Since the day he arrived at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, David Jean-Baptiste has been a leader on campus while also becoming one on the basketball court for the Mocs.
He was recently recognized for that.
Jean-Baptiste is this year's recipient of the Blue Award, the winner of which is determined by the university's executive leadership team. It's considered one of the top campus honors, and the UTC release announcing the recognition also listed Stan Settles as the recipient of the Chancellor's Award and Katherine Bolton as the recipient of the Gold Award.
The Blue and Gold honors are presented to students who have displayed excellence in academics and involvement, service and dedication to the university, according to the release. Jean-Baptiste, a 6-foot-1, 191-pound guard from Miami who was a redshirt junior this past season, is the first student-athlete to receive the Blue Award.
"I didn't realize that," Jean-Baptiste said in a video at GoMocs.com, UTC athletics' official website. "I'll say first, to me it means everything I'm doing, you know, off the court is not going unnoticed. I think how passionate I am about the Chattanooga community, and someone's taking notice of that, realizing that and seeing that, so it's definitely great to see, awesome to hear that."
Staff file photo by Troy Stolt / UTC guard David Jean-Baptiste, a redshirt junior this past season, has received one of the school's top honors as the winner of this year's Blue Award.On the court, Jean-Baptiste averaged 12.9 points per game for the Mocs in 2019-20 as they went 20-13 and reached the Southern Conference tournament semifinals. His 54 3-pointers and per-game average of 3.9 rebounds for the season are his career bests as a Moc. The first player to commit to former coach Matt McCall's signing class for UTC's 2016-17 season - he redshirted as a freshman in McCall's final campaign - Jean-Baptiste has been a steady contributor the past three seasons for coach Lamont Paris.
Off the court, the sports management student is a leader in the campus community. Jean-Baptiste is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity and is active in the UTC Student Government Association. He has been on the athletic director's honor roll multiple times and has also made the dean's list.
"Watching my upbringing and seeing how much help I had growing up, for me, the best way to pay it forward was to pass that along to fellow peers and those coming up behind me," Jean-Baptiste said in a release at GoMocs.com. "My impact on campus came from seeing an athlete's presence is needed today.
"I just tried to fill that void and help out."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.