On March 3, Eastern honored 128 of its athletes not for their performance on the field but off the field.

At the annual Scholar-Athlete Banquet, athletes were recognized in four categories based on their grade point average for the spring, summer and fall semesters during the 2003 school year.

Stephanie Bone, a health studies major from cross country, Nick Lang, a psychology major from soccer, Kate Taake, a social science major from rugby, C.J. Weber, a psychology major from tennis and Teri LaRoche a health studies major from soccer were all honored with the Presidential Award for graduating with a cumulative grade point average of 3.75 or higher based on a 4.0 scale.

Over a dozen more athletes received the University Award for a grade point average between 3.75-4.00 during the 2003 calendar year. Thirty-one student-athletes were honored as Eastern Award winners for a grade point average ranging from 3.50-3.74 in 2003, and the remaining student-athletes were named as Merit Award winners for their 3.00-3.49 GPA.

Track and field assistant coach John McInerney praised Bone along with all of the athletes for excelling in the classroom.

“Hopefully, this shows that were about the bigger picture (grade not athletics),” McInerney said. “This is great for the many student-athletes who do well, but it’s nice when you have one or two from your sport that really stand out.”

Eastern baseball head coach Jimmy Schmitz also was pleased with the turnout of athletes from his team. Right fielder Jeff Cammann, left fielder Pete Stone and pitcher Kirk Miller were a few of the handful on the Merit Award list.

“This has been our best year in the classroom,” Schmitz said. “We had about 16 of our 30 guys with grade point averages right around 3.0.”

As a former NCAA Division II All-American distance runner at Eastern, McInerney realizes how challenging it can be for student-athletes to manage their time between the classroom and the practice field.

“The students basically do a juggling act; it’s very tough to maintain a high GPA,” McInerney said. “Our kids rarely have a month off. We run cross-country from August until November then we head indoors from December through February and now we’re back running for the outdoor season.”

While McInerney and Schmitz stress academics to their athletes , the coaches said a majority of the athletes take it upon themselves to succeed in school.

Schmitz said in previous years the Eastern baseball team has been unable to allow players to hit the diamond because of academic problems. However, that is not the case this year as the whole team is working hard to achieve high marks in class.

“We did lose a few players last year to grades,” Schmitz said. “But this season it seems like everyone is doing their part in the classroom.”

McInerney noted student-athletes with solid academics will not only benefit once they leave Eastern, but this will reflect the goal of the program and is important in recruiting potential Panthers as well.

“Not many kids are going to turn professional in our sport so academics is very important, as it should be in every sport because the odds of turning pro are slim,” McInerney said. “A high team GPA is a good recruiting tool to stress and it’s nice for our athletes at Eastern to have awards given to them for their ability in the classroom.”