Damien Santana Named Skyline Player of the Year; Coach Smiles Coach of the Year
- Junior forward Mike Campbell also joins the All-Skyline list on the First Team -
For the second straight season, senior guard Damien Santana
(Brooklyn, N.Y./Grady) was named the Skyline Conference Player of
the Year, as announced by the Skyline Conference on Monday, March
2nd. Head Coach Erik Smiles was named the Skyline Coach of the Year
and Mike Campbell was named to the First-Team.
Santana, the 2007-08 Skyline Player of the Year and 2005-06 Skyline Co-Rookie of the Year, adds another Player of the Year title to his resume in 2008-09. Damien became Farmingdale State’s All-Time leading scorer this season, eclipsing the school record of 1,773 points on February 18th. To date, he holds 1,845 career points. While the Rams went 24-3 overall, marking the school's best season ever, Santana averaged 19.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.6 steals per game. As of February 22nd, he was ranked 47th in the Nation in Scoring and 27th in the Nation for Steals (65). An interesting stat - Damien has scored 11 or more points in 64 straight games…dating back to Feb 3rd, 2007.
Coach Smiles, this year's Skyline Coach of the Year, makes this his 7th Coach of the Year award in his fifth season as head coach of the Rams. Smiles guided his team to a 23-2 regular-season record, taking the regular-season Skyline title, and ranking 2nd in the Atlantic Region. His team recorded a school record 24 wins this year and won a school-record 20 straight games.
Junior guard Mike Campbell (Bronx, N.Y./Samuel Gompers) joins
Santana and Smiles on the All-Conference squad, being named to the
First Team. Campbell has posted 13 double-doubles this season,
while averaging just 25 minutes per game for the Rams. He posts
team-leading numbers of 20.3 points and 9.9 rebounds per game, and
shoots 57-percent from the field. He posted 41 points against
Polytechnic on January 27th, missing the school record by one
point. Over the season, he was named Skyline Player of the Week 4
times, D3hoops.com Team once, ECAC Metro POW twice, Met Basketball
POW twice. Nationally, as of February 22nd, he was ranked 31st in
Scoring, 44th in FG%, 49th in Rebounding. In the Skyline, he is
ranked 5th in scoring, 5th in rebounding, 4th in field goal
percent, 8th in steals.
2008-09
ALL-SKYLINE CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL
PLAYER OF THE
YEAR:
Damien Santana, Farmingdale State
FIRST TEAM:
David Acree, St. Joseph’s
Marvin Billups, Purchase
Mike Campbell, Farmingdale State
J.J. Walsh, St. Joseph’s
Justin White, Bard
SECOND TEAM:
Nick DiMaggio, Mount Saint Vincent
Hakiem George, Old Westbury
Chris Harrison, Mount Saint Mary
Jerrell Lewis, Purchase
Arjun Ohri, Polytechnic
ROOKIE OF THE
YEAR:
Carlos Valdez, Mount Saint Mary
COACH OF THE
YEAR:
Erik Smiles, Farmingdale State
TEAM SPORTSMANSHIP
AWARD:
Yeshiva
*****