(Ann Arbor, MI) The American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) has announced the programs who have received the 2018 ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award. This award recognizes baseball programs that have posted a Grade Point Average (GPA) over 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2017-18 academic year.
In order to receive the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, programs had to meet the following criteria: must be a high school or college team, head coach must be a current member of the ABCA, and the team must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 throughout the academic year. The Cardinals finished the 2017-18 academic year with a GPA of 3.18.
The Concordia baseball program is one of fourteen NAIA schools to receive this award and one of five WHAC teams to be honored which included Cornerstone, Indiana Tech, Lawrence Tech, and Siena Heights. The Cardinals had ten players named to the All-Conference Academic Team as well as five players who were tabbed as NAIA Scholar Athletes.
The American Baseball Coaches Association has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. The ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams are the nation's oldest, founded in 1949, and the ABCA's awards program also includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Awards, the ABCA/Diamond Regional & National Coaches of the Year and several other major awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award.
