By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information & OVC Media Relations
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – The first soccer student-athlete to earn five All-OVC honors, Meredith Nye proved to be a winner on the pitch, in the classroom, and in the community throughout her Tennessee Tech tenure. The Ohio Valley Conference recognized her efforts Friday morning, announcing the Golden Eagle midfielder as the league’s Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship Award winner for 2024-25.
The award is given annually to an Ohio Valley Conference male or female student-athlete of junior or senior standing who best exemplifies the characteristics of the late Morehead State student-athlete, coach, and administrator Steve Hamilton. Criteria include significant athletic performance along with good sportsmanship and citizenship. The award is voted on by the Conference’s athletics directors and sports information directors.
Hamilton competed on OVC Championship teams in each of baseball, basketball, and track while at Morehead State. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1958 and a master’s degree from Morehead State in 1963. He went on to have an 11-year major-league pitching career and coached in the minor leagues before returning to MSU in 1976 to become the head baseball coach. He held that position for 13 years and compiled a 305-275 record while leading the Eagles to five divisional championships and two OVC titles.
He was named Morehead State’s Director of Athletics in July 1988 and served in that position until his death in 1997. As the A.D., Hamilton led the program to success on the field, in facilities, and in the classroom. During his tenure, a weight room was built, an academic counselor for athletes was added, graduation rates of student-athletes improved, and the University won the OVC Academic Achievement Banner four times. Hamilton is the only individual to play in the NCAA Basketball Championship, a Major League Baseball World Series (New York Yankees), and a National Basketball Association Championship Series (Minneapolis Lakers).
A team captain for two seasons for Tech, Nye constantly fostered a competitive and supportive team culture throughout her career in Cookeville. She served two terms as the president of Tech’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee chapter during her four-year tenure and three seasons as an OVC representative.
Through her athletic prowess, leadership and success in the classroom, Nye was selected as Tech Athletics’ nominee for the Derryberry Award – the University’s top student honor named for long-time University President Everett Derryberry, an inaugural inductee into the OVC Hall of Fame – as well as the program’s Woman of the Year Award winner. Her leadership helped the Golden Eagles achieve every member of the team on the Tech Athletic Director’s Honor Roll.
During her time in Cookeville, she has been active in several advisory roles, serving three seasons on the OVC Awareness Committee, one year on the University Ad Hoc Calendar Committee, and one year on the OVC Sport Management Cabinet. Nye presented the student-athlete initiatives to the OVC leadership at the 2024 Spring Meetings and also spoke with the Tech Board of Trustees in celebration of the women’s soccer team’s conference championships. She was Tech’s selection for the conference’s sportsmanship video that is played before many events.
Nye was a 2024 Maverick Innovators Fellow through the Clouse-Elrod Foundation and worked four years as a leader for the annual Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Camp through Rotary International. In her volunteer efforts, Nye worked with the TTU Food Pantry, Upper Cumberland Habitat for Humanity, Tech’s Window on the World event, the FIRST LEGO League, a Remote Area Medical clinic at Cookeville High School, and as an engineering lab assistant, organized a clothing drive throughout Tech Athletics.
In addition to her athletic scholarship through the soccer program and University academic awards, Nye earned the Ned McWherter Scholarship and the James A. and Roberta Hill Carlen Endowed Memorial Scholarship in Engineering. She received the Engineering Department’s Eminence Award for Distinguished Design in 2023 for her team’s project to win the award was to design two tables for a nine-year-old girl in need.
An eight-time selection for the Dean’s List, Nye was a nine-time member of the Tech Athletic Director’s Honor Roll and three times on the OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll. In her academic efforts, Nye spent three years as an Athletics academic tutor and as an engineering department tutor, while also teaching swimming lessons and serving as a lifeguard at local community pools.
She was named to the OVC’s All-Newcomer Team in 2020, was an All-OVC Second Team pick in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024, and a First-Team selection in 2023. Nye was named to the OVC All-Tournament Team twice in 2023 and 2024.
In addition to her time with the soccer team, she played intramural basketball and was a non-audition member of the Tech Concert Choir, performing in four concerts. Her artistic efforts also extend off campus as she has spent eight years as a professional watercolor artist, specializing in commission-based work.
The Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship Award is being awarded for the 26th time in 2025. Nye is the third Golden Eagle in the last five years and the fifth overall TTU student-athlete to earn the honor, joining Grant Swallows (2001-02), Beth Boden (2007-08), Jamaal Thompson (2020-21), and Seth Carlisle (2002-23).
Other OVC student-athletes nominated for the award included Eastern Illinois’ Chad Smith (soccer), Lindenwood’s Kadence Berry (cross country/track & field), Little Rock’s Anna Dawson (golf), Morehead State’s Lucy Singleton (cross country/track & field) and UT Martin’s Jonathan Xoinis (golf).
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