EMCC sets new program standard with 69 NJCAA All-Academic student athlete recipients

Published 3:43 pm Friday, July 25, 2025

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For the second straight academic year, East Mississippi Community College had a school-record seven sports teams earn NJCAA All-Academic recognition with this week’s announcement of the NJCAA’s 2024-25 Academic Teams of the Year and All-Academic student athlete awards.

In addition, EMCC bettered last year’s previous school standard with 69 individual recipients who collected 2024-25 NJCAA All-Academic student athlete honors.

Leading the way for EMCC’s nine NJCAA-eligible programs was eighth-year head coach Brett Kimbrel’s baseball team, which set a new program standard for the second straight year with a collective team grade point average of 3.62 to rank tied for 11th nationally along with tying Copiah-Lincoln for MACCC Baseball Academic Team of the Year honors during the 2024-25 school year. On the heels of last year’s then-record 3.57 team GPA that ranked 10th nationally, the Lions have registered team GPAs of 3.27 or higher during each of the previous seven baseball seasons, including prior top-20 national academic team rankings of seventh in 2021-22, 14th in 2020-21, and 19th in 2022-23.

Under the direction of fourth-year head coach Mackenzie Byrd, the Lions’ softball team finished a close second behind baseball among EMCC’s sports teams in 2024-25 with a 3.57 team GPA in addition to making their first postseason appearance in eight years. The three-time NJCAA Softball Academic Team of the Year recipients (2021, 2014 and 2013) have recorded team GPAs of 3.52 or higher for 10 consecutive seasons.

Third-year head soccer coach Chris Rash’s men’s and women’s teams performed equally well in the classroom during the programs’ second year of competition after being reinstated prior to the 2023 soccer season. The women built on their previous 3.32 team GPA in 2023-24 with a solid 3.40 team academic mark this past year. The EMCC men’s soccer team made the biggest academic improvement among the school’s sports teams by posting a 3.31 team GPA in 2024-25 after just missing the coveted 3.00 academic mark two years ago.

EMCC’s basketball teams both continued their on-going streaks of garnering NJCAA All-Academic Team honors after coming off record-setting seasons in the classroom the previous year. On the heels of tying for 2023-24 NJCAA Men’s Basketball Academic Team of the Year honors with a program-record 3.60 team GPA, 11th-year head coach Billy Begley’s 2024-25 Lions finished with a 3.20 team mark. Along with having advanced to postseason tournament play for the second time in three seasons a year ago, fourth-year head women’s basketball coach Isaiah Butler’s Lady Lions followed up a program-best 3.55 team GPA the year prior with a 3.21 team mark last season.

Now under the guidance of first-year head golf coach Mark Furnari, the Lions will look to maintain the program’s consecutive streak of having earned NJCAA All-Academic Team men’s recognition after adding a 3.32 team GPA last season to the previous year’s program-record mark of 3.49.

Under the leadership of 18th-year head football coach Buddy Stephens, a 2024 NJCAA Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee, the Lions just missed the required team GPA mark of 3.0 for national academic recognition with a respectable 2.91 team GPA last year.

Although not affiliated with the NJCAA or MACCC but instead members of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, 16th-year head coach Morgan Goodrich’s 2024-25 EMCC men’s and women’s rodeo teams combined to record a collective 3.10 grade point average.

As a group among all student athletes, including rodeo, East Mississippi’s sports teams combined to record a composite grade point average of 3.26 during the 2024-25 academic year.

A dozen EMCC student-athletes were tabbed NJCAA All-Academic First Team for touting perfect 4.00 grade point averages in 2024-25, highlighted by repeat 4.00 classroom performers Jackson Rodgers and Jackson Crow of the Lions’ baseball team as well as women’s basketball teammates Shalea Boddie and Je’Niecia Hill.

EMCC also had 31 second-team, all-academic recipients a year ago for having GPAs between 3.80-3.99 along with adding 26 third-teamers for posting GPAs between 3.60-3.79.

Also collecting 2024-25 NJCAA All-Academic First Team recognition for having earned 4.00 GPAs this past academic year were EMCC teammates in football Antreyvious Edwards and Cole McCarty, softball’s Allee Bennett and Sara Frances Ramsay, and women’s soccer’s Miller Blaylock and Jaelyn Lust in addition to Jermaurhiyun Anderson from men’s basketball and men’s golfer Walker Tedford.

EMCC’s 31 NJCAA All-Academic Second Team recipients (3.80-3.99 GPA) included: Matthew Birdsong, Sanders Griffis, Evan Hilliard, Sam Malone, Chipper Moore, Ty Murphy, Riley Myers, Gabe Roberts and Trace Tingle in baseball; Braxton Goff, Demario Harrell, O’Najae Marshall, Jordan McKnight and Luke Winstead in football; softball’s Savannah Fralix, Victoria Irby, Rachel Rommel, Annagrace Stewart and Karen Wisher; men’s soccer’s Josh Deweese, Colby Epting, Karim Ould-Saada and Cody Yauch; women’s soccer’s Elizabeth Adesanya, Marli Castillo, Cindy Mendoza and Nicky Wise; Micaiah Satcher and Leah Wilcher in women’s basketball; Kaleb Hutchins in mens basketball and men’s golf’s Brian Ludden.

East Mississippi’s 26 NJCAA All-Academic Third Team honorees (3.60-3.79 GPA) included: baseball’s Eli Basham, Cooper Bates, Colin Boyd, Caiden Chain, Nick McCoy, Miles Mitchell, Jamie Muse Jr. and Jacob Nunn; football’s Hayden Houpt, Michael Johnson Jr., Ladarius Jordan, Hunter Moore and Brandon Short; women’s soccer’s Lyna Driouche, Skylar Flores, Ella Morse and Kiana Nielsen; softball’s Brianna Byrd, Madison Newburn and Gail Wisher; men’s basketball’s Donovan Griffin and Curly Robinson; men’s soccer’s Joan Arnau-Riera and Luka Sari, and Trace Carpenter and Lorenzo Ligabue in men’s golf.