The Phoenix baseball team is recognized with the inaugural ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award.
The Elon University baseball team was one of over 140 collegiate and high school programs recognized with the inaugural ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award. The award honors programs that posted a GPA over 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for the 2015-16 academic year.
The Phoenix program sported a 3.17 team GPA over the past academic year. A total of 29 NCAA Division I programs were recognized and Elon was one of two Colonial Athletic Association members honored.
“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.
2015-16 ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award Recipients (NCAA Division I)
Arkansas State University
Ball State University
Central Michigan University
Chicago State University
Duke University
East Carolina University
Eastern Kentucky University
Eastern Michigan University
Elon University
Gardner-Webb University
Georgia State University
Georgia Tech
Illinois State University
Lafayette College
LIU Brooklyn
Middle Tennessee State University
North Carolina A&T State University
Sacramento State
St. John’s University
UNC Greensboro
UNC Wilmington
University of Alabama-Birmingham
University of Evansville
University of Louisville
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
University of Portland
University of South Carolina
University of Southern Mississippi
University of Toledo