The Western Carolina Catamount baseball team earned 2023-24 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Awards, presented by Sports Attack and announced today by the coaches' organization. Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the cumulative 2023-24 academic year.
With the award history dating back to the 2015-16 academic year, this marks just the second time that WCU has been nominated and received the excellence award coming in consecutive years. Over 800 member programs including more than 470 collegiate and nearly 350 high school programs across the country received the 2023-24 award from the ABCA. Three teams from the Southern Conference were recognized as Mercer, WCU, and Wofford each posted team GPAs of at least 3.0 last year. WCU was among nine teams from the state of North Carolina to receive the recognition. Under second-year head coach and program alum Alan Beck, the Diamond Catamounts boasted a collective team GPA of 3.226 for the 2023-24 academic year and saw 27 players land on the 2023-24 SoCon Academic Honor Roll – one more than last year – and eight were named Spring Academic All-SoCon, both announced back on June 27.
Additionally, a program-best five Catamounts – senior infielder Zach Ketterman, junior utility infielder Jack Spyke, junior middle infielder Trent Turner, sophomore outfielder Hayden Friese, and sophomore right-handed pitcher Dusty Revis – were also each named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District team back in early-May. Ketterman earned his third career selection to the honorary academic district team. Coaches were able to nominate their teams for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award following the conclusion of their spring semesters prior to the nomination deadline of July 11. To be honored, teams had to meet the following criteria:
Must be a high school or college team;
Head coach must be a current ABCA member;
Team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the 2023-24 academic year.
The American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. The ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams are the nation's oldest, founded in 1949, and the ABCA's awards program also includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Awards, the ABCA/ATEC Regional & National Coaches of the Year and several other major awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award.
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