Academic honors for football team

By Zack Walton

Fresno State continues to be successful in the classroom as the football team experienced its best academic semester in the fall with 49 players earning a grade point average of 3.0 or higher.

As a team, the Bulldogs had a composite GPA of 2.87 and produced eight players who earned Academic All-WAC honors—second most in the conference. Rice led the WAC with 13 selections, breaking a three-year stretch in which Fresno State had the most.

Earning Academic All-WAC honors for 2003 were: Jordan Christensen, Tyrone Culver, Jaron Fairman, Joe Fernandez, Kyle Goodman, Nathan Ray, Josh Sherley and Stephen Spach.

To qualify for Academic All-WAC honors, a student-athlete must carry a 3.2 cumulative GPA and play in more than 50 percent of a team’s games.

Since hiring Pat Hill in 1997, the Bulldogs rank second to Rice with 57 Academic All-WAC selections. Rice has produced 58 during the same time period.

In the five years before Hill's arrival, Fresno State produced a total of nine academic All-WAC selections, never having more than two in a year.

Hill attributes a lot of the team’s academic success to the hiring of associate head coach John Baxter, who started the Academic Gameplan.

“ It takes the entire staff to manage the success of the football team—both on and off the field,” Hill said. “And that is where the Academic Gameplan comes in.”

The Academic Gameplan, which has received national acclaim, teaches time-management skills and daily planning techniques that assist student-athletes in their everyday life, Hill said.

“ The program helps bring more focus to our athletes’ lives and that added focus helps them achieve success on and off the field,” Hill said.

The Academic Gameplan is designed for all freshmen and transfer student-athletes and any student-athlete whose GPA dips below a 2.3.

Hill’s dedication to academics was forged by his time spent as a coach in the National Football League.

“ The things that changed my mind on academics was the five years I spent in the NFL,” Hill said. “I saw lots of players that didn’t receive a sufficient college education and they were left with nowhere to go after football. So, when I came to Fresno State, I wanted to set up a program that emphasized academics.”

The program has worked for Fresno State, as the number of players receiving degrees displays.

The 2003 football season senior class of 13 players has four players who have already graduated and the rest are two semesters or less from receiving their degrees.

Over the past two years, Fresno State graduated 24 of 31 senior players.