NCHSAA honors academic achievements

CHAPEL HILL — More than 15,000 individual awards have been given by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association to student-athletes for their achievements in the classroom as well as on the playing court or athletic field.

The NCHSAA made the awards in its Scholar-Athlete program, which includes recognition of varsity teams which attain certain grades as well as individual athletes.

Individual Scholar-Athletes attained at least a 3.5 grade point average for the semester in which he or she competed.

For the fall semester of 2009, a total of 8,163 student-athletes were nominated by NCHSAA member schools and qualified for this award.

In the team division, a varsity team earns Scholar-Athlete recognition by attaining a 3.1 aggregate GPA on a straight 4.0 scale for that designated semester. A total of 476 varsity teams and 6,930 individual athletes from across the state achieved this distinction.

The team achieving the highest grade point average in the state in its particular sport receives a plaque.

Alexander Central and Ashe County grabbed three team awards each while Clayton and North Lincoln each won two team awards.

"We are very proud of the achievements of the students involved in our Scholar-Athlete program," said Charlie Adams, executive director of the NCHSAA. "We think this is definite proof that we have a tremendous number of athletes that are playing sports and also succeeding in the classroom."

NCHSAA SCHOLAR-ATHLETE TEAM AWARD WINNERS

Fall and Winter Sports (Fall Semester 2008)

Ashe County Football 3.270

Alexander Central Volleyball 3.780

Clayton Cheerleading 3.688

Davie County Men's Soccer 3.418

South Point Men's Swimming 3.850

Alexander Central Women's Cross Country 3.920

Walter Williams Men's Cross Country 3.602

Alexander Central Women's Golf 3.850

Ashe County Women's Tennis 3.835

White Oak Women's Swimming 3.837

North Lincoln Wrestling 3.392

Ashe County Women's Basketball 3.806

Hopewell Men's Basketball 3.562

North Lincoln Women's Indoor Track 3.651

Clayton Men's Indoor Track 3.560

-- From an NCHSAA press release