TEMPE, Ariz.—Arizona State University has seven teams that were recognized by the NCAA as being in the top-10 percentile of their sports nationally in the annual Academic Progress Rate (APR), it was announced on Wednesday. Baseball, men’s basketball, men’s golf, softball, women’s cross country, women’s tennis, and volleyball were recognized for their academic achievements by the NCAA.
The seven sports represent the most teams ASU has had acknowledged in a single year in the 11-year history of the APR measurement, surpassing last year’s record of four teams.
“The APR scores of these seven programs represent the nation’s elite in their respective sports,” Vice President for Athletics Ray Anderson said. “We are very proud of the coaches and the student-athletes in these programs. This is a direct result of the excellent work being done by our Office of Student-Athlete Development, led by award-winning Senior Associate Athletics Director Jean Boyd, his staff and support from our faculty, staff and coaching staffs. The real stars here are the student-athletes themselves for their excellent work in the classroom.“
The Sun Devils’ seven teams are the second-most in the Pac-12 Conference, behind Stanford’s 13, and ahead of California and USC, who each had three teams recognized.
"To be in such an elite academic conference and be in second place with seven teams receiving top-10 percentile recognition for their Academic Progress Rate speaks volumes about the standard we have created for academic achievement in Sun Devil Athletics," said Senior Associate Athletic Director for Student Athlete Development and Performance, Jean Boyd.
The women’s tennis team, under the direction of head coach Sheila McInerney, has been recognized with top APR scores, including nine years at a perfect 1000, in each year of the existence of the APR.
“I think our APR score is a reflection of the synergy among the ASU administration, Office of Student-Athlete Development, ASU support staff, coaches and most of all the student-athletes themselves,” said McInerney. “We are fortunate here at ASU that we all believe you can have the best of all worlds: being successful students, athletes and enjoying your time while being a Sun Devil. A lot of credit goes to our academic coach Denzel Burrell.”
For the second straight year, Arizona State, Stanford, and USC are the only Pac-12 schools to have their baseball programs recognized by the NCAA.
"This does not happen by chance,” Boyd said. “There is a commitment and a synchronized effort among our coaches, student-athletes, academic coaches and administration to have a high achieving athletic program full of scholar-athletes who are becoming leaders and champions in life.”
Baseball went from initial marks in the 800’s and being at risk of penalties to being singled out the past three years as a top-10 percent-achieving team shows the power of such collaboration. A total of 21 current baseball student-athletes have achieved a 3.0 GPA or higher and earned Scholar Baller® recognition in at least one of the past three semesters.
"Our athletes, in concert with our academic coach, place an importance on their academic pursuits,” head volleyball coach Jason Watson said. “While we have seen increased athletic performance, it's our academic success that will have a lifelong impact on our athletes."
“I think it’s absolutely vital to what we do, especially in distance running, it goes hand in hand to create good habits, good discipline both on the course and in the classroom,” head cross country coach Louie Quintana said. “We’ve had athletes come out and really set the tone with their ability to compete on all levels, and also how they live their lives on a daily basis. That culture of accountability really spreads around the group, and that’s what we’ve created here at Arizona State. I’m really proud of the group and the continuing academic success that we have.”
“It just speaks to the type of student-athletes we have in our program,” Director of Track and Field Greg Kraft said. “People are surprise at how many partial-scholarship athletes and walk-ons that we have. They’re looking for a program like Arizona State that values academics along with its athletics. It’s by design in our recruiting, and it’s the kind of student-athletes who are attracted to our program. We’ve always emphasized the importance of being both a student and an athlete, and it’s not surprising to see that our women’s cross country team is among the group being recognized for their efforts.”
"Sun Devil Athletics has been a leader in student-athlete achievement and the improved numbers from many teams is just part of the success story," head golf coach Tim Mickelson said. "We have close to 600 student-athletes from more than 20 countries competing in more than 20 sports, and they all are pushing each other to be the best both on the playing field and off. Our program is proud to be among the best, and we look forward to continuing to improve every day."
Each year the NCAA honors select Division I teams by publicly recognizing their latest multiyear APR. This announcement is part of the overall Division I academic reform effort and is intended to highlight teams who demonstrate a commitment to academic progress and retention of student-athletes by achieving the top APRs within their respective sports. Specifically, these teams posted multiyear APRs in the top 10 percent of all squads in each sport.
The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance.
Multiyear APRs for all Division I teams, including the teams receiving public recognition, will be announced next week. Last year, Arizona State recorded its highest cumulative APR score since the NCAA started the measurement with 982, 45 points higher than ASU's initial score of 937 in 2003-04.