Weathersby Recipient of Amie Ewing Award

May 22, 2015

OXFORD, Miss.Â -- The award plaque reads "Unconditional Effort." That's the way the late Amie Ewing of the Ole Miss volleyball team approached life in everything she did on and off the court.Â The same can be said for the latest Rebel to earn the Amie Ewing Award, Rachael Weathersby, who recently graduated from the University of Mississippi.

Weathersby is now a two-time recipient of the award which honors Ewing, who died in September 2004, after being struck by a car on Highway 6 in Oxford, following a night football game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Ewing was a member of the volleyball team from 1999-2002. She made the SEC Academic Honor Roll every year of her career and was a regular on the Chancellor's and Dean's Honor Rolls. Ewing graduated with a bachelor of science in pharmaceutical sciences and was in her final year as a pharmacy doctoral student in 2004.

In 2005, the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy established a scholarship in Ewing's honor. The Amie Ewing Memorial Scholarship Endowment awards $1,000 per academic year to pharmacy students exhibiting traits she exemplified, including compassion, intellect and a drive to excel.

The following year (2006), the volleyball team created the Amie Ewing Award to honor a player each year who exemplifies those same traits.

"This award is about more than just being a good volleyball player," head coach Steve McRoberts said. "It's somebody who's a great teammate, somebody who's selfless, somebody who's involved in community service and somebody that when you look at our program you say `ok who represents us the best?' Rachael was that person for us this year."

Weathersby played in 116 matches during her four-year career and this past year, helped lead the Rebels to the best start in school history and the most wins since 2007. She was named to the SEC Community Service Team for the second time and the SEC Academic Honor Roll for the third time. Weathersby finished the year with a perfect 4.0 grade point average and received her degree in biological science.

"While she didn't play as much as others, it took nothing away from her competitiveness," McRoberts said. "She wanted to be out there all the time and worked hard. She was the type of player that always came in early to practice to work on the things that she knew she could do to help us be better. She was always giving words of encouragement to her teammates and that's why she was chosen for this award. She embodies what a Rebel volleyball player is."

Weathersby was accepted into the University of Mississippi School of Nursing's Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program, a 12-month nursing school program, where she will take classes and do clinical work, and then start working as a resident nurse. Eventually, she hopes to become a nurse practitioner.

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Recipients of the Amie Ewing Award
2006 -- Allison Weber
2007 -- Nicole Mahan
2008 -- Allison Weber
2009 -- Morgan Springer
2010 -- Morgan Springer
2011 -- Morgan Springer
2012 -- Rachael Weathersby
2013 -- Kara Morgan
2014 -- Rachael Weathersby

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Players Mentioned

Rachael Weathersby

The University of Mississippi Athletics