Loren Mitchell
Arkansas State soccer, 2012-2015
It took a few years for Arkansas State soccer to find its footing as a program. Success did not come quickly or easily, but once things started looking up, it was thanks to players like Loren Mitchell.
Mitchell arrived in Jonesboro ahead of the 2012 season following her time at Collins Hill High School in Lawrenceville, Ga. She found her way into the lineup immediately, starting 16 of the Red Wolves’ 20 games as a freshman. Her seven goals that season, which included one game-winner, were second on the team. Just as importantly, the Red Wolves finished above .500 for the first time in program history.
Her sophomore campaign saw Mitchell and A-State continue to break new ground. Behind her team-leading 12 goals to go along with four assists, the Red Wolves reached double-digit wins for the second time ever. The forward earned All-Sun Belt honors and- along with teammate Lindsay Johansen- became the first first-team selection from A-State since 2005. The team won its first ever Sun Belt tournament game in regulation that fall, and Mitchell earned all-tournament honors. She finished the 2013 season with 28 points, which is still the single-season program record.
Mitchell continued to add to her record-setting career as a junior and senior. The 2015 season saw both a coaching change for the Red Wolves and a position change for Mitchell, but the strong performances continued. She became Arkansas State’s then-program leader in both goals and points that fall.
Today Mitchell ranks second in program history in goals and total points, as well as third in game-winning goals. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Cyndi Rhone
Arkansas State volleyball, 1990-91
Hall of Honor, 2024
After two years at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California, Rhone arrived in Jonesboro for the 1990 season. The team had closed out the 80s on a run, and with the addition of Rhone and others they were able to start the 90s exactly the same. Her 1990 season, which was the program’s last in the American South, was stellar. Rhone finished with the second highest single-season total in attacks and kills, and the best ever single-season in attack percentage. She earned All-American South 2nd-team honors while the team earned an invite to the postseason, concluding the year at the Women’s Invitational Volleyball Championship.
1991 was even better. With A-State moving to the Sun Belt Conference, the team finished with a 41-9 record and went undefeated in league play. Rhone raised the bar even higher, setting new single-season records for kills, attacks, aces, and digs. The Indians won both the regular and tournament Sun Belt titles that season, with Rhone earning Player of the Year and tournament MVP honors.
Today Rhone is one of eight players in A-State’s 1,000-1,000 club with 1,304 career kills and 1,081 digs. She will be inducted into the Hall of Honor on October 25, 2024. (Photo: The Indian, 1992)
Marina Engelbrecht
Arkansas State tennis, 2003-2006
Arkansas State tennis coach, 2012-2015
Hall of Honor, 2014
You would never guess the challenges that Marina Engelbrecht-Cooper faced before and during her Arkansas State tennis career. Despite the battles along the way, Engelbrecht persevered to become one of the most decorated players in program history.
After starring in high school tennis in Bloemfortein, South Africa, Engelbrecht’s future in tennis looked questionable due to a significant ankle injury her last year. A call from head coach Marcia Williams saved the day, and Engelbrecht arrived in Jonesboro prior to the 2003 season. She stepped up immediately.
Engelbrecht played No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles from the moment she stepped on campus and tallied 11 doubles wins as a freshman. The victories skyrocketed from there. Engelbrecht won nine consecutive singles matches during her junior season and was named an All-Sun Belt selection at season’s end. This was despite recurring migraine headache issues that at one point required hospitalization due to a seizure-like illness.
Her senior season brought more success, including another lengthy win streak, a 16-3 record, and additional all-conference honors despite battling a shoulder injury late in the year. Ultimately, she closed out her A-State career with 46 singles wins, including a 37-9 record playing from the No. 1 spot in the lineup, and 38 doubles wins.
Engelbrecht was awarded the Terry Gwin award at the conclusion of her senior season in 2006, the highest award that an A-State student-athlete can receive. After her playing days ended, Engelbrecht remained with the program as an assistant coach, then the head coach from 2012-2015. She was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 2014. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Monika Klebe
Arkansas State track & field, 1986-1989
Hall of Honor, 1998
Imagine turning an entire conference track meet into a one-woman show. That’s what Monika Klebe Unger was capable of with Arkansas State track in the late 80s.
Klebe relocated to Jonesboro ahead of the 1986 season after growing up in Kiel, Sweden. Success came quickly, as she won the Southland 400m hurdle title that outdoor season. It was the first of a lengthy list of championship golds she would win. 1987 saw Klebe take the top spot in the 600-yard run in the indoor season, and the 100m hurdle & 400m hurdle in the outdoor season. She is still the Southland record holder in the 400mH.
A-State moved conferences to the American South in 1988, but the transition did nothing to slow Klebe down. She posted wins in the outdoor championship in the 400m, 100m hurdle, 400m hurdle, and anchored two winning relays. Her performance in the 400mH was good enough to send Klebe to the NCAA Championships where she finished 6th and became A-State’s first female track & field All-American.
Klebe closed out her A-State career in 1989 with seven top conference finishes on the track, winning the 55mH & 400m in indoors, then winning the 100mH, 400mH, 400m, 800m, and running the 4×400 winning anchor leg in outdoors where she was voted most outstanding women’s performer.
Oh, and if the races on the track weren’t enough, Klebe was also the women’s cross country individual American South champ in 1989.
Klebe was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 1998, inducted into the Arkansas Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2010, and named to the Southland Conference’s 50th anniversary track & field honor roll in 2013. (Photo: The Indian, 1992)
Rudy Sims
Arkansas State women’s basketball, 2004-2007
There are several common attributes of winning basketball teams- a standout scorer, solid rebounding, and good team chemistry. But great teams usually have the added ingredient of a fantastic facilitator and Rudy Sims was absolutely that for Arkansas State women’s basketball in the mid-2000s.
Sims joined the A-State program ahead of the 2003-2004 season, making the move across the river after a great high school career at Memphis East. Coach Brian Boyer was quick to put her on the court, and she was quick to respond. After solid performances in the first two games of her freshman seasons, Sims really opened eyes with a 25-point outing in game 3 against UAB. She continued to thrive the entire season and led the team in points and assists.
Everything got better statistically from there. Sims’ assist numbers significantly ticked up as a sophomore, as did her 3-point shooting numbers. She earned her first all-Sun Belt accolades following the season. She also shined in the postseason with a 20-point performance against Arkansas in the WNIT in front of the largest crowd in First National Bank Arena history.
Sims’ junior & senior seasons were more of the same as she continued to post strong scoring, assist, steal, and rebounding marks. She again earned all-conference honors both of those years.
All-in-all, Sims’ career came to a close as the all-time assist leader at A-State. She’s one of only two players in the 50-year history of the program to lead the team in assists four straight seasons. Sims also ranks 6th all-time in points scored.
Following her A-State career, Sims was invited to the WNBA pre-draft camp in 2007. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Jerry Ann Winters
Arkansas State women’s basketball coach, 1984-1995
Hall of Honor, 1994
A good coach can change a game, but a great coach can change a program. Leading Arkansas State shortly after the program transitioned to the NCAA level, Coach Jerry Ann Winters guided the Lady Indians to their first Division I success.
After a 45-15 record in her last two seasons at Southern Baptist College in Walnut Ridge, Winters returned to her alma mater and began coaching the Lady Indians program in 1984. Taking over a program that had spent just two years at the NCAA level was a challenge at first. Winters’ first two teams finished below .500 overall and in Southland Conference play. However, the team began to find its footing in year three. The Indians finished 19-9 in 1986-87, which included a 9-4 SLC record and an eight-game win streak.
The team continued to stay above .500 for the next few seasons, until a disappointing 1989-90 season. The program then responded to the letdown with a vengeance, reeling off five straight 20-plus win seasons until Winters departed in 1995.
There were no shortage of good seasons for the Lady Indians under Winters’ leadership, but the season was 1992-1993. The team went 25-8, a win total that stood as the best for almost 25 years and has only been topped once since. Additionally, the team won the NWIT Championship, the only team in program history to cut down the nets in the postseason. That team was led by the school’s first ever women’s basketball All-American, Sonja Tate.
Altogether, Winters was a three-time conference Coach of the Year, earning the honor from the Southland in 1987 and the Sun Belt in 1992 & 1993. She notched two 25-win seasons and had a 196-120 record over 11 years. Winters was inducted into the A-State Hall of Honor in 1994. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Markie Schaedig
Arkansas State volleyball, 2013-16
Since the award was established in 1991, only three Arkansas State players have been nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. The most recent? Volleyball standout Markie Schaedig (now Alberius).
After an all-everything high school career at Little Rock Christian Academy, Schaedig signed with the Red Wolves in November of 2012. She was on the court for the program from the very start of her freshman year, playing in 125 of 133 possible sets. Her numbers were solid, but not quite spectacular due to the veteran contributors on the roster.
Spectacular most definitely happened as a sophomore. Schaedig was an unstoppable statistical machine her second season, thriving in the libero role. She led the nation in digs per set, and her 762 digs that year are still the most for a single season in Sun Belt Conference history. She earned conference Defensive Player of the Year honors following the season for the first time.
2015 was another step forward, not just for Schaedig but for the program overall. The Red Wolves suffered a loss in their fifth game of the season to Mizzou, and then just continued to stay in the win column until a loss in the NCAA Tournament. A-State went a remarkable 28-2 and closed out the home slate with a straight sets win over Appalachian State in front of a raucous crowd at First National Bank Arena.
Schaedig’s senior season was another success story. She led the Sun Belt in digs and finished 11th nationally in digs per set, earning Defensive Player of the Year honors from the league for the third straight season. She was also recognized by the AVCA and PrepVolleyball.com. The Red Wolves had a 25-win season, and at one point won 13 straight.
Schaedig is third in A-State program history in overall digs and second in digs per set. Following her graduation, she continued to support the program as a student assistant in 2017. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Lauren Fair
Arkansas State volleyball 1993-1996
Hall of Honor 2008
A part of four consecutive Sun Belt Conference championships, Lauren Fair (now Lauren Harmon-Grantham) was a dominant middle blocker for Arkansas State volleyball in the mid-90s. Despite playing through a chronic back condition, Fair’s never-quit mentality left her name all over the A-State record book.
Fair’s path to A-State was a short one- she excelled at nearby Nettleton High School prior to her collegiate career. She played major minutes as a freshman and powered her way into the starting rotation by her sophomore season. The Sun Belt quickly took notice and Fair earned all-league honors for the first time in 1994. The program was also thriving, with the then-Indians participating in the NCAA Tournament that season for just the second time in program history.
Fair took an even bigger step forward as a junior. She led the Sun Belt in blocks that season and was recognized as the league’s Player of the Year. She was named the league tournament MVP, too, as the team won the championship and made another NCAA Tournament appearance.
Individually, Fair’s senior season was a copy & paste- Player of the Year, all-conference honors, and all-league tournament honors. The team went 9-0 in league play that season, and an incredible 36-0 against SBC foes in Fair’s four years with the program.
Incredibly, Fair spent much of her career playing through pain due to a tethered spinal cord. Despite that, she wrapped up her playing days in the top-5 of the all-time A-State rankings in kills, attacks, solo blocks, and total blocks.
Fair was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 2008. (Photo: The Indian, 1997)
Jo Beth Mathis
Arkansas State volleyball, 1990-1992
Arkansas State volleyball assistant coach, 1994-95 & 2002-07
Hall of Honor, 2000
54. That’s how many consecutive conference games Arkansas State volleyball won in the 90s. And either as a player or as an assistant coach, Jo Beth Mathis (now Jo Beth Webb) was along for a whole lot of ‘em.
Mathis transferred to A-State in 1990 after one season at Rice and was an immediate contributor, earning All-American South Conference First Team honors her first season with the program. After a late-season conference loss to Lamar, the then-Indians would begin their conference win streak that would eventually span two leagues, three coaches, and seven seasons.
Mathis was a key reason the wins would continue to mount. The program moved to the Sun Belt Conference in 1991, but neither she nor the team had any issues with the adjustment. She led the team that season in attack percentage and assists.
Mathis closed out her playing career in 1992 in the best way possible- with the program’s very first trip to the NCAA tournament. As a setter and team captain as a senior, she posted the highest single-season hitting percentage in school history at .411, earned league Player of the Year honors, and was recognized as an all-region selection by the AVCA. She is on an extremely short list of collegiate players to record 1,000-or-more assists, kills, AND digs in a career.
As if the on the court contributions weren’t enough, Mathis also served two stints as an assistant coach with the program. She was on the sideline for two additional NCAA Tournament trips in 1994 & 1995 and all together was a part of 274 program wins. She was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 2000. (Photo: A-State Athletics)
Charlotte Fields
Arkansas State women’s basketball, 1983-1987
Hall of Honor, 1998
Do you know who scored the very first points for Arkansas State basketball at First National Bank Arena? The answer is Charlotte Fields (now Wright), a women’s basketball standout that filled up the stat sheet in the 80s.
Following her high school career at Forrest City, Fields landed with A-State ahead of the 1983-84 season- just the second for the program as a NCAA member. Fields made the high school to college adjustment look easy as she led the team in rebounding as a freshman while the team doubled its win total from the season before. Her sophomore season raised the bar, with Fields leading the team in points & rebounds (15.6 & 7.7) and earning all-Southland Conference honors.
Fields played just seven games in the 1985-86 season and did not play the following year. However, her senior year was a triumphant return. She scored the first A-State points in FNBA history in the season opening win against Indiana State on Nov. 30, 1987 and closed out the year by again leading the team in scoring and rebounding.
At the time of Fields’ graduation, she led the program in career points scored and blocks. She remains in the top-10 in both categories today, as well as total rebounds and field goal percentage.
She was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 1998 and named to the A-State women’s basketball silver anniversary team in 1999. (Photo: A-State Athletics)