NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion men’s basketball guard Trey Freeman was named the Leigh Williams Memorial Award winner (Virginia's Outstanding Collegiate Athlete), ODU men’s basketball head coach Jeff Jones was recognized as the J. Roy Rodman Memorial Award (Virginia's Outstanding Collegiate Coach), and retired Sports Information Director Carol Hudson received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 71st Annual Norfolk Sports Club Jamboree on Tuesday at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott.
Freeman was named the Club's top athlete in the state of Virginia for 2015. He joins former ODU greats Nancy Lieberman, Anne Donovan, Kenny Gattison, Tichia Penicheiro and Taylor Heinicke as recipients of the award.
A Virginia Beach native, Freeman is fresh off a off a career-high 37-point performance on Saturday against Marshall and was named the Conference USA Player of the Week for his efforts. Prior to dropping 37 on Marshall, Freeman scored 28 points in the previous three games. He is just nine points away from scoring 1,000 at Old Dominion and 134 points away from netting 2,000 for his career. He currently leads Conference USA in scoring, averaging 20 points per contest.
Last year, Freeman garnered Conference USA Newcomer of the Year, First Team All C-USA and C-USA All-Academic squad honors. Freeman’s deep three-pointer at the buzzer, carried the Monarchs over Murray State and into the semifinals of the NIT at Madison Square Garden. For the 2014-15 season, Freeman averaged a team-high 16.9 points per contest, to go along with 4.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
Jones was honored as the most outstanding collegiate coach in Virginia. Previous ODU recipients include Sonny Allen, Paul Webb, Wendy Larry, Beth Anders and Bobby Wilder.
In just over two seasons as head coach at ODU, Jones has guided the Monarchs to 55 wins, including a 27-8 mark in 2015, while finishing second in Conference USA regular season. Under Jones’ guidance, ODU advanced to the semifinals of the NIT after reeling off wins over Charleston Southern, Illinois State and Murray State. He eclipsed the 400 collegiate-win milestone in the Monarchs’ NIT-opener against Charleston Southern on March 18, 2015.
Off the court, Jones was honored nationally as the 2015 Barefoot Coach of the Year for his work, contributions with Samaritan’s Feet, which provides shoes to impoverished children (both domestically and internationally).
Carol Hudson, a member of the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame, received the Club's Lifetime Achievement Award. Previous ODU recipients of the honor have included athletic director Dr. Jim Jarrett, 1930's four-sport star Johnny Brown and field hockey coach Beth Anders. Hudson retired from ODU in June of 2015 after spending 31 years as the Sports Information Director and an Assistant Athletic Director for Communications.
He was enshrined in the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2010, and recognized with a Distinguished Service Award from the Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) organization in 2013. That same year, the media room in the Ted Constant Convocation Center was named in his honor. Last June, Hudson was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement award by CoSIDA.
Tuesday’s banquet featured current Baltimore Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter as the keynote speaker.