Emerson student athletes earned 72 spots on the fall 2019 Dean’s List with women’s soccer and volleyball teams fielding the highest number of honorees.
Nine athletes from both teams received spots on the Dean’s List, which indicates a student maintained a 3.7 or higher grade point average. The women’s basketball team came in a close second with eight student athletes while seven men’s soccer athletes also made the list.
“Being a division three student athlete, the student comes before the athlete part and we try to preach that part as much as we can,” women’s volleyball coach Ben Read said.
Athletic Director Patricia Nicol said this achievement displays the Division III philosophy of keeping a balance between academics and athletics. Nicol credits the coaches and professors with this achievement.
“I think it says where we have our priorities. That we try … to develop a culture of excellence both academically and athletically,” Nicol said in an interview. “We try to recruit athletes that depict the term ‘student athlete’ because our student athletes are going to go pro at something other than sports.”
In the fall 2019 semester, the women’s basketball team achieved a grade point average of 3.77, the highest grade point average of all the Emerson sports teams. Nicol said the team’s grade point average is also the highest one in Division III women’s basketball.
“I would like to be able to say that it is my inspiration and leadership and all of these things that allowed them or inspired them to do greatness in the classroom, but I swear to god at the beginning of the year all I say is ‘Do well!’” women’s basketball head coach Bill Gould said in an interview.
Nicol said there are roughly 215 student athletes at the college, so having 72 of them on the Dean’s list creates a standard of what it means to be an athlete at Emerson.
“We raised the standard,” Nicol said. “We raised the bar as to what it means to be an Emerson student athlete and, not only are we competing for the best athlete, but also for the best student.”
