Baylor Athletics Celebrates New Measure Of Academic Achievement
1/29/2019 7:57:00 PM | General, Preparing Champions for Life
More Than 25 Percent Recorded Their Highest GPA in Fall Semester
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
The Baylor Student-Athlete Center for Excellence (SACE) team, led by Senior Associate AD Marcus Sedberry, has initiated a new measure that celebrates when student-athletes achieve the highest semester GPA of their collegiate careers – their Personal Best.
First-semester freshman and transfers are not eligible for the recognition, which rewards student-athletes who give their best, rather than being driven solely by the highest GPA numbers.
Of Baylor's eligible student-athletes, just over 27 percent (103 out of 379) earned their personal-best GPA in the fall semester when the department's overall GPA was 3.16.
"When you read 27 percent, it doesn't jump out to you like saying 85 percent of something," Sedberry said. "But, the reality is that means one out of every four student-athletes walking around here had their best semester they've ever had. That's amazing.
"It speaks to the students embracing the notion of personal best, but I think it also speaks to the support of our academic team and the willingness of Baylor University to invest in the support services necessary to help people perform at their best."
Coming from a track and field background as a collegiate athlete at Nebraska, Marcus Sedberry understands the term, "personal best."
Mack Rhoades IV, Baylor's Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, said the emphasis should be on each student-athlete achieving their personal best.
"While we recognize our amazing student-athletes who make the Dean's List and Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll, and achieve academic benchmarks," Rhoades said, "we need to focus on the process and each of our 500-plus students trying to do and be their personal best in everything they do. If they do that, the rest of the academic achievements will take care of themselves. That's a mindset all of us need to invoke every day of our lives – I want to be my personal best today."
The personal bests will be celebrated, whether that's a 2.5, a 3.5 or a 4.0. SACE will provide the resources to support and help the student-athletes, but the expectation is for each of them to give their best.
In a lot of ways, Personal Best perfectly aligns with the way coaches and student-athletes approach athletic performance.
"We're not asking you to score 20 points like he or she does. We're not asking you to hit 18 home runs," said Chris Johnson, Assistant AD for Academic Services. "But, when that ground ball comes to you, make the play you're capable of making. It's really using that same concept. In the weight room, they're not asking you to squat 500 pounds like the person that can squat 500 pounds. If you can give me 300 pounds, give me 300 . . . if that's your best."
When it gets to the point where coaches and student-athletes embrace both GPA and Personal Best, "or Personal Best begins to be celebrated even more than GPA, I think we're going to be in a really, really special place," Johnson said.
The student-athletes have already started to latch on to the idea, celebrating when they turn a C into a B or record their highest-ever test score in a particular class. In the Learning Support area, where student-athletes are working on fundamental and foundational skills, 32 percent of student-athletes earned their personal-best GPA in the fall.
"That's a big deal," said Maddie Bailey, Associate Director of Learning Support. "That means they've come here and they've found a way to thrive in a way that makes sense for them."
The goal of the program is not to hand out participation ribbons, Sedberry said, but to push student-athletes to work towards their personal best.
"There is no greater accomplishment than doing your absolute and personal best," said Jameson Houston, a junior on Baylor football's Texas Bowl championship team, "because the only person you should try to be better than, is the person you were yesterday."
Raegan Padgett, a junior on Baylor's Big 12 championship soccer team, said reaching a personal best is "such a fulfilling feeling."
"It shows the amazing result of all the hours spent studying and preparing and makes the long nights so worth it," she said. "Personal bests are important, because they push you to keep striving to be better than you were before."
Johnson, who also serves as an academic coach with the football team, said, "Personal Best must be the standard that is expected and celebrated," if the goal is to "holistically develop young men and women."
"There is no greater measure of success or accomplishment than an individual performing at their personal best, whether it is in the classroom, the community or in life," he said.
While four sports had double-digit student-athletes record personal bests in the fall – football (22), women's track (15), equestrian (12) and soccer (11) – the best percentage-wise were soccer (45.8), acrobatics & tumbling (37.5) and volleyball (35.7).
Two of the in-season fall sports (soccer and volleyball) recording that high a percentage of personal bests is "unheard of," Sedberry said.
"They're traveling and they're NCAA Championship teams who are performing at their best academically, too," he said. "If you look at our football numbers, they were all up from last year as well. All of our fall sports had personal bests that were higher than their previous bests."
The vision is to have an athletics department where student-athletes embrace the idea of giving their best in everything they do. That includes on the field of competition, in the classroom, preparing for life and pushing to be their best spiritually.
"We can't ask for everybody to be at a certain benchmark, at a 4.0. That's unrealistic," said Deedee Brown-Campbell, Assistant AD for Academic Services. "But, we can ask for you to strive for your best in everything you do."
With a talented support staff of academic coaches and learning specialists and a tutorial program that constantly challenges and encourages them, Baylor student-athletes are able to continue to achieve their personal best, Brown-Campbell said.
"This is our promise and our challenge, to Prepare Champions for Life."
Baylor Bear Insider
The Baylor Student-Athlete Center for Excellence (SACE) team, led by Senior Associate AD Marcus Sedberry, has initiated a new measure that celebrates when student-athletes achieve the highest semester GPA of their collegiate careers – their Personal Best.
First-semester freshman and transfers are not eligible for the recognition, which rewards student-athletes who give their best, rather than being driven solely by the highest GPA numbers.
Of Baylor's eligible student-athletes, just over 27 percent (103 out of 379) earned their personal-best GPA in the fall semester when the department's overall GPA was 3.16.
"When you read 27 percent, it doesn't jump out to you like saying 85 percent of something," Sedberry said. "But, the reality is that means one out of every four student-athletes walking around here had their best semester they've ever had. That's amazing.
"It speaks to the students embracing the notion of personal best, but I think it also speaks to the support of our academic team and the willingness of Baylor University to invest in the support services necessary to help people perform at their best."
Coming from a track and field background as a collegiate athlete at Nebraska, Marcus Sedberry understands the term, "personal best."
Mack Rhoades IV, Baylor's Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, said the emphasis should be on each student-athlete achieving their personal best.
"While we recognize our amazing student-athletes who make the Dean's List and Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll, and achieve academic benchmarks," Rhoades said, "we need to focus on the process and each of our 500-plus students trying to do and be their personal best in everything they do. If they do that, the rest of the academic achievements will take care of themselves. That's a mindset all of us need to invoke every day of our lives – I want to be my personal best today."
The personal bests will be celebrated, whether that's a 2.5, a 3.5 or a 4.0. SACE will provide the resources to support and help the student-athletes, but the expectation is for each of them to give their best.
In a lot of ways, Personal Best perfectly aligns with the way coaches and student-athletes approach athletic performance.
"We're not asking you to score 20 points like he or she does. We're not asking you to hit 18 home runs," said Chris Johnson, Assistant AD for Academic Services. "But, when that ground ball comes to you, make the play you're capable of making. It's really using that same concept. In the weight room, they're not asking you to squat 500 pounds like the person that can squat 500 pounds. If you can give me 300 pounds, give me 300 . . . if that's your best."
When it gets to the point where coaches and student-athletes embrace both GPA and Personal Best, "or Personal Best begins to be celebrated even more than GPA, I think we're going to be in a really, really special place," Johnson said.
The student-athletes have already started to latch on to the idea, celebrating when they turn a C into a B or record their highest-ever test score in a particular class. In the Learning Support area, where student-athletes are working on fundamental and foundational skills, 32 percent of student-athletes earned their personal-best GPA in the fall.
"That's a big deal," said Maddie Bailey, Associate Director of Learning Support. "That means they've come here and they've found a way to thrive in a way that makes sense for them."
The goal of the program is not to hand out participation ribbons, Sedberry said, but to push student-athletes to work towards their personal best.
"There is no greater accomplishment than doing your absolute and personal best," said Jameson Houston, a junior on Baylor football's Texas Bowl championship team, "because the only person you should try to be better than, is the person you were yesterday."
Raegan Padgett, a junior on Baylor's Big 12 championship soccer team, said reaching a personal best is "such a fulfilling feeling."
"It shows the amazing result of all the hours spent studying and preparing and makes the long nights so worth it," she said. "Personal bests are important, because they push you to keep striving to be better than you were before."
Johnson, who also serves as an academic coach with the football team, said, "Personal Best must be the standard that is expected and celebrated," if the goal is to "holistically develop young men and women."
"There is no greater measure of success or accomplishment than an individual performing at their personal best, whether it is in the classroom, the community or in life," he said.
While four sports had double-digit student-athletes record personal bests in the fall – football (22), women's track (15), equestrian (12) and soccer (11) – the best percentage-wise were soccer (45.8), acrobatics & tumbling (37.5) and volleyball (35.7).
Two of the in-season fall sports (soccer and volleyball) recording that high a percentage of personal bests is "unheard of," Sedberry said.
"They're traveling and they're NCAA Championship teams who are performing at their best academically, too," he said. "If you look at our football numbers, they were all up from last year as well. All of our fall sports had personal bests that were higher than their previous bests."
The vision is to have an athletics department where student-athletes embrace the idea of giving their best in everything they do. That includes on the field of competition, in the classroom, preparing for life and pushing to be their best spiritually.
"We can't ask for everybody to be at a certain benchmark, at a 4.0. That's unrealistic," said Deedee Brown-Campbell, Assistant AD for Academic Services. "But, we can ask for you to strive for your best in everything you do."
With a talented support staff of academic coaches and learning specialists and a tutorial program that constantly challenges and encourages them, Baylor student-athletes are able to continue to achieve their personal best, Brown-Campbell said.
"This is our promise and our challenge, to Prepare Champions for Life."
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