Billikens Receive AVCA Team Academic Award

SLU honored for second straight season

<b>Whitney Roth</b>
 
Whitney Roth
  
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July 26, 2010

ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis received its second straight American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award Monday. The Billikens are one of 94 NCAA Division I teams, and 450 squads across all divisions, to earn the distinction for the 2009-10 academic year.

The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.

"There is no better way to gauge the success of a sport than to track the accomplishments of the people who participate," said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. "Each of these 450 teams represents 12-15 really smart kids. What a great day for the sport of volleyball!"

The Team Academic Award has become one of the AVCA's fastest growing awards programs, seeing an impressive surge in teams honored over the past several years. The program has increased by more than 300 percent in the last 10 years and by 79 percent in the past three years alone. Both NCAA Division I and NCAA Division II recorded their highest-ever total numbers of recipients, with the former honoring 94 programs and the latter honoring 55 programs. The high school division also set a new bar with its 179 honorees.



There were 119 first-time recipients of the AVCA Team Academic Award in 2009-10. NCAA Division I and NCAA Division II each saw 15 teams achieve the honor for the first time, while NCAA Division III welcomed 17 newcomers. Thirteen NAIA teams, two NCCAA teams and a pair of two-year colleges garnered recognition for the first time, while 55 high school teams (51 girls' teams and four boys' teams) received their first AVCA Team Academic nod.



More than 1,000 schools have earned the award in the program's 18-year history, and over 2,900 awards have been given out in all. Only two institutions have earned the distinction all 18 years: Jonesboro High School (Jonesboro, Ark.) and Ross S. Sterling High School (Baytown, Texas).

 

 

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