I spent a lot of last night shaking my head in disbelief, amazed and awestruck at the young women being honored at the NCAA’s Woman of the Year event.

Among the honorees: A tennis student-athlete who graduated with a 4.0 GPA in history and literature; a 12-time NCAA all-American who majored in psychology; a basketball student-athlete who appeared in 115 of 117 career games, missing both to interview for the Rhodes Scholarship; a plastics engineering technology and rubber engineering technology major; a mathematics and secondary education major who graduated summa cum laude; and a psychology major who scored 10 perfect 10s during her gymnastics career.

The evening was spectacular, not simply because of the tremendous student-athletes filling the ballroom and not because of the tasty hors d'oeuvres being passed with dizzying regularity. The joy came from the night’s purpose – to honor some of the best and the brightest female student-athletes competing in the NCAA. We hear so much about the irresponsibility of student-athletes, and last night served as a reminder that what we read in the major media is often misleading. If you sat where I did last night, I guarantee you would have left with a wide smile, confident that most student-athletes are exceptional human beings.

During the evening, I had a chance to speak with a pair of finalists – Greta Trotman and Musu Jackson-Buckner. Greta was a standout tennis student-athlete at Barry, setting the school record for singles wins with 73. She is now a first-year law student at Harvard. Jackson-Buckner was a six-time all-American and a 10-time conference champion on the track for Oneonta State. The first Woman of the Year finalist in school history, Jackson-Buckner received a 2005-06 NCAA postgraduate scholarship and is currently in graduate school at Syracuse.

At the end of the evening, Wake Forest’s Anne Bersagel was crowned 2006 Woman of the Year. An economics and political science double-major who graduated with honors in December 2005, the former cross-country and track and field student-athlete is currently studying in Oslo, Norway on a Fulbright scholarship. I spoke with Bersagel after she was named winner, and I’m convinced there isn’t a more gracious and genuine person out there.

It was a perfect night in Indianapolis and I’m thrilled I was able to experience it. For those of you who’d like a closer look at some of the student-athletes and the Woman of the Year event, I hope you enjoy the four-minute video.