Surry places 7 on NJCAA All-Academic Teams

CHARLOTTE — Seven Surry Community student-athletes received All-Academic honors from the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).

The NJCAA All-Academic Award required athletes to earn at least a 3.6 GPA for the 2023-24 academic year.

Athletes are named to the NJCAA All-Academic Third Team if they finish with a GPA between 3.60 and 3.79, the Second Team if they finish with a 3.80-3.99 GPA, and First Team selections are required to post a perfect 4.0 GPA.

The seven athletes honored were: Hunter Koontz, Carley Joyner, Zachary McNeely, Sylas Sechrist, Jackson Greene, Emily Mitchell and Clay Whitaker.

“I am extremely proud of our seven student-athletes on earning these prestigious NJCAA Academic Awards,” said Surry Athletic Director Mark Tucker. “This is recognition of how diligent our student-athletes work at achieving academic excellence while competing at the highest level.”

Koontz, a baseball player from Central Davison High School, earned First Team All-Academic Honors for the second consecutive year.

Three Knights earned Second Team Honors: softball player Carley Joyner (Forbush) and baseball players Zachary McNeely (West Iredell) and Sylas Sechrist (Carroll County).

Three Surry athletes earned Third Team Honors: softball player Emily Mitchell (South Stokes) and baseball players Jackson Greene (Hough) and Clay Whitaker (Surry Central).

According to njcaa.com: 3,424 student-athletes garnered NJCAA All-Academic First Team honors, 4,013 student-athletes were named to the NJCAA All-Academic Second Team, and 4,808 student-athletes received third-team recognition.

In addition to NJCAA All-Academic Honors, Surry was represented by 28 athletes on the Region 10 All-Academic teams which required a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

“We had over half of our student-athletes named to the Region 10 All-Academic team during this past academic year, and now to have seven of our student-athletes honored with a national academic award is truly exceptional,” Tucker said.

Of the 37 member institutions in the NJCAA’s Region 10, Surry was the only school to meet all the following criteria:

-Multiple NJCAA All-Academic Individuals

-Multiple NJCAA All-Academic Teams

-Multiple NJCAA athletic All-Americans on those teams