The 2011-12 Youngstown State women’s basketball program recently had their season-ending annual awards banquet at the Chestnut Room of YSU’s Kilcawley Center.

• Women’s Basketball Head Coach Bob Boldon presented junior Brandi Brown with the Ed DiGregorio Award recognizing the team’s most valuable player. Brown, the 17th player in school history to score 1,000 career points, was voted Second-Team All-Horizon League for the second consecutive season. Brown averaged 15.9 points and 9.3 rebounds during the season, and she upped her scoring to 17 points per game during Horizon League play. Brown finished sixth in the postseason voting, one spot out of making it onto the first team.

• Boldon was recognized for his early days in college basketball as both a student-athlete and a coach at Walsh University.  On Feb. 25, Boldon’s accomplishments as a star point guard at Walsh were celebrated as he was selected as one of the program’s top 50 players in its 50-year history. Boldon was a four-year starter for the Cavaliers and led the squad to the NAIA Final Four in 1996.

• On May 19, Boldon will be recognized as part of Walsh’s 1998 NAIA Women’s Basketball National Championship team as it is inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame. Boldon was an assistant coach on that squad, which became the first unseeded team to win an NAIA National Championship.

The Youngstown State women’s basketball team has a long-standing tradition of being active in the surrounding community, and the Penguins have maintained that practice throughout the 2011-12 academic year.

Highlighting the list of many projects was YSU’s reading program at area elementary schools. Members of the women’s basketball team read to a total of about 3,500 second through fifth graders at 11 different elementary schools throughout the Youngstown area.

Among other projects the team participated in, they served at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church Spaghetti dinner twice during the year. The Penguins also walked in a non-violence parade and participated in the Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting ceremony in downtown Youngstown.

Additionally, seniors Macey Nortey and Kenya Middlebrooks spearheaded two community service projects. Nortey organized a large donation campaign to a homeless shelter where members of the team donated soap and shampoo. Middlebrooks organized a canned-food drive where struggling families in the Mahoning Valley received baskets.

Congratulations Lady Penguins on a great year!