The highest Ohio Valley Conference individual academic/athletic honor has been awarded to Eastern Kentucky University senior baseball student-athlete Ben Fisher, the league announced today from its Brentwood, Tennessee headquarters.
Fisher is one of six individuals to receive the prestigious OVC Scholar-Athlete Award for 2015-16. The Richmond, Kentucky native has a 4.0 grade-point-average while majoring in Biology.
The award is the highest individual honor that can be earned by OVC student-athletes, and is given annually to three men and three women student-athletes of junior or senior status for their accomplishments in both the classroom and athletic arena, and because of their leadership qualities.
The winners are selected from a group of nominees by OVC Faculty Athletics Representatives. To be eligible, honorees must have at least a 3.25 GPA and conduct themselves in a manner which has brought credit to the student-athlete, his or her institution, intercollegiate athletics and the Ohio Valley Conference. The award is based on academic and athletic criteria/accomplishments achieved during the 2015-16 school year.
In addition to his perfect grade-point-average, Fisher’s other academic accomplishments include: Dean’s List and President’s List every semester during the past three years, Bratzke Award for Excellence (2014, 2015, 2016 - given to the team member with the highest GPA), OVC Medal of Honor (2014, 2015, 2016 - given annually to the student-athletes that achieve the highest GPA in a conference-sponsored sport), OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll (2014, 2015, 2016), three time Colonel Scholar and Chi Alpha Sigma inductee (National Student-Athlete Honor Society).
Fisher is regularly involved in campus and community activities. He is president of the EKU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) for the 2016-17 academic year, he is a student leader in Campus Outreach, currently in his second year of leading a bible study for the baseball team, reads to students at local elementary schools and has assisted in feeding those in need on Christmas day for the past six years.
On the field, Fisher is as accomplished as he is off the field. After his freshman season in 2014, Fisher was chosen to the OVC All-Freshman Team and earned first team NCBWA Freshman All-America honors. Over the past three seasons, he has started 156 games while compiling a .282 career batting average. As a junior in 2016, the first baseman recorded career-highs for batting average (.288), runs (36), doubles (14), home runs (8), RBIs (33) and slugging percentage (.468).
In the final 25 games of the 2016 season, Fisher had 35 hits with a .350 batting average and 16 RBIs.