TCC student-athletes, teams earn NJCAA academic honors
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (July 12, 2019) – The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) has announced its All-Academic awards and Tallahassee Community College was well represented for its performance in the classroom during the 2018-19 academic year.
Ten student-athletes earned All-Academic honors while the Eagles placed four teams on the national honor roll.
"As much as we enjoy succeeding in the athletic arena, our coaches are staunch advocates of the 'student-first' mindset," said director of athletics Rob Chaney. "Thanks to their leadership, as well as the collaborative efforts of student services and TCC's outstanding faculty, our student-athletes are positioned to accomplish great things. This group put it all together and took advantage of the opportunity afforded to them through participation in intercollegiate athletics."
To be eligible for the All-Academic team, student-athletes must have completed at least two full-time semesters with a minimum of 24 semester hours in the current academic year and a minimum 3.6 grade point average.
Four of TCC's ten individual award winners earned first-team honors for having achieved a 4.0 GPA.
The quartet includes softball's Ismay Poot (Almere, Netherlands), who earned her second NJCAA All-Academic award after achieving third-team status as a freshman in 2018. Joining Poot on the first-team list are teammate Desera' Wishart (So./Crawfordville, Fla.), women's basketball's Aliyah Lawson (Fr./Whitby, ONT, Canada) and two-sport standout Genevieve Printiss (Fr./Carrabelle, Fla.), who was recognized for her participation in cross country and outdoor track, as well as the NJCAA half marathon.
Softball's Lily Adams (So./Tallahassee, Fla.) and River Glenn (So./Seekonk, Mass.) earned second-team honors for having achieved a 3.8-3.99 GPA. Like Poot, Adams earned all-academic honors for the second straight season. She was a first-team honoree in 2018.
Four student-athletes were named to the NJCAA All-Academic Third-team for having achieved a 3.6-3.79 GPA. Kathy Rios (Fr./Hialeah, Fla.) gave softball a team-best five representatives while Brandon Flagler (Fr./Deerfield Beach, Fla.), Gannon Hundley (Fr./Tallahassee, Fla.) and Kendall Ward (Fr./Tallahassee, Fla.) brought the Eagle runners' total to four.
All three ran cross country and participated in the NJCAA half marathon during the fall season while Hundley, like Printiss, crossed over to outdoor track participation in the spring.
All ten student-athletes have been honor students while enrolled at Tallahassee Community College and were previously recognized by the Florida College System Activities Association (FCSAA) and the Panhandle Conference by earning All-Academic honors.
The Eagles' representatives were among a record 6,656 overall participants who earned All-Academic honors from the NJCAA.
In addition to the individual accolades, four of the Eagles' teams were recognized by the NJCAA for posting a minimum 3.0 team GPA during the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 terms.
Tallahassee's softball team made the list for the fifth straight year, posting a 3.3 team GPA. They were one of 131 programs nationwide to earn a 3.0 GPA or higher, the most among any NJCAA sports.
Both half marathon teams posted top-five finishes. The women (3.1 GPA) were the Eagles' highest-placing team, finishing third, while the men (3.0 GPA) took fourth place nationally.
Tallahassee's women's outdoor track & field team nabbed a top-20 finish in its first season of competition – its 3.16 GPA was good for 17th overall.