Award honors the "best of the best" of the Big Sky's nearly 3,000 student-athletes

Throughout their four years at Eastern Washington University, football player Marcus Walker and track and field standout Bonnie Berscheid have epitomized what it means to be a student-athlete. And their hard work has not gone unnoticed, as each was named a Big Sky Conference Scholar-Athlete for the 2008-09 school year.

Walker and Berscheid join 16 others, two from each league school, in earning this prestigious accolade. Each honoree is a senior at his and her respective institution who has performed at high levels, academically and athletically.

Berscheid had an outstanding career with the Eagles, twice winning the Big Sky title at the Outdoor Championships in the discus before unfortunately being unable to participate in the 2009 event due to a shoulder injury.

During her senior season, she had a best throw of 156-2, which was achieved at the Duane Hartman Invitational on April 25 in Spokane. She also performed well at the Stanford Invitational on March 27 in that event with a mark of 155-9.

As a junior, Berscheid claimed the league title with a throw of 152-9 at the Championships. She followed that up with a ninth-place finish at the NCAA West Regionals with a career-best throw of 157-11. That mark is also the second-best in Eastern history.

Academically, she has been named Big Sky All-Academic a total of seven times (four for indoor track and field, three for outdoor) and is expected to make it a perfect eight when the 2009 spring teams are announced in the near future.

Berscheid is majoring in business management, human resources and management information systems and has attained a cumulative GPA of 3.89.

Despite battling a shoulder injury in 2008, Walker played in nine contests and started three, including two of the final three games of the campaign. The linebacker finished the season with 34 tackles and a fumble recovery.

By the end of the season, he was rolling on all cylinders and earned Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week for his pivotal role in Eastern's 33-26 road victory over No. 8 Weber State. In that contest, he had two interceptions, eight tackles and a half-sack. Both picks came when Weber State was deep into EWU territory.

In his 44-game career, he had 115 tackles, three interceptions, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble.

The interdisciplinary studies major earned the team's Iron Eagle Award for academic and athletic performance in 2008. He also was named to the Big Sky's All-Academic team each of his four years at Eastern and has earned a cumulative 3.58 grade point average.

Walker has also been a member of Eastern's SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee) since his sophomore year and, in June 2006, he was EWU's representative at the NCAA Leadership Conference.

EWU RECIPIENTS OF THE BIG SKY CONFERENCE SCHOLAR-ATHLETE AWARD