The University of Redlands and Bulldog Athletics recently announced that senior Jessica Fields (Las Vegas, NV) was named the 2020 Frank Serrao Female Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while senior Blake Roy (Camas, WA) was selected as the 2020 Frank Serrao Male Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Fields hails from Head Coach Mike Schmidt's track & field program and Roy contributed four years to Head Coach Mike Maynard's football team.
Given in honor of longtime football coach and educator Frank Serrao, this award acknowledges the top male and female senior scholar-athletes who best exemplify strong academic and athletic success at the University of Redlands. The head coaches and various directors within Bulldog Athletics nominate and vote upon this prestigious accolade.
While earning her bachelor's degree in Biology, Fields has gained incredible success in her sport during her tenure at Redlands. She became a four-time SCIAC Champion by winning the 100 Hurdles and 400 Hurdles during her sophomore and junior seasons. She also ranks among Redlands All-Time Top-10 List with the top spot in the 400 Hurdles with a time of 1:01.05, which is also the conference record. Additionally, Fields ranks third in the 100 Hurdles (14.01) and 4x100 Relay (47.74) and ninth as a member of the 4x400 Relay (4:01.28).
Fields came out of the gate firing on all cylinders snagging two All-SCIAC awards and an All-West Region nod as a first-year student-athlete. Since then, she has become a five-time All-Region honoree, culminating in the 2020 West Region's Indoor Women's Track Athlete of the Year and was set to head to the NCAA Indoor National Meet before the unfortunate cancellation of the season.
In addition, she garnered All-America status in her sophomore season in the 100 Hurdles with a fifth-place time of 14.28 at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Fields continued her dominance and became the SCIAC Women's Track Athlete of the Year in 2019. She then went on to garner national attention as the NCAA DIII Athlete of the Week before she repeated as an All-American in the 100 Hurdles and the 400 Hurdles with a time of 14.01 for third place and 1:01.42 for fifth place, respectively.
Roy has excelled academically and athletically throughout his four years at Redlands. He recently completed his degree in Business Administration. A four-time SCIAC All-Academic member and Redlands Scholar-Athlete, he was also named a two-time College of Sports Information Directors (CoSIDA) Academic All-District honoree. Following the 2019 season, he also earned a CoSIDA Academic All-America nod.
As a versatile tight end on the field, Roy ranked first among the Bulldogs in receptions with 27 and average receptions per game with 2.7 during his senior campaign. He also scored five touchdowns, which contributed to the team's new scoring record with 445 points and 51 touchdowns. Furthermore, he was instrumental in Bulldog football's final national ranking of No. 22 by the American football Coaches Association (AFCA) and No. 18 by D3football.com.
In 37 games played in his career, Roy racked up 75 receptions for 822 yards and 14 touchdowns.
He is a two-time All-SCIAC and D3football.com All-Region honoree. Earlier this season he was also recognized as a 2019 William V. Campbell Trophy semi-finalist as an exemplary college football student-athlete with one of the best combinations of academic success, community service, and on-field performance.
These two outstanding Frank Serrao honorees now join a remarkable list of Bulldog student-athletes, including last year's recipients, women's track & field and basketball student-athlete Reyna Ta'amu (Lakewood, CA) and men's track & field sprinter Luke Bohlinger (Mercer Island, WA).