Cuesta Athletes Recognized for Academic Excellence

It’s becoming quite a tradition for Cuesta student athletes to be recognized for their combined athletic and academic achievements. In the past decade, the Community College League of California’s Commission on Athletics (COA) Awards Committee has recognized twelve Cuesta College students, including two overall winners and ten honor roll members. This year was no exception, when Lauren Villa and Jared Hollows were named to the 2005 Pepsi/Scholar Honor Roll and the Women’s Track and Tennis teams were named Top Scholar Teams.

Both Villa, a member of the 2005 Women’s Basketball team and Hollows, a member of the 2005 Track Team were selected based upon leadership abilities as well as academic (4.0 GPAs) and athletic achievements. In addition to Villa and Hollow, the academic excellence of two Cuesta teams were recognized – the Women’s Track team with a 3.1 GPA and the Women’s Tennis team with a 3.20 GPA.

The Pepsi Scholar Athlete Award is the highest student athlete achievement honor awarded annually by COA. Selected from throughout the state community college system, students must hold at least a 3.5 GPA to qualify along with demonstrating  athletic excellence and leadership skills. For a team to be recognized, all members of the team must have excelled with a total 3.0 GPA or better and demonstrated better than average accomplishments in intercollegiate athletic competitions.

The Cuesta athletes, along with other California community college athletes, will be honored at the Pepsi Celebration of Student Athletes Luncheon, held in conjunction with the ninth Annual COA Convention, on Wednesday, April 5th at the Radisson Hotel in Sacramento.