George Fox's Blair Cash Named 2009 Sareault Award Winner

SPOKANE, Wash. - George Fox University's Blair Cash has been selected by his peers within the Northwest Conference as the recipient of the 2008-09 Jack Sareault Award as the conference's Sports Information Director of the Year.

Blair Cash Cash, who has served as the Bruins' SID since the fall of 1999, is fourth individual to win the award, which began in 2005-06.

The NWC SID of the Year award is named in honor of Jack Sareault, who served as the conference's SID for 19 years (1978 - 1997). Since his retirement, Sareault has spent countless hours building detailed histories of NWC sports.

"I'm not sure I quite measure up to the high standards of excellence and service Jack Sareault gave to the Northwest Conference for many years, but I am sincerely humbled and grateful to my partner SIDs for selecting me as the 2009 winner of this award that bears his name," said Cash.  "There are many outstanding professionals in this conference who do their jobs well, and any one of them would have been just as deserving."

Cash, who has worked in the field of sports information since 1972 at all levels of participation, has publicized the accomplishments of a pair of George Fox national championship programs - the women's basketball national championship this winter and the baseball team that won the 2004 NCAA Division III championship.  He also promoted the baseball team's participation in the national tournament this spring.

"I would like to thank my director of athletics, Craig Taylor, and all our coaches who are friends, not just co-workers, for making my job an enjoyable one, all our athletes who have provided me with many memorable moments about which to write, and my wife and family for their patience and understanding when I am gone so often doing a job I love at a school I love," said Cash.

Outside of the conference Cash coordinates the chapel service at the annual College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Workshop and serves on the CoSIDA ethics committee. He holds professional memberships in the United States Basketball Writers Association and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, serving for the last five seasons as coordinator of voting for the NCBWA's Division III National Hitter and Pitcher of the Week awards. 

Cash is a 1976 graduate of Belhaven College. He earned a master's degrees in divinity and Christian education from Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Miss., in 1987.  An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, he has pastored churches in Edinburg, Texas, and Natchez, Miss., and is currently a minister-at-large in the Presbytery of the Cascades.  He and his wife Debbie, an accountant at George Fox, live in Newberg with their two children, Milton and Megan.

NWC Sports Information Director of the Year -
2007-08 - Kelly Bird, Linfield College
2006-07 - Blake Timm, Pacific University
2005-06 - Steve Flegel, Whitworth College/Northwest Conference