Lee University honored Women’s Volleyball Coach Andrea Hudson as Distinguished Alumna of the Year during the Homecoming 2009 festivities.
Coach Hudson, one of only seven National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics volleyball coaches with 600 or more wins, is in her 19th season at Lee. Coach Hudson is Lee's longest tenured coach, and her entire coaching career has been at Lee.
It was only fitting that Coach Hudson won her 600th career match with a win this September.
Her overall win record stands at 73.4 percent, and she has captured 13 conference championships in the process.
This veteran coach has won 30 or more matches in a row eight times and 40 or more consecutive matches four times in her career.
Coach Hudson has also led seven teams to the NAIA National Tournament, the most by any Lee coach. Fifteen players have been named NAIA All-Americans under her leadership and since 1995, and 27 Lady Flames have been named NAIA Scholar Athletes under her leadership.
She has also been awarded five time Conference Coach of the Year and four time Region Coach of the Year. She recently received the 2009 Woman of Inspiration award given by the Mary Ellen Locher Foundation for her efforts in the annual fundraiser Volley for the Cure.
Coach Hudson is married to long-time assistant coach and Lee's Director of Campus Recreation Kevin Hudson.
Lee University honored Matt Yelton, head women's soccer coach, by naming him Honorary Alumnus of the Year of the Year as part of Homecoming 2009.
Coach Yelton brought Lee its first national NAIA championship last season and has "made Lee's women’s soccer team one of the top teams in America," said Dr. Paul Conn in making the award. Despite having coached for only 12 years, Coach Yelton is already one of the top 10 women's soccer coaches in the NAIA in terms of career wins.
Coach Yelton, in his eighth season at Lee, won his 200th career match in October. This six time Southern States Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and four time Region Coach of the Year is also the recipient of 2008 SSAC Female Sports Coach of the Year and 2008 Brine-NAIA Women’s Soccer National Coach of the Year.
Coach Yelton has guided five teams to seven NAIA National Tournaments and his teams finished 2nd, 5th, 3rd and 1st the past four years at nationals. He has a conference record of 59-0-1.
Coach Yelton’s team was ranked #1 in NAIA for the final six weeks of 2007, and they started their 2008 season from where they had left off in the previous year. 2008 was a monumental year for Lee and its coach as they went on to win the NAIA National Championship. Eight members of 2008 National Championship team were also NAIA Scholar Athletes.
In the last two seasons Lee has outscored opponents 165-17 and created 24 shutouts under the direction of Coach Yelton.
Coach Yelton and his wife Tamara have two children, Aiden and Addison.