LEXINGTON, Ky. – The 2011 Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Volleyball team has earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2011-2012 season, AVCA officials announced recently from their headquarters in Lexington, Ky.

To receive the AVCA Team Academic Award, team members must have achieved a team cumulative grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.3 on a 4.0 scale.  The Grizzlies had a GPA of 3.3.

“The players from our 2011 team were committed to their academics throughout the year, and I’m thrilled they are once again being recognized for their hard work,” Grizzly Volleyball Head Coach Paula Wiedemann said.  “Although the honor is given to the players, it also belongs to the instructors who work with them, officials in the Student Advisement & Academic Support (SAAS) Center, and the staff and tutors of the PAWS (Promoting Academic Success With Student-Athletes) Program.  It’s definitely a ‘team’ effort and should be shared by all.”

Implemented in spring 2002, Missouri State-West Plains’ PAWS Program consists of a group of students, faculty and staff who are dedicated to helping student-athletes develop the skills they need to excel in the classroom and provides additional assistance to student-athletes during study hall periods.

AVCA officials said a total of 535 teams from all competitive levels of volleyball represented by the organization – from high school through NCAA Division I Women – earned the award.  The Grizzlies were one of only 13 junior college teams to receive the honor.

The Team Academic Award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high shcool volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classrooom during the school year by maintaining a 3.3 cumulative team GPA on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.

The award has become one of the AVCA’s fastest growing awards programs, seeing an impressive surge in teams honored over the past several years, officials said.  Since the 2000-01, the number of recipients has increased every single year but one, while amassing an overall 200 percent increase over the span of the last decade.

For more information about awards and honors handed out by the AVCA, visit www.avca.org.  For more information about the Missouri State-West Plains Grizzly Athletics program, visit http://wp.missouristate.edu/grizzly/.