Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT – The NCAA released its overall four-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) Wednesday with Lamar’s 17 varsity sports all recording better than the minimum 930 score. The department as a whole averaged 969, with four sports scoring a perfect 1,000 during the 2017-18 academic year (men’s cross country, men’s golf, men’s tennis and women’s basketball).

In addition to the department’s four perfect scores, LU had six teams who have posted a four-year rolling average of at least a 980. Those sports include men’s golf, men’s tennis, women’s cross country, women’s soccer, women’s tennis and volleyball. Of that group, women’s soccer and tennis have maintained a four-year rolling average of at least a 992.

“We want our student-athletes to be champions in the competition arena, classroom and community,” said LU Director of Athletics Marco Born. “As our athletes work toward their degrees, and the day they walk across the stage to receive their diploma, they will achieve that ‘championship.’ They’re called student-athletes for a reason. A majority of the headlines go to what happens in their sport, but we are in the business of graduating student-athletes. All of our teams are working to that goal, but I believe that I speak for every head coach when I say that while we’re happy with the NCAA’s report we’re never going to be satisfied until we have a perfect score.”

The four-year rolling average includes scholarship student-athletes who were in school between 2014-15 and 2017-18 academic years.

For teams to compete in the 2019-20 postseason, they must achieve a minimum 930 four-year APR. Additionally, teams must earn at least a 930 four-year APR average to avoid penalties. The APR was created to provide more of a real-time measurement of academic success than graduation rates offer.