Cullowhee, N.C. – For a third-consecutive season, Western Carolina baseball earned 2024-25 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Awards, presented by Sports Attack and announced today by the coaches' organization.
Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, which recognizes programs coached by ABCA members that achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale for the 2023-24 academic year.
With an award history dating back to the 2015-16 academic year, this marks the third consecutive year that WCU has been nominated and received the Excellence Award.
Over 750 member programs, including more than 440 collegiate and nearly 300 high school programs nationwide, received the 2024-25 award from the ABCA. Five teams from the Southern Conference were recognized as ETSU, Mercer, The Citadel, and Wofford each joined WCU by posting team GPAs of at least 3.0 last year. WCU was among seven NCAA Division I teams from the state of North Carolina to receive the recognition.
Under head coach and program alum
Alan Beck, the Diamond Catamounts boasted a collective team GPA of 3.245 for the 2024-25 academic year, a fourth straight semester above a 3.0. WCU also saw 29 players land on the 2024-25 SoCon Academic Honor Roll, and nine were named Spring Academic All-SoCon, one more than last year.
Additionally, a program-best tying five Catamounts – senior utility player
Jack Spyke, senior middle infielder
Trent Turner, junior outfielder
Hayden Friese, and junior right-handed pitchers
Brandon Langley and
Dusty Revis – were also each named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District team in early June. Friese, Revis, Spyke, and Turner each earned their second career selection to the honorary academic district team.
Coaches were able to nominate their teams for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award following the conclusion of their spring semesters. To be honored, teams had to meet the following criteria:
- Must be a high school or college team;
- Head coach must be a current ABCA member;
- Team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the 2024-25 academic year.
The American Baseball Coaches Association has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. The ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams are the nation's oldest, founded in 1949, and the ABCA's awards program also includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Awards, the ABCA/ATEC Regional & National Coaches of the Year, and several other major awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award.
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