Eastern Wayne Today

The Wayne State University baseball team has received the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award for the 2024-25 academic year. The award, presented by Sports Attack, recognizes teams that demonstrate strong academic performance. The Warriors achieved a team GPA of 3.662 and have earned this recognition every year since its inception in 2016.

This year, 440 college programs and nearly 300 high school programs were acknowledged for their academic accomplishments by the ABCA.

"The 2024-2025 academic calendar year was a tremendous experience for our baseball program," said head coach Ryan Kelley. "Every college baseball season delivers a journey full of peaks and valleys, and we were entrenched with adversity, success, challenges, and triumphs that we continue to build from. I applaud our baseball student-athletes for staying disciplined and consistent with their academic routines. Our in-season semester team GPA was potentially the highest in our 85-season history! A true credit to our students by striving to meet academic expectations head on and hungry to deliver amazing results. I would like to extend a genuine and sincere thank you to our student-athletes for their commitment. Additionally, a special thanks to WSU Athletics Academic Advisor Kim Clexton for her unparalleled leadership and resource support. Further, thank you to the several faculty and staff across our great campus for providing an amazing academic experience during our student-athletes' journey toward graduation."

To be eligible for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, teams must be either high school or college squads with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the academic year. The team's head coach is also required to be an active ABCA member.

The ABCA has recognized coaches’ and players’ achievements through various awards since its founding in 1945. Its honors include All-America Teams dating back to 1949 as well as regional coaching awards and other distinctions.

Sports Attack, which sponsors the award, is based in Reno, Nevada and manufactures sports training equipment used by teams nationwide.