Upstate Softball Excels Academically
11/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Nov. 6, 2008
Spartanburg, S.C. - As well as the USC Upstate softball team performed on the diamond in its first year playing on the NCAA Division I level in 2007-08, the Spartans did even better in the classroom. Upstate was recognized by the NFCA for having 11 of its players earn a 3.5 GPA or better for the year.
Upstate had a tremendous year in 2007-08, the inaugural season playing on the DI level as members of the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Spartans won 34 games and claimed a share of the A-Sun regular season championship with a 16-6 league mark. Morgan Childers was named the A-Sun Pitcher of the Year and Freshman of the Year, marking the first time in league history the awards had been given out to the same player in the same year. Childers was an A-Sun First Team All-Conference selection and a second team NFCA All-Region pick, and was joined on the all-conference team by Heidi Gibbs and Lauren Quevedo. Four players earned A-Sun All-Freshman honors. Upstate finished the season ranked 76th in the nation in the official NCAA RPI ranking.
While the success on the field was tremendous, Upstate far exceeded those results in the classroom. The Spartans recorded a cumulative team GPA of 3.434 with 11 of 19 players earning a 3.5 GPA or better for the 2007-08 academic year.
Two Spartans, Tiffany Pitcher and Courtney Tate, earned perfect 4.0 GPAs for the year. In addition to Pitcher and Tate, Katie Adams, Kim Brasil, Vanesa Flores, Melissa Lockey, Ana Mitchell, Emily Monteith, Brittany Rice, Keri Sarratt and Jenna Torbert all earned GPAs of 3.5 or better for 2007-08.
"Our program is about more than just playing the game of softball," said Upstate head coach Chris Hawkins. "Yes, we emphasize excelling at softball and having each player do their part to give the team a chance to win. But, it is so much more. We emphasize getting an education and having personal responsibility in your day-to-day lives. One day, softball will be over for every person who plays in this program. The choices they make and the direction they choose to go while they are here in college sets them up for the rest of their lives. As head coach of the softball program, I want to do everything I can to stress the importance of making the correct choices. Academics play a huge part in the development of our players as people, and I don't know if we, as coaches, can emphasize that enough."
In addition to the number of players who earned a 3.5 GPA or better for the year, Upstate also had the fifth-best team GPA in Division I in looking at the GPAs that made the official list released by the NFCA. An administrative error prevented the Spartans from making the official list, but Upstate's 3.434 GPA trailed only Tennessee Tech (3.540), Gardner-Webb (3.478), Seton Hall (3.450) and Southern Illinois (3.447) in Division I.
