STATESBORO – Georgia Southern men's golf coach Carter Collins announced today that Wilson Andress has earned the program's first Dr. Richard Rogers Award for excellence in the classroom and on the course.

Named in honor of Dr. Richard Rogers, one of the golf program's biggest supporters, Georgia Southern's former Faculty Athletics Representative and chair of the Psychology Department, the award will be given each semester to the Eagle who best exemplifies the term student-athlete.

Andress was second on the team with a 70.86 scoring average in the fall and posted two top-10 and four top-20 finishes. The freshman shot 68-70-69=207 to tie for fourth at the AutoTrader Collegiate Classic for the best finish of his young career. A civil engineering major, Andress tallied a 4.0 grade point average in the fall semester.

"We have a lot of awards within our program to celebrate athletic accomplishments, and we have a lot of awards in our program to celebrate academic accomplishments, but we really wanted to put a spotlight on a student-athlete who exemplifies the term student-athlete," said Collins. "We are honored that Dr. Richard Rodgers, who worked for Georgia southern for 35 years and retired as the chair of the psychology department at Georgia southern in 2005, allowed us to put his name on this great award. Dr. Rogers has been a close follower and supporter of our program, and he greatly appreciates a tough competitor on the golf course. Putting his name on this trophy is a huge honor for us and also very appropriate since Dr. Rogers has always been a great representation of academics and athletics." 

Rogers started at Georgia Southern as an assistant professor in psychology in 1970, and was elevated to chair of the psychology department in 1992. He served as chair for 13 years before retiring as chair in 2005.

The Eagle men's golf team returns to action Feb. 3-4 in the GS Individual Collegiate at the Georgia Southern University Course.