Nearly 75 percent of Loyola athletes were recognized by the athletic department and the deans of the university’s three colleges for earning a GPA of 3.0 or above in the 2004 fall semester.
The inaugural Scholar-Athlete Awards Ceremony was held Monday in the St. Charles Room.
More than a hundred students, faculty, coaches and the Rev. Kevin W. Wildes, S.J., university president, attended the ceremony in which 82 scholar-athletes received awards.
The ceremony is a new effort by first year Athletic Director Michael Giorlando, also men’s basketball coach, to recognize outstanding academic achievements by Loyola’s athletes.
“I’m proud to offer our athletes with many, many awards,” Giorlando said. “This was always a dream of mine. Loyola has always recognized its athletes, this is just taking it one step further.”
Honors were divided into three teams: gold, silver and bronze.
Seven athletes earned gold, for a 4.0 GPA, 27 athletes earned silver medals for a 3.5 to 3.99 GPA and 36 athletes earned bronze honors for a 3.0 to 3.49 GPA.
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics All America Scholar-Athletes awards were given to management seniors Jeb Bauer, David Sudyka and Skye Landry, elementary education senior Jean Cassandra, criminal justice junior Dani Holland and Michaela Bono, a junior double majoring in music industry and philosophy.
Bono said she thinks giving awards to recognize ahtletes making good grades is a good idea.
“The faculty need to know how hard the athletes are working,” Bono said. “Seventy-five percent of our athletes have a 3.0 GPA or above. That should be recognized.”
Five of Loyola’s seven athletic teams earned a team GPA higher than 3.0. The baseball team earned a 2.93 GPA.
The women’s basketball team earned the highest GPA with a mark of 3.28 followed by the soccer team’s 3.17 GPA.
The College of Arts and Sciences comprised the most award winners with 44 athletes. Presenting the awards for College of Arts and Sciences was Dean Frank Scully.
Associate Dean Jerry Dauterive presented the College of Business, with 24 award winners. Dean Edward Kvet presented the College of Music with two award winners.
Giorlando closed the ceremony by remarking on the difficult task of being both an athlete and student.
He said that he hopes after four years they can look back pleasantly on the athletic experience, but for now, he wished them luck on exams.
Michael Nissman can be reached at [email protected]
