CHICAGO - The Chicago State University women's tennis program earned the NCAA Public Recognition Award based on their most recent multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR), the NCAA announced Wednesday (June 5). The honor recognizes teams with APRs in the top 10 percent of their sport nationally for the four-year period ending with 2011-12.
The APR score tracks the academic progress of each student-athlete. APR includes eligibility, retention, and graduation in the calculation and provides a picture of the academic culture in each sport.
Women's tennis earned the top 10 percent honor thanks to a fourth-consecutive perfect score of 1,000. Women's tennis retained and graduated every student-athlete during this four-year span.
“My goal since day one is to make sure my student-athletes had every resource needed to graduate on time,” Chicago State tennis head coach
Jack Barton said. “It was not only my efforts that helped, it was the efforts of our academic staff laying the groundwork and providing support. It was the hard work of our student-athletes to do what was needed to graduate and I am very proud of them. This honor should be shared between everyone in the athletic department.”
The Cougars are the only Great West Conference women's tennis program to earn the award and one of just five programs in the entire GWC to be honored. Starting July 1 Chicago State will join the Western Athletic Conference. Chicago State is the only 2013-14 WAC women's tennis member to earn the APR Public Recognition Award.
“The APR provides a real-time snapshot of academic achievement and being in the top ten nationally is an amazing accomplishment,” Chicago State Associate Athletic Director for Academic Services
Karen Schiferl said. “It is a testament to these young ladies who truly embody what it means to be student-athletes. Graduation will always be our number one goal and we are proud of women's tennis for achieving this distinction. This is a tremendous honor for Chicago State University and a great reward for all of the hard work and dedication of our players, coaches, and staff.”
This is the second APR Public Recognition Award for a Chicago State team in school history. The men's tennis program was honored in 2010.
