GPAs and grad rates are in

Athletics and academics

By Gabrielle Stevenson
State Hornet
Published April 28, 1999

Every time Rene Jacques walks into a classroom, he needs to prove he was there.

With a signature, and sometimes a giggle, professors verify Jacques’ presence at each and every class meeting, knowing they will sign the same form again after the next class.

Jacques is one of many signature gatherers at Sac State. While he does not have a political agenda, he does have a demanding coach.

Hornet basketball coach Tom Abatemarco has made academics a priority for his team since joining Sac State two years ago.

So far, the plan has worked.

As the fall 1998 student-athlete academic standing and GPA report was released this week, Abatemarco received good news.

After seven years of being the team with the worst GPA, the men’s basketball team moved out of the basement, and into the No. 12 spot, earning a combined average of 2.626.

The men’s golf team has dropped to the worst academically performing team on campus, with a 2.342 average.

“One thing I will say about Tom is that he has done a nice job of recruiting athletes who can also perform in the classroom,” athletic advising coordinator Paul Edwards said. “The last three semesters that Tom has been here, the team GPA has gone up every semester.”

The “signature plan” has compelled Jacques, a freshman who averaged nearly 10 points and 30 minutes a game during his first season, to know his professors.

“It has forced me to interact with my teachers,” Jacques said. “I have been really lucky in that my professors have been very supportive and helpful when I’ve needed my assignments in advance so I could do them before we went on road trips.

“They got to know me pretty well, asked how I was doing with the basketball team, and helped me get my assignments in early so I would never fall behind in my studies because of basketball commitments.”

Jacques is one of a growing number of student-athletes, who excel both on the court and in the classroom, that are being recruited by the Hornet coaching staff. During his first college semester, as well as Division I basketball season, Jacques finished the semester with a 3.63 GPA (he did sound a little disappointed too). His historically excellent academic performance is one reason why he was recruited by Ivy League schools across the country.

“We have to make academics our number one priority,” Abatemarco said when the season concluded. “We stress academics all season long, but now is the time to make sure the guys are where they need to be in order to make this semester a successful one.”

Academics have become a department priority within Hornet athletics, especially since the athletic director, Debby Colberg, is also the coach of the most academically successful team, volleyball, which sported a 3.226 average during the team’s season.

“I think as a department we have made progress towards increasing our athletes success in the classroom,” Colberg said. “But there is room for improvement. I’m not satisfied yet.”

Colberg said she wants to see the academic problems of the past solved in the recruiting process.

“I feel that coaches need to stress academics from the beginning,” she said. “If we as coaches think someone is questionable academically and needs help, we need to provide that immediately. Otherwise, I feel like we would be taking advantage of that athlete.”

The Hornet volleyball team is an example of the direction Colberg wants to see the entire department head towards. The volleyball team concluded its second straight season as Big Sky Champions, therefore raising the bar academically on possible recruits.

“I can recruit a great athlete and great student with volleyball,” Colberg said. “That comes with success.”

The Hornet football team, led by head coach John Volek, is also trying to block out the memories of years of poor grades by the football team and create a new sense of academic importance to his team.

The Hornet football team, in one semester, jumped from a 2.5 to a 2.617.

“Our GPA is a record this year,” Volek said. “We’ve traditionally been somewhere at the bottom, but we are moving up. That has a lot to do with our recruiting efforts. We have players like quarterback Ricky Ray who was an Academic All-American at his junior college. We have youngsters who came in and got through a tough freshman year and finished with strong grades above a 3.0.”

Volek has relied on community support and donations of computers, desks, and other study equipment to provide additional support to his players. His concern is that his players graduate.

“We had 13 seniors on the team last season, and one already graduated in the fall, eight more are going to graduate in May, and the other four are on pace to finish up in the upcoming fall,” Volek said. “We are taking academics very seriously. We need our athletes to earn an education while they are here, and that’s what we are doing.”

Since Sac State has joined Division I competition, it has had to comply with NCAA admissions and graduation rate compliance laws.

While the university has not taken accurate record of the number of student-athletes that have graduated, the NCAA does require that a certain group be reported on annually.

This group, however, is a small percentage of athletes that participate in Hornet sports. Each year, the university must provide the graduation rates for students who joined the university as a freshman, on scholarship, and completed a degree within six years.

Because Sac State did not join Division I until the 1991-92 season, the first report of Hornet graduation rates was recently released.

The numbers seem average, a 46 percent graduation rate of student athletes in comparison to a 43 percent general population graduation rate in the same time period.

The reason the numbers are deceiving is because the report covered a total of 13 athletes, compared to 1,210 general population students.

“The real numbers will show six years from now, when we have a more realistic number of student athletes who have been on scholarships and have had time to get through school and graduate,” Edwards said. “There is no question now that the numbers are too low to make an accurate judgement of the program. We have done some good things with the academics, and we will have better graduation rates, they just aren’t showing now.”

Edwards’ job as the coordinator is to be the liaison between the university and the athletic department. He assists athletes in academic advising, coordinating registration and checking on continuing eligibility by NCAA regulations.

He also tries to get campus professors involved with the increased academic performance. Once a semester, the advising office sends out an athlete questionnaire to each of his or her professors. The questionnaire asks how the student athlete is doing so far, how the attendance has been and other concerns or comments that might help coaches and advisors monitor any potential problems.

Out of 1,976 surveys sent out, professors returned 70 percent of the forms this semester.

Jacques, whose major is business with real estate in mind, said the advising center and support from the athletic department can only be used properly if the student is willing to get help.

“It is real easy to get help, they take care of us pretty good, but the athlete has to go looking for help in the first place,” he said. “The services don’t do any good if the athlete doesn’t care to get help.”

Baseball coach and associate athletic director John Smith said he has seen a dramatic increase in academic performances.

“We have seen fewer and fewer athletes not qualify to participate because of eligibility problems,” Smith said. “We don’t have anywhere near the number of disqualified athletes we had in the 80’s.”

Edwards, who does not work for the athletic department, said he has seen a change in the commitment to academics, especially lately.

“We have a coaching staff that I respect,” Edwards said. “They all agree with Debby (Colberg) that we need to keep academics a priority. Debby expects all of her athletes to graduate in four years, and as an athletic director, she expects the same quality from the entire department.”

As far as graduation rates are concerned, Smith believes that Sac State prepares students for graduation, but does not always get the credit.

“I think a lot more athletes graduate than meet the eye,” Smith said. “That is why those numbers can be misleading to someone in the community or a professor on campus. I know that the actual graduation rate of our students is much higher than what we are allowed to be determined by NCAA standards.

“To me, the bottom line is that they are getting their education completed somewhere, even if it is back in the athlete's’ hometown college after they complete their eligibility here. When they get their degree, they can be productive citizens in society. I think that is positive for our athletic department.”