Oakland's Corey Petros Earns Haier Achievement Award

Oakland's Corey Petros has been selected as a recipient of the Haier Achievement Award, which is presented to deserving student-athletes for their accomplishments beyond sports. The announcement of the sixth of eight Haier Achievement Awards being presented this year was made by John Homlish, senior vice president, Digital Living Business Unit for Haier America, one of the world's leading television and appliance manufacturers, and Doug Vance, Executive Director of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

"This is a blessing to receive this award," said Petros. "I truly love giving back to the community and outreach to young kids to help them further their future. I have been blessed to be where I am at today and I love to serve and give back my time and life lessons I have learned along the way."

Petros, a senior from Macomb, Mich., leads the Horizon League with 8.1 rebounds per game and became the third active NCAA player to surpass 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds. He leads the league with a .611 field goal percentage, ninth in the country, and has a league-best 88 offensive rebounds. Petros set the all-time school record with 389 offensive boards and is third in school history with 1,028 rebounds.

"I want to congratulate Corey on this prestigious award" said head coach Greg Kampe. "Corey has been a model citizen since he got here five years ago. He understands what being a student-athlete is about. Corey will earn his master's degree as well as having his name in our record book for the way he has played on the court. He is probably as good of a person as I have ever coached. We value academics and community service as well as performance on the floor, and our student-athletes continue to demonstrate that."

The Golden Grizzlies are currently 9-4 in the Horizon League. Oakland will honor Petros on Senior Night this Wednesday before the Youngstown State game and will present him with the Haier Award. Oakland University will get a check for $2,000 from Haier America for its scholarship fund.

"The Haier Achievement Award program brings to light those student-athletes who have achieved success beyond sports," said Homlish. "By recognizing inspiring student-athletes like Corey we hope to further motivate other young people to achieve and succeed both on and off the field. We commend Corey for using the platform of sports to help others."

PREVIOUS WINNERS - The Haier Achievement Award
Elisha Hande (NC State, Women's Tennis)
JaCorey Shepherd (Kansas, Football)
Richie Suarez (Rowan University, Baseball)
Alyssa Brandt (DeSales University, Women's Track and Field, Soccer)
Averee Fields (West Virginia, Women's Basketball)
Corey Petros (Oakland University, Men's Basketball)

ABOUT HAIER: Haier America (www.haier.com/us/) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Haier Group, the world's No. 1 major appliance brand as ranked by Euromonitor International 2014, and a global leader in consumer electronics. Haier employs more than 70,000 people around the world and distributes products in more than 100 countries and regions with global revenues reaching $32.1 billion in 2013.

ABOUT CoSIDA: CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America, www.cosida.com) was founded in 1957 and is a 3,000-plus member national organization comprised of sports public relations, media relations and communications/information professionals throughout all levels of collegiate athletics in the U.S. and Canada. CoSIDA has two primary missions: 1) Assist communications and public relations professionals at all collegiate levels with professional development and continuing education, 2) Play a significant leadership and resource role within the overall collegiate athletics enterprise, thus helping other management groups and their respective memberships deal with the set of communications-based issues that is the most complex and challenging in history.