INDIANAPOLIS – The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) has named the Crawfordsville High School and Montgomery County Visitors & Convention Bureau staffs as this year’s recipients of the Dr. Thomas Kearns Service Award, it was announced Thursday by the Conference office.
They will be formally recognized at the Enterprise Rent-A-Car GLVC Spring Awards Reception in St. Louis on Tuesday, May 24.
The Dr. Thomas Kearns Service Award is presented to an individual or group that has contributed to the success of the GLVC as it relates to the NCAA Division II attributes of learning, balance, resourcefulness, sportsmanship, passion, and service.
The 2022 honorees this year include: Crawfordsville HS Athletics Director, Bryce Barton, Aquatics Director, Kevin Hedrick, Assistant Aquatics Director, Sarah Dowd, and MoCo VCB Executive Director, Heather Shirk.
Barton, Hedrick, Dowd, and Shirk were instrumental in the development and success of the GLVC Swimming & Diving Championships. The league hosted the inaugural meet at the Crawfordsville High School Aquatic Center in Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 2014, which ultimately became home to this event for seven consecutive years from 2014-2020.
Following months of exploring potential venues in Indiana, Missouri, and Illinois, with no success, the league was nearly committed to hosting the event at an aquatics center in Topeka, Kansas, before former UIndy coach Gary Kinkead suggested a site visit to the Crawfordsville Aquatics Center. After a meeting with Barton and Hedrick, a decision was made to bring the event to the pool at Crawfordsville HS.
These gentlemen, along with Dowd, were instrumental in the planning and implementation of the GLVC’s largest and most successful Championship event. Their commitment and dedication to working with the GLVC staff and coaches prior to and during the Championships proved to be an invaluable resource for the league. From being involved in scheduling, the entry declaration process before the meet, to timing during the meet, to providing results at the end of the meet – and several other duties in between – their staff went above and beyond. They also provided pool upgrades over the course of the seven-year hosting span to enhance the student-athletes’ experience, while also being involved in setting up and tearing down signage that helped the league office brand the venue.
Shirk, and Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton, were also key figures in the success the Conference enjoyed in Crawfordsville for seven years. The community support manifested itself with the largest contingent of volunteers ever assembled for a Championship, a welcome banquet for all the teams at no cost to the participating schools, participant mementos, light pole banners promoting the event, and city employees helping when needed.
Crawfordsville embraced the event like no other community, and Barton, Hedrick, Dowd, and Shirk are the individuals who provided the leadership and vision to make it a reality. Unfortunately, the meet eventually outgrew the facility, which necessitated a move to Elkhart, Ind., in 2021; however, the GLVC staff remains eternally grateful for seven successful years in Crawfordsville. The friends at the high school and VCB displayed great passion and service to enhance the Championship experience for thousands of student-athletes in the league.
The GLVC Service Award is named in honor of Dr. Thomas Kearns, who was Northern Kentucky’s faculty athletic representative for 23 years and provided unparalleled service to the GLVC during that period. Kearns served the GLVC as both treasurer and president during his tenure at NKU and assisted with the budget reporting system and the current revenue sharing policy. He spearheaded the league’s first major expansion, wrote the GLVC Hall of Fame guidelines, served on the initial GLVC Awards Committee and developed and maintained the GLVC Handbook. Kearns spent countless hours developing the GLVC into one of the premier NCAA Division II athletic conferences.
The award was first presented in 2011 to Northern Kentucky’s Kevin Listerman, and has since been awarded to SIU Edwardsville’s Eric Hess (2012), USI’s David and Lois Stevens (2013), Kentucky Wesleyan’s Roy Pickerill (2014), USI’s Ray and Cindy Bippus (2015), Doug McCarty and Dan Cunningham (2016) of the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Illinois, Saint Joseph’s College’s Bill and Teresa Massoels (2017), Missouri S&T’s John Kean (2018), and UIndy’s Dr. Lawrence Sondhaus (2019). The award was not presented in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.