For the eighth-consecutive semester, the Fredonia State hockey team has earned the highest grade point average (GPA) among all of the men’s NCAA athletic teams on campus. This past Spring, the team’s average GPA was 3.01, including 19 players with GPAs above 3.0 and one with a perfect 4.0.
Head Coach Jeff Meredith believes his team’s culture, which he stresses is created by the players, has helped the team generate its consistent academic success.
“The players are very competitive and constantly challenge each other on and off the ice,” Meredith explained. “They form study groups and instill in each other that this is not the place to be if a player only wants to do the bare minimum.”
In the locker room, the team keeps a plaque every semester with the name and GPA of the player with the highest GPA. To receive this plaque, players nearly always must maintain a 4.0 because of the historically high teammates GPAs. This spring’s honoree, Ian Cosgrove, was no exception.
Meredith also points to some things that are inherently different about the typical hockey player recruited to play at Fredonia. Most freshmen on the team are between 20 and 21 years of age, a few years older than an average freshman, which he believes makes them more attentive in the classroom.
“These men come in being very focused, driven and mature,” Meredith said.
Still, there is room for improvement, as Director of Athletics Greg Prechtl points out.
“The hockey team has done an excellent job and is to be commended for its good work,” Prechtl said, “but so are our Lady Blue Devils, who have achieved at an even higher level academically.”
Indeed, eight of the women’s teams finished above the hockey team’s 3.01 average, with women’s tennis leading the way with a team GPA of 3.39. The tennis team has led all Blue Devil teams in all but one semester in each of the last three years.
Meredith is well aware of the gender gap on campus, and is pleased to know there are still higher goals for his teams to aspire. Nonetheless, he is very pleased of his team’s overall performance.
“If you take the whole picture — how well the hockey team is doing in the classroom and in its community service efforts — and combine that with how successful the program has been on the ice, you can’t help but be proud,” he said. “I’m proud to be associated with guys that work so hard to accomplish those kinds of things.”
Prechtl is proud as well, not just of the hockey team, but of all of Fredonia’s student-athletes.
“Our athletes have historically graduated at a higher rate than the overall SUNY Fredonia population by at least 10 percent, and the combined GPA this past spring of all the Division III teams in our program was 3.01,” Prechtl stated. “That shows we have a lot of exceptional students, as well as coaches and staff who are committed to making sure our student-athletes get the education they deserve and reach their individual potential.”
