ADRIAN, Mich. -- The Siena Heights baseball team was among the over 700 college and high school programs named to the 2021-22 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award, presented by Sports Attack. The winners were announced on Wednesday, July 27.
Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, highlighting programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2021-22 academic year.
Coaches were able to nominate their teams for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award following the conclusion of their spring semesters before the nomination deadline of July 14. To be honored, teams had to meet the following criteria:
- Must be a high school or college team
- The head coach must be a current ABCA member
- The team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the 2021-22 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. The ABCA's awards program includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Awards, the ABCA/ATEC Regional & National Coaches of the Year, and several other significant awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award.
The Saints are one of 29 NAIA teams to receive this award. Four other members of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) join Siena Heights on the list. In addition, Siena Heights University and the University of Jamestown (ND) are the only two NAIA programs that have been on the list every year since the award's inception in 2015-16.
Click here for the complete list of teams that received the 2021-22 ABCA Academic Excellence Award, presented by Sports Attack.
