ITHACA, N.Y.—Deitre Collins-Parker, the Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach of Women's Volleyball, will receive the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award on Thursday, January 15 at the NCAA Honors and Delegates Celebration during the 2009 NCAA Convention in Washington, D.C. The award honors former student-athletes who successfully completed collegiate careers in various sports and have excelled in their chosen professions on their 25th anniversary of completing their athletics eligibility.

Collins-Parker (Hawaii, volleyball and basketball) joins Mark Fusco (Harvard, ice hockey), Earl Graves, Jr. (Yale, basketball), Darrell Green (Texas A&M-Kingsville, football and indoor/outdoor track and field), Kathy McMinn (Georgia, gymnastics) and Steve Young (Brigham Young, football) as the 2009 recipients.

A two-time national collegiate player of the year, Collins-Parker led Hawaii to the first-ever back-to-back volleyball national championships in 1982 and 1983. In her final three seasons, she led the Rainbow Wahine to a 110-5 record. She capped off her career by winning the Broderick Cup Award, signifying the nation's top female collegiate athlete, the first volleyball player to ever receive that distinction. Collins-Parker went on to compete at the national level and played in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. She was also an alternate for the1992 games in Barcelona, Spain. Collins-Parker played in over 130 international matches and earned bronze medals at the 1986 Goodwill Games and 1987 Pan-Am Games. She played professionally in the Italian League (1988-89) and the French League (1989-91), capturing the French League Championship twice and the European Cup of Champions in 1990.Collins-Parker is the current record-holder in solo blocks in the NCAA tournament. The two-time NCAA all-tournament team pick also was named to the Big West All-Decade Team and the NCAA 25th Anniversary Team

Now in her fifth season with the Big Red, Collins-Parker has led Cornell to three Ivy League titles and two NCAA tournament appearances. Under her tutelage, the Big Red has seen seven players named first-team All-Ivy, including two-time Ivy League Player of the Year and honorable mention All-American, Elizabeth Bishop '07.

This season, Collins-Parker was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame. Collins-Parker makes the effort to be a recognizable leader in the volleyball community, serving as a member of the AVCA Board of Directors, and the chairperson on the AVCA Minority Coaches Committee. In this position, she spearheads clinics for female minority coaches that are aspiring to pursue coaching positions at the collegiate level. She currently has membership with the AVCA, Coaches Accreditation Program, Kaepa Gold Medal Clinics, Black Coaches Association, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes.