Women's Basketball Earns No. 7 Ranking in WBCA Honor Roll
The VC women's basketball team has once again been honored for academic achievement by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association on its annual Top 25 Academic Honor Roll. The 2021-22 Pirates earned a 2.288 overall grade point average for the academic year to place seventh on the WBCA's national academic honor roll. It is the 18th time in the past 19 years that Ventura has been recognized by the national organization, making it the most-recognized academic achieving women's basketball program in the country.
The VC women's basketball team has once again been honored for academic achievement by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association on its annual Top 25 Academic Honor Roll. The 2021-22 Pirates earned a 2.288 overall grade point average for the academic year to place seventh on the WBCA's national academic honor roll. It is the 18th time in the past 19 years that Ventura has been recognized by the national organization, making it the most-recognized academic achieving women's basketball program in the country.
VC was led in the classroom by second-year freshman Sam Martinez (Buena HS) and first-year freshman Kylie Gallick who both posted a perfect 4.0 GPA for the entire academic year. Freshman Maddie Ozbourn (Foothill Tech HS), Kenya Edelhart (Lancaster HS) and Sofia Torres-Reyes (Buena HS) also achieved an overall GPA above 3.5 for the year, making them eligible for academic all-state recognition.
Ventura is the only two-year college in the country to be recognized for academic honors by the WBCA in 18 of the past 19 years. Minnesota West Community and Technical College and Lincoln College (IL) have both achieved the award 11 times. Northwest College (WY) and Seward County (KS) have each made the list nine times over that span. Solano Community College and Cypress College (four times each times) are the only other California community colleges to be recognized by the WBCA for academic excellence in the past 18 years. In all levels, four-year NAIA school Northwestern College (IA) is the only team that has been recognized as often as VC since 2004.
"The WBCA family of coaches is committed to the student-athlete experience and celebrates these teams that have demonstrated excellence in the classroom," said WBCA Executive Director Danielle Donehew. "This year's WBCA Academic Top 25 is a powerful list of teams and their head coaches who have winning cultures that prepare their student-athletes for success in life."
A team's GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of quality points (A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0) earned by the total number of academic hours attempted by all team members in the academic terms (semesters or quarters) that the season spans. Weighted grades are converted to a 4.0 scale. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Teams are nominated for the honor by the WBCA member head coach. A team must have a 3.000 or better GPA to be nominated.
About the Women's Basketball Coaches Association
For 40 years, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association has been the professional association for coaches of women's and girls' basketball at all levels of competition. Founded in 1981, the WBCA offers educational resources that coaches need to help make themselves better leaders, teachers and mentors to their players; provides opportunities for coaches to connect with peers in the profession; serves as the unifying voice of a diverse community of coaches to the organizations that control the game; and celebrates those coaches, players and other individuals who excel each year and contribute to the advancement of the sport. Visit WBCA.org for more details about the association.