West Chester Lands 134 Student-Athletes On D2 ADA List

CLEVELAND, Ohio – West Chester University put a school-record 134 student-athletes on the 2018-19 Division II Athletic Director's Association (ADA) Academic Honor Roll list it was recently announced.
 
In order for a student-athlete to receive an Academic Achievement Award, the athletics director must be a current dues playing member of the D2 ADA. The student-athlete must: have a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale; have completed a minimum of two years (four semesters) of college level work at a two-year and/or four-year institution; and have been an active member of an intercollegiate team during his/her last academic year.
 
All student-athletes meeting the above criteria are eligible for the award.
 
West Chester topped its previous  high of 129 honorees a year ago and has increased its number of student-athletes who qualify for the academic honor roll each year that the list has been in existence. This year's total of 134 was a major reason that the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) landed the most student-athletes of any Division II conference on the list. Only Gannon and Seton Hill had more honorees within the PSAC than West Chester. Of the PASSHE schools in the conference, West Chester had the most student-athletes listed.
 
"I am very excited to see the highest number of student-athletes get recognized for their academic achievements this past year," said D2 ADA President Chris Ratcliff, director of athletics at Rogers State University. "The number of institutions recognizing their student-athletes' academic achievements continues to rise.  As a board, this is perhaps one of our biggest initiatives.  We see the value of acknowledging academic achievements.  This is a way for our member institutions, through D2 ADA, to recognize our student-athletes."
 
The D2 ADA, in its 12th year, is a program that recognizes the academic accomplishments of student-athletes at the Division II level. In total, there were 11,660 student-athletes from 185 institutions being recognized for the 2018-19 Academic Achievement Awards. This set the record for the most participation from institutions and the largest number of student-athletes being nominated. This year, the association has the most student-athletes being honored from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), with 975, closely followed by the Northeast-10 Conference (NE10) with 974 and the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) with 791.