Athletics Receives Two NCAA Public Recognition Awards

San Jose, Calif.-----For the third time in five years, two San Jose State University athletics programs will be honored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) with Public Recognition Awards for their latest multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) score.

The women's gymnastics and the women's tennis teams placed in the top 10 percent of compared to all NCAA Division I programs in their respective sports for the most recent four-year cycle covering the 2006 though 2009 academic years.

In each case, the San Jose State women's gymnastics and women's tennis teams had a perfect multi-year score of 1,000.

"We congratulate the student-athletes and their coaches who have earned these national awards for their programs and Spartan athletics. From day one, a San Jose State University student-athlete's first priority is to perform academically and dedicate themselves to the goal and ultimate commitment to graduate from this university," says director of athletics Tom Bowen.

TOPS IN THE WAC AND THE CSU

Since the inception of the Public Recognition Awards program in 2006, San Jose State University's seven awards, which include the two this year, are the most among the nine Western Athletic Conference (WAC) members and the nine California State University institutions that participate in NCAA Division I athletics.

The NCAA's Public Recognition Awards program is part of the NCAA Division I academic reform effort. The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. This year's APR is based on enrollment from the 2005-06 through 2008-09 academic years. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of the academic culture in each sport.

The Public Recognition Award cites those teams that have APR scores in the top 10 percent within their sport. The minimum score necessary for a Public Recognition Award ranges from 978 to a perfect score of 1,000 depending on the range of team scores nationwide within that sport. Of the 331 Division I colleges and universities, 228 placed at least one team on the top APR list.

TEAM EFFORTS

"Academics are an important part of our gymnastics team. I always tell recruits when they are recruited here, 'Don't get caught up in making a four-year decision, make a 40-year decision.' Meaning that focus on your academics being important or more important than playing a sport, because you need to be aware of what you're going to be doing after your sport," says San Jose State gymnastics head coach Wayne Wright. The Spartans are one of five gymnastics programs to receive a Public Recognition Award four or more times in the five years of the awards program's existence.

"We want to be a top academic performing team as well as a top athletic performing team."

For San Jose State women's tennis coach Anh-Dao Nguyen-Church, identifying the right prospective student-athlete is a necessary first step. Ideally, Nguyen-Church is looking for players with high grade-point average out of high school.

"It's not easy to be a student-athlete. There's a lot of hard work. Here at San Jose State, our players have weekly meetings with academic advisors to evaluate their progress. And, we have terrific academic advisors who go the extra yard for our student-athletes. That makes it a lot easier to get them any help they need in the classroom."

"I'm proud of our ladies for their accomplishment," says Nguyen-Church about her program becoming the first in the CSU system and first in the WAC to receive a Public Recognition Award from the NCAA.

The entire list of award winners is available at: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/NCAA/Academics+and+Athletes/Education+and+Research/Academic+Reform/