Stonehill College Skyhawks

2021-22 Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award Release

EASTON, Mass. (August 12, 2022)- 89 Stonehill student-athletes have been recognized with Academic Achievement Awards from the Division II Athletic Director's Association (ADA), as announced earlier this month.

In total, there were a record-breaking 16,762 student-athletes from 171 institutions recognized for the 2021-22 Academic Achievement Awards. This is the most student-athletes being recognized since the inception of the award's program. For the fourth consecutive year, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) has the largest number of student-athlete honorees with 1,709 total, closely followed by the Sunshine State Conference with 1,306 and Northeast 10 Conference (NE10) with 1,239. In addition, we would also like to recognize two additional conferences that finished in the top five; the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) with 1,199 and the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) with 1,171, respectively.

In order for a student-athlete to receive an Academic Achievement Award, the athletics director of the Division II institution MUST BE a CURRENT dues-paying member of the D2 ADA.

Also, the student-athlete must:

• have a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale
• have attended a minimum of two years (four semesters) of college-level work 
• have been an active member of an intercollegiate team during his/her last academic year (Given the continued challenges institutions have had this year when it comes to participation, all athletes who meet bullet point items 1 and 2 are still eligible as long as they were still an active member of the roster during this academic year)

The Skyhawks were represented by 18 programs. The football team was represented with a high of 13 student-athletes, while women's soccer followed with nine honorees. Women's volleyball saw eight student-athletes make the list, whereas women's cross country and equestrian had six, and finally softball, women's swimming, and women's track and field rounded out the top five with five each. 

With 23 intercollegiate sports when women's ice hockey takes to the ice for the first time in 2022-23, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. A charter member of the NCAA Division II Northeast-10 Conference since 1980, the College announced that the athletic department will begin a transition to NCAA Division I as a member of the Northeast Conference on July 1 for the 2022-23 academic year. Stonehill has won the NE10 Presidents' Cup six times, all coming within the last 15 years. The Skyhawks have received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first ten years of the program's existence of honoring institutions with an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90-percent or better. The Skyhawks' 92-percent ASR for the cohort period of 2011-2014 ranks fifth among NE10 members and 20^th nationally among 303 NCAA Division II member institutions, with seven programs earning perfect ASR scores of 100%. The College ranks No. 98 in the category of National Liberal Arts Schools by U.S. News & World Report and No. 94 for the Best Value category.

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