There was an article about the Urbana High School baseball team in our local News-Gazette’s Commentary (not the Sports) section I found interesting. I wish I could provide a link but the N-G doesn’t put many of their articles on the web. Anyway, I’ll summarize.
The Tigers posted an 11-19 record this year. Pretty dismal unless you consider that 11 of those losses were by two runs or less.
But that’s not the point of this article. Apparently, all 17 players won Big 12 Conference Scholar Athlete awards. To win this award, one must be a sophomore, junior or senior, earn a varsity letter and have a 4.0 grade point average.
In addition, 14 won Illinois High School Association scholastic achievement awards. These go to juniors and seniors who maintain a 4.5 GPA.
Very impressive. Kudos to Coach Steve Waller who understands priorities of young student-athletes. In his words:
“As a coach, you always stress that schoolwork comes first, that without school, there is no baseball. That’s what is going to carry them into the future. These guys know that academics is serious.”