BEAUMONT — Chastadie Barrs made history in her first season with the Lamar Cardinals.
Barrs was named Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Year on Tuesday. It is the first time a freshman, man or woman, in the conference has won the award.
“The news was overwhelming,” Barrs said. “I was in class when I got the news, so I really couldn’t be too excited. Then I was told I was the first ever freshman to win the award, so I really couldn’t believe it.”
Barrs is second in the nation in steals with an average of 4.03 per game and leads the conference in minutes played at 999. She is the first Lamar player to be named Defensive Player of the Year.
“For a freshman to be named the Defensive Player of the Year is incredible,” Lamar Coach Robin Harmony said. “It takes a lot of heart and determination to play defense game in and game out. She plays hard every night.”
Barrs was not alone in winning a big-time conference award. Teammate Kiara Desamours was named Freshman of the Year.
Desamours, the conference’s preseason Freshman of the Year selected by collegesportsmadness.com, led all freshmen in the league in scoring at 10.9 points and rebounds at seven boards per game. She averaged 13.3 points and 7.6 rebounds during SLC play, both of which are tops among conference freshmen.
“There were a lot of expectations on Kiara when she came in, and she lived up to those expectations,” Harmony said. Her ceiling is incredibly high. If she continues to work on her game and improve, she can accomplish great things.”
Desamours became the fifth Cardinals player to be named Freshman of the Year and first since Tamara Abalde in 2008.
“It is exciting,” Desamours said. “The coolest part is knowing I have the backing of my teammates and my coaches as a freshman.”
Desamours said this season has been both fun and a fight sometimes on a team loaded with underclassmen.
“We struggle with our age at times on the court,” she added. “This year has been a great experience overall. We are definitely the underdogs this weekend and we want to wake some teams up. We want to come out of the tournament with four more wins.”
The Cardinals (11-18) take on Houston Baptist (14-14) at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Leonard E. Merrell Center in Katy in the first round of the SLC Tournament.
Barrs and Desamours are scheduled to receive their awards before tipoff of the game.
“They have come up big for us all season,” Harmony said. “We’re counting on them to come up big again in the tournament.”
Barrs said her and her young teammates, along with solo senior Addesha Collins, are ready to make noise.
“We know we have a talented team,” Barrs said. “The two awards really gave us encouragement going into the tournament.”