OVERLAND PARK, Kansas – Gonzaga men's basketball student-athlete Corey Kispert was named a candidate for the 2020-21 Senior CLASS Award Monday.
 
Thirty NCAA men's basketball student-athletes who excel both on and off the court were selected as candidates today for the 2020-21 Senior CLASS Award®. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. The complete list of candidates follows this release.
 
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
 
In the classroom, Kispert earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree, with concentrations in Marketing and Entrepreneurship & Innovation, in three years last May. As an undergraduate, Kispert amassed an impressive 3.49 cumulative GPA. In the Summer of 2020, Kispert began his Master of Business Administration program and currently holds a 3.79 cumulative GPA at the graduate level. In addition to earning WCC All-Academic Team in 2020, Kispert was also named the Division I-AAA Athletic Directors Association's Scholar-Athlete of the Year for 2020. The past two years (2019, 2020) Kispert has also been a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court, recognizing those men's collegiate basketball student-athletes who excelled in academics during the past season. On a team-level, Kispert has helped his team earn the NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Kispert has also been one of the highest contributing members to record-breaking Team GPA in Spring 2020, and second-highest in Fall 2020.
 
Since his arrival on campus in Summer 2017, Kispert has been the epitome of a Zag: selfless, hardworking, motivated, intelligent and full of integrity and leadership. Kispert is a role model for his peers in the ways that he carries himself and represents the Gonzaga Men's Basketball program. A natural-born leader, Kispert exhibits an unmatched work ethic and motivates his teammates to be the best versions of themselves. However, despite all of the accolades, Kispert remains humble and grounded in who he is as a young man. He is on the NABC Player Development Coalition Roster.
 
Over the course of Kispert's four years at Gonzaga University, he has found numerous ways to give back to the local community. One of the highlights for the team each summer is getting to spend a day in July at Camp Goodtimes, a week-long camp for children impacted by cancer, hosted by Spokane's YMCA. Kispert has helped bring a smile and excitement to these children each summer since 2017. In addition to Camp Goodtimes, each January, Kispert joins one of our assistant coaches at a local elementary school for their annual Donuts For Dads event, an opportunity to speak to the children about the importance of physical health, mental health, and academic achievement. Kispert has also been involved in various awards ceremonies for the local AAU programs in their annual winter tournaments and in Habitat for Humanity builds. Across campus, Kispert has been heavily involved in Gonzaga's Bulldog Athlete Ministry (BAM) program since his freshman year, including co-hosting an Advent series on Instagram this fall leading up to Christmas. BAM is a longstanding ecumenical student-athlete ministry program on campus, and an important group that helps to support the faith of our student-athletes. Kispert has taken advantage of both formal and informal opportunities to make an impact on those around him during his time at Gonzaga and will carry those experiences with him on his next adventure.
 
The men's candidates will be narrowed to ten finalists in late February, and those names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will then select one male candidate and one female candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four C's of community, classroom, character and competition.
 
The Senior CLASS Award winners will be announced during the 2021 NCAA Men's Final Four.

Senior CLASS Award Candidates

Geo Baker, Rutgers	Tate Hall, Loyola Univ. Chicago
Wabissa Bede, Virginia Tech	Corey Kispert, Gonzaga
Garrison Brooks, North Carolina	Nicholas Kratholm, Niagara
Nysier Brooks, Miami	Cameron Krutwig, Loyola Univ. Chicago
Isiah Brown, Weber State	Isaiah Livers, Michigan
Manny Camper, Siena	Davion Mintz, Kentucky
Matt Coleman III, Texas	Darryl Morsell, Maryland
Ross Cummings, Mercer	Yves Pons, Tennessee
Oscar da Silva, Stanford	Shavar Reynolds Jr., Seton Hall
Cam Davis, U.S. Naval Academy	Olivier Sarr, Kentucky
John Fulkerson, Tennessee	Chris Smith, UCLA
Marcus Garrett, Kansas	D'Mitrik Trice, Wisconsin
Luka Garza, Iowa	Justin Turner, Bowling Green
Collin Gillespie, Villanova	Josiah Wallace, Eastern Illinois
Brad Green, UC Irvine	Carson Williams, Western Kentucky