EMCC softball team earns Top 10 national academic honors in NFCA’s 2014-15 Academic Team rankings
For the fifth time in six years, the East Mississippi Community College softball team has collected Top 10 national honors among the junior college membership division of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top 10 Academic Team rankings for the 2014-15 school year.
SCOOBA – For the fifth time in six years, the East Mississippi Community College softball team has collected Top 10 national honors among the junior college membership division of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top 10 Academic Team rankings for the 2014-15 school year.
The rankings recognizing the academic prowess of softball teams across seven membership divisions, including unweighted and weighted high school categories, were announced Tuesday by the NFCA office headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.
On the heels of earning back-to-back top academic team honors nationally as accorded by the NFCA the previous two seasons, EMCC softball coach Kyndall White's EMCC Lions were ranked sixth this past year with a collective 3.482 team grade point average compiled during the 2014-15 school year.
Individually, the NFCA also tabbed current East Mississippi softball players Valiree Blair, Marissa Landrum, Molly McLeod and Blake Rigdon as 2014-15 Junior College All-America Scholar-Athletes, along with former Lion student-athletes Whitney Lowe, Anna McCrary, Jenny Reynolds, Logan Smith, Kasey Stanfield and Mary Kendall Ware.
Earlier this year, the EMCC softball team completed the 2014-15 academic year ranked 14th nationally with a 3.43 team GPA to collect NJCAA All-Academic Team recognition for the sixth consecutive year, including repeat national accolades as the NJCAA Softball Academic Team of the Year during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years.
The NJCAA's cumulative grade point average numbers are career-inclusive for all players, while the NFCA's figures are reflective of only the most recent academic year.
East Mississippi's softball program has now recorded composite team GPA numbers of 3.31 or better every year dating back to the 2009-10 academic year, including consecutive nation-leading marks of 3.59 and 3.58 in 2012-13 and 2013-14, respectively. Previously during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years, the EMCC softball team posted successive No. 5 national academic team rankings within the NFCA's junior college division.
The College of Southern Idaho earned the NFCA's top honor among the junior college team ranks with a 3.622 grade point average, followed by MACJC member schools Northwest Mississippi (3.522 GPA) and Itawamba (3.489). Wallace State-Hanceville (3.488) and McCook (3.485) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
In the other university/college divisions of the NFCA Top 10 Academic Team rankings for 2014-15, top honors went to: Lipscomb (3.645 GPA) for NCAA Division I; Adelphi (3.785) for NCAA Division II; Emerson College (3.742) for NCAA Division III; and William Woods (3.694) for NAIA. Additionally, Olathe North (Kan.) and Byron Nelson (Texas) claimed the unweighted and weighted high school categories with team GPAs of 3.896 and 4.827, respectively.