Five Northeast Mississippi Community College athletes were honored by the National Junior Colleges Athletic Association (NJCAA) for their work in the classroom when the national organization handed out its academic awards earlier this month.
Lady Tigers Katie Garvin and Ellen Tarrant along with Tigers Kyle Stephenson, Hunt Halford and Dalton Sims were all selected for academic achievement awards.
Stephenson, a pitcher on the Tiger baseball team from Booneville, led the way for the quintet with the Superior Academic Achievement award after posting a 3.86 grade point average while all Tigers and Lady Tigers that were selected had grade point averages of 3.66 or better on a 4.0 scale.
Garvin, Halford, Tarrant and Sims were each selected for the Exemplary Academic Achievement award.
Garvin, a forward on the Lady Tiger basketball team from Kossuth, posted a 3.78 grade point average on a 4.0 scale while Halford, a pitcher on the Tiger baseball team from Oxford, finished with a 3.70 grade point average.
Tarrant and Sims both finished their careers in Booneville with 3.66 grade point averages.
Tarrant, a New Albany native, started as an infielder for the Lady Tiger softball team while Sims, a DeSoto County native, was an outfielder for the Tiger baseball team.
During the 2012-13 athletic year, over 1,600 National Junior Colleges Athletic Association (NJCAA) student-athletes met the requirements for individual academic honors including 169 that earned the Pinnacle Award for Academic Excellence, 592 earned the Superior Academic Achievement Award and over 900 were awarded the Exemplary Academic Achievement Award.
Student athletes earn the NJCAA Pinnacle Award for Academic Excellence for posting a 4.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale while the NJCAA Award for Superior Academic Achievement is awarded for athletes who finish with a 3.8-3.99 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.
To qualify for an NJCAA Award for Exemplary Academic Achievement, an athlete must finish with a grade point average that is 3.6-3.79 on a 4.0 scale.