Kansas Volleyball Earns Sixth-Straight AVCA Team Academic Award

July 25, 2011

LAWRENCE, Kan. – For the sixth-consecutive season, the Kansas Volleyball team earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the Jayhawks’ excellence in the classroom.

Following the team’s recent recognition for leading the KU athletic department with a 3.35 team GPA for the Spring 2011 season, the AVCA announced the Jayhawks’ national recognition for their work off the court last year. During the fall season, the team managed a 3.42 team mark.

Fifteen Jayhawk volleyball players were named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll during the 2010-11 school year. Additionally, seven Jayhawks were named to the Academic All-Big 12 Team, while five student-athletes posted a perfect 4.0 GPAs in at least one semester. Former player Karina Garlington earned her second ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District recognition at the conclusion of her senior campaign to highlight the Jayhawks’ long list of academic accomplishments from a year ago.

The AVCA Team Academic Award, initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the school year 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. This year, 481 total teams recorded that achievement, breaking the previous years’ total of 450 to set a new all-time high for this award.

“A hearty congratulations to all the volleyball coaches whose teams won the 2011 AVCA Team Academic Award,” said AVCA Executive Director, Kathy DeBoer. “Teams do not succeed in the classroom by accident any more so than they do on the court. The same coach who taught them volleyball skills cared enough about their academic achievement to gather their grades, calculate their GPA, and submit a nomination on their behalf. In doing so, these coaches sent a clear message that classroom success is just as important as court success. All involved should celebrate this award.”

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. Since the 2000-2001 season, the number of recipients has increased every single year but one, while amassing an overall 170% increase over the span of the decade.

Since the award’s inception in 1993, the award has risen by an astounding 674%. Division I led the NCAA with 92 winning institutions. Baylor and Kansas State joined Kansas as the three representatives from the Big 12 to claim the honor. A complete list of award winners can be found here.

UP NEXT
The Jayhawks are preparing to open their season at the Georgia Bulldog Invitational, Aug. 26-27.