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Monday, March 22, 2004

AMHERST'S WHITING ADDS McLAUGHRY AWARD TO GROWING LIST OF ACCOLADES

March 22, 2004
Immediate Release
Contact: Kevin Graber & Tanner Lipsett, Amherst College Sports Information
Phone: 413/542-2390
E-mail: kegraber@amherst.edu
Website: www.amherst.edu/sports

AMHERST'S WHITING ADDS McLAUGHRY AWARD TO GROWING LIST OF ACCOLADES

AMHERST, MA - The Western Massachusetts Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame has named Amherst College senior quad-captain defensive back Paul Whiting (Mission Viejo, CA) this year's winner of the DeOrmand "Tuss" McLaughry Award as the outstanding scholar-athlete in Western Massachusetts. Whiting will be honored at the Chapter's 42nd Annual Scholar Athlete Awards Dinner on Tuesday, April 13, at nearby UMass Amherst. Tickets are available through the American International College athletic department at (413) 205-3540.

Whiting had an outstanding senior year on the gridiron, earning First-Team CoSIDA Academic All-America, First-Team All-NESCAC, First-Team ECAC Division III Northeast All-Star and Don Hansen's Weekly Football Gazette Division III All-East Region honors, thanks in large part to his 25 tackles and team-high three interceptions, one of which came with a cast on his broken left wrist in the Jeffs' season-finale at archrival Williams College. Whiting was one of just 11 players from NCAA Divisions I-AA, II, III and the NAIA and the only player from the NESCAC named to the 12th Annual American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team, which honors college football players across the country for their dedication and commitment to community service. He was also recognized as the College Sports Television (CSTV) National Student-Athlete of the Week on Monday, November 24, and is the only non-Division I winner in the history of the CSTV Student-Athlete of the Week program.

Whiting is an All-NESCAC center fielder on the Amherst baseball team, an ECAC qualifier in the triple jump and a school record holder in the 4x200 relay on the indoor track team as well.

Yet with his considerable athletic prowess, Whiting has perhaps made more of a mark with his off-field endeavors. In his "spare time" Whiting serves with four other students and a faculty advisor on the Amherst Christian Fellowship Leadership Team, meeting weekly to plan and carry out events, such as the Fellowship's participation in Operation Christmas Child, an international project run by Samaritan's Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Through Operation Christmas Child, the Amherst Christian Fellowship collected shoeboxes full of toys and shipped them to needy children across the globe. He's also a student leader for Athletes in Action, organizing weekly small group Bible study for athletes on campus, and is active at the First Baptist Church of Amherst, where he participates in weekly Bible study and, on several occasions, has taken an active role in preparing lunch for the entire congregation and visitors to the church. Whiting spends Saturdays and Sundays cooking, serving and eating meals with homeless people and low-income families at Not Bread Alone, a soup kitchen in Amherst, and has taken part in Shoes That Fit, a local community service organization that matches needy children with gifts during the holiday season.

A neuroscience major, Whiting plans on enrolling in medical school next year. He spent last summer interning as a scribe in the emergency department at the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., where he learned the proper procedures for writing medical charts and observed procedures performed elsewhere in the hospital. He worked the previous summer as a research intern at the Whitehead Institute at MIT in Cambridge, Mass., where he learned basic molecular biology laboratory techniques and assisted graduate and postdoctoral students in their research. During the summer of 2001, Whiting worked as an observer/translator in the Department of Neurology at the UC Irvine Medical Center in Irvine, Calif., shadowing attending neurologists and other residents, observing various procedures and translating for Spanish-speaking patients at a weekly outpatient Epilepsy clinic.

DeOrmand "Tuss" McLaughry played a leading role in the development of the American Football Coaches Association, while at the same time establishing a reputation as a successful head coach at some of the most prestigious academic schools in the East, including Amherst College. He worked diligently throughout his lifetime to advance the best interests of the football coaching profession. He was 81 at the time of his death in 1974.

__________________________
Kevin E. Graber
Sports Information Director
Amherst College
Post Office Box 5000
Amherst, MA 01002-5000
Telephone: 413-542-2390
Fax: 413-542-2527
E-mail: kegraber@amherst.edu
http://www.amherst.edu/sports

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