Kansas Wesleyan Women’s Volleyball has earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award for a 15th straight season as announced by the AVCA.
Wesleyan’s streak is the third longest amongst NAIA women’s programs and the 43rd-longest streak amongst 717 collegiate women’s programs in the country at all levels (NCAA I, II, II, NAIA, NCCAA, USCAA, 2-year) that earned the award.
RELEASE FROM AVCA:
A record number of volleyball programs have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award sponsored by INTENT. More than 1,400 collegiate and high school volleyball programs maintained a year-long grade-point average of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale (or 4.1 on a 5.0 scale), to earn the award for their classroom excellence during the recently completed academic year.
“We are pleased that the record-setting success of the 2023-24 season on the court has extended to the classroom, too, as evidenced by more programs earning the AVCA Team Academic Award than ever before,” says AVCA CEO Dr. Jaime Gordon. “This is a great example of how committed our coaches are when it comes to helping their players reach their full potential as both students and athletes.”
INTENT, which is in its first year of sponsoring the prestigious award, is a game-changing, digital platform links student-athletes (along with military special ops veterans) to a powerful network of candidate-seeking employers. The tech, information and internet company guides student-athletes and service members toward professional and personal success in life after sports and service.
Teams with winning streaks of 15 years or longer are highlighted on the list of honorees for their consistent commitment to academics. Two programs hold the extraordinary record of receiving the award for 32 consecutive seasons: the girls teams at Jonesboro High School (Jonesboro, Arkansas) and Ross S. Sterling High School (Baytown, Texas).
A number of divisions broke records for total recipients this year, including Two-Year College Women, College Men, Collegiate Beach, High School Beach, High School Boys, and High School Girls, which had the highest number of participants at 508.
This season’s award was earned by several teams that also won national collegiate championships on the court and in the sand during the 2023-24 season:
- University of Texas (NCAA Women’s Division I)
- Juniata College (NCAA Women’s Division III)
- Florida SouthWestern State College (NJCAA Women’s Division I)
- Cowley College (NJCAA Women’s Division II)
- Bob Jones University (NCCAA Women’s Division II)
- University of Southern California (NCAA Women’s Beach)
- University of Tampa (AVCA Small College Beach Women’s Division II)
- California Lutheran University (NCAA Men’s Division III)
Stanford University (Division I), Concordia University Irvine (Division II), Emmanuel [Ga.] University (Division II), Mesa [Ariz.] High School, and Bishop Garcia Diego [Calif.] High School hit the trifecta, as their women’s, men’s, and beach teams are all being honored.
The additional distinction of Team Academic Honor Roll celebrates programs in the top 20% of GPAs for their division.
Here is the list of the schools with the longest current streaks by division:
- DI Women: 26 years – Indiana State
- DII Women: 22 years – Wayne State (Neb.) College
- DIII Women: 24 years – Central (Iowa) College
- NAIA Women: 26 years – Concordia (Neb.) University
- TYC Women: 14 years – Central (Neb.) Community College
- Men: 13 years – Harvard University
- Girls High School: 32 years – Jonesboro (Ark.) High School and Ross S. Sterling (Texas) High School
- Boys High School: 19 years – Cathedral (Ind.) High School
- College Beach: 11 years – Georgia State
