Eastern Mennonite University women’s basketball player Jess Rheinheimer (Manheim, Pa./Lancaster Mennonite) has been announced as a nominee for the 2016 Allstate Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Good Works Team®.
This distinguished award shines a spotlight on a select group of student-athletes who have shown dedication to service in their communities.
In conjunction with the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), an all-time high of 257 nominees are up for a total of 20 spots on the men’s and women’s for the 2016 Allstate WBCA and NABC Good Works Teams®. The award, in its fourth year of existence, recognizes players at all levels of college basketball who have made outstanding contributions in the areas of volunteerism and civic involvement.
Rheinheimer, a 5-10 forward for the Royals, is an EMU Honors Student and a member of the EMU Student Nurses Association. She studied in Honduras in the summer of 2013 as part of Eastern Mennonite’s cross cultural program, and has been a volunteer with various organizations in Honduras, Kentucky, New York and her home state of Pennsylvania.
As a junior, Rheinheimer averaged 20.0 points and 7.8 rebounds and earned numerous All-America awards, both for her work athletically and academically. She also won the prestigious Jostens Award, becoming just the second junior every to claim the nation-wide honor which goes to a D-III player who excels on the floor, in the classroom and in the community. Additionally, Rheinheimer was named the ODAC Player of the Year and the ODAC/Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Scholar-Athlete.
So far this season, she is averaging 20.3 points and 6.8 rebounds for the 4-2 Royals.
Rheinheimer is the only women’s athlete from the ODAC listed as a finalist for the Good Works Team®. The women and men will each have a 10-member team, which will be named in February, with each consisting of five D-I players and five players from a pool of D-II, D-III and NAIA nominees. Rheinheimer is one of 32 nominees in her pool.
Members of the Allstate WBCA Good Works Team® will be invited by Allstate, an official corporate partner of the NCAA, to the 2016 WBCA Convention and the 2016 NCAA Women’s Final Four® in Indianapolis, where they will participate in a community service project benefitting the city.
Distinguished voting panels for the award are headlined by WNBA legend Tamika Catchings and seven-time NBA All-Star Grant Hill. Other voters include former college basketball student-athletes Alana Beard (Duke University) and Clark Kellogg (Ohio State University / CBS Sports); media members Carolyn Peck (ESPN), LaChina Robinson (ESPN/FOX), Seth Davis (Sports Illustrated/CBS) and Dana O’Neil (ESPN); former head coaches Marsha Sharp (Texas Tech University), Nell Fortner (Auburn University), Bobby Cremins (Georgia Tech/College of Charleston) and Seth Greenberg (Virginia Tech University); current college basketball coach Coquese Washington (Penn State University); and Thomas Clarkson, president of the west territory for Allstate Insurance Company.
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Chris Graham
