Official ABCA Team Acacemic Excellence Release
ABCA -- The recipients of the 2015-16 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award, which honors high school and college programs that posted a GPA over 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for the academic year, have been announced. Ashland and Walsh represented the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) on the distinction list as two of just 20 NCAA Division II programs to be recognized.
"We are extremely proud to recognize the academic accomplishments of so many of our member coaches' programs this year," said ABCA Executive Director Craig Keilitz. "This award highlights our coaches' commitment to developing student-athletes that excel both on and off the field, and we're proud of these student-athletes for their success in the classroom."
Teams from NCAA Divisions I, II and III, junior college and high school were honored. The new award was announced in May and the deadline for teams to be nominated was July 15.
In order to qualify for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, programs must meet the following criteria:
- Must be a high school or college team
- Team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the 2015-16 academic year
- Head coach must be a current ABCA member
The American Baseball Coaches Association has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. The ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams are the nation's oldest, founded in 1949, and the ABCA's awards program also includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Awards, the ABCA/Diamond Regional & National Coaches of the Year and several other major awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the ABCA/Wilson Lefty Gomez Award.
