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January 28, 2007
Go team!
Things like this are good to hear. From the WIU Athletic Department:
Half of Western’s sport programs and 50 percent of the approximately 400 student-athletes earned grade point averages of at least 3.00 last semester. Thirty-one students recorded a perfect 4.00 GPA, leading to an overall student-athlete semester GPA of 2.83 - just below the overall University semester GPA of 2.87.
...
Western Illinois placed 58 student-athletes on the Fall 2006 Mid-Continent Academic All-Conference Team earlier this week, just one shy of Valparaiso which had a league-high 59 honorees. To be placed on the list, student-athletes must have a 3.00 or better GPA in the semester in which they compete. A total of 356 Mid-Con student-athletes from the sports of men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball were honored.
...
Athletically, Western Illinois is following its most successful year as more teams earned Mid-Con titles in 2005-06 than any of the past 10 years and more teams advanced to NCAA postseason tournaments than any year in Western’s Division I history.
Already this year, men’s soccer won the Mid-Con title, volleyball finished as the runner-up, and women’s soccer advanced to the title game of the Mid-Con Tournament. Baseball, men’s tennis and softball were ranked either first or second in the 2006 Mid-Con preseason polls.
Not to mention that the men's golf team was named one of the top 10 stories of the 2005-2006 season by Golfweek.
I've had a number of student athletes in my classes, and have nothing but good things to say. The college athletics system is far from perfect, but there are thousands of students across the country who play sports that don't get a lot of attention. They play simply for the love of the game. You won't see them on ESPN on Saturday afternoon, but you wouldn't know it from the effort they put forth. They tend to put forth the same effort in the classroom as well. Way to go!
Posted by William Polley at January 28, 2007 12:50 AM
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