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SNHU Student-Athletes Set Record for Academic Honor Roll Accolades Christopher Kelly Staff Writer 288 SNHU student-athletes made the NE10 Academic Honor Roll for keeping a 3.0 or better GPA during the fall semester. 75% of the studentathletes at SNHU are on this list which makes them ranked 5th in the conference. SNHU led the conference in 4.0 GPAs with 69 students hitting that threshold. Given the current online environment, it’s easy to lose focus on grades and school. However, there are those who go above and beyond who deserve recognition for their deeds, such as the student-athletes. Because it spans the entire conference, this achievement differs from the President and Dean lists that the university offers to every student meeting the criteria. The NE10 offers the Academic Honor Roll with three distinctions:
Academic Excellence (4.0 GPA), Academic Distinction (3.50-3.99 GPA) and Academic Honors (3.00-3.49 GPA). A predominant theme of success from the student-athletes was staying organized and utilizing communications with faculty throughout the semester. “Professors have been easily reachable if I had questions...it was very helpful because it was the first time I attended English classes, so I accomplished this thanks to the help of my professors and by being organized,” said international men’s tennis player, Thomas Carsana, who received a 4.o GPA and a spot on the Academic Excellence list. When asked what effect they thought the transition to online had
on earning this award, some athletes said it made school easier being able to dedicate more time towards studying or even getting work out of the way entirely. Contrarily, men’s cross-country captain, junior Andrew Derry, says that the transition made things difficult. “If anything, not having a team practice would be a detriment towards getting an award like this or...impedes progress. Having team practice or structured time just aids me. I know it aids my discipline, so I will be focused on practice time then focused after practice when I need to do my schoolwork moving forward,” continued Derry. Although there are mixed reviews on how this award was achieved, the student-athletes set a record for SNHU and the NE10.
What SNHU Needs For a Swim Team Steven Covey Staff Writer With all the athletic opportunities SNHU has to offer, how would the university support a future swim team? “All sports are supported by a university budget, just as many different areas on campus are supported,” said Anthony Fallacaro, Director of Athletics and Recreation, when asked about how SNHU would pay for a team. “We do offset some of the costs with alumni donations to athletics and revenue from the rental of athletic facilities.” If funding was received for the budget, the university would have to recruit coaches and players for the team. “Any time we do a search for a head coach, we conduct a national search. We would post the position through many of the outlets that support athletic searches, such as the NCAA career page.
The athletic administration, along with human resources, reviews those and selects roughly 10-12 candidates for phone interviews. Following those, we would narrow the search to about five for on-campus interviews. From there we would make our selection. Once the head coach is selected they would conduct searches for their assistant coach roles,” said Fallacaro. Once the university has a coaching staff, they would then begin searching for athlete recruits. The future team would be instructed to follow the NCAA obligations and rules which include Title IX policies. This would ensure an equal amount of spending opportunities would be offered for both male and female teams. According to Fallacaro, “A club swim team has tried to get off the ground, but we did not see a great deal
of participation in it, which would make starting a program like that a little more of a task. Currently, our pool is adequate for rentals and high school swim meets, but might need an upgrade to support a college swim program.” According to NCAA standards, “For facilities (those with architectural plans dated after September 1, 1996), it is preferred that the racing course be 50 meters in length by 75 feet in width, providing for eight, 9-foot lanes with additional width outside lanes one and eight.” SNHU’s current pool only has six lanes, making it ineligible for NCAA competition. There are many pieces that are needed to form a collegiate team which makes the tasks a drawn-out process. It is not impossible, but not likely for SNHU at the moment.
