Eight of the 14 varsity teams at Tabor College earned the NAIA scholar team award for the 2008-2009 academic year.
Two men?s and six women?s teams earned the honor by accumulating a team GPA of 3.0 during the 2008-2009 school year: men?s basketball and tennis, and women?s basketball, tennis, cross country, track and field, soccer and volleyball.
Furthermore, the cumulative GPA for all Bluejay athletes last year was 3.08, which exceeded the college?s goals.
?Having eight of our athletic teams qualify for the NAIA Scholar team award is exciting and speaks highly of our outstanding student athletes, our coaches and our professors,? Vice President of Athletics Rusty Allen said. ?The cumulative GPA for athletes at Tabor last year was better than 3.0 and exceeded the 2.75 goal we had set. We are proud of the all around attitude of excellence that is growing in the athletic department.?
The Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference was well-represented on the list, with a total of 37 qualifying teams.
The Tabor women?s cross country team tied with Southwestern?s women?s tennis team to post the highest GPA (3.64) of any female team in the conference. The Friends University men?s tennis team posted a 3.86 GPA?first in the conference and the fifth-highest men?s score nationally.
The scholar team award was established for the 2006-07 academic year, and participation has risen significantly each year: 430 qualifiers in 2007, 761 in 2008 and 837 in 2009.
For the purposes of the award, team GPA is calculated using the total number of GPA points divided by the number of GPA hours for all classes taken by all varsity athletes on the team?s eligibility certificate in the current academic year.
Nominations are usually submitted by the athletic department?typically by the coach or director of athletics?and all nominations include verification of the team GPA calculation by the institution’s registrar.
