University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Baseball Team Receives NCAA Public Recognition Award for Academics
5/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 12, 2010
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - For the second time in the last three years the Southern Miss baseball team has received the NCAA Public Recognition Award from the NCAA for Academic Success.
This award is presented to those teams that have a NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sport. In baseball only 30 of the 301 Division I programs are recognized.
"We are extremely pleased that the Southern Miss baseball team has been recognized as one of the top programs in the nation in terms of academic progress and graduation rates," Athletic Director Richard Giannini said. "This is a great tribute to the quality of the baseball students-athletes we have at Southern Miss along with the hard work of Coach Scott Berry, his assistants and our academic enhancement staff."
The Golden Eagles are one of only four teams to receive NCAA recognition for academics and be ranked in one of the national polls this week, showing success on and off the field.
Georgia Tech, Texas and Vanderbilt were the other schools also recognized by the NCAA and ranked nationally.
In 2008, when Southern Miss last received a NCAA letter of Public Recognition, the Golden Eagles were one of only five schools who also had success on the field by advancing to a NCAA Regional along with Bucknell, Columbia, Michigan and North Carolina.
"One of the things that we stress in our program is balance," head coach Scott Berry said. "We strive to be successful not only on the field, but in the classroom as well. I am very proud of this honor from the NCAA and I think it shows the hard work and dedication that is put in by not only our student-athletes but the support staff in our program as well."
The other schools who were also honored include: Brown, Bucknell, Holy Cross, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Fordham, Georgetown, Harvard, Kent State, Lafayette College, Lehigh, Long Beach State, Mount St. Mary's, Northwestern, Presbyterian College, Quinnipiac, St. Joseph's, Stanford, Penn, Richmond, USC, Valparaiso, Xavier and Yale.
-southernmiss.com-
