Oct. 8, 2007

The National Fastpitch Coaches Association announced recently the Top 10 All-Academic Teams, based on cumulative grade-point averages submitted by NFCA member head coaches for the 2006-2007 academic year.

The University of Rio Grande led all four-year colleges for the second-straight year as the NAIA program claimed a 3.648 cumulative grade-point average.

Rio Grande head coach David Pyles considers this a national championship and considers this more important than winning one on the field of play.  "This is our national championship so to speak," Pyles said.  "Obviously you'd like to be number one on the field, but in life this is probably more important than on the field."

"It's wonderful that the girls have done this again," Pyles added.

The 2006-07 Rio Grande team had five freshmen who were not a part of the team that accomplished the feat the year before.  Pyles believes that they wanted to be a part of developing a tradition of academic excellence and stepped it up in the classroom.  "We had five freshmen and for five freshmen to come in and have the grades that they had, I think was a big statement for them," he said.  "I think the fact that we won it the year before set the precedent and obviously once you start winning, whether it be on the field or academically, people want to strive to continually stay good and to get better."

"I think that's what those freshmen thought, that we've got a tradition here to uphold and they really did well and I'm very proud of them," Pyles added.

Pyles reiterated that he sets out to recruit those student-athletes who excel both in the classroom and on the softball field.  "It obviously helps if you don't have to worry about whether a player is going to be eligible this week or not.  That's definitely one of the things that we look at when we look at kids," Pyles said.  "Yeah, they have to have softball ability or we couldn't be winning, but they have to have the grades, if they're not eligible obviously they're not even going to see the field."

Pyles said he wouldn't mind seeing a three-peat for his team.  "That would be absolutely wonderful," he said.  "The girls know what they have to do, just keep working hard in the classroom and keep maintaining these high GPA's."

St. Bonaventure and Grand Canyon University both led Divisions I and II, respectively, for the second consecutive season. St. Bonaventure topped the Division I rankings as it boosted its team GPA to a 3.622. Grand Canyon also improved its team average over last year's mark, coming in with a 3.633 tally. Emerson College topped the Division III rankings after compiling a 3.548 GPA.

Western Texas College topped the junior college standings with a 3.582 average.

The Members of the 2006-07 University of Rio Grande softball team are as follows:
Amanda Lotycz             
Jenny Phillips     
Shannon Abbott            
Jessica Ross                
Erin Ratliff                   
Jenna Gauthier   
Shannon Criswell           
Sophia Young    
Miranda Laws   
Brittany Creviston          
Mimi Mahon      
Leah Hamman   
Kaylyn Heading             
Whitney Harless            
Michele Dettwiller          
Amanda Stevens