West Hartford, Conn.-- Five women's basketball players were named to the 2010 Women's Basketball All-Academic Team Thursday afternoon at the annual awards banquet on the University of Hartford campus. These student athletes, who excel both academically as well as athletically, represent the best of the America East Conference.
Highlighting the academic squad was three all-conference performers, led by first-team selection and two-time Women's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, May Kotsopoulos of University of Vermont. UMBC's Carlee Cassidy and University of Hartford's Jackie Smith were both also honored on an all-conference team as well as the all-academic team. Rounding out the five-member all-academic team was University of Maine's Kristin Baker and Hartford's Mary Silvia.
Silvia recorded the highest cumulative grade point average (GPA) with a 3.90 in entrepreneurial studies. Kotsopoulos, a business adminstration major with a 3.66 GPA was named an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American last month.
The
All-Academic squads are a product of the June 2005 Athletics Directors
meeting where faculty representatives and athletics directors from each
of the conference’s nine member institutions decided to honor the
league’s top student-athletes, who excel equally in the classroom as
they do on the playing field.
For the second straight year,
America East will select the All-Academic teams using CoSIDA’s Academic
All-America program as a model. Student-athletes worthy of
consideration are nominated by member sports information directors and
voted on by a committee of SIDs, academic advisors and faculty
representatives from all nine member institutions.
All-Academic
squads for team sports are based on the maximum number of athletes that
participate in a contest at one time (e.g., 5 on the court in basketball) but can be more if there is a tie in voting. To be
nominated for the distinction, student-athletes must be a starter or
important reserve for their team and participate in at least 50 percent
of their team’s games or competitions. In the classroom,
student-athletes must have a 3.30 GPA and have completed at least one
calendar year at their institution. Freshmen are not eligible for
consideration.
2010 Women's Basketball All-Academic Team
Player School Class GPA Major Hometown/High School
Kristin Baker Maine Sr. 3.61 Kinesiology & physical education Bingham, Maine/Bingham
Carlee Cassidy UMBC Sr. 3.35 Sociology/New media & comm. Syracuse, N.Y./Westhill
May Kotsopoulos Vermont Sr. 3.66 Business admin. (Marketing) Waterloo, Ontario/Waterloo Coll.
Mary Silvia Hartford Jr. 3.90 Entrepreneurial studies Reading, Mass./Reading Memorial
Jackie Smith Hartford Jr. 3.61 Elementary & special education Westfield, Mass./Holyoke