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Kirtland student-athletes learning on and off the court
ROSCOMMON – When Teresa Stuck, the new athletic director and second-year women’s basketball coach at Kirtland Community College, handed out the new academic policy for the college’s athletes a few months ago, she was hopeful. The guidelines she outlined were strict and there were no gray areas to be argued over: student-athletes would study and maintain their grades, period.
Under a new athletic policy implemented this year, members of the Kirtland Lady Firebirds basketball team achieved a 3.02 grade-point average as a group. The men’s team earned a 2.9 GPA. Shown studying during one of their daily study sessions are student-athletes (front to back) Onica Jones, of Rochester, N.Y.; Evalyn Bain of Nassau, Bahamas; and Chelsey Williams, of Houghton Lake.
Now that the Firebirds basketball teams are nearing the end of their season, Stuck is no longer hopeful – she’s jubilant.
“The men’s team had an overall 2.9 GPA for the fall semester, and the women had a 3.02,” Stuck said with a big smile. GPAs – or grade-point averages – are based on a 0-4 scale, with all As equaling a 4.0.
Shekira Knowles, a freshman who came to Kirtland from Nassau in the Bahamas, posted the only 4.0 GPA of the athletes, but others were within range.
Stuck feels her academic policy, which mandates a specific number of study hours based on the student’s most recent grades, is playing a part in the success of her athletes.
“It’s become a love-hate kind of thing,” she said of how the players have embraced the policy. “They took to it pretty well and formed a good attitude about it, and the results were certainly good.”
She said some of the athletes have stated they wished she had implemented the policy sooner, getting them to move more quickly on the road toward Academic All-American and Team-of-the-Year recognition.
About future honors – Stuck is hopeful.