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Marc Trasolini, a co-captain of the Santa Clara basketball team who is a regular at community service events and a top-notch student-athlete, leading the team in rebounds and blocks, has been named as one of the 10 finalist's nationally for the Senior CLASS Award. The winner will be announced at the Final Four in Atlanta. To be eligible for the award, a senior student-athlete must have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition.
Nationwide fan voting begins immediately and fans are encouraged to vote at the following website through March 25. Click link to vote for Marc Trasolini every day!
Santa Clara hosts Saint Mary's in a nationally-televised game on ESPN2 on Thurs., Feb. 7 at 8 pm.
"To be picked in the final 10 is more of an honor than being picked in the top 30 certainly and I was really happy to be top 30 in October. When you look at the finalists' list, it's full of well-rounded players on the national level. It's a very good list," said Trasolini. "It's certainly a blessing and it's great to see my hard work over the years gave me this type of opportunity. Being a finalist for this award has been one of my goals this year."
With Santa Clara 17-7 and 5-4 in WCC play, Trasolini leads the team in rebounds and blocks and is second in points per game. Trasolini is No. 11 in career points scored for the Broncos at 1,490 and on the Santa Clara's top 10 career list in field goals made, field goal percentage, rebounds, blocks, games played, games started and minutes. Trasolini became the 13th Bronco to score 1,400 career points when he tallied 23 in a win vs. Portland on Jan. 31. He scored 23 points at San Diego on Jan. 26 to move ahead of Bud Ogden (1,437) and Mike Stewart (1,446). Next on the chart is Kyle Bailey at No. 10 who scored 1,571 points from 2001-05.
In the classroom, Trasolini is the only player in the West Coast Conference and Pac 12 Conference to be named to the CoSIDA All-District Academic All-American list three straight competition years this season (2010, '11, '13). Trasolini carries a 3.56 GPA in his fourth quarter of MBA work and graduated cum laude in March 2012 with a degree in Finance (3.65 GPA).
Bronco head coach Kerry Keating had this to say about Trasolini in the community. "On our annual trip to the Great America park to spend the day with Courageous Kids (kids with cancer) Marc has been front and center each year. At 6-9 240, he is easily visible, but the kids feel his heart when he spends time with them because he is a good person, not because he is a basketball player and tall. Marc has been a fixture at our annual summer camp and relishes his role as teacher and role model, and has developed a comfort in being easily noticeable but has more so developed strength in being a role model and good citizen."
After posting 24 points with seven boards in the Broncos 72-64 victory over Cal Poly Dec. 17, Trasolini teamed up with four of his teammates to visit Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford on Dec. 18. The Broncos, which included Trasolini, Robert Garrett, John McArthur, Raymond Cowels III and Denzel Johnson, visited with children with cancer at the hospital in the afternoon. They played games, did crafts, signed autographs, passed out t-shirts and chatted with the children.
Trasolini walked away from the hospital feeling humbled. He said he felt blessed for the opportunities he has been given as a college basketball player and felt like he shouldn't take anything for granted. "There was the cutest little six-year-old girl who couldn't walk because of her cancer. She was so sweet. These children with cancer don't have what we have – it goes to show you how lucky we are and that was quite an experience for me," said Trasolini later in the week. "Cancer is a hard enough thing to go through as an adult. It is terrible it has to happen to these kids – they did nothing wrong. They don't deserve it."
Trasolini added that after visiting with the kids he felt like he had to make the most of his own opportunities with his team. "We have to take advantage of what we have been given," said Trasolini. "Going out in the community and helping children – it's important we do things like that."
Keating added this on Trasolini's nomination for the Senior CLASS Award in Oct., 2012. ""Marc exemplifies character in a student-athlete," said Keating. "Having suffered a season-ending injury in front of his family and in his hometown of Vancouver on Santa Clara's foreign tour entering his senior season (Sept., 2011), knowing he would be finished with his course work a full quarter early, it would have been easy to take the path of least resistance. Earning a 3.65 GPA in Finance offered him plenty of opportunities to begin a fruitful career in the business sector in the city or country of his choosing. Instead, he immediately turned his attention to surgery, rehab, and a pursuit of an MBA in the available time he had to take the fifth year and play this season. As a repeat All-West Coast Conference performer, he has established himself as one of the best players in the WCC, and this conflict in suffering the injury showed he is also one of the best persons as well. He had surgery the following week and promptly turned himself into a coach for what would have been a successful senior season. On a team with no seniors and going through growing pains and struggles, Marc stayed the course, grew even more positive with his developing leadership role, and has returned this season even better than before. Character counts, and Marc exudes that. His teammates trust him, his classmates follow him, and his coaches love him."
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School,® the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The finalists were chosen by a media committee from the list of 30 men's candidates announced in October. Nationwide fan voting begins immediately to help select the winner. Fan votes will be combined with media and Division I head coaches' votes to determine the winner.
Click link for the complete list of finalists.