SXU Baseball Receives Team Academic Excellence Award
The Saint Xavier University (SXU) baseball team was recently awarded the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award. Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above for the 2023-2024 academic year. SXU was one of 470 collegiate programs to be awarded this distinguished recognition.
Coaches are able to nominate their teams following the conclusion of the spring semester. SXU's head coach Addison Rouse knows that the ABCA has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes, and with their great academic success, his players were fit for this award.
"It's great to be recognized by the ABCA. Every big award recognized in our space is from the ABCA, so to be on that platform gives us more exposure, more recognition, and more promotion of SXU Baseball's success," Rouse said.
While being a student-athlete comes with a lot of pressure to balance practices, training, traveling and winning on top of studying and homework, Rouse has built a strong academic-focused atmosphere that allows any player struggling in the classroom to comfortably come to him with their issues.
"It's certainly a lot to manage, and the workload is demanding on the players. We do regular weekly check-ins and study tables for players below a 3.0 GPA. Anybody at risk meets with me one-on-one. I find this process to work better than big-team study hall. The players seem to respond more, and that's been the main component of our academic success."
With that routine in place, there was a plethora of academic awards handed out to SXU's baseball team on top of the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award during the 2023-2024 season. Fifteen players claimed the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) All-Academic Team, landing in second place in the CCAC with the most selections.
"I am extremely proud of our players. None of this is possible without them. It's been an awesome four years with a lot of success, but these honors mean everything. This is the behind-the-scenes commitment to greatness and building a complete program," Rouse said.