st. Paul, minn. - leading concordia university to a national championship, and a football bowl game, two golden bear seniors were selected as the 2010-11 cu male and female athletes of the year. Senior football player hayden vavra (cambridge, minn.) and senior volleyball player emily palkert (excelsior, minn.) were awarded the highest annual athletic honor from concordia. Palkert is a four-time national champion and all-american while vavra is a two-year captain that helped lead the team to a five-win turnaround on the gridiron in 2010.
#11 hayden vavra, football, tight end
6-2, 250, sr., cambridge, minn. / cambridge-isanti hs
hayden vavra is a five-year contributor to the golden bear football program, recruited as a quarterback out of cambridge-isanti hs. He redshirted his first year and was the backup quarterback the following year, learning the qb position behind the 2007-08 male athlete of the year, kole goodchild. But vavra's versatility, leadership and intelligence allowed the coaching staff to transition him to a tailback as a sophomore, before becoming a star tight end in the northern sun as he earned all-nsic south division first team honors as a junior and a senior, along with all-region third team as a junior and all-region second team as a senior.
but what will define hayden vavra's athletic career will be the dedication and leadership he provided to his teammates and coaching staff on the field, in the weight room, in the spring and summer offseasons and in the classroom to help push golden bear football into a northern sun contender.
they went from a 3-8 team finish during his junior year to an 8-3 regular season as a senior, taking 4th in the northern sun which produced three ncaa playoff teams and the division ii national champions. The result of vavra and his teammates hard work and dedication was an invitation to play in the program's third ever postseason game: the mineral water bowl.
vavra's on field performance netted him 38 receptions for 405 yards and four touchdowns - all career highs and impressive receiving numbers at the tight end position. After all, as a junior all-nsic tight end, vavra caught 29 passes for 298 yards without a touchdown and was an all-conference performer. This is due to his all-around ability at one of the more under appreciated positions on the field. Vavra was so versatile that he would line up in the backfield as a lead blocker in the running game for all-nsic second team rusher sam campbell, he'd block in pass protection along the powerful offensive line for all-nsic honorable mention qb spencer ohm, and was a dependable and physical downfield target for ohm as well, capable of going in motion and lining up in the slot to take advantages of mismatches.
for his career, vavra piled up 897 receiving yards on 86 receptions with four touchdowns. He also ran for 330 yards and four scores and passed for 369 yards and three touchdowns without throwing an interception. In all, he scored or threw for 11 touchdowns and racked up 1,596 yards and paved the way as a blocker for countless extra yardage in his role as a blocking running back or tight end.
as a senior, vavra was one of 12 football student-athletes in ncaa division ii selected to the national football foundation's all-scholar class, an award last received by a concordia football player by the previously goodchild when he was concordia's male athlete of the year.
#16 emily palkert, middle hitter, volleyball
5-11, sr., excelsior, minn. / southwest christian hs
emily palkert joined a select group of collegiate athletes when the golden bears won the 2010 ncaa division ii championship, going 4-for-4 in national championships and never losing an ncaa tournament competition. The 2007 avca national freshman of the year lived up to that high honor throughout her career by becoming a four-time all-american this past fall, breaking the top volleyball program in the country's career kills record and leading the team to a division ii record 75 match winning streak that spanned her sophomore, junior and senior seasons.
after being an all-america honorable mention performer in that freshman season, palkert went on to receive all-america first team honors in each of the next three seasons, by either the avca or daktronics (or both).
as one of two seniors on an otherwise young 2010 three-time defending champion, palkert, along with fellow senior krista erickson, used her experience and ability to lead the team. Palkert terminated a team high 455 kills (3.79 per set) at a remarkable .357 percentage while leading the team defensively at the net by blocking 100 opponent attacks (0.83 per set) with 28 of those being solo stops. In all, she accounted for 522.0 points (4.35 per set) to lead the golden bears.
her senior campaign also featured three nsic player of the week awards including an avca division ii national player of the week honor as she blasted 18 kills in a win over second-ranked southwest minnesota state, had 15 against #14 minnesota state and 11 against bemidji state. During that same weekend, she broke the school's career record for kills and went on to finish with 1,898 kills in her four years.
she also finished second in career blocks (482), career points per set (3.73), block assists (388) and third in solo blocks (94). She played in 151 career matches with a 142-9 career record, a tremendous .940 winning percentage.
the tremendous season by palkert netted her top honors in the twin cities as she was named the city pages college athlete of the year - beating out student-athletes from all sports in both genders in all divisions (i, ii, iii) including the university of minnesota. Following her career on the court, palkert signed a professional contract to play in finland this past spring where she helped her team to a second place finish. Palkert started in the middle for her squad in finland as a rookie, as well.
