David Ternes and Alysia Horcher Recognized at the Honor G Banquet

Each year Grinnell College athletics honors its graduating student-athletes at the Honor G banquet.  Each graduating senior that lettered in a varsity sport is recognized, and those that earned three letters in a single sport, with one of those being in their senior year, are awarded an Honor G blanket.  It is a nice memento recognizing years of dedication to a sport and to a team.  The department also hands out its major award winners at this time. 

As a department, we reserve the right to present a Coaches Award on the occasion that there is an outstanding individual that deserves to be recognized.  It’s important to note that we do not present a Coaches Award every year, in fact, it is a rare occasion that we agree to recognize someone in this way.  It was my great pleasure to award two of them this year.

The first went to a woman who has served the entire department, and all of our student-athletes, for the past four years.  She has served in the training room with Sylla Lowther and Jason Kofoot, she has provided pictures for Ted Schultz in Sports Information, she has been a valuable member of the Pioneer Diversity Council with Justin Thaxton and Ben Cooprider, she has been a manager for Erin Hurly and Tim Hammond and the men’s and women’s swimming teams.  And, most importantly to me anyway, she has been a filmer/manager/photographer/and self-described “team mom” for the football team.  She has been a tireless supporter of all Pioneers, constantly celebrating the achievements of all our student-athletes.  In the words of one of our parents, “she’s a keeper!”  We’re going to miss you greatly, but we all want to express our gratitude for you contributions.  Thank you so much, Alysia Horcher!

The second Coaches Award went to David Ternes.  David has been one of the best, and most decorated defensive players we’ve ever had.  David was a three-time all-conference player, a two-time all-region linebacker as named by d3football.com, and a two-time pre-season all-american by the USA Football Network.  David was named the Conference Player of the Week twice, and was named to the d3football.com Team of the Week once.  At the conclusion of the season he and fellow linebacker Rich Renteria were invited to play in the D3 Senior Classic, they are only the 3^rd and 4^th players to earn that honor.  I could go on, but awards and statistics don’t do him justice.  Put simply, to see David play linebacker is to see desire personified.  If you have a football in your hands, I’d watch out, because David’s coming for you.  Congrats on a great career David, it’s been a pleasure!