TOWSON, Md. – The inaugural Tiger Honors and Hall of Fame Induction, honoring the best of Towson University Athletics, will be held othis evening in the Ballroom of the West Village Commons. The cocktail hour will start at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m.
To start off the evening, Towson University Athletics will honor 20 outstanding scholar-athletes – one from each sport.
The Tiger Club will also present a pair of special first-time awards. Hall-of-Famers Bucky Kimmett, ’51 and Dave Yingling, ’57 will be honored as winners of the Tiger Club Service Awards. They have been very active participants in the Hall of Fame Hosts Program.
Third baseman Zach Fisher of the Tiger baseball team will also be honored as the winner of the Doc Minnegan Scholarship Award. A third-team member of the Capital One Academic All-America® Division I baseball team, Fisher led Towson with a .333 batting average in 2012. He was also named as the Colonial Athletic Association Scholar-Athlete of the Year for baseball.
The 1989, 1990 and 1991 Tiger men’s soccer teams, which were led by Coach Frank Olszewski and won three consecutive East Coast Conference championships, will be honored as Teams of Distinction. Highlighting the evening will be the induction of this year’s Hall of Fame class.
This year’s class includes former men’s soccer standout Todd Hicks, ’97, former All-America defensive end Andrew Hollingsworth, ’01, of the football program, record-setting shortstop Lisa Pollock, ’01, of the softball team and standout goalkeeper Tina Steck, ’01, of the women’s soccer program.
For ticket information, call (410) 704-3284. Anyone wishing to register on-line should visit : www.tutigertracks.com/halloffame2012 and click on the link for the 2012 Hall of Fame on the home page.A look at this year's inductees:
TODD HICKS, ’97 (Men’s Soccer): A four-year starter for the Tigers, Todd Hicks finished his career as one of the leading scorers in Towson soccer history with 20 goals and 28 assists. A native of Bowie, Md., he owned the school record for career assists when he graduated.
One of Towson’s co-captains as a senior, he led the Tigers to one of the best seasons in school history as Towson finished the season as a nationally-ranked team for the first time ever. In 1995, the Tigers opened the season with eight consecutive victories, moving into the Top 25 for the first time since the program’s inception. Included among those victories was a thrilling 2-1 victory over Maryland when the Terps were No. 3 in the nation.
Competing in the North Atlantic Conference (which later became America East), the Tigers made the conference playoffs as the fourth seed with a 6-3 league record. In the semi-finals, Towson shocked top-seeded Drexel, 4-1. A loss to Boston University in the championship game left the Tigers with a 14-4 record, barely missing an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.Hicks was named first- team all-conference and also made the all-tournament team at the league tournament. He led Towson with seven assists and finished the season as the third-leading scorer. He was also named as the team’s Most Valuable Player for the second year in a row.
A first-team All-Big South Conference selection as a junior, Hicks also earned all-region honors in 1994. He was the Tigers’ top scorer with five goals and six assists. In his sophomore season, he scored four goals and broke the school record with 10 assists. Four of those assists came in a win over Delaware where he set the school record for the most assists in one game. As a freshman, he led the Tigers with seven goals and five assists.
After graduating from Towson, Hicks played professional soccer for five years, including indoor soccer with the Baltimore Blast from 1996-to-2001. He also played outdoor soccer for the Baltimore Bays and the Delaware Wizards.
The president of the Todd Hicks Pro Soccer Academy, he is a health teacher and soccer coach at Manchester Valley High School in Carroll County, Md. In 2011, he led the fourth-year program to state championship.
He resides in Hanover, Pa. with his wife and two children.
ANDREW HOLLINGSWORTH, ‘01 (Football): One of the top defensive linemen ever to play for the Tigers, Andrew Hollingsworth earned consensus All-America first team honors in 2000.
Named the Patriot League Player of the Year as a senior, he was also selected as a first-team All-Patriot League selection as a junior and senior. He was also honored as the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year in 2000.
A native of Annandale, Va. and a graduate of Annandale High School, he finished his career as the Patriot League’s all-time leader with 43 quarterback sacks. As a senior, he led NCAA Division FCS with 18 sacks, establishing new Patriot League and Towson University records. He averaged 1.89 sacks per game to lead the nation and set an NCAA FCS (formerly I-AA) record that still stands.
A very good student who earned GTE District 2 All-Academic honors, he had 64 tackles and a team-leading ten sacks in his sophomore season. He was named as the Patriot League’s Defensive Player of the Week after making nine tackles with four sacks in a win over Drake.
As a junior in 1999, he made 48 tackles and finished fourth in the Patriot League with ten sacks. A first team All-Patriot League honoree, he led the Tigers to a 7-4 overall record and a third-place finish in the league. He was also named as a third-team All-American.
Prior to his senior year, Hollingsworth was named as a pre-season All-American first-team selection by The Sports Network and he was also honored as the Patriot League Pre-Season Defensive Player of the Year.
In 2000, Hollingsworth had a dominant year despite missing the final two games of the season with a severely sprained ankle. He made 42 tackles and led the nation with an incredible 18 sacks, including four sacks against Morgan State and three against Lehigh and Monmouth. He also recorded a safety in a win over Lafayette.
He finished his career with 179 tackles and 43 sacks, which is still the Towson career record.
Last year, he was selected to the Patriot League’s 25th anniversary all-star team.
He resides in Ridge, N.Y. with his wife, Karen, and their two children. His wife, Karen, is a Towson graduate and a former soccer player for the Tigers.
LISA POLLOCK, ’01 (Softball): A four-year starter at shortstop for the Towson softball team, Lisa Pollock was named to the America East all-conference team every season.A second-team all-conference honoree as a freshman, sophomore and junior, she was named to the America East all-league first team as a senior. An outstanding defensive player, the Greenlawn, N.Y. native led the Tigers to three consecutive appearances in the America East Tournament. She earned all-tournament honors at the conference championship each year.
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o an outstanding student, she finished her career with a .311 batting average, playing in 218 games, second on Towson’s career list. Pollock also finished her career as the Tigers’ all-time leader with 227 base hits, 115 runs scored, 729 at bats and 56 walks. She also had 18 doubles and 68 runs batted in. The Tigers’ leadoff hitter for four straight years, she also stole 27 bases.
As a freshman in 1998, Pollock led Towson with a .353 batting average, good with fifth in America East and earned her second team all-region notice. Honored as the America East Rookie of the Week in April, she compiled an impressive .974 fielding percentage. She also tied for the team lead with 27 runs scored. Pollock was named as Towson’s Female Rookie of the Year at the annual Sports Awards Banquet.
In 1999, Pollock led the Tigers to a 33-21 record and a berth in the championship round of the America East Tournament. Towson’s second-leading hitter with a .318 average, she also led the team with 54 hits. In the league tournament, she batted .429 and earned all-tournament honors as Towson upset Hofstra in the first round. Named to the District 2 All-Academic team, she also had an impressive .963 fielding percentage.
As a junior, she was named to the District 2 All-Academic team for the second year in a row. She started all 61 games at shortstop while leading the Tigers to a 31-30 record and a second straight appearance in the America East Tournament. In her senior season, she helped the Tigers set a school record with 35 wins as Towson came up just short of winning the America East championship. The Tigers lost to Hofstra in 11 innings in the championship game, finishing the season with a 35-26-1 record.
Pollock earned first-team all-league honors as she batted .345, third in the league. She led America East with 68 hits and 36 runs scored. She also had 27 runs batted in. She was also named to the America East all-tournament team for the third time.
She graduated cum laude with her degree in Accounting.TINA STECK, ‘01 (Soccer): A four-year starter at goalkeeper for the Towson women’s soccer team from 1997 to 2000, Tina Steck was a two-time all-conference selection who owns nearly every goalkeeping record at her alma mater.
During her career, she started all 76 games and allowed only 88 goals, posting a career goals against average (GAA) of 1.16. Over her career, she played 6,851 minutes and ranked among the NCAA Division I career leaders for minutes played. A native of Forest Hill, Md. who graduated from Mercy High School, she was a two-year co-captain for the Tigers.
As a freshman, she started all 20 games and led the Tigers to a 14-6-1 record and berth in the America East Tournament. She ranked second in the league with a 1.05 GAA. Named to the all-tournament team at the America East Championship, she set a school record with 12 shutouts during the season, including a shutout win over Boston Un
iversity in the tournament semi-finals. She was named as the America East Rookie of the Week twice in 1997.
In 1998, she again started all 20 games and posted six shutouts. While allowing 23 goals in 1,744 minutes of action, she posted a 1.19 GAA.
As a junior, Steck ranked third in America East, allowing 1.35 goals per game. She posted five shutouts and made 120 saves and was named honorable mention all-conference.
During her senior year, she earned first-team America East all-league notice, recording five shutouts and helping the Tigers post a 10-8-1 record. She had a 1.07 GAA and made 94 saves. Named as the Tigers’ Most Valuable Player twice, she was honored as Towson University’s Senior Female Athlete of the Year in 2001.
A two-time all-region selection, she also excelled while playing for local teams.
A 2001 cum laude graduate with a B.S. degree in Physical Education, she started a coaching career by serving one year as an assistant coach at Towson. She went on to spend two years as an assistant coach at Fairfield University. She earned her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Delaware in 2004 and served as an assistant coach for the Blue Hens for two years.
In 2005, she returned to Towson as an assistant coach and in 2006, she served as Towson’s interim head coach and led the Tigers to a 5-2-1 record while Coach Leslie Wray was on maternity leave.
She has been a member of the faculty at Bryn Mawr School since 2007 where she teaches eighth grade and serves as middle school advisor. As the coach of the Bryn Mawr soccer team, she coached the team to conference tournament championships in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The winner of the Garro Cup for Coaching at Bryn Mawr, she has compiled an impressive career record of 59-28-3.
In 2008, she started her own training programs for goalkeepers called the Goalkeepers Academy of Baltimore.
