By Blake Toppmeyer
Having worked for the Index sports section for three years and now continuing to do some reporting for the sports section, I know there is always some questioning by those in the athletics department about how the Index chooses its Athlete of the Week.
In short, the Index selects an athlete each week, profiles them and highlights their accomplishments from the previous weekend. The Index sports editor and assistant sports editor collaborate to make the decision.
No athlete can receive the honor more than once in each academic year. There are 28 Index issues each year, and thus, 28 athletes are profiled. The Index chooses to do this so we spotlight as many athletes as possible.
If the Index allowed an athlete to win multiple times, it would probably just end up being a circulation between volleyball’s Megan Sharpe, women’s soccer’s Olivia Hayes, women’s swimming’s Kate Aherne and women’s track’s Katrina Biermann. Those athletes dominate nearly every time out.
For instance, in the March 18 edition, the Index profiled junior swimmer Julia Jones with the athlete of the week story. Jones had a standout meet at swimming nationals, claiming four individual top-12 finishes. Still, Jones didn’t have the meet that Aherne had – she won her third straight national title in the 200-yard individual medley and finished in the top three of three other individual events.
But Aherne was getting her own story on the front page of sports. And Biermann, who won the pole vault national title the preceding weekend, already had been selected as Index athlete of the week earlier in the season. So Jones got the nod. She was a worthy choice and it provided the Index a chance to spotlight three athletes — Aherne, Biermann and Jones — in the same edition, instead of just the two national champions.
Tags: Index, Kirksville, Mo., Truman Athletics, Truman Bulldogs, Truman Index, Truman State University
