Hofstra sophomore guard Charles Jenkins was named the 76th winner of the Haggerty Award as the 2008-09 All-Metropolitan New York Division I men's college basketball player of the year, presented by the National Invitation Tournament and the Met Basketball Writers Association. The annual ceremony was held at the Meadowlands' Giants Stadium Club in East Rutherford, NJ on April 15th, 2009.

Jenkins, who earned the MBWA Rookie of the Year Award a year earlier, became the fifth Hofstra player to win the Haggerty Award, joining Bill Thieben (1956), Rich Laurel (1977), Speedy Claxton (2000) and Norman Richardson (2001). He also was the first sophomore to win the award since Chris Mullin of St. John's in 1983.   

Jenkins had a spectacular sophomore season in leading the Pride to a 21-11 final record. He finished the year averaging 19.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists, making him one of only six players in the nation who averaged at least 19 points, four rebounds and four assists per game.

A 2008-09 first-team All-CAA selection, Jenkins provided numerous clutch points for Hofstra over the course of the season. He scored the Pride's final eight points in a comeback 76-75 win over East Tennessee State on Nov. 16, including the tying jumper with 59 seconds left and the winning foul shot with 1.1 seconds left. East Tennessee State went on to reach the NCAA Tournament and scare top-seeded Pittsburgh in the opening round.

Jenkins also hit the game winning jumper in the paint with just 1.9 seconds remaining in a 69-68 road win over James Madison on Jan. 24. In the rematch with the Dukes at home on Feb. 18, Jenkins tallied 32 points and 13 assists, the highest assist total for any Hofstra player since Speedy Claxton (the 2000 Haggerty Award winner) had 13 in a game in the 1997-98 season. He capped off his season by scoring 27 points in a CAA quarterfinal loss to Old Dominion, when he accounted for over half of the Pride's points in a 52-51 defeat.

Over his four seasons in Hempstead, Jenkins amassed 2,513 points, becoming only the 63rd player in NCAA history to reach the 2,500-point plateau. He shattered the old Hofstra scoring record, held by former teammate Antoine Agudio (2,276 points), and also finished fifth in school history with 489 assists, 213 steals and 177 three-pointers. His 2,513 points also ranks second in Colonial Athletic Association history, behind only David Robinson of Navy (2,669).