TAYLOR MILLS | SPORTS EDITOR

The Piedmont College Athletics department is riding high after bringing home some fresh, new hardware. Piedmont was awarded the President’s Cup for the girl’s athletic program, as well as the overall department.  

The USA South Conference gave Piedmont this award for showing excellence in all collegiate sports.  

The awards are split between boy’s and girl’s, in addition to a single trophy given for overall excellence. Points are given to each school based on how that particular sport finishes the season.  

Conference championship teams are awarded the highest amount of points. The trophies are given to a winner for the entirety of a season, until the point-counting process begins again.  

Jim Peeples, the Athletic Director for Piedmont College, has high praise for how our sports teams have performed, especially the women. 

“This level of consistency and exceptionalism is really quite remarkable,” Peeples said. “I think it speaks to the level of coaching and the kind of young people that we are attracting to this school.” 

The Women’s President’s Cup has found a familiar home here at Piedmont, with the girls winning three of the last four President’s Cup trophies.  

The current success of Piedmont Athletics is encouraging, and Peeples has even bigger goals for the future of the department. 

“Moving forward, we need to see if we can grab the Men’s cup as well as keep the overall and Women’s,” Peeples said. “That’s going to be tough considering that we don’t have football at Piedmont.” 

Peeples is fighting to change the point system so that the Men’s program has an equal chance to win in the near future.  

“In the past, our requests have never been met with open minds, but this overall win is a big step in the right direction for us,” he said. 

Another goal that Peeples has is to keep each program accountable when it comes to being successful, in both the classroom and on the field of play.  

“We can win out on the field and on the court,” Peeples said. “But if we aren’t doing well in the classroom, we aren’t truly being successful.”