Elite on and off the field: BU only NAIA World Series Participant honored with ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award
For the third-straight season, and fourth time since 2017, the BU baseball program has earned the ABCA’s Team Academic Excellence Award, the lone NAIA programs to do so and qualify for the Avista NAIA World Series.
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The American Baseball Coaches' Association today recognized the Bellevue University baseball team as the Bruins earned the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award for the third-consecutive season.
This marks the fourth time that BU has received the prestigious ABCA honor with Bellevue previously receiving ABCA Team Academic Excellence Awards in 2017, 2020, and 2021.
The Bruins were one of just 29 NAIA schools to receive the honor and the only one to reach the Avista NAIA World Series.
Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2021-22 academic year.
Over 250 high school programs and more than 420 collegiate programs were recognized with this year's award.
Coaches were able to nominate their teams for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award following the conclusion of their spring semesters prior to the nomination deadline of July 14. To be honored, teams had to meet the following criteria:
- Must be a high school or college team
- Head coach must be a current ABCA member
- Team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the 2021-22 academic year
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/ATEC 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.
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Bellevue is coming off a 2022 season in which the program made its 15th Avista NAIA World Series appearance. During the campaign, the Bruins posted a 49-13 overall mark, going 25-2 in conference play and sweeping both the NSAA Regular-Season and Tournament titles. BU took the league's lone automatic bid in making their 24th NAIA National Tournament Appearance, hosted their fourth Opening Round at Don Roddy Field, and reached the Avista NAIA World Series for the third time in the past six full seasons.