INDIANAPOLIS – For the third time in the award’s history, a Walsh University student-athlete has been chosen as the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Collegiate Achievement Award recipient.
Walsh baseball standout Andrew Czech is this year’s 2020-21 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Male Collegiate Achievement award winner.
The Great Midwest Athletic Conference annually selects (1) male and (1) female outgoing senior student-athletes to be honored with the Collegiate Achievement Award. This award is based upon an individual’s academic excellence, athletic achievements, character, leadership, and engagement within the community and conference. The 2020-21 academic year represents the seventh annual presentation of the award and is the highest honor a Great Midwest student-athlete can receive.
Czech, a prodigious member of the Walsh baseball program, joins fellow Cavaliers Andra Lehotay (2019-20) and Sarah Berger (2017-18) as previous winners of the acclaimed conference award. He gives Walsh at least one winner for the third time in four years since the Cavaliers joined as an official member in 2017-18.
“This award caps off a brilliant season and outstanding career for Andrew,” exclaimed Walsh baseball head coach Tim Mead. “He has been an All-American person with a tremendous work ethic and has deserved every honor that has come his way! He is certainly one of the best student-athletes I have ever coached.”
The laundry list of career highlights for the slugging corner infielder are dizzying. The graduate student from Twinsburg, Ohio, was a consensus Division II All-American this spring by the ABCA, NCBWA and the D2CCA. He recently also was tabbed for ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Team honors for his defensive work at first base.
Czech is a two-time Great Midwest Player of the Year, performing the rare feat in both the 2019 and 2021 seasons. Three of his four seasons were recorded with the Great Midwest after playing the 2016-17 season (14 games) in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
He was sidelined during the shortened spring of 2020 while recovering from an injury but came back with a vengeance in 2021 as the Cavaliers finished with a 27-14 overall record and 22-10 mark in the conference schedule.
Czech ranks No. 1 in conference career history in on-base percentage (.529), slugging percentage (.795) and walks (131) while checking in at second in home runs (49). His career batting average of .388 (182-477) in the Great Midwest is fifth best all-time and second among all players who have completed three full playing seasons.
In 2021 alone, Czech led the Great Midwest in slugging percentage (.832), on base percentage (.559), home runs (17) and walks (51), pulling off a Triple Crown of some variety as opposing pitching sometimes didn’t give him much of a chance to hit.
Czech finished his entire playing career with a .382 batting average in 155 games played. He slugged 49 homers, recorded 164 RBI, and pounded out 187 hits. Czech had 45 doubles and drew 135 walks outside of his official 489 at-bats. He also scored 166 runs and slugged .779 and logged an on base percentage of .525.
At the regional level, he was voted First Team All-Midwest Region by the ABCA, NCBWA and D2CCA in both 2019 and 2021. In 2019, he was the ABCA/Rawlings Midwest Region Player of the Year.
He has been a three-time all-conference member in the Great Midwest, earning first team honors twice and second team status in 2018. Czech has also been a member of the Walsh Student-Athlete Advisory Committee on campus and was a recipient of the 2020 Servant Leadership Award.
Czech spent 5 years being actively involved with the Second and Seven Foundation Reading Program that was held at Louisville Elementary School.
Czech completed his undergraduate studies with a 3.59 GPA in Adolescent to Young Adult Integrated Social Studies/History. He has one year left to complete his Masters of Arts in Education at Walsh and is on track to complete his graduate studies in the spring of 2022.
Czech is planning on teaching 7th through 12th grade history after completion of his graduate studies and any additional professional playing opportunities that may present themselves.
Additional finalists for the 2020-21 Male Collegiate Achievement Award included Hillsdale’s Andrew Verbrugge (baseball), Malone’s Eric Mullet (baseball), Trevecca Nazarene’s Jay Benard (baseball), Ohio Dominican’s Matt King (men’s basketball), Tiffin’s Nikolas Curtiss (track and field) and Cedarville’s Tommy Ansiel (track and field). Each member institution was permitted (1) male and (1) female nominee to put on the voting ballot and each institution was permitted (1) vote.