St. Louis, Mo. - The American Midwest Conference (AMC) announced today that it will annually award the Valerie Beeson Women’s Sports Championship Trophy and Lowell Pitzer Men’s Sports Championship Trophy starting at the conclusion of the Spring 2024 athletics season. These two awards join the Presidents Cup to recognize institutional excellence on the field across the Conference championship sports.
 
The Valerie Beeson Women’s Sports Championship Trophy will be awarded to the school that accumulates the most points as determined by the final standings in the eight women’s championship sports. The Lowell Pitzer Men’s Sports Championship Trophy will be awarded to the school that accumulates the most points as determined by the final standings in the eight men’s championship sports.
 
Awarded since 2001-02, the Presidents Cup will continue to be awarded to the school that accumulates the most points, determined by the final standings in the 16 Conference Championship sports.
 
“Our all-sports award has been a topic of discussion on and off for several years, and our Board of Athletics Administrators decided it was time to change how we recognized excellence throughout the athletics programs, leading to the creation of the Women’s and Men’s Sports Championship Trophies,” AMC Commissioner Will Wolper said. “Then it was a natural and obvious next step to immortalize two individuals synonymous with the history of the American Midwest Conference further.”
 
Beeson serves as the Conference Eligibility Chair, a role she has held since the NAIA created the position decades ago. She served as Harris-Stowe State University’s faculty athletics representative from 1978-2001, much of the time also serving as the Conference and/or NAIA District 16 Eligibility Chair. Pitzer dedicated more than 25 years of his career to the AMC, primarily as the Conference commissioner but also as an athletics director, faculty athletics representative and basketball coach at Missouri Baptist University. Beeson and Pitzer were the members of the inaugural class of the American Midwest Conference Hall of Fame (Class of 2020) and are both enshrined in the NAIA Hall of Fame (Beeson Class of 2001, Pitzer Class of 2013).
 
Points for the AMC Presidents Cup, Valerie Beeson Women’s Sports Championship Trophy and Lowell Pitzer Men’s Sports Championship Trophy are awarded in such a manner that the Conference champion in each sport receives five times the number of teams sponsoring each sport, and each subsequent team receives five fewer points than the team finishing above it.
 
The American Midwest Conference crowns champions in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field, women’s volleyball, and men’s wrestling.

For the current 2023-24 Presidents Cup, Beeson & Pitzer Trophy Standings, please visit Here.