SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran University baseball player Ryan Nokelby is one of four senior student-athletes from spring sports in the American Southwest Conference to earn a 2009-10 Spring NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship worth $7,500.
Nokelby (Santa Fe, Texas/Santa Fe) joins fellow ASC student-athletes Adrienne Meier (East Texas Baptist University, softball), Nick Kreines (University of Texas at Tyler, men's tennis) and Kenneth Wheeler (McMurry University, men's track and field) in receiving the postgraduate scholarship.
The NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship was created in 1964 to promote and encourage postgraduate education by rewarding the NCAA's most accomplished student-athletes through their participation in NCAA championship and/or emerging sports. Athletics and academic achievements, as well as campus involvement, community service and demonstrated leadership, are evaluated.
Each sports season (fall, winter and spring), there are 29 scholarships available for men and 29 scholarships available for women. The scholarships are one-time, non-renewable grants.
The ASC had five student-athletes awarded NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships during the 2009-10 academic year, as Hardin-Simmons University senior volleyball player Kaela Parnell was honored in the fall.
Nokelby has the American Southwest Conference career hits record (270) to his name, and he holds TLU records for four-year career average (.388), career runs scored (186), at-bats in single season (202 in 2007), and at-bats in a single game (7, vs. Howard Payne, in 2008).
Nokelby also ranks in the TLU career top-five for at-bats (2nd, 695), doubles (2nd, 53), total bases (4th, 370), and walks (5th, 92).
Nokelby was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Third Team and to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District First Team. He graduated from TLU in May with a bachelor’s degree. He majored in physics and held a 3.68 cumulative grade-point average when his Academic All-America nomination was submitted.
Nokelby was named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District First Team two times (2008 and 2010) in the last three years. He was a Second Team Academic All-District VI selection in 2009.
Nokelby was a three-time ASC Academic All-Conference selection and a three-time ASC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete representative for the baseball team. He was named the 2009-10 TLU Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
In 2010, Nokelby hit a team-best .414 with a team-high 72 hits. He also collected 16 doubles, and four triples. He drove in 42 runs and scored 50 times. Nokelby did not commit an error all season. He started all 45 games of 2010 and started 28 of those games in center field.
Nokelby helped TLU to the ASC West Division Championship for a second consecutive year. The Bulldogs won a divisional playoff series in the ASC Championship Tournament (also for a second straight year).
Nokelby is the son of Mark and Leslie Nokelby of Santa Fe, Texas.
The Bulldogs, under third-year head coach Greg Burnett, concluded the 2010 season with a 32-13 overall record and a mark of 15-6 in the ASC West Division. TLU has won (or shared) eight of the last 10 ASC West Division Championships.