73 Student-Athletes Earn National Academic Honors

July 11, 2022

The East Central Community College athletic department is excited to announce that 73 student-athletes have been honored by the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference (MACCC) for their academic performances in the 2021-22 school year, with 39 of those student-athletes earning National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) All-Academic honors.

"Providing student-athletes an opportunity to become well-rounded individuals is what we strive for at ECCC, and academic accolades such as these prove that our student-athletes and coaches are reaching that goal," said East Central President Dr. Brent Gregory. "Our outstanding student-athletes continue to show dedication to their work, both on the field and in the classroom year in and year out. As a college, we are excited for each of these students and we look forward to continuing to build an atmosphere of success academically and in competition."

To qualify for athletic honors student-athletes must maintain GPAs of 3.25 or higher for all credit hours. At the conference level, awards are separated into Distinguished Academic All-State for student-athletes that maintain GPAs of 3.8 or higher and Academic All-State for those with GPAs ranging from 3.25 to 3.79.

At the national level, awards are broken down into three categories; First Team (4.0 GPA), Second Team (3.8-3.99), and Third Team (3.6-3.79). East Central is excited to announce that eight student-athletes were able to obtain NJCAA All-Academic First Team honors across four different sports. Those recipients are Seline Decoteau and Annabelle Miller (women's soccer), Emmi Harkins, Ndrah Tanksley, and Caroline Jackson (softball), Kaleb Parish and Dominik Simunovic (men's tennis), and Spencer Winans (men's soccer).

Along with individual awards, the ECCC athletic department fielded six teams that qualified for the NJCAA Academic Team of the Year by maintaining a team GPA of 3.0 or higher. Those teams included softball (3.58), women's soccer (3.53), men's tennis (3.45), baseball (3.23), women's tennis (3.05), and golf (3.01).