George Washington University Athletics
NCAA Recognizes GW Volleyball For APR Success
5/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
May 7, 2007
INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- The George Washington University volleyball team is one of the more than 800 Division I sports teams receiving a public recognition award from the NCAA for their latest Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, announced earlier this month. The award recognizes multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sport. The GW volleyball program posted a perfect score of 1,000.
"I'm proud of the academic achievement that not only our current and past players have accomplished but also the effort and diligence of our academic support staff, especially Jen Hayman and Karen Ercole," GW Volleyball coach Jojit Coronel said. "The GW Academic Support program is the best I have ever worked with and it allows us coaches to coach our sport to the best of our ability knowing they have an incredible grasp of the academic needs of our student-athletes."
Established by the NCAA to measure the success or failure of collegiate athletic teams in moving student-athletes toward graduation, the APR was instituted in February of 2005. Collegiate sports teams failing to achieve an APR score of 925 - equivalent to a 50% graduation rate - may be penalized with the loss of scholarships. The APR is designed to measure semester-by-semester academic progress, and is separate from the Graduation Success Rate (GSR), which only aims to measure the actual percentage of student-athletes who graduate, thus omitting students who would have graduated but left school early for non-academic reasons (such as a professional career).
The 839 teams receiving awards this year represent 217 Division I colleges and universities, or two-thirds of the 326 institutions that compete in NCAA Division I athletics. High-performing teams receiving awards posted APR scores ranging from 975 to a perfect 1,000, said NCAA President Myles Brand.
"These teams prove once again that student-athletes are students first, and many of them are excellent students," Brand said. "I want to personally congratulate these teams and their student-athletes who are working hard in their sport and in the classroom, and setting a great example for all students."
According to the NCAA, the APR is calculated by allocating points for eligibility and retention -- the two factors that research identifies as the best indicators of graduation. Each player on a given roster earns a maximum of two points per term, one for being academically eligible and one for staying with the institution. A team's APR is the total points of a team's roster at a given time divided by the total points possible.
The GW volleyball team will open its 2007 season Aug. 24 in the second annual DC Challenge with American, George Mason and Georgetown.
