Judson’s Burke earns another honor

Corey Burke, a senior men’s soccer player at Judson University, has been named the male recipient of the NCCAA Game Plan 4 LIFE Character Award.

It is Burke’s third major award this year for the Judson University athletic department. The NCCAA’s Game Plan 4 Life award is given to the top NCCAA male and female athlete for their efforts both on and off the field in service, academics, and athletics.

Burke, who was the NCCAA’s men’s soccer award winner for the Kyle Rote, Jr. award this year, also was voted Judson’s first male CoSIDA Academic all-American in the fall by the NAIA sports information directors. The two-time NAIA and NCCAA scholar-athlete played three years for his father, Steve, and was a member of the 2009 NCCAA National Championship team while also being voted the top NAIA junior athlete as the A.O. Duer award winner in June 2011. This year he became an NCCAA all-American for the first time, too. Burke graduated on April 28 with his degree in Biology/Pre-Med from Judson and will be moving on to medical school in the fall.

The coaches, faculty, and administration at Judson all agree upon the impeccable character of this young man.

“Corey is one of our finest athletes on campus,” said Director of Athletics Tony Tompkins, “because he is the true student-athlete leading on the field, in the classroom, and in service.”

Burke has received numerous NCCAA and NAIA athletic and academic awards in his years at Judson. In addition to excelling on the field and in the classroom, his leadership reaches from his soccer team, to FCA, to small groups, to mission trips. He is very involved in the local community, volunteering at a hospital once a week, and also the global community, traveling across the world to be involved in soccer and medical clinics.

Tompkins no longer interim: After a year of being Interim Director of Athletics at Judson University, Tony Tompkins has been named the school’s official Director of Athletics for Judson University.

Tompkins will convert from being the men’s basketball coach to the full-time director of athletics. In the past year, he held both positions. He was named the interim director of athletics last May when Nancy Binger was promoted to the Director of Enrollment Services.

He is a 1998 graduate of Missouri Baptist and earned a master’s degree from the University of Phoenix in 2003. He has been married to his wife Heidi for 13 years and they have three children; Brooke (10), Haley (7), and Samuel (4).