Thursday, August 19, 2010

NORMAN, Okla. - The Golf Coaches Association of America announced that four Atlantic Sun programs earned All-Academic Team honors and two, ETSU and Mercer, garnering President’s Special Recognition status. 

ETSU, which won the Academic National Championship a season ago, finished the year with an impressive 3.61 cumulative team GPA, only five-hundredths of a point behind this year’s Academic National Champion, DePaul (3.66 GPA). The Buccaneers joined Detroit Mercy and Seton Hall as the only three schools earning President’s Special Recognition in each of the last two years.

“I am really proud of the guys for doing such a great job in the classroom once again this year,” said ETSU head coach Fred Warren. “This group of guys certainly represents the word student-athlete.”

Like last year, two A-Sun schools received President’s Special Recognition. In addition to ETSU, Mercer joined the elite list of 10 programs earning team GPAs of 3.50 or better. Combined with Belmont earning President’s Special Recognition last year, the A-Sun owns the distinction as the only conference to have three schools, pick up that honor in that span

“To be one of the top-10 teams in the country speaks volumes about the kind of student-athletes we have,” head coach Andrew Tredway said. “I’m extremely proud of our guys and excited about what they have accomplished both on and off the course.”

Belmont and Kennesaw State rounded out A-Sun contingent earning GCAA All-Academic Team. The Bruins were named a GCAA All-Academic Team for a second straight year after posting a team GPA of 3.149 for the 2009-2010 school year.

The Owls combined for a 3.45 grade point average, just missing the President’s Special Recognition award by less than a tenth of a point In addition, their grade point average was the highest among all teams in Kennesaw State’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.

“It is hard to be a student athlete sometimes,” Owls junior Jeff Karlsson said. “We are taught to discipline ourselves, and it is nice to be rewarded for our hard work.”

To be eligible for GCAA All-Academic Team honors a college of university must submit the grade points earned and hours attempted for each player on its official squad list for the academic year. A total of 64 Division I programs received GCAA All-Academic Team honors.