IVC athletics has been proud to start its 2019-20 awards by honoring a record 107 scholar athletes, including 19 Lasers with a 4.0 grade point average, the scholar athlete team of the year with women's tennis and its outstanding 3.69 squad GPA and recognizing former Irvine Valley player and current top baseball coach Alex Agortsas as alumnus of the year.
And there are more honors to be excitedly shared through June.
Today's award is pretty special.
IVC student-athletes, coaches and staff are proud to see Dr. Cindy Vyskocil be named as the Anna L. McFarlin Sport-For-All Service Award winner as part of the Irvine Valley Annual Athletic Awards program.
In difficult times, Dr. Vyskocil, the acting President at Irvine Valley this past year, has been a voice of reason and a leader.
She was a champion for all on campus.
And specifically for Irvine Valley athletics, Vyskocil was thoughtful, supportive and a friend.
"She grasps the subtilties and nuances of intercollegiate athletics," Irvine Valley Dean of Kinesiology, Health and Athletics Keith Shackleford said. "As a former athlete, Cindy understands and appreciates the breadth and depth of Irvine Valley's student-athletes' experience and excellence.
"We look forward to working with her successor, but we deeply appreciate the supportive culture that she fostered at Irvine Valley and with Laser Athletics."
Irvine Valley coaches were definitely appreciative of how much Dr. Vyskocil supported their teams throughout the fall and winter seasons. And before spring schedules were halted due to the coronavirus pandemic, you would see Vyskocil at IVC baseball games on weekends.
"Cindy was always kind to make time to come by practice or a game to express a positive word of encouragement to our student athletes, coaching staff and supported everything we did in our department with athletics," Irvine Valley men's basketball coach Jerry Hernandez said.
"She was genuinely concerned about how you were doing and her presence and support was always engaging. She will be dearly missed by all of us."
And Vyskocil, who in her own right was a former women's basketball player at Arizona State University, enjoyed seeing the Irvine Valley student-athletes shine on the fields and courts as well as in the classroom.
The Irvine Valley women's women's volleyball and basketball teams each won Orange Empire Conference titles with the volleyball team finishing second in the state. IVC's men's soccer and basketball squads each also made the playoffs and spring sports, including badminton, baseball, beach volleyball, men's volleyball and men's and women's tennis were off to fine starts.
Badminton was undefeated so far, baseball was ranked No. 13 in So. Cal., men's tennis had earned a ranking of No. 4 in the state, beach volleyball was ranked No. 2 in the state and the IVC women's tennis team was the No. 1-ranked team in in the state.
She backed and cheered on each and every program.
