Men's basketball player Joe Rocco (Northern Cambria, Pa./Northern Cambria) and volleyball player Emily Pany (Coplay, Pa./Allentown Central Catholic) have been selected the IUP Scholar-Athletes of the Year for 2010-11, an award given annually to one senior man and woman based on academic and athletic achievements and community service work.

Rocco has a 3.96 cumulative grade point average through his first seven semesters at IUP, receiving all As and only one B during his college career. The biology major will be attending medical school beginning this fall to study infectious diseases and immunology and has narrowed his choices to Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh.

He received the NCAA Elite 88 award in March 2010 when the Crimson Hawks advanced to the national championship game for the first time in school history. The Elite 88 award is presented to the athlete with the top GPA at each NCAA national championship tournament. He was also a recipient of the PSAC Top 10 award for combined academic and athletic excellence.

Rocco has been recognized with numerous awards and scholarships and has presented research papers and projects at several major conferences at the university and throughout Pennsylvania. He was the recipient of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania University Biologists Undergraduate Grant and the Cynthia Sushak Undergraduate Biology Fund for Excellence Grant.

The Northern Cambria High School graduate served as vice president of the American Medical Student Association and did a 180-hour internship at Altoona Hospital. He has also been active in several community service projects, including biology tutoring, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, United Way and Reading Days in local elementary schools.

On the court, Rocco played in 30 of 32 games during his senior season and was a key reserve on a team that won its second straight PSAC West and PSAC tournament title and advanced to the championship game of the NCAA Atlantic Region tournament. He scored 39 points, grabbed 38 rebounds, made 18 steals and dished out 13 assists during the 2010-11 campaign.

Pany, from Coplay, Pa., and a graduate of Allentown Central Catholic High School, took a 3.71 grade point average as a history education major into the final semester of her college career. She has been on the Dean's List each semester, with her lowest semester GPA being a 3.41, and was an IUP Provost-Scholar during the 2009-10 academic year.

Pany has emerged as one of the top defensive players in the nation in her four-year career, earning a pair of All-Atlantic Region berths from the American Volleyball Coaches Association. As a senior last fall, she led the PSAC and ranked fourth in the nation with an average of 6.62 digs per set, and her total of 741 digs ranks is second on the IUP single-season list. She was sixth in the country in digs per set in 2009.

The three-year starter broke the IUP and PSAC record for career digs with 2,670. Pany holds four of the top six spots on the school single-season digs chart and three of the top 15 in conference history and also ranks fifth in the IUP record book with 106 service aces.

Pany serves as a volunteer assistant coach at Indiana Junior High School while doing her student teaching at the school and took part in the “Battle of the Faculties”, an event designed by the Indiana School District to raise money for a variety of charities.

Pany has also been a part of Big Hearts/Little Hands, a volunteer at Healthy Heart Day sponsored by the Indiana YMCA and is a four-year participant in the IUP SNAP program which offers physical fitness, motor development and other activities for individuals with disabilities.