MOBILE, Ala. – Nearly 100 University of South Alabama student-athletes were honored for their performance in the classroom last spring at the Scholar-Athlete Breakfast held at the University Student Center Ballroom Tuesday.

The event recognized all individuals who posted a 3.5 grade-point average or higher during the spring semester, with half of the group honored after recording a 4.0 GPA.  Student-athletes from 16 of the school's sport programs were honored during the program, with nine teams contributing — baseball, football, soccer, and men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and field/cross country — a double-figure total.  All 17 programs had a group GPA above a 2.5 in the spring, with 14 of those squads finishing with a mark of 3.0 or better.

The men's and women's tennis teams were presented awards for having the best team grade-point averages in the spring, with the women's golf and men's basketball programs honored for the most improved GPA from the previous semester.

The ceremony also featured a presentation recognizing Dr. John Kovaleski, the chair of South's Health, Kinesiology, and Sport Department.

"We've seen so many cheating scandals around the country but we've not had that here, and I think a lot of the reasons for that is the leadership of the athletic department, the coaches and the administrators who really are committed to you as students and as athletes," University President Dr. Tony Waldrop said.  "I want to thank the faculty for your support of student-athletes.  I want you to hold our student-athletes to high standards and expect them to work hard because they are capable of it, doing anything less than that would be a disservice to them.

"I want to commend the student-athletes because things keep get better and better every year.  I love to see students who perform well in the classroom and perform well in their chosen sport."

"This matters and is important to us, we need to recognize that," Jaguar Director of Athletics Dr. Joel Erdmann said.  "To emphasize how important this is to us, we need to recognize who is here with us in addition to student-athletes, coaches, administrators and faculty members — Executive Vice President and NCAA Faculty Athletic Representative Dr. John Smith and Chief Academic Officer/Provost Dr. David Johnson in addition to Dr. Waldrop."

During the 2016-17 academic year, Jaguar Athletics had a school-record-tying 171 student-athletes named to either the Sun Belt Commissioner's List or Academic Honor Roll, Jan-Louw Kotze from the men's track and field program was a first-team CoSIDA Academic All-America selection for the second year in a row and the men's track and field won the league's Team GPA Award for the fourth year in a row.  In competition, South baseball and soccer both participated in an NCAA Regional after winning Sun Belt championships while the department claimed the Vic Bubas Cup — given to the top overall athletic program in the league — for the third year in a row.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

Join the Jaguar Athletic Fund (JAF) Priority Fund, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics.  Contributions to the Priority Fund directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/JFAB

—USA—