Eagles place 19 on NJCAA All-Academic teams

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (July 19, 2021) – The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) has announced its 2020-21 All-Academic teams and Tallahassee Community College was well-represented with 19 student-athletes recognized across the award platform's First-, Second- and Third-teams. 

Two student-athletes, Rodolph Adonis (So./Wellington, Fla.) and Bryce Bass (Fr./Tallahassee, Fla.), earned double honors as participants in both men's cross country and outdoor track & field while 10 of the 19 all-academic honorees hailed from the softball team, who earned All-Academic Team recognition for the seventh straight year. 

"I'm extremely proud of our student-athletes," said Director of Athletics Rob Chaney. "The entire 2020-21 academic year was filled with adversity and forced everyone – student-athletes, coaches, administrators and instructors, alike – outside their comfort zones. Despite the lack of normalcy during a pandemic year, the College remained student-focused, our instructors remained committed to helping students reach their academic goals, and our student-athletes hung in there and persevered, and they are to be commended for their efforts." 

To be eligible for one of three levels of All-Academic consideration, 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 student-athletes garnered First-team All-Academic honors for having achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA, led by Adonis and Ke'Adre Thompson (So./Hollywood, Fla.), who helped the Eagles' men's outdoor track & field team claim the NJCAA Academic Team of the Year trophy, symbolic of the highest team GPA in the sport. 

Both Adonis and Thompson were named All-Academic in 2020 as well. 

They were joined by repeat first-team honorees Emily Oakes (So./Orlando, Fla.) and Esmee Toet (So./The Hague, Netherlands), both members of the softball team. 

Both Oakes and Toet graduated from TCC in the Spring with perfect 4.0 GPAs. 

Nine Eagles earned Second-team All-Academic honors (3.80-3.99 GPA), including women's basketball's Olivia Eller (So./Greensboro, N.C.) and softball's Stacey Hudson (So./Groveland, Fla.) and Maddy Walther (So./Fort Myers, Fla.), who are now two-time all-academic honorees. 

Other second-team honorees included Bass, softball's MacKenzie Childs (Fr./Port Orange, Fla.), Alejandra Gonzalez (Fr./Wellington, Fla.), Kyla Jackson (So./Jacksonville, Fla.) and Sheshe Ortiz (Fr./Salinas, P.R.), and baseball's Andrew Crumbley (Fr./Jupiter, Fla.).   

Four different sports were represented on the third-team (3.60-3.79 GPA): softball's Aneyshka Aponte (Fr./Salinas, P.R.) and Emery Mayne (So./Crawfordville, Fla.), baseball's Trey Bacon (Fr./Tampa, Fla.) and Joey Silvestri (So./Tallahassee, Fla.), women's basketball's Melinda Feratovic (So./Brooklyn, N.Y.) and outdoor track and field's Tristen Owens (Fr./Tampa, Fla.) 

Overall, 8,272 individuals earned NJCAA All-Academic honors in 2020-21.