LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – Hannah Heeter, Clarion's outstanding two-star athlete, is the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference's 2012-13 Pete Nevins Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year as selected by the league's sports information directors.
 
The Nevins Scholar-Athlete of the Year, in its 23^rd year of existence, is presented to the top student-athlete (one male, one female) who has achieved at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average while competing at an outstanding athletic level. To be eligible for the Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, a student-athlete must have been recognized as a fall, winter or spring PSAC Top 10 award winner in the same academic year. Heeter, who plays both volleyball and basketball for the Golden Eagles, was a two-time Top 10 Award winner this year earning the award in both the fall and winter. She is the sixth Golden Eagle, and third female from Clarion, to earn the PSAC's Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor.
 
A biology/pre-med major, Heeter, who will be a senior in the classroom and on the volleyball court and a junior in basketball, has a 3.957 GPA and was named a second-team Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-American in both volleyball and basketball this past year becoming the first Clarion athlete to claim Academic All-American honors in multiple sports.
 
In volleyball, Heeter is a three-year key performer who helped Clarion to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight and the PSAC and PSAC West titles as a freshman while also helping the Golden Eagles to the NCAA Division II playoffs in each of the last two seasons. In 2012, she earned first-team AVCA Atlantic Region honors and second-team All-PSAC West honors as a hitter while hitting .259 with 2.26 kills per set and 0.81 blocks per set.
 
A first-team PSAC West and second-team Daktronics All-Region selection in basketball, Heeter, a two-year starter and the 2012 PSAC West Freshman of the Year and second-team choice, was the lone PSAC player and one of just two in the Atlantic Region to finish the season averaging a double-double (14.4 points, 13.3 rebounds per contest), the second straight season she averaged a season double-double. She ranked third in NCAA Division II and first in the PSAC in rebounding while breaking a 33-year old school record for rebounding average in a season while recording the highest rebounding average in the PSAC in 14 seasons. She also led the conference in shooting at 51.7 percent. Her 25 rebounds against Lock Haven were the most rebounds in Division II in a game this season.  
 
Heeter was also named a 2011 Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-District volleyball award winner and was the 2011 PSAC Champion Scholar Athlete in volleyball (highest GPA at a PSAC championship event).  
 
NOTES – Heeter is the first Golden Eagle to be named PSAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year since 2006-2007, when women's diver Jamie Wolf won the award. Heeter and Wolf are joined by swimmer Nikki DiLoreto (1999-2000) as the female winners of the award from Clarion. Male award winners from Clarion include Dave Burmeister (football; 1991-92), Steve Witte (football; 1996-97) and Shawn Colten (swimming; 2002-03) … Heeter is the first women's basketball player to earn the award since Slippery Rock's Lori Robinson in 1995-96 (they are the only two women's basketball players to earn the honor) and the first volleyball player to earn the award since Slippery Rock's Jen Blasko in 2009 … Heeter is the first multi-sport, non-all-track athlete to earn the award since Kutztown's Laura Klin (field hockey and track and field) did so in 2005 and the first multi-ball-sport athlete to earn the award since IUP's Molly Carr (basketball and softball) won back-to-back awards in 1997-98 and 1998-99 … The PSAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards, which started in 1990-91, were renamed to honor long-time East Stroudsburg sports information director Pete Nevins in 2007. Nevins, who served as East Stroudsburg's SID for 33 years prior to his retirement, had passed away earlier that year.