COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M middle blocker Jazzmin Babers has been selected as a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award for volleyball, it was announced today.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
From Syracuse, New York, Babers is one of 30 candidates representing NCAA Division I volleyball student-athletes who were selected based on their notable achievements in four areas: competition, classroom, character and community.
The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists later in the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition. The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2016 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship in December.
Babers has started every match of her career and has led Texas A&M to the NCAA tournament each of the last three seasons. As a junior, she helped the Aggies win the Southeastern Conference championship, and she became the eighth player in Texas A&M history to be selected to an AVCA All-America team, garnering second team honors after hitting a school season-record .412, smashing the previous record of .400 which had stood since 1984.
Babers, who leads the Aggies with a .347 hitting percentage this season, ranks in the top six in the Texas A&M career records for total blocks, blocks assists and points, and she is on pace to finish second in career hitting percentage. A member of the 2016 Preseason All-SEC Team, Babers holds the school single-match record for total blocks and block assists in a five-set match, and she holds numerous Texas A&M SEC match, season and career records.
Off the court, Babers is majoring in interdisciplinary studies with an emphasis in education. She also is engaged in numerous philanthropic activities. A member of the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes leadership team, Babers is responsible for community outreach. She also serves as a speaker, sharing testimonies at local schools and churches. In May, Babers and several teammates went on a mission trip to Haiti to spread the gospel and do manual labor.
Other charitable activities she has participated in include spending time at the Bryan Adult Learning Center, where she volunteered in an adult ESL class, taught lessons and helped with one-on-one work; Aggies Move, teaching elementary children how to live active lives and stay healthy while also teaching them basic volleyball skills; Science Olympiad, a science competition for middle school and high school students from throughout Texas in which she helped with set up and take down, monitored and distributed tests, graded tests and was an overseer and judge for certain science competitions; The Big Event in which she helped an elderly couple prepare their home for moving out, painting, cleaning windows and boxing up their items; Residence Hall Move-In Assistance Day, helping new and returning Aggies move into their dorms; Aggies CAN, a student-run food drive, and the Brazos Valley Food Bank, where she packed family food boxes. She also has volunteered at a local elementary school, working one-on-one or in small groups with students needing extra help or with advanced students needing more challenging work.
For more information on all the candidates, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.
Babers and the Aggies (10-6, 4-1 SEC) Aggies return home this weekend to host a pair of SEC matches at Reed Arena. On Friday, Texas A&M plays host to South Carolina. First serve is at 6:30 p.m.
On Sunday, the Aggies have a much-anticipated match against No. 9 Florida at 4 p.m. It will be the Aggies' annual "Dig Pink" match, and all fans wearing pink can purchase tickets for $3 at the door. In addition, the first 300 fans receive free. Dig Pink shirts.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M volleyball. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M volleyball team on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram by following @AggieVolleyball.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
From Syracuse, New York, Babers is one of 30 candidates representing NCAA Division I volleyball student-athletes who were selected based on their notable achievements in four areas: competition, classroom, character and community.
The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists later in the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition. The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2016 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship in December.
Babers has started every match of her career and has led Texas A&M to the NCAA tournament each of the last three seasons. As a junior, she helped the Aggies win the Southeastern Conference championship, and she became the eighth player in Texas A&M history to be selected to an AVCA All-America team, garnering second team honors after hitting a school season-record .412, smashing the previous record of .400 which had stood since 1984.
Babers, who leads the Aggies with a .347 hitting percentage this season, ranks in the top six in the Texas A&M career records for total blocks, blocks assists and points, and she is on pace to finish second in career hitting percentage. A member of the 2016 Preseason All-SEC Team, Babers holds the school single-match record for total blocks and block assists in a five-set match, and she holds numerous Texas A&M SEC match, season and career records.
Off the court, Babers is majoring in interdisciplinary studies with an emphasis in education. She also is engaged in numerous philanthropic activities. A member of the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes leadership team, Babers is responsible for community outreach. She also serves as a speaker, sharing testimonies at local schools and churches. In May, Babers and several teammates went on a mission trip to Haiti to spread the gospel and do manual labor.
Other charitable activities she has participated in include spending time at the Bryan Adult Learning Center, where she volunteered in an adult ESL class, taught lessons and helped with one-on-one work; Aggies Move, teaching elementary children how to live active lives and stay healthy while also teaching them basic volleyball skills; Science Olympiad, a science competition for middle school and high school students from throughout Texas in which she helped with set up and take down, monitored and distributed tests, graded tests and was an overseer and judge for certain science competitions; The Big Event in which she helped an elderly couple prepare their home for moving out, painting, cleaning windows and boxing up their items; Residence Hall Move-In Assistance Day, helping new and returning Aggies move into their dorms; Aggies CAN, a student-run food drive, and the Brazos Valley Food Bank, where she packed family food boxes. She also has volunteered at a local elementary school, working one-on-one or in small groups with students needing extra help or with advanced students needing more challenging work.
For more information on all the candidates, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.
Babers and the Aggies (10-6, 4-1 SEC) Aggies return home this weekend to host a pair of SEC matches at Reed Arena. On Friday, Texas A&M plays host to South Carolina. First serve is at 6:30 p.m.
On Sunday, the Aggies have a much-anticipated match against No. 9 Florida at 4 p.m. It will be the Aggies' annual "Dig Pink" match, and all fans wearing pink can purchase tickets for $3 at the door. In addition, the first 300 fans receive free. Dig Pink shirts.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M volleyball. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M volleyball team on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram by following @AggieVolleyball.