SUNY Canton's Andrew Fitch Named 2021 NAC Man of the Year

6/28/2021 12:00:00 AM

The North Atlantic Conference (NAC) Man of the Year is Andrew Fitch of the State University of New York at Canton (SUNY Canton). Fitch was selected from five nominated student athletes for the prestigious honor which encompasses all facets of the NCAA Division III student athlete experience.

Andrew Fitch (Melbourne, Australia) recently graduated from SUNY Canton with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology and double-minors in Mathematics and Applied Physics. He graduated with honors and a near-perfect GPA of 3.98.

He was highly involved in a number of campus groups and activities. He served on the Non-Academic Assessment and Learning Commons Advisory Committees during his senior year. He was Chair of the Student Hearing Board for two years, mediating and facilitating student conduct hearings for his peers. Impressively, he was also the College Association Student Representative to the Board of Directors dating back to 2018.

Fitch was a Bible study leader and a member of the Audio Visuals Team for church services. He also delivered food to communities in need and began to preach at college-run church services this past spring. Off campus, Fitch led a church youth group during the 2020-21 academic year.

For his Senior Project, Fitch brainstormed, prepared, designed and built upgrades to the wind tunnel on campus. Fitch and classmate Jerome Joseph collaboratively rebuilt the control mechanism and testing equipment for aerodynamic experiments in the college's wind tunnel. Previously, the college's equipment was only capable of calculating drag and lift of a stationary object. Using NASA designs, the pair of future engineers upgraded the entire unit with three servo motors and designed custom 3D printed parts to generate more accurate data for experimentation.

Fitch also served as a research assistant in the engineering department, as a STEM tutor, and as a Senior Resident Advisor. He was a Senior Student Ambassador and the Coordinator of the new Jump Start Student Success and Peer Mentor Program in the SUNY Canton Admissions department.

Fitch has earned numerous awards, including the 2021 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence, Pillars of Character Award, Spirit of Success Award, and the NAC Men's Basketball Senior Scholar Athlete Award. He is a three-time member of the NAC All-Academic Team, and a member of the Tau Alpha Phi, Golden Key, and Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Societies. In 2020, He was selected to CoSIDA Men's Basketball Academic All-District Team. Fitch also earned the 2019 Outstanding Graduate Award for Associates Degrees and SUNY Chancellor's Scholar Athlete Award.

A four-year player on the men's basketball team, Fitch led his team to a NAC title in 2019-20. He was named to the 2019-20 First Team All-Conference and was selected as the NAC Defensive Player of the Year in both 2018-19 and 2019-20. He led Division III in blocks per game and ranked second nationally for total blocks in 2018-19. Fitch holds the SUNY Canton record for most blocks in a single season and the DIII-era career blocks record as well. Impressively, Fitch played for Team USA for Division 3 in Brazil in 2019.

Fitch will be honored on his campus during the upcoming academic year. He is the second Roo to earn NAC Man of the Year honors in just three years of membership in the conference. Josh Yelvington was awarded the honor in 2018-19.

Jose Afonso Luis of Thomas College, Dylan Labun of Maine Maritime Academy, Neal Mulligan of Northern Vermont-Lyndon, Isaiah Reid of UMaine-Farmington, and Edward Rosaschi of SUNY Polytechnic Institute were also nominated for the award, as announced by the conference on June 24.

The NAC Man of the Year award is modeled after the NCAA Woman of the Year program which honors graduating student athletes who distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, service, and leadership. The nominees for the NAC Woman of the Year were released on June 23, and Fern Calkins was announced as the NAC Woman of the Year on June 30, 2021.

These are the two preeminent awards presented annually by the conference.

Member schools nominate student athletes from their own institution, then conference Athletic Directors and Senior Woman Administrators vote to select the Man of the Year. Scoring for the academic achievement section is based on the undergraduate cumulative grade-point average of the nominee. Scoring for athletic excellence is based on the nominee's honors and accomplishments including awards and championships, and scoring for service and leadership is based on their involvement in campus and community activities and organizations over the course of their collegiate career. Administrators also consider a short personal statement written by each nominee.

Previous nominees and winners are archived HERE.