ABCA ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE TEAMS
CHICAGO, Ill. -- For the fifth year in a row, the North Park University baseball program earned the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award, as the organization announced its selections on Wednesday afternoon. Head coach Luke Johnson has guided the Vikings to Academic Excellence recognition by the ABCA every year since it was created during the 2015-16 season. In total, the Vikings finished the year with an impressive 3.53 grade-point average (GPA) as 13 players came in at or above a 3.8 GPA.
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 entire 2019-20 academic year.
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. 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 2019-20 academic year (Due to some schools changing to Pass/Fail grading, spring semester grades were not required to be included in the cumulative calculation).
