Three Charlotte Teams Honored By NCAA for Academic Progress
Senior Koren Fleming and the Charlotte women's tennis team are among three squads honored for their work in the classroom. |
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April 22, 2009
Indianapolis, Ind. - The Charlotte 49ers Department of Athletics had three teams honored by the NCAA for outstanding academic progress. The Academic Progress Rate, or APR, released by the NCAA listed Charlotte baseball, women's tennis and volleyball among the programs with outstanding numbers in the country. The NCAA honors teams that earned multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports. The 49ers baseball team is one of 31 baseball programs in the country to be honored. Women's tennis is one of 57 women's tennis programs while 48 volleyball programs were recognized.
The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes both retention at an institution and academic eligibility in its calculation and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport.
The recognized high-performing teams posted APR scores ranging from 976 to a perfect 1,000 over the data collection period.
The most recent APR scores are multi-year rates based on the scores from the 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years.
In all, the NCAA is honoring 767 Division I sports teams or about 11.8 percent of all 6,484 Division I teams (last year, 11.4 percent were recognized).
The baseball program joins the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as one of only two programs that boast a Top 10% APR number and a Top 10 winning percentage in college baseball in the past three seasons. Baseball's current team cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) is 2.94 at the end of the fall semester of 2008. Charlotte has a record of 149-63 since 2006 and is currently 22-15 in 2009.
"I am really proud of our current and former players," said Charlotte baseball coach Loren Hibbs, who has guided the 49ers to back-to-back NCAA appearances. "They, along with our academic support services, deserve a tremendous amount of credit. To be one of only 31 programs recognized across the country is special and something every one should be proud of."
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Charlotte's women's tennis program is among the leaders in team GPA in the department, with a cumulative GPA of 3.48 through last fall. The team recently finished third at the 2009 Atlantic 10 Championships, finishing with a 16-5 record.
"As a whole our players do a great job a managing their time between class requirements and team requirements," said Charlotte women's tennis coach Michaela Gorman. "I am extremely proud of our team for their accomplishments in the classroom over the past several years."
The volleyball program made the list of honored teams for the second straight year. The current team GPA is 3.28 through last fall.
"We begin each year setting not only athletic goals, but academic goals as well," said Charlotte head coach Chris Redding. "Then these young women work tirelessly throughout the year to reach their goals We are very proud to be recognized by the NCAA for our achievement with the APR. Our accomplishment comes from our player's commitment and dedication towards being outstanding students. Our program is not only about success on the court, but in the classroom as well, and this recognition proves that."
The public-recognition awards are part of the overall Division I academic-reform effort. The teams recognized this year represent 11.8 percent of the 6,484 Division I teams. The list includes 319 men's teams and 448 women's teams.
Of 381 schools that sponsor at least one sport at the Division I level, 211 had a team in the top 10 percent for APR.
In women's sports, tennis again featured the most teams with 57, followed by volleyball (48), golf (46) and basketball (40). The men's sports with the highest number of teams honored were cross country (35), basketball (35) and golf (32). Last year, a total of 712 teams were recognized. The number of teams in some sports may exceed 10 percent, depending on how many teams achieved perfect 1,000 APR scores. In some sports, teams had to maintain a perfect score over the four-year period to be recognized.
The next round of multi-year APR scores for all Division I sports teams will be announced May 6. The announcement also will include immediate and historically based penalties for low-performing teams.
