2016 Award Nominees: Female Outstanding Leader of the Year

We have some amazing nominees for the 2016 NCWSA Awards. Over the next few days we will announce the nominees for each of the 2016 awards, and you will be able to read about why that NCWSA contributor is such an asset to their team and collegiate skiing as a whole. The first announcement is for Female Outstanding Leader of the Year, here are your 2016 nominees!

Breanna Adam

School: Texas State University
Year in school: 3rd Year
Nomination:
Breanna Adam–a.k.a Bree, Breezus, Mom, or Fearless Leader–is the president of the Texas State Water Ski Team and is incredibly dedicated to being the best leader in the NCWSA. She is a nursing major and studies day and night while still makes time to lead us, make sure we are practicing, and having fun. She organizes team bonding events and inter-team gatherings with neighboring schools. Having to move into another year of rigorous nursing school courses, Bree would be stepping down as president this year, but we as her teammates unanimously voted her as our president, and as a safety net have elected a co-president that can learn from her and eventually take over. We love her and wish she could be our Fearless leader forever.

Jamie Allen

School: University of Arkansas
Year in school: Junior
Nomination:
Jamie is the co-President of the team at Arkansas. Jamie helped put together an amazing team, and helped lead Arkansas to Nationals for first time in school history. As co-President Jamie was in charge of club relations and budgeting. Like others on the Arkansas board she was very involved with the team to try and encourage growth and allow as many team members as possible experience what a great sport we have. Even though she was hurt for most of the fall season, Jamie still traveled to 2016 NCWSA Nationals and was probably the loudest cheerleader for their team. (Editor’s note: In the original publishing of this article, some of the descriptions of Jamie’s tasks as co-President were incorrect.)

Mallory Hayhurst

School: Arizona State University
Year in school: Senior
Nomination:
Mallory took over as president in her senior year and in her short time as the team’s leader, she greatly increased the team’s funding and brought in 10+ recruits. Her solid ski scores and off-the-water actions directly lead the team back into Division 1 at Nationals. She put in countless hours, and always made the team her priority. I can confidently say that without her contributions, the Arizona State University team would not be in the position they are in today without her. Although she is graduating this year, she has prepared the current members to continue their success in the coming years.

Margaret Silhasek

School: University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Year in school: Junior
Nomination:
Margaret joined the NCWSA.com when they put out an open call for new writers, she was one of the first volunteers. As a volunteer writer for NCWSA.com she has 7 articles written (at this point) with certainly no end in sight, and has contributed the most articles to the website outside of NCWSA board members. All of her recaps of the Midwest events she attended were very well written and allow an on site perspective that continues to increase the marketability of the NCWSA and allows everyone to read the stories of the weekend, and not just the results and score book. Now that the season is over, she is concentrating on school, but also has committed to several longer articles that have may be split across multiple posts such as the introduction of all the Great Plains Conference board members. Margaret is truly a great asset to the NCWSA.com website.Within her team’s structure, Margaret is passionate about water skiing and loves collegiate water skiing. As a member of the University of Nebraska water ski team she helps grow her team and the sport. In August, she helped out at a adaptive water ski clinic near Ashland, NE. This past fall season she ran for and became the Great Plains Conference secretary!

Robyn Manhard

School: Auburn University
Year in school: Senior
Nomination:
Robyn had the title the Vice President of our team this year. Although, she certainly was much more than that. She did so much work to plan to get us to tournaments, especially when we qualified for 2016 Nationals and had to fly from Atlanta to San Diego! She is also a hard working three-event skier, and always puts in the time to practice. She makes our team feel like we become one, and encourages all of us to do our bests. She is always in a good mood and encourages us when we need it the most!

Tabitha Magner

School: San Diego State University
Year in school: Junior
Nomination:
Tabbie is very young, and is such a great president for SDSU. She works extremely hard, and always puts a smile on people’s faces. She’s the kindest person you’ll meat and that helps the sport grow.Tabbie stepped into a very large role of heading the SDSU’s Water Ski Team as they hosted the 2016 NCWSA National Championships in El Centro, California. She, along with others, put a lot of hard work into organizing and accomplishing the task of running a smooth tournament across the many long days. What really set Tabbie apart was the way that she acted and treated the people all around the site as she navigated the stressful situations. She is always encouraging her teammates, and recognizing the work that everyone put in each day at Nationals. Tabbie has shown hard work and dedication to the team when taking on the gigantic coordination of hosting Nationals, and continues to be dedicated to her amazing team.

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Adam Koehler

Clinical Assistant Professor at University of Illinois Chicago

I am Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. I earned my Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside and Bachelor's and Masters from Marquette University. I skied collegiately at Marquette and in 2009 I received the NCWSA Outstanding Leader Award. I was NCWSA Operations Committee Chair for 7 years, and the NCWSA Secretary for 8 years.