Courtney Vandersloot Nominated for Female Sports Star of the Year

Courtney Vandersloot Named Female Sports Star of the Year

Chicago Sky guard, Courtney Vandersloot, a native of Kent, Washington near Seattle, was named Female Sports Star of the Year by the Seattle Sports Commission on Jan. 25.

The Female Sports Star of the Year is given to a female athlete or coach for outstanding sports achievement in the past year. Other nominees for Female Sports Star of the Year are Jenn Salling, a University of Washington softball player, named to the Second Team of the Lowes Senior Class All-American team and awarded the PAC-10 Defensive player of the year; Julie Woodward, a University of Seattle soccer coach, is the all-time winningest coach in the program history and led the Redhawks to a 12-6-1 record in her 15th season; Queen Underwod, a USA boxer, won her fifth straight US Lightweight Boxing Championship at the 132 pound weight class and is now ranked fourth in the world boxing rankings; and Maddie Meyers, a Northwest High School runner, who finished her high school career having won the State XC Championships four years in a row and broke her own National High School record when finishing sixth with a time of 6 minutes and 29 seconds at the 2,000m steeplechase IAAF World Youth Championships in France.

Vandersloot has certainly put together a strong argument for the award as well. Last year in her senior year at Gonzaga University, Vandersloot led the Bulldogs to a 31-5 record and a trip to the Elite 8 in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. She was awarded the Francis Pomeroy Naismith Award for top player under 5'8" and the Lieberman Award for the top point guard in Division I basketball. Vandersloot was the first ever Division I player -- man or woman -- to notch more than 2,000 points and 1,000 assists in a career. The Chicago Sky drafted her with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft and she was selected to the 2011 Eastern Conference WNBA All-Star Team. During the 2011 season Vandersloot broke the Skys single-season assist record dishing out 127 assists and was named to the WNBAs All-Rookie Team.

For more information about the 77th annual Sports Star of the Year Awards visit www.seattlesports.org.