Livingstone College

SALISBURY — Livingstone College’s athletic department stresses that student athletes are students first, and the awards keep proving it.

The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association awarded the Blue Bears football team with the Highest Team Academic Award for the 2018-19 year. The is the second consecutive year the team has won the academic honor.

“This is a tremendous honor for our student-athletes,” said head coach Daryl Williams. “We are very pleased and proud of our student-athletes’ academic achievements. The coaching staff does a great job of helping them to stay focused and pointed in achieving their college degree.”

The award is given annually to the team in each of the association’s sponsored sports with the highest cumulative grade point average.  The Blue Bears football team’s cumulative GPA was 2.89.

“We are continuously proving that our student-athletes take their education seriously,” said Livingstone President Jimmy R. Jenkins Sr. “We are proud of them for focusing on their education first and are grateful to the coaching staff for guiding them in the right direction on and off the field.”

The football team first won the highest GPA award for the 2017-18 academic year.

The Highest Team GPA Award was renamed in honor of former Bowie State University faculty athletic representative Freddie Vaughns, who died in 2015.

The Livingstone men’s basketball team also earned the Highest GPA Award with a cumulative average of 3.2 for this academic year and was recognized at the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association tournament in February. It was the team’s fourth time earning the distinction.

The college’s golf team has also won the award twice.

“These academic achievements by our student-athletes validate the holistic college environment we foster at Livingstone, encouraging our students to be well-rounded with education at the center of it all,” said Lamonte Massie-Sampson, athletic director. “Our coaches do a wonderful job in stressing academics first and in implementing best practices to help the athletes succeed.”