July 23, 2019
The American Baseball Coaches Association is thrilled to announce the over 300 member college and high school programs from across the country who have been awarded the 2018-19 ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award. Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were recognized with this year's award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA over 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2018-19 academic year.
This year, 320 college and high school programs received this year's award, including NCAA Div. III national champion Chapman University (Calif.) and NJCAA Div. II champs Northern Oklahoma College-Enid. In total, 103 high school teams along with 217 programs from the NCAA Div. I, II, III, NAIA, and Junior College levels were recognized.
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 19. 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 2018-19 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/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.