The 2022 Big South Hall of Fame inductees were announced on Jan. 5, and included in this year’s lineup are former Winthrop tennis coach Cid Carvalho and volleyball player Mary Hock Leventis.
Carvalho and Leventis will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame on March 6, along with Radford University’s Duane Filchner and Campbell University’s John Payne, an honor in which both athletes take great pride.
“It will be a great honor to receive the award on behalf of the players and coaches,” Carvalho said.
“I’m floored, honestly,” Leventis said. “I’m very humbled and surprised, but I’m proud that I had the career that I had and excited that they recognize that.”
For Carvalho, this comes after a long tenure of playing and coaching tennis filled with success. Carvalho played tennis at Winthrop in the late 70s, though he started playing tennis at 15, a late age for most competitive players.
“I liked tennis because it is an individual sport,” Carvalho said. “From the time I picked up a tennis racquet, I never stopped playing.”
He became the coach in 1985 and retired in 2019 after winning 26 Big South Championship titles, with 21 of those coming as the women’s coach and five as the men’s coach.
He even helped the Eagles win a first–round match in the women’s NCAA Championship in 2018, making Winthrop the first Big South team ever to do so.
“Cid Carvalho is probably the most decorated coach in the Big South conference in any sport,” said Big South commissioner Kyle Kallander. “Outstanding leader of student-athletes, and it’s incredible the success that the program had under his tutelage.”
Despite his achievements, Carvalho says he’s most proud of the players and coaches that helped build the program.
“They cared for each other and competed with everything they had,” Carvalho said. “I didn’t do anything differently. I was blessed to be surrounded by the right people.”
Leventis had similar success as a standout on Winthrop’s volleyball team. While playing on the team from 2002-2005, she became the Big South’s first-ever volleyball All-American in 2004 and was voted onto the Big South Volleyball 2000-09 All-Decade Team.
Leventis is ranked first in kills in Big South history with 2,067 in her career, first in career aces per set with 0.71 and first in career service aces with 360.
“She was just a dominating student-athlete,” Kallander said. “I remember her very clearly as being the premiere volleyball student-athlete in the Big South conference at the time.”
She also joined the coaching staff for a few years, one of which was 2006, a year where the Eagles won the Big South Championship.
“Being able to win championships and create relationships with my teammates and compete at the highest level is probably one of my biggest accomplishments,” Leventis said.
