Boston, Burnsides Win Ken B. Jones Awards

Fifteen individuals and five teams were inducted into the MIAA Hall of Fame in the inaugural Class of 2010, while Emporia State’s Cassondra Boston and Northwest Missouri’s Myles Burnsides took home the Ken B. Jones Awards as the MIAA’s top student-athletes.

 

Boston is the seventh Hornet to be named the Ken B. Jones Award winner, and the sixth female to win the award for ESU.  She is also the third Lady Hornet basketball player to be named the winner. Boston was named the MIAA Women’s Basketball Most Valuable Player and was a consensus All-American in 2009-10 as she led the Lady Hornets to the NCAA Division II National Championship. The Des Moines, Iowa, native graduated cum laude in three and a half years with a 3.68 GPA in accounting and began work on her MBA, and also made her presence felt in the Emporia community.

 

Burnsides is the fourth Bearcat to earn the award in the last nine years. He joins Tucker Woolsey (2002, track and field), Clint Prange (2005, track and field) and Josh Lamberson (2006, football) as Northwest honorees. Burnsides led the Bearcats to the 2009 National Championship, and is a three-time All-MIAA First Team choice as well as a two-time All-America. In 2008, was named the National Defensive Player of the Year – the first in program history. Burnsides earned his bachelor’s degree with a 3.90 grade-point average and carries a 3.86 average while working to obtain a master’s degree in business administration.

 

Truman was presented the award for the highest Academic Success Rate (ASR), Pittsburg State received the award for the most improved ASR, and Emporia State won the award for the highest differential of student-athlete graduation rate above overall student body graduation rate.

Missouri Western's "Night Out on the Griffs" won the MIAA Community Engagement Award of Excellence, Emporia State's "Sportsmanship Initiative" took home the inaugural MIAA Game Environment Award of Excellence, and Emporia State's Dr. John Rich was named the first-ever MIAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Mentor of the Year.

 

Forrest "Phog" Allen, Kathy Anderson, Mildred "Millie" Barnes, Sallie Beard, Charlie Finley, Harry Gallatin, Henry Iba, Ken B. Jones, Vernon Kennedy, Earl Keth, Billy Key, Jack McCracken, Ryland Milner, Herschel Neil and Jim Redd, along with Central Missouri's 1937 and 1938 NAIB National Championship teams, Southeast Missouri State's 1943 NAIB National Championship squad and Southwest Missouri State's 1952 and 1953 NAIB National Championship teams were inducted into the MIAA Hall of Fame, on a night that members of the MIAA family won’t ever forget.