Aropostale and the Southland Conference have entered into a sponsorship agreement, which designates the company as official sponsor of the Southland Conference Student-Athlete of the Week Awards for the league’s 17 sponsored sports. In addition, Aropostale will be featured as an SLC television sponsor. Aropostale, which will sponsor the Student-Athlete of the Week Award throughout the 2005-06 season, will also provide championship participant gifts and a $5,000 scholarship. Additionally, Aropostale will sponsor television and at SLC football schools will host a jean promotion where dance teams and cheerleaders will throw free pairs of Aropostale jeans to SLC fans in the stands.

The Southland Conference consists of 11 member institutions in Texas and Louisiana. Louisiana institutions include: McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Nicholls State, Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond and the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Football

Nicholls head coach, Jay Thomas, announced on Friday that senior wide receiver Thomas Lorio received a scholarship for the 2005 football season.

Lorio, a native of Baton Rouge, came to Nicholls as a walk-on in 2002. During the 2004 spring game, he tore his ACL, forcing him to sit out the entire regular season last fall.

“Thomas has been a great ambassador to the Colonel football program,” Thomas commented. “He has a great attitude and displays superior work ethic, which gives us the pleasure to award him the scholarship.”

A general studies major, Lorio is the son of Dennis and Annette Lorio. His father, Dennis, is the head football coach at Parkview Baptist High School located in Baton Rouge.