Daytona State College men’s baseball team repeats academic championship

Call it a dynasty.

Coach Tim Touma’s Daytona State College Falcons baseball team is arguably the greatest team in the history of the Florida College System Activities Association – academically speaking.

For the sixth consecutive year, the men’s baseball team has earned the FCSAA Men’s Academic Team of the Year honors, posting a cumulative grade point average of 3.73. The Falcons will now compete for the National Junior College Athletic Association team academic award, which will be announced this summer. The team has won the national award four of the last five years, narrowly missing the top GPA honor last year.

“Our goal at the start of the season was to not only go to the state tournament on the field, but also to recapture the national team academic title,” Touma said. “I’m proud of our guys, and we expect to be in close contention for the national award.”

In the Mid-Florida Conference, the Falcons also brought home the top individual academic honors. Sophomore ballplayer Peyton Walsh was named Mid-Florida Conference Male Scholar of the Year, and sophomore swimmer Samantha Akoubian was named Mid-Florida Conference Female Scholar of the Year. Each also earned the NJCAA Pinnacle Award for Academic Excellence.

Daytona State Athletic Director Will Dunne said the academic success of the college’s athletic teams is no accident. “It is a testament to the ‘academics first’ approach that is taken by the athletic department in collaboration with our faculty and student support staff,” he said. “We have created a culture within all our athletic programs where the highest measure of success is to see student-athletes succeed academically. Our goal is to prepare our student athletes for success in life, not just in their sports.”

·         Other academic highlights of the Falcon athletic program include:

-       Seven students earned cumulative 4.0 GPA totals for the year.

-       Forty-one students earned 3.5 – 3.99 cumulative GPA totals for the year.

-       Twenty-seven students earned 3.0 – 3.49 cumulative GPA totals for the year.

-       Seventy-five of 118 student-athletes (63.5 percent) earned 3.0+ cumulative GPA totals for the year.

-       Four of the seven teams (baseball, softball, women’s golf and women’s swimming) earned 3.0+ cumulative team GPA totals for the year.

-       Women’s Golf earned a team cumulative 3.49 GPA for the year.

-       The athletic program (all teams combined) earned a cumulative 3.09 GPA for the year.

For more information about Daytona State College Falcon athletics, please call Will Dunne at (386) 506-4486.