Cup Award
Belmont, N.C. (June 14, 2023) – For the first time in Belmont Abbey College’s history, the Athletics Department was presented with the prestigious Body, Mind, and Soul Dr. Alan Patterson Cup. It is the highest honor that the Conference Carolinas awards on an annual basis. The award is named after the former Conference Carolinas Commissioner, who championed that classroom success and sportsmanship should be valued equally with competitive success. In just its fifth year, it is the ultimate comprehensive conference award, recognizing the member with the best average ranking when combining the Hawn Cup (for on-field performance), the Sharp Award (for graduation rates), and the Messick Award (for team sportsmanship).
For Vice President and Director of Athletics Stephen Miss, winning the award carries a special meaning for everyone involved at Belmont Abbey. “Emblematic of both the good work campus-wide of many, many individuals over many, many years and the performance of our students – first and foremost – our coaches, our athletic trainers, and our administrators this past academic year, the Body, Mind, and Soul Dr. Alan Paterson Cup represents the height of accomplishment for a Conference Carolinas member institution,” Miss said. “This award also serves as a proof of concept for all of us in Abbey Athletics, reinforcing our conviction in the efficacy of our intentional approach to Sport and Virtue (‘The Abbey Way’) and the benefits of a holistic, balanced approach to the formation and development of our students as whole persons through the pursuit of competitive greatness, academic excellence, and spiritual fulfillment.”
One of the core tenets of the mission statement of the Belmont Abbey athletic department is to create a positive change in the culture of sports by upholding standards of virtue and excellence in everything that the department does. In short, everyone working within the athletic department at The Abbey works to help develop the student-athletes as a whole person within their body, mind, and soul.
On the field, Belmont Abbey finished third overall in the Hawn Cup standings, registering 159.5 points of a possible 232, a percentage of 68.8. On the men’s side, the Crusaders stood in second place, earning 74.5 points out of a possible 105 (71.0%), while the women garnered 85 of 127 points (66.9 percent) to place third. The points are awarded in each sport based on the order of regular-season finish against the number of participating teams. In addition, bonus points are awarded to the tournament champion and runner-up.
Some of the strongest finishes came in the Messick Awards, which are voted on by student-athletes and coaches from each institution. They then submit those votes to the conference office where the averages are then calculated to decide the winner for each conference-sponsored sport. The Crusaders earned a total of eight individual sport Messick Awards during the year — Women’s Cross Country, Men’s Cross Country, Women’s Indoor Track and Field, Baseball, Women’s Golf, Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s Outdoor Track & Field, and Women’s Outdoor Track & Field. Overall, Belmont Abbey finished second in the overall Messick standings.
The Allan Sharp Award, in which the department finished in a tie for fifth, is presented annually to the Conference Carolinas member institution having the highest graduation rate of student-athletes as determined by the faculty athletics representatives.
