New Mexico swimmer Katy McCarter and UNLV football player Jackson Woodard have been named the recipients of the 2024-25 Mountain West Hal Rothman Sportsmanship Award. The announcement was made by the Mountain West Conference.
The Hal Rothman Sportsmanship Award, established in 2005-06 and renamed in honor of the late UNLV faculty athletics representative Hal Rothman in 2007, is given to a student-athlete in a Mountain West-sponsored sport who demonstrates sportsmanship, ethical behavior, good citizenship outside of competition, and maintains good academic standing.
The MW Recognition Committee, which includes athletics directors, senior woman administrators, and faculty athletics representatives from across the conference, selected McCarter and Woodard for this year’s award.
McCarter competed as a sprinter and backstroke swimmer for New Mexico over four years. She is from Fairbanks, Alaska. During her collegiate career, she earned Academic All-MW honors four times. According to the conference release: "When she wasn’t swimming her own race, she was the first one to the side of the pool to encourage and cheer for her teammates. A testament to what a good sport she is, McCarter also routinely engaged in conversation with her opponents on the pool deck, getting to know them and wishing them luck before races and congratulating them on a great race after the competition." McCarter becomes the first women’s swimming student-athlete to receive this award and only the second New Mexico athlete honored with it; Habtom Samuel won last year.
Woodard was recognized as the 2024 MW Defensive Player of the Year and has twice been named a first-team Academic All-American. He was also a semifinalist for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year award. The statement noted: "A vocal leader in the locker room and on the sideline, Woodard also led by example, showing up first to meetings and leaving the weight room last, as well as holding younger players to the same standards and mentoring them. Opposing coaches and officials routinely lauded his respectful demeanor, whether it was congratulating an opponent after a tough loss, helping a fallen player get up, celebrating a teammate’s success or picking up flags." Off campus he volunteered at youth clinics as well as Meals on Wheels programs in Las Vegas schools. Woodard is from Little Rock, Arkansas; he is currently competing for a roster spot with Houston Texans. He is both UNLV's first recipient of this award and its first football honoree.
Past recipients include athletes from New Mexico (Habtom Samuel), Utah State (Chari Hawkins), Air Force (William Kent; Dalton Boatright; Daniel Trapani; Peter French), TCU (Erin Lorenzen), Wyoming (Kevin Bretting), and Utah (Katie Battazzo). The award may not be presented every year.
