Avent
Five former Catawba College quarterbacks are paying it forward for the college's current student athletes. These five alumni and their playing years include Ken Avent '90-'93, Kevin Brown '94-'97, Luke Samples '01-'04, Brad Roach '04-'07, and Michael Sheehan '13-'16. By joining the Chiefs Club, these five men are investing in the future of Catawba Athletics and the lives of tomorrow's leaders.
Brown
Avent completed 401 of 767 passing attempts and ranks 7th with 4,618 career passing yards at Catawba. He is also the 7th all-time with a .523 completion percentage, and is 8th with 33 career touchdowns. In 1993, he was named SAC (South Atlantic Conference) Player of the Year. This year, his son, Ken Avent III, is following in his father's footsteps as a freshman quarterback on the Catawba football team.
Samples
Brown stands sixth all-time with 4,807 passing yards and is third with 53 career touchdown passes. He earned SAC Player of the Year honors in 1996 as he helped Catawba to the SAC Championship. He currently serves and assistant coach with Catawba's football program.
Roach
Samples is the all-time leader with 9,650 passing yards. He led Catawba to three conference tiles and a berth in the NCAA II semifinals. He was selected as the 2003 SAC Player of the Year and tapped for induction into the Catawba Hall of Fame in 2017.
Roach was second to Samples in career passing yard with 7,874. He set a school mark with 32 touchdown passes in one season in 2007, the same year he was named SAC Player of the Year. He helped Catawba win a pair of conference titles and a NCAA II playoff berth.
Sheehan
Sheehan is the only Catawba player to pass for over 4,000 yards and rush for over 1,500 yards during their collegiate career. He led Catawba to the 2015 SAC title and a berth in the NCAA II playoffs.
Jeff Childress, Catawba's associate athletic director for athletic development and director of the Catawba Chiefs Club, was particularly proud to welcome Avent, Brown, Samples, Roach and Sheehan to the ranks of Chiefs Club membership. He said they "are setting a very good example for our other former student-athletes to follow."
Chiefs Club memberships directly offset the rising cost of higher education and athletic opportunities for Catawba's student-athletes. The purpose of the Chiefs Club is to provide financial support for athletic grants-in-aid for Catawba's student athletes, to promote the welfare of the college through the athletic program, and to foster the ideals of good sportsmanship and good scholarship. Catawba currently offers 83 full athletic scholarships and 20 varsity sports for men and women involving over 400 students as players, cheerleaders, coaching assistants, team manager and student trainers.
For questions about joining, please contact Jeff Childress at (704) 637-4265 or jchildre@catawba.edu.
