RELEASED:  Wednesday, May 14, 2008

UW-Whitewater’s Prather Claims Baseball Scholar-Athlete Award

Madison, Wis.--University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Ben Prather has been named the 2008 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Max Sparger Baseball Scholar-Athlete.

Prather, a senior from Chicago, Ill. (James B. Conant H.S.), carries a 3.75 grade point average and is majoring in history with a minor in political science.   He was named to the 2008 CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Five First Team and has been recognized on his institution’s Dean’s List numerous semesters.    Prather received UW-Whitewater’s Chancellor’s Scholar-Athlete Award this year and is a three-time member of the WIAC Scholastic Honor Roll.

A team captain the last two seasons, Prather is a two-time All-WIAC first team selection and was a member of UW-Whitewater’s national championship team in 2005.  He claimed All-Midwest Region second team honors in 2006 and also secured his team’s Most Valuable Player award.

He is a member of UW-Whitewater’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and Intercollegiate Advisory Committee.

Also nominated for this year’s scholar-athlete award were:  UW-La Crosse’s Mike Brehm (Sr., Spencer, Wis.) and Dusty Otto (Sr., Beaver Dam, Wis.), UW-Stevens Point’s Travis Kempf (Sr., Kewaskum, Wis.) and UW-Whitewater’s Tom Corcoran (Sr., Rochester, Minn.), Billy Johnson (Sr., Kenosha, Wis./Tremper), Randy Johnson (Sr., Kenosha, Wis./Tremper) and Gregg Riek (Sr., Markesan, Wis.).

The WIAC Scholar-Athlete Award is named after Max Sparger and sponsored by Hewlett-Packard.  Sparger served as commissioner of the Wisconsin State University Conference from July, 1971 - July, 1993.

In order to be nominated for the scholar-athlete award, a student-athlete must have a minimum 3.25 grade point average, be in their last year of competition, or on schedule to graduate this academic year, and have competed for a minimum of two years.