The United States Marine Corps and the American Volleyball Coaches Association has announced that more than 1,200 collegiate and high school volleyball teams have earned the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award this season. The award, initiated in the 1992–93 academic year, honors volleyball teams that maintain a year-long grade-point average of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale or 4.1 on a 5.0 scale.
Northwest Mississippi Community College and DeSoto Central High School are mentioned among the top academic volleyball programs in the country. They were in the top 20 percent of the team grade-point-average in their division, women’s NJCAA Division II and girls’ high school volleyball, respectively.
DeSoto Central and Brandon were the only Mississippi high schools listed on the honor roll.
“Academic achievement does not happen by accident,” said AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer. “I’m so proud of the hundreds of coaching staffs that make excellence in the classroom a priority.”
The girls teams at Jonesboro High School (Jonesboro, Arkansas) and Ross S. Sterling High School (Baytown, Texas) head the list of 2021–22 honorees in this anniversary year. They are the only two schools to earn the award in each of the 30 years of the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award’s existence.
Girls high school again has the most winners by category, with 425 teams making the grade.
Bob Bakken provides content for DeSoto County News and its social media channels. He is an award-winning broadcaster, along with being a reporter and photographer, and has done sports media relations work with junior and minor league hockey teams. Along with his reports on this website, you will find this veteran media member providing sports updates and high school football play-by-play on Rebel 95.3 FM Radio.
