Each year, the Orange Empire Conference names one male and female student athlete from each member college to the Character Champion Team while naming overall winners of the Character Champion Award. The award is given to the student athlete who displays the following values; sportsmanship, respect, caring, fairness, civility, honesty, integrity and responsibility shown through a specific action, ideally directed toward an opponent during competition. The criteria also includes the action of putting the team and teammates before oneself while acting as a positive role model. The inaugural award was given out following the 2009-10 academic year. Since its inception, the OEC Character Champion Award has been sponsored by Fair-Play Scoreboards. 

For the 2016-17 season, Serena Saba of Irvine Valley College was named the Female Character Champion and Logan Swofford of Cypress College was named the Male Character Champion. The complete 2016-17 Character Champion Team can be viewed below.

2016-17 ORANGE EMPIRE CONFERENCE CHARACTER CHAMPION AWARD
Presented by Fair-Play Scoreboards