Ricardo Ratliffe has added one final honor to his historic two-year career at College of Central Florida. The NJCAA has announced that Ratliffe is the 2010 David Rowlands Male Student Athlete of the Year.
This latest award is Ratliffe's most prestigious to date, as he was chosen from among all male student-athletes in all sports from all of the NJCAA's 525 member schools across the United States. He is the first such honoree in College of Central Florida's history.
The NJCAA press release:
The NJCAA is pleased to announce Ricardo Ratliffe of College of Central Florida as the recipient of 2010 NJCAA David Rowlands Male Student Athlete of the Year Award. The David Rowlands Award is given annually to a male NJCAA student-athlete that displays hard work, discipline, ethics and excellence in community college athletics. Ratliffe, a 6'9" - 240 pound basketball talent from Hampton, Va., performed in exemplary fashion, breaking multiple school records and racking up accolades seldom earned in NJCAA basketball.
Throughout his two years in the NJCAA, Ratliffe established an impressive resume, averaging 27 points and 11 rebounds per game during his two seasons at Central Florida. As a freshman last year, Ratliffe set a new school record for total points scored in a season with 798 points, while earning All-Region 8 and First-Team NJCAA All-American honors. He led all scorers in NJCAA DI basketball (26.5 ppg) and ranked 10th in rebounding (11.0 rpg).
Ratliffe continued his dominance during the 2009-10 season, breaking his previous Central Florida record of 798 total points scored in a season by posting a total of 855 points during his sophomore campaign. Along with his season record, Ratliffe set a new school mark for most points scored in a career. His two-year total of 1653 points shattered the previous school record of 1346 points that stood for 25 years. For the 2009-10 season he ranked second in the NJCAA DI ranks in scoring (27.4 ppg) and 10th in rebounds (11.2 rpg).
Ratliffe again earned NJCAA First-Team All-American honors in 2009-10, receiving the honor for the second straight season - a feat only accomplished 13 times in NJCAA basketball history. The last two players to earn First-Team All-American honors in NJCAA DI men's basketball were Larry Johnson (1987-88, 1988-89 - Odessa College, Texas) and Cory Cooperwood (2006-07, 2007-08 - Wallace State CC-Hanceville, Ala.).
To no surprise, Ratliffe was tabbed as the top junior college basketball recruit in the nation this past season. He was heavily recruited by top NCAA Division I programs such as Alabama, Arkansas, Clemson, Florida, LSU, Missouri, and South Carolina.
The Virginia native recently made the decision to continue his education and basketball career at the University of Missouri.
