Horned Frog student-athletes are giving the athletic department a reason to cheer after achieving their highest semester and cumulative GPA in fall 2006, said the director of the athletic academic services office.The athletic department GPA of 2.91 for fall 2006 rose from the 2.85 mark student-athletes, as a whole, made in spring 2006. The 2.91 mark is the highest it has been since officials started keeping track of the GPAs in 1999. The cumulative GPA also increased from 2.86 to 2.90, inching closer to the 3.0 departmental goal.

Chris Uchacz, director of the athletic academic services office, said the GPA rise is the result of the unity and understanding between the coaches, professors, athletic department and athletic academic support staff.

“When you take those four different areas and combine them, it’s the recipe for success,” Uchacz said.

Each of the teams has an academic adviser through ASSO who looks at the team’s progress each semester, Uchacz said. The adviser ensures the student-athletes are in manageable combinations of classes at times that don’t interfere with practice. He said an associate athletic director also oversees each sport.

The addition of the equestrian team did not affect the GPA in a positive or negative manner, Uchacz said, but helped maintain the current standard.

Tutoring is one of the main services offered through the AASO, and the office provides more than 190 tutoring sessions per week for core classes, Uchacz said. Tutoring is also based on requests for help in upper-level classes, he said. He looks for graduate students to do the job, but, if nobody is found, undergraduates with an “A” in the student-athlete’s class and a teacher recommendation will be considered.

Head soccer coach Dan Abdalla said his players found the tutoring helpful on the way to a Team Academic Award from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The soccer team was also recognized for its work in the classroom with 12 players selected to the Academic All-Mountain West Conference squad in the fall, Abdalla said.

“I think a lot of the credit goes to the staff in the athletic department – Uchacz in particularly,” Abdalla said. “They do a great job letting the girls know what they can do for them and helping them to be successful.”

Recruiting student-athletes who are focused on both academics and athletics is important, Abdalla said.

“We want student-athletes who are going to try to excel in the classroom, in the community and on the field,” Abdalla said. “We put a lot of value on that.”

Uchacz said that although his office will work with any student-athlete, more attention is paid to the student-athletes considered “at-risk” for eligibility, or those with a GPA of 2.40 or below.

We spend a lot of hands-on time with those student-athletes teaching them time-management, how to network with faculty and how to be successful students,” Uchacz said.

To compete as an NCAA student-athlete, freshmen must maintain 1.80 GPAs, sophomores 1.90s and juniors and seniors must keep minimum GPAs of 2.0, Uchacz said.

Mary Minor, a senior sprinter for the Flying Frogs, said student-athletes look to tutors because of their practice schedules.

“With practice and stuff, sometimes it’s hard to talk with teachers,” Minor said. “If you can’t talk with the teachers about it, being able to talk with the tutor and break it down helps,” Minor said.

Andrea Morgado, a junior tennis player, said the women’s tennis team’s 3.44 GPA, the highest among all 30 sports teams, was the result of a solid balance between academics and athletics.

“If we have a match one day, we usually have the next day off to go talk to our teachers and catch up.” Morgado said.

While Jack Hesselbrock, the associate athletic director for internal relations, said he thinks that much of the academic success comes from coaches, faculty and the AASO, he also thinks the spirit of TCU also plays a part.

“People on campus care about everyone,” Hesselbrock said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re an student-athlete, you’re in the band or you write for the Skiff. When I was in school here, and you were not doing well, somebody knew about it and checked on you.