Heath Grishaw (from left), Sarah Kelly, Donna Holland, and Jess Nelson are fulltime Club Sports Academic Advancement staff members.
Club Sports student-athletes demonstrate consistent success in the classroom
1/17/2024 9:41:00 AM | General
Liberty had 360 of its 725 Club Sports participants land on the Dean's List for maintaining grade-point averages of 3.5 or better during the Fall 2023 semester and 149 achieve GPAs of 4.0.
Liberty University's Club Sports' 3.34 cumulative grade-point average from the 725 student-athletes on its 42 programs in the Fall 2023 semester maintains a standard of academic excellence within the department.
"The record (GPA) is still 3.36 set this past spring, but we have experienced three consecutive years of our student-athletes being right at that 3.3 or higher mark, and that is impressive," said Sarah Kelly, Club Sports Assistant Athletic Director of Academic Advancement. "A total of 360 out of 725 made the Dean's List (for achieving a 3.5 GPA or better) and we had 149 with a perfect 4.0, which is a really good showing and incredible to see."
Forty of the 42 teams held cumulative GPAs of 3.0 or better, paced for the second consecutive fall semester by the men's and women's racquetball team's 3.73 and followed closely by the ACHA Division I women's hockey team's 3.72. Women's gymnastics and men's and women's triathlon tied for third place at 3.56 and the women's ultimate team's 3.49 rounded out the top five.
Club Sports student-athletes matched the cumulative GPA posted by Liberty's NCAA Division I Athletics program, which set an all-time record high.
"It is great to see student-athletes from both departments doing so well academically as well as athletically," Kelly said.
Club Sports' total number of student-athletes for the fall semester was a program record, eclipsing the 711 participants in Fall 2022.
"That (725) is a high number of student-athletes to manage, but we have four full-time staff in our academic department managing those and my team does a really good job of managing their time effectively and helping students that really need that support," Kelly said.
She is complemented by Assistant Director of Academic Advancement Donna Holland, Assistant Director of Compliance Heath Grishaw, and Academic Mentoring Specialist Jessica Nelson, who formerly served as a director of academic advising.
"It's nice to have Jess on staff because she brings the advising background and has a good base of knowledge," Kelly said. "We have been using her to orient the freshmen and answer a lot of their questions as they learn to navigate the university."
Additionally, Chris Webb started this past semester as a professional advisor, serving alongside Academic Study Hall Assistant Nick Nary, Academic Mentoring Assistant Julia DiMartino, and Academic Compliance Assistant Wade Lawrence.
Collectively, Kelly said she and her staff strive to model professional integrity and a work ethic that will help the student-athletes to achieve their academic and career goals.
"We set individual goals for our teams to be working towards," she said. "We're here to help support all the student-athletes as a department. Because we have a small team, we depend on coaches to provide that extra encouragement to their student-athletes."
She said the same standards of excellence coaches set for their competitors in their respective athletic arenas apply in the classrooms, and Club Sports student-athletes have succeeded in prioritizing both.
"Each team has to find their balance with all of the practice times they have and individual team commitments that they have made," Kelly said. "We are able to help with academics, and have those conversations with student-athletes that need extra encouragement. We know it's a lot and everybody handles their athletic schedules and academic loads differently. It takes time management."
She said that is the expectation of every student-athlete at Liberty and they have accepted the challenge.
"They realize by taking on a sport they're taking on a lot more in their day-to-day life, and that takes a commitment," Kelly said. "If you are a student-athlete, student comes first, and the goal is to graduate, so we have an ongoing expectation to make that a priority."
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
"The record (GPA) is still 3.36 set this past spring, but we have experienced three consecutive years of our student-athletes being right at that 3.3 or higher mark, and that is impressive," said Sarah Kelly, Club Sports Assistant Athletic Director of Academic Advancement. "A total of 360 out of 725 made the Dean's List (for achieving a 3.5 GPA or better) and we had 149 with a perfect 4.0, which is a really good showing and incredible to see."
Forty of the 42 teams held cumulative GPAs of 3.0 or better, paced for the second consecutive fall semester by the men's and women's racquetball team's 3.73 and followed closely by the ACHA Division I women's hockey team's 3.72. Women's gymnastics and men's and women's triathlon tied for third place at 3.56 and the women's ultimate team's 3.49 rounded out the top five.Club Sports student-athletes matched the cumulative GPA posted by Liberty's NCAA Division I Athletics program, which set an all-time record high.
"It is great to see student-athletes from both departments doing so well academically as well as athletically," Kelly said.
Club Sports' total number of student-athletes for the fall semester was a program record, eclipsing the 711 participants in Fall 2022.
"That (725) is a high number of student-athletes to manage, but we have four full-time staff in our academic department managing those and my team does a really good job of managing their time effectively and helping students that really need that support," Kelly said.
She is complemented by Assistant Director of Academic Advancement Donna Holland, Assistant Director of Compliance Heath Grishaw, and Academic Mentoring Specialist Jessica Nelson, who formerly served as a director of academic advising.
"It's nice to have Jess on staff because she brings the advising background and has a good base of knowledge," Kelly said. "We have been using her to orient the freshmen and answer a lot of their questions as they learn to navigate the university."
Additionally, Chris Webb started this past semester as a professional advisor, serving alongside Academic Study Hall Assistant Nick Nary, Academic Mentoring Assistant Julia DiMartino, and Academic Compliance Assistant Wade Lawrence.
Collectively, Kelly said she and her staff strive to model professional integrity and a work ethic that will help the student-athletes to achieve their academic and career goals.
"We set individual goals for our teams to be working towards," she said. "We're here to help support all the student-athletes as a department. Because we have a small team, we depend on coaches to provide that extra encouragement to their student-athletes."
She said the same standards of excellence coaches set for their competitors in their respective athletic arenas apply in the classrooms, and Club Sports student-athletes have succeeded in prioritizing both.
"Each team has to find their balance with all of the practice times they have and individual team commitments that they have made," Kelly said. "We are able to help with academics, and have those conversations with student-athletes that need extra encouragement. We know it's a lot and everybody handles their athletic schedules and academic loads differently. It takes time management."
She said that is the expectation of every student-athlete at Liberty and they have accepted the challenge.
"They realize by taking on a sport they're taking on a lot more in their day-to-day life, and that takes a commitment," Kelly said. "If you are a student-athlete, student comes first, and the goal is to graduate, so we have an ongoing expectation to make that a priority."
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
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