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A Special Message From Shane Lyons
June 10, 2015 02:03 PM | General
Graduation is always a special time at West Virginia University and it was really pleasing to see all of our student-athletes taking part in last month’s graduation ceremony.More than 50 participated in this year’s event, held at various campus sites, including two Mountaineers who took advantage of our former athlete degree completion program: football’s Amos Zereoue and men’s basketball’s Chaz Briggs.
Amos, of course, left school a year early in 1999 to pursue a professional football career before completing the remaining credits needed to earn his degree this spring. Amos was recently inducted into our WVU Sports Hall of Fame and it will be nice hearing the words “West Virginia University graduate” in his acceptance speech.
Chaz was also able to earn his degree 12 years after his collegiate playing career ended in 2003.
It’s always great to see our former athletes finishing what they set out to do – get an outstanding degree from West Virginia University!
Speaking of academics, our student-athletes continue to put forth great effort in the classroom. The latest report I received from Brady Rourke, our associate athletic director for student-athlete development, has certainly caught my eye.
The combined grade point average for our 18 intercollegiate athletic teams was an impressive 3.02 for the spring semester. That is the second consecutive semester that our student-athletes have managed a combined grade point average above 3.0.
Specifically, I would like to acknowledge the women’s cross country team for achieving the highest overall team grade point average of 3.6 for the spring semester, as well as rifle’s combined 3.3 GPA, highest among all co-ed and male teams.
We had 238 student-athletes represented on this year’s Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll, comprised of those earning a 3.0 or higher grade point average. Among those were 43 athletes who achieved a 4.0 grade point average last semester, which is fantastic.
Last week, rifle’s Maren Prediger and swimming & diving’s David Palley were among 20 Big 12 student-athletes selected to receive post-graduate scholarships from the Big 12 Conference. The criteria to be considered includes at least a 3.2 grade point average, participation in at least two years of intercollegiate athletic competition and graduation from his or her respective institutions with the intention of enrolling in a graduate or professional program. My congratulations to both.
Additionally, eight current student-athletes have been recognized as Academic All-Americans so far this year – the most we have ever had in any given year – with potentially more to be announced in the coming days.
Finally, I was encouraged with our most recent Academic Progress Rate (APR) numbers released last month. The APR is based upon eligibility and retention of student-athletes on a semester-by-semester basis and is an assessment of real-time academic success and all of our athletic programs met current national standards.
For the 2013-14 academic year, we had seven teams with perfect 1,000 scores: gymnastics, rowing, women’s basketball, cross country, rifle, tennis and women’s swimming & diving, giving us 23 perfect scores over the last three years.
Meanwhile, an outstanding year of competition wraps up this weekend with the NCAA women’s track and field championships being held in Eugene, Oregon. Sixth-year senior Kaitlyn Gillespie is representing the Mountaineers in the women’s 10K race Thursday night.
Best of luck Kaitlyn!
Also, best of luck to Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence, who are competing for Canada in this year’s World Cup Soccer tournament now currently underway!
Let’s Go Mountaineers!
Mountaineer Invitational Recap
Thursday, April 16
College Basketball Crown Recap
Thursday, April 16
Andrew Powdrell | April 15
Thursday, April 16
Coach Pat Kirkland | April 15
Thursday, April 16
