VALDOSTA, Ga. – Valdosta State senior men's basketball standout Clay Guillozet was awarded the Gulf South Conference's highest honor as he earned the Commissioner's Trophy, announced Friday afternoon by the league office.

"It's a great honor to win this prestigious award and it's very surreal," Guillozet said. "Being able to win this means so much, not only for myself, but my family and the VSU community as well.  This award stands for much more than athletics, and I'm glad that I can bring much more to the table than that.  I know the award goes along with athletics, academics, and community involvement.  Knowing I've been able to connect with all three gives me great satisfaction and motivation to become better and better each day, in every aspect of my life.  I'm thankful for all my support from family, friends and Valdosta State.  All of these people have helped me grow into much more than an athlete.  Lastly, I'm thankful for the GSC and the core values this conference has embodied that I will continue to live by.  Strong yet simple. Compete. Graduate. Impact."

The Commissioner's Trophy is the highest honor bestowed by the Conference and one of the most prestigious individual honors in Division II. The league initiated the men's award in 1974-75 and added the women's honor in 1982-83. The presentations of the Commissioners' Trophy as well as the Top Ten and All-Sports Trophies would have been made at the GSC's Annual Awards Banquet in Pensacola, but the banquet was canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 concerns.
 
Guillozet, a native of Greenville, Ohio, became the ninth different Blazer to earn the Commissioner's Trophy and 13th overall in school history as VSU now is tied with Delta State and North Alabama for the most selections in GSC history.  He is just the fourth men's basketball player in GSC history to earn the Commissioner's Trophy.  Guillozet is the first men's basketball player to win the Commissioner's Trophy since West Georgia's Lonnie Edwards in 1997-98. 
 
Mississippi College's Katie Taylor (women's soccer) earned the prestigious honor for women's sports this year.
 
Former VSU women's basketball standout Bridgette Moore earned Commissioner's Trophy honors in back-to-back seasons in 1986 and 1987, while Chris Hatcher (football) won the award in 1994 and 1995.  Morgan Johnson Faulk (softball) won in 2012 and 2013, while Courtney Albritton (softball) won in 2014 and 2015.  VSU has had four former student-athletes earn the Commissioner's Trophy twice in their storied careers, marking the most multiple selections of any school in league history.
 
Additionally, for VSU, Masa Oreskovic (women's tennis) won the Commissioner's Trophy in 1995, while Lance Funderburk (football) earned the prestigious honor in 1997, along with Kathy Kennedy (women's basketball).  Jon Koenigsfeld (baseball) was the last male recipient for VSU in 2010. 
 
"I am proud to have had the opportunity to coach someone like Clay," VSU head men's basketball coach Mike Helfer said.  "He represents all that is good in basketball and in sports overall.   He plays the game the right way and puts winning over individual success or stats.  His success in the classroom shows he is the complete student-athlete.   Finally, he has impacted others, especially young kids, through his work in camps and in local schools.   He is just a great representative of Valdosta State and he has certainly left his mark on our program, our University, and our community".
 
Guillozet became the ninth Blazer male student-athlete to earn GSC Top Ten Honors (formerly the "Top Eight") and is the 18th different Blazer overall in the history of the program, which was announced on Thursday.  Guillozet became the second men's basketball player to be named to the GSC Top Ten as former standout Beau Justice earned the honor in 2017-18.  The GSC Top Ten began in 1996-97 and was the "Top Eight" from 1997-2004, before expanding to the "Top Ten."
 
Guillozet capped an outstanding three-year career for VSU.  He was named Gulf South Conference Player of the Year, becoming the third Blazer in the last four years to be named GSC Player of the Year and the fifth overall in the history of the program.  He also has been named to the Bevo Francis Top 50 Watch List.  To his credit, he also earned D2CCA First Team All-Region honors and was a National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) First Team All-Region selection.  He helped lead VSU to its fourth-straight Gulf South Conference regular season title and a school-record 19-game winning streak during the season as the Blazers finished 26-4 on the year.  Guillozet also was named to the GSC All-Tournament Team as he helped lead the Blazers to the championship game.  The season was suspended just one day before VSU was supposed to play in the NCAA South Region Tournament in Lakeland, Fla., due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
 
He became the 27th player in school history to score 1,000 career points and accomplished it in under three years.  He also tallied 500 career rebounds as he achieved both in a game on Jan. 4 at West Alabama.  Guillozet finished leading the team in scoring at 16.0 points per game this season.  He was 181 of 343 from the field (.528), while he drained 41 triples in 103 attempts (.398) and went 77 of 119 from the line (.647).  He averaged a team-high 8.2 rebounds per game, while he recorded 114 assists to lead the team along with 43 steals and ten blocks.  Guillozet had seven double-doubles on the year, starting all 30 games and recording 24 games in double figures.  He was named GSC Player of the Week three times this season.  
 
For his VSU career, Guillozet, who transferred to VSU from West Liberty in 2017, helped lead the Blazers to three Gulf South Conference regular season titles, a 76-16 record overall and a 52-8 mark in the GSC.  He earned academic all-conference honors last season and is a two-time Google Cloud Academic All-District as selected by CoSIDA honoree. 
 
Guillozet finished his Blazer career playing in 92 games at VSU with 84 starts.  His 1,276 points is good for 15th all-time in program history.  Guillozet knocked down 483 field goals in 925 attempts for a 52.2 average, while he had 99 treys and went 211 of 327 from the line.  He averaged 7.0 rebounds per game with 288 assists, 34 blocks and 110 steals.
 
In addition to his outstanding play on the court and work in the classroom, Guillozet contributed much of his time to the community since arriving in Titletown, as well as in Ohio during the summer helping with basketball camps and coaching a summer league.
 
He also was a member of the Valdosta State Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), helped out with Neverthirst and Operations Christmas Child.  Operation Christmas Child helped children overseas to have Christmas more like children here in America providing them gifts, etc.  He also helped with Helfer's Heroes – a day devoted solely to kids with special needs and gives them the superstar spotlight like Guillozet and the Blazers are blessed to receive, to name a few.
 
Valdosta State GSC Top Ten and Commissioner's Trophy Honorees
Bold* Denotes Commissioner's Trophy Winner

Year	Men	Women
1985-86		Bridgette Moore* (Basketball)
1986-87		Bridgette Moore* (Basketball)
1993-94	Chris Hatcher* (Football)
1994-95	Chris Hatcher* (Football)	Masa Oreskovic* (Tennis)
1996-97	Lance Funderburk* (Football)	Kathy Kennedy* (Basketball)
1997-98	Klaus Acker (Tennis)
2000-01	Dusty Bonner (Football)	Tracy Sprolden (Basketball)
2002-03	Sammy Watson (Baseball)
2004-05		Eva-Marie Petschnig (Tennis)
2006-07		Khaleh Thomas (Basketball)
2009-10	Jon Koenigsfeld* (Baseball)	Natali Gumbrecht (Tennis)
2010-11	Philip Pakebusch (Tennis)
2011-12		Morgan Johnson* (Softball)
2012-13		Morgan Johnson* (Softball)
2013-14		Courtney Albritton* (Softball)
2014-15		Courtney Albritton* (Softball)
2015-16		Caitlyn Calhoun (Softball)
2017-18	Beau Justice (Basketball)
2019-20	Clay Guillozet* (Basketball)	Logan Hill (Softball)