 |
2008-09 NAIA Scholar Teams (PDF)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Park University women’s golf team was named the 2008-09 NAIA Scholar Team of the Year, headlining a school-record seven Pirate squads on the NAIA’s Scholar Team list, released Friday by the association’s national headquarters in downtown Kansas City.
Park’s women’s golf squad held the top grade point average of 837 NAIA varsity teams on the list at 3.97, and the list also included the Pirates’ women’s soccer, men’s indoor track & field, men’s cross country, softball, men’s outdoor track & field and women’s cross country teams.
“This is such a tremendous honor for our program,” said head coach Kelly DeFeo. “As a team, we work hard on the golf course, but our players work harder in the classroom. They understand and embrace what it means to be a student-athlete at Park University.”
Joining the Park golf team in the top five was McKendree University women’s tennis (3.92), Dordt College women’s tennis (3.87), Oklahoma Wesleyan University women’s cross country (3.87) and Friends University men’s tennis (3.86). The College of Idaho had the most teams represented by a school (19) and volleyball landed in the top spot for total number of scholar teams per sport (92). More than 15-percent of the schools receiving the award had a 3.5 or higher grade point average.
Women’s soccer had Park’s second-highest team GPA in 2008-09, compiling a 3.27 average under the direction of head coach Ken Hefner, marking the third-straight season for the Park women’s soccer squad on the list.
Park track & field/cross country coach Brian Renshaw had four separate rosters earn NAIA Scholar Team distinctions, topped by the men’s indoor track squad that put together a team GPA of 3.22. The men’s cross country team was third in GPA, overall, for the Pirates, earning a 3.13 average, and the men’s outdoor track team completed the classroom hat-trick on the men’s side at 3.07.
Women’s cross country was the fourth team under Renshaw’s direction to earn the award in 2008-09 with a 3.05 team GPA.
Park softball, which advanced to its first-ever NAIA national tournament in 2009, rounded out the Pirates’ list of Scholar Teams with the department’s fifth-best team GPA at 3.11. The Pirates were 27-13 last season under the direction of fourth-year head coach Amy Reif, who will enter her fifth season with the Pirates in 2010.
The Pirate softball squad finished second in the regular-season MCAC standings before ousting Bellevue University in the 2009 MCAC Softball Tournament championship, and at the national tournament in Decatur, Ala., the Pirates fell in a pair of tight contests to nationally ranked Friends and top-ranked Cal Baptist before closing the season with a 6-1 win over Hastings College.
Seven NAIA Scholar Teams marks a school record for Park University, who had three scholar teams in 2007-08 and two in 2006-07.
‹ Return to Women's Golf home page
Email this article | ^ Back to the Top
