Thirty-three Auburn student-athletes were named to the 2009 SEC First Year Student-Athletes Academic Honor Roll.
The awards were announced July 16 by the SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. The honor roll is based on grades from the 2008-2009 academic season.
Each student-athlete must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above at their institution, be on scholarship or a letter winner, have completed 24 semester hours of credit and have been a member of the varsity team for their sport's entire NCAA Championship segment.
"I am glad that I accomplished my goal of having a great first year academically," said John Stembridge, a sophomore on the men's golf team in mechanical engineering. "It was very difficult balancing the golf schedule with a tough engineering curriculum, but I had a lot of help from the Student Athlete Support Services as well as my coaches and professors."
The SEC Honor Roll was a way for first year athletes to see their hard work rewarded.
"I am pretty excited and happy, since I can see all my efforts recognized," said Patricia Sanz, a member of the women's golf team majoring in microbial biology - microbiology.
Some students were surprised to find they had made the Honor Roll List.
"It is quite funny because I did not even know I made the SEC Honor Roll list," said Jeffery Sanders, an architecture major and member of the men's track team. "After looking online about it, I feel very accomplished of everything that I did in my first year at Auburn. It's great to feel that everything went into place in the first year, because it is a difficult year to begin with."
Meeting the requirements to make the honor roll is no easy task for some of the athletes.
"It has been a challenge to maintain these grades since practice and meets consume so much time, but it has been manageable," said Laura Lane, an undecided major in the college of science and math and a member of the women's gymnastics team. "Once I learned to manage my time, adjust to the college workload and commit to working hard for each class, the grades came easier."
Vanessa Dantin, a member of the women's swim team and an undecided major in the college of liberal arts, said learning to balance school and practices was a challenge, but she found that making a set study schedule made everything much easier.
"All of the freshmen athletes are required to do a set number of study table hours, so using that time for tutors and class work was essential," Dantin said.
Sanz said she saw achieving good grades as something totally different from achieving her athletic goals. "Having good grades is something that I do for myself, because having good grades is something important for me, I do not do it for recognition," Sanz said. "I just think it is my job to get good grades."
With their first year behind them, the question is will these athletes feel the pressure to maintain their high grades while continuing with athletics.
"I don't feel any added pressure to repeat next year because I know I will keep doing my best and that is all I can do," Stembridge said.
Other athletes are not as carefree about next year.
"I do feel pressure to keep up my grades because of eligibility and the teams overall GPA, but personally a lot of the pressure comes from me," Dantin said.
Lane said she felt just as pleased for her fellow athletes named to the Honor Roll as she does for herself. "Congratulations to all the other honor roll athletes for their accomplishments and to all the Auburn athletes who I know work hard to be excellent students as well as athletes," she said. "It is wonderful to see athletes' accomplishments recognized not only on the field but also in the classroom."
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
