UNCA student-athletes place student first

With more than 50 percent of its athletes on the Big South Presidential Honor Roll, UNC Asheville emphasizes the student in student-athlete.

To make the honor roll, student-athletes must maintain a 3.0 GPA or better for the recently completed academic year.

Of this school’s 143 athletes, 72 achieved this accomplishment for the 2008-09 school year.

But the highlight for UNCA was the honor the women’s tennis team received from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

The women’s tennis team managed to maintain a 3.2 GPA or better to earn their spot on the ITA’s All-Academic team.

Even more impressive, five of the seven athletes of last year’s team achieved a 3.5 GPA or above to be named All-Academic Scholar Athletes.

Head Coach Lise Gregory has an impressive track record for academics, as the last team she coached at Florida State University also had the best GPA in their athletics department.

However, she credits the team for maintaining their notable grades.

“Obviously they all take their academics seriously, and they’re all intelligent people,” she said.

The five players named All-Academic Scholar Athletes were Louise Bottomley, Devon Cavanaugh, Tania Mateva, Leslie Smith and Nicole Schon. Bottomley, in addition to receiving this recognition, was also the only athlete, other than volleyball’s Kaitlyn McDaniel, to get a 4.0 for the school year.

“I think academics are very important,” the England native said. “The coaches don’t put a lot of pressure on us, but you know they expect it from us.”

Although academics are seen as important for the student-athlete, volleyball player and member of the Big South Presidential Honor Roll Bridget Holliday points out it’s not always easy.

“I find it difficult to keep up with my grades at times,” said Holliday, who is currently in the middle of the volleyball season. “I keep up with the pressure of my studies by simply being disciplined and knowing that the student comes before the athlete. I put pressure on myself to manage my time well and to not procrastinate.”

Gregory agreed, encouraging the idea that time management is the key to a successful student-athlete.

“Time management is definitely the toughest thing, but you just have to prioritize,” she said. “There is time for study and you just have to use that time wisely.”

UNCA coaches created mandatory study hall hours to help athletes utilize their time effectively.

“If our team GPA is below a certain average then we have to attend a study hall throughout the week, but most of us keep up with our work and really work hard to make sure that we stay on top of our schoolwork and make good grades,” Holliday said.

Men’s basketball has a similar system.

“If your GPA isn’t above a 2.5, there is mandatory study hall,” said basketball player Chris Stevenson. “We have it five times a week, pretty much every day.”

Although it seems to be a popular approach for time management with UNCA athletes, Stevenson points out there can be pros and cons.

“I think it is effective, but then again, people learn in different environments and at different paces so when they make us work at certain times it sometimes conflicts with what else I want to do,” he said.

To combat this, UNCA athletics also offers tutoring for student-athletes from retired professor Carl Atkins.

“If anyone is struggling beyond study hall I can set up for them to see Atkins once a week,” Gregory said. “He’s a really great resource; I think nearly all of the team has seen him at one point or another.”

Coaches said they are also very involved with professors, remaining in e-mail contact with athletes and visiting class rooms during class times.

“Coach (Tom) Smith comes and makes sure we go to class,” said junior pitcher Carson McLean. “He shows up on random days. If we don’t go we get punished for it so it definitely makes you want to go to class.”

All these approaches to improving academics seem to work, as the student-athlete graduate rate for the last school year was 71 percent, 11 percent higher than the rest of the student body, according to Athletic Director Janet Cone.

Even though statistically student-athletes have a higher graduation rate, Holliday explains it is sometimes difficult to prove their worth.

“I know I have heard several students and teachers mention that student-athletes have it ‘easy’ since we miss classes, but actually we have it a lot harder because we have to keep up with our work when we do get behind due to practices and games,” she said.

However, it does not distract her.

“Everyone that I know really strives to be a good student-athlete and I know the coaches enforce that upon their players as well,” she said. “I feel that the majority of the student-athletes, really put forth an effort to keep up with the rest of the student body. I don’t think any student-athlete intentionally does poorly in class.”

Gregory agreed and said he views the academics in the athletics department positively.

“All the coaches are trying to sort of promote academics with their teams,” Gregory said. “As a department we have definitely improved in numbers.”

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