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Head softball coach Kate Neely’s EMCC Lady Lions have earned a No. 5 national academic ranking in the 2010 girls got game/NFCA Top Ten All-Academic Team rankings by posting a 3.441 composite team grade point average during the 2009-10 academic year.
Earlier this summer, EMCC head softball coach Kate Neely’s Lady Lions garnered a No. 7 national academic team ranking among all NJCAA Division II softball programs.
“We are very fortunate here at East Mississippi to have recruited young ladies that are both extremely talented on the softball field and also self-motivated to keep academics as their top priority,” Neely noted.
Individually, six East Mississippi softball players have claimed 2010 girls got game/NFCA Scholar-Athlete honors for maintaining grade point averages of 3.50 or higher during the 2009-10 academic year. Current EMCC sophomores Mallory Pace (Northeast Lauderdale HS), Leigh Ellen “Hootie” Barefield (Neshoba Central HS), Nashedra Barry (Columbus HS) and Katie Newman (Oak Hill Academy) all posted perfect 4.0 GPAs last year, while fellow second-year Lady Lion players Cayla Coleman (Clarkdale HS) and Justine Jenkins (Caledonia HS) recorded marks of 3.71 and 3.58, respectively.
For the second consecutive year, Wallace State Community College (Hanceville, Ala.) led all college teams in the 2010 girls got game/NFCA Top Ten All-Academic Team rankings with a collective 3.708 grade point average. Among the nation’s junior college teams, Wallace State was followed by Salt Lake CC (3.640), Northeast Texas CC (3.490) and Navarro [Texas] College (3.460).
Other collegiate team academic leaders by divisional categories included: Robert Morris University (3.580 - NCAA Division I); Arkansas-Monticello (3.669 - NCAA Division II); Washington-St. Louis (3.549 - NCAA Division III); and McKendree University (3.630 – NAIA).