SUNY COBLESKILL’S SMITH NAMED NJCAA ALL-AMERICAN IN WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The National Junior College Athletic Association announced today that SUNY Cobleskill women’s basketball team member senior Dee Dee Smith, Monticello, NY, Monticello High School, has been named as an Honorable Mention All-American selection to the association’s 2006 NJCAA Division III All-American Team. Smith was also selected as an Honorable Mention All-American in 2005. She becomes only the second player in program history to earn NJCAA All-American honors during both seasons of her Fighting Tiger career.

“I am very excited for Dee Dee and am extremely proud of her because this season was more challenging for her because of the way that teams geared their defense around stopping her. This recognition is a direct result of how hard she worked during the off-season and during the season in practice,” said Fighting Tiger Head Coach Josh Suttles. “I’m sure that Dee Dee will be excited about the award not only for herself but for our entire basketball team. Before she came here there wasn’t much to talk about our program and during her time at Cobleskill she has brought a tremendous amount of exposure to our basketball program and the college.”

Smith led the Fighting Tiger women’s team to the best season in the program’s history as Cobleskill finished the year with a 24-5 overall record including a 13-3 mark in Mountain Valley Conference play. The season was the Fighting Tigers second consecutive twenty-win season and saw the team advance to the semi-final round of the 2006 NJCAA Region III Division III Championship Tournament. During her time at Cobleskill the team posted an overall record of 46-11.

The 5’9” forward averaged 14.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 2.7 steals and 0.9 blocked shots per contest for during the season. Earlier she had been honored as a First Team All-Mountain Valley Conference and First Team All-NJCAA Region III by the league and region’s coaches for the second consecutive season.