ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The Great Lakes Valley Conference announced on Thursday (May 16) that Lewis University's Jessica Kelliher (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha North) has been selected as the female recipient of the 2019 Richard F. Scharf Paragon Award.
The Richard F. Scharf Paragon Award was established prior to the 1990-91 season in honor of Richard F. Scharf, Commissioner Emeritus of the GLVC. It is awarded annually to one male and one female student-athlete, based upon academic excellence, athletic ability and achievement, character and leadership.

Kelliher will be recognized on Tuesday (May 21) at the Enterprise Rent-A-Car GLVC Awards Banquet at the Drury Plaza Hotel in St. Louis, Mo.

Kelliher will go down as one of the best women's basketball players in GLVC history and is the third Lewis female student-athlete to earn the league's most prestigious honor for a student-athlete. The first was Mary Moskal in 2006-07, while Jamie Johnson (South Holland, Ill./Marian Catholic) was the honoree in 2016-17, both of whom were also standouts on the court. The coveted distinction comes at the conclusion of the talented senior's career on the hardwood where she earned multiple accolades, both athletically and academically. Her basketball career began with a GLVC Freshman of the Year nod and followed with three-straight GLVC Player of the Year awards, becoming just the second GLVC women's basketball player to achieve that feat. In addition to her top honor as a newcomer, she was also a D2CCA All-Region selection, Division II Bulletin All-Freshman Team member, a two-time GLVC Player of the Week, and the first freshman since 1999 to be named First Team All-GLVC. In GLVC games, Kelliher averaged 18.8 points per game and 6.1 rebounds while shooting 60.2 percent, which was first in the loop. Her sophomore campaign saw recognition as a four-time GLVC Player of the Week, First Team All-GLVC, D2CCA First Team All-Midwest Region, DII Bulletin Third Team All-American, D2CCA and WBCA Honorable Mention All-American, and GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the sport. She improved her scoring average that season at 21.2 points per game with 7.2 rebounds and a 65.5 field-goal percentage, which was first in both the GLVC and NCAA Division II. She followed in her junior year as a four-time GLVC Player of the Week, an All-GLVC first-team pick, a D2CCA All-Midwest Region first-team honoree, a DII Bulletin Third Team All-American, a D2CCA and WBCA Honorable Mention All-American, and back-to-back GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. In that season, Kelliher led the league and D-II in overall scoring with a 24.7 points-per-game average as well as field goals made (313) and was second in field-goal percentage (66.9), adding a 25.2 scoring average in GLVC-only contests with 9.2 rebounds and a 69.4 field-goal percentage with all three leading the Conference. In her swan song, the 6-foot forward was seven times selected as GLVC Player of the Week – a Conference record – for a league-record 20 career weekly honors. She registered distinction as All-GLVC for the fourth season, D2CCA All-Midwest Region first-team, First Team All-American by the D2CCA, WBCA, and DII Bulletin, and was named the D2CCA Ron Lenz National Player of the Year. All of that after becoming the Lewis and GLVC all-time leading scorer with 2,764 points, which was third among all active players at all three divisions, to help her finish fifth in D-II for points scored and second in field goals made (1,093). She led the GLVC in scoring (24.4) and was second in rebounding (9.4); her field goal percentage (65.1) was tops in league games as were her 175 field goals made; she led D-II in field-goal percentage (65.9) and was second in D-II in field goals made (307). Her scoring average of 21.8 points per game is best all-time in Lewis history and is second among active D-II players. Kelliher became the 33rd player in D-II history with more than 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, and her 572 free throws made were third most among active D-II players while her 799 free throw attempts were most among active D-II players. All of her individual accomplishments helped the team compile an overall record of 102-25 and a 62-10 league mark during her tenure while the Flyers squads reached both the GLVC and NCAA Tournaments all four years.

As a student, the Waukesha, Wis., native received Academic All-GLVC honors her first three years and is on track to be named as such for the fourth time. In addition, she is a two-time GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year for women's basketball and will be eligible to earn recognition for the third time in a row when the merit is voted upon next month. She also earned a CoSIDA Academic All-America first-team selection in 2018 and was named the 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for D-II women's basketball. She picked up seven semesters worth of Deans List recognition and was a four-time recipient of Lewis' Brother David Delahanty Award for academic excellence and won the 2019 Senior Departmental Award for Organization Communication, as she amassed a 3.84 cumulative GPA, which included three semesters of perfect 4.0 marks. Two of those unblemished semesters came during the 2016-17 academic year, which earned her Brother James Gaffney Distinguished Scholar praise. She was also a member of the Delta Epsilon Sigma National Catholic Honor Society.

Kelliher spent three years as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee at Lewis and also participated in various community engagement activities. Due to her involvement, she received the Abraham Lincoln Civic Engagement Award from the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, which recognizes one outstanding senior from each of the four-year degree-granting institutions of higher learning in Illinois as Student Laureates, honored for their leadership and service in the pursuit of the betterment of humanity and for overall excellence in curricular and extracurricular activities.