Recruiting the "right kids" is a key to success,
according to Matt Bragga, Watson Brown
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – There was more good news Tuesday for
Tennessee Tech athletics when the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) announced its annual report on Academic Progress
Rates (APR).
All 14 of Tech’s teams have comfortably exceeded the 925
benchmark for four-year averages for the period 2006-2010, and
eight Golden Eagle teams achieved perfect APR scores of 1,000 for
2009-10, the most recent year in the study.
“The APR averages are a true test of whether an Athletics
program is meeting its commitment to developing
student-athletes,” said TTU Director of Athletics Mark
Wilson. “For all 14 of our teams to be comfortably above the
national standard of 925 is a very good reflection on the success
of Tennessee Tech’s coaching staffs.”
The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes eligibility and retention in the calculation and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. The APR awards are based on a two-point system - one point for academic eligibility and one point for academic retention.
A team's APR is the total points earned by the team at a given
time divided by the total points possible, multiplied by 1,000.
Multi-year APR includes four years of data (this year's numbers
included the academic years of 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and
2009-10).
Every Division I sports team calculates its APR each academic
year, based on the eligibility and retention of each scholarship
student-athlete. Teams that score below 925 on their four-year rate
and have a student leave school academically ineligible can lose up
to 10 percent of their scholarships through contemporaneous
penalties. Teams can also face historically based penalties for
poor academic performance over time.
The NCAA announced APR results Tuesday, with two different
groups of results. The first part of the report is a listing of
each team’s single-season APR for 2009-10. The second part is
a four-year average APR score for each team between 2006-2010.
In the first set of results, eight Tech teams had perfect marks
for the year 2009-10 -- men’s basketball, men’s cross
country, men’s golf, women’s golf, men’s tennis,
softball, soccer and volleyball.
For the second group of results that listed the four-year APR average, the Golden Eagle volleyball team led the way with a near-perfect 995 effort. Close behind were women’s golf and men’s cross country, each posting 994 APR marks.
“Not only did all 14 teams exceed 925, they all did so
comfortably,” Wilson said. “Three of our teams were
close to perfect for their four-year average, which is a
significant mark for them to achieve.”
Following close behind volleyball, women’s golf and
men’s cross country, was the men’s golf team at 988,
followed in order by soccer (980), women’s cross country
(977), softball (972), baseball (967), women’s basketball
(967), men’s tennis (964), women’s outdoor track (962),
women’s indoor track (961), football (953) and men’s
basketball (940).
Success stories for Bragga, Brown
Two of the most notable success stories within Tech athletics in
the current APR reports are the numbers achieved by the baseball
team under coach Matt Bragga, and the climb by the Golden Eagle
football team under head coach Watson Brown.
“For both the baseball and football teams, the trend has
been upward over the past several years,” Wilson said.
“Most of our teams have been fairly consistent and have
stayed above the 925 mark for a long time, but both Matt and Watson
have worked hard at improving their teams and changing the
‘culture’ within their program.”
The Golden Eagle baseball team was at 874 for 2004-05, a four-year
average that Bragga inherited when he was named head coach. He and
his staff have worked hard with the program, not only toward
winning two Ohio Valley Conference championships in 2009 and 2010,
but the Golden Eagles' APR also jumped to a high of 975 for
2008-09. The baseball team’s four-year APR average through
2009-10 was 967.
“One of the keys is recruiting the right young men who
understand the importanace of academics,” Bragga said. "It's
also having the right people around these young men working with
them. Dr. (Lance) Jasitt, Coach "B" (Larry Bragga) from our staff
perspective, who do a marvelous job keEping up with these guys. And
the players also do a good job keeping each other accountable.
That's another important aspect of this. We have goals that we want
to accomplish on the field, but academically as well.
"We put those goals out there for these guys, not only GPA goals
but also the APR goal," Bragga said. "They understand the system
for determining the APR, and what they need to do for Tennessee
Tech to be successful."
During the past four years, the Golden Eagles have established new
high marks each year for team GPA within the baseball program,
Bragga said. Having the right players is one of the primary factors
in notching those numbers.
"It's a big key that these guys love Tennessee Tech," he said.
"They love the town, they love the college and they enjoy their
baseball experience. When you have that kind of combination, it
leads not only to success academically, but success in recruiting
the right young men each year."
The Golden Eagle football team, meanwhile, was down at 914 for
it’s four-year average through 2004-05. Showing steady
improvement under Brown's watchful eye, the team hit 951 in 2007-08
and reached it’s highest mark at 962 in 2008-09. The football
team’s latest APR through 2009-10 is 953.
“It’s been a twofold process,” Brown said about
the football team’s level of success in both retention and
academics. “Number one, it’s recruiting the right kids,
and number two, it’s academics and working hard with the kids
so they can be successful.
“We have to find the kids who will be happy here, who like
Cookeville, and want to stay,” Brown said. “Our
academics have come up because the players are buying into what
we’re trying to do.”
The system that’s in place with the Athletics Department
works well, Brown said.
“Coach (Will) Holthouser is the person on our staff who is
the liaison with academics and he works very closely with Lance
(Jasitt) and Leveda (Birdwell).” Brown said.
“They’ve done a tremendous job, and they work very
hard. All of our coaches do a good job working with them, and
that’s really changed the culture within this
program.”