Howard Payne University senior Xavier McFalls has been named a winner of the 2015-16 American Southwest Conference Community Service Award, the ASC office announced Monday after a vote of the league’s athletic directors. A cornerback for the Yellow Jacket football team, Xavier McFalls is the first Howard Payne recipient of the ASC Community Service Award.

As a starting defensive back on the Howard Payne University football team, Xavier McFalls has made his mark but his service to HPU and the local community has made a far more reaching impact. McFalls has been involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes the last four years including two as a leader. He served three years as a leader in the HPU Baptist Students Ministries, three years as a collegiate intern at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church, and has served as the Student Government Association Chaplain for the past year.

This year he helped with a program called Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS), a local Love Brownwood ministry and has been a leader in a HPU student service organization called New Age Disciples over the past three semesters. This year, he was named the HPU Texas Association for Health and Physical Education Student of the Year and received the prestigious Nat Tracy Servant Leadership Award in April. He served in the community with the HPU football team in a local rest home and spent time with residents doing various activities.

The ASC Community Service Award, in its eighth academic year, honors a male and female student-athlete who best displays leadership and action in fostering community service on their campus and local community. Each ASC member institution has the opportunity to nominate its campus community service award winner to the conference-wide ballot.