YSU to honor two top athletes

Thursday evening at the Chestnut Room in Kilcawley Center, Youngstown State University will award its male and female athletes of the year for the 2000-01 school year.
This award is annually sponsored by The Vindicator, and although I had nothing to do with making the selections, this year's recipients are two of the finest young student- athletes I've ever had the pleasure of watching compete.
Women's basketball standout Brianne Kenneally and men's basketball star Craig Haese are this year's selections, and I've had the pleasure of watching both of their entire careers at YSU.
Both athletes have contributed to their teams' programs for all four years, and both ended their careers as two of the best ever to compete for the Penguins.
Injury: Kenneally, a 5-foot-9 guard from Brecksville, ended her career a little earlier than she would have liked, after she suffered a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury midway through this past season.
It was unfortunate for her since she was having a career season at the time of the injury, which came during just the 12th game of the Penguin's season.
Kenneally finished her YSU career with 1,471 points, the seventh-best total on the school's all-time list, and her 14.7 career average ranks sixth in school history.
This season she had a 43-point performance in a game against Georgia State, and added 31 points against Akron. She was averaging 22.8 points per game when her season ended.
Distinction: She is the only player in Mid-Continent Conference history to win back-to-back Player of the Year honors, and was also the Mid-Con's Tournament MVP a year ago when she led the Penguins to their third NCAA Tournament appearance.
I remember the first time I saw her play. YSU coach Ed DiGregorio said she would be a great player, but I wasn't that impressed at first. I thought she shot the ball too low, almost from the hip, and felt she would get a lot of shots blocked in the college level.
She proved me wrong; not only did she score, but she did it often and she only got better every year.
Craig Haese came to Youngstown as a football standout from DePere High in Wisconsin.
The moment you looked at him you knew that he was a competitor. I think it took a couple of years before I actually saw him smile, but that's just the way he played. The game had his full attention.
Leader: This past season, the 6-2 guard became the quiet leader of the Penguins, and he did it with his tremendous shooting from outside the 3-point circle.
He also surpassed the 1,000 career point mark for YSU with 1,033, and he led the team last year with a 14.1 average, and also owns at 3.66 grade point average.
He set a school record with 92 3-point career goals, and another school record of 218 attempted.
The thing that impressed me the most about Haese was how hard he worked on the court.
Every opponent knew that he was the guy they had to stop from the outside, but Haese was constantly in motion on the court which helped him get open for those patented shots from the corner that everybody remembers.
Parents: I've met both Kenneally's and Haese's parents, and it is easy to understand why they've turned out to be such outstanding student-athletes.
Carl and Carol Haese didn't miss too many YSU games, and since they live in Wisconsin that meant a lot of traveling in four years. But they'll be the first to tell you how much they enjoyed following the Penguins.
Terry and Susan Kenneally made the trip from Brecksville every game, home or away. I'm going to miss those little pre-game talks with Terry when he gave me all the inside information on the team.
I'm going to miss these two athletes, but I know they are moving on to bigger and better things.
XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator.