CHARLOTTE, N.C. — East Mississippi Community College’s men’s basketball team has tied with Georgia’s Oxford College or Emory University to bring home the Lions’ seventh overall National Junior College Athletics Association’s Academic Team of the Year honor in the last 12 years.

The team’s 3.6 team grade point average, a program high, headlined a school-record seven EMCC sports teams that received NJCAA All-Academic recognition with this week’s announcement of the NJCAA’s Academic Teams of the Year and All-Academic Student-Athlete Awards.

“I would like to personally congratulate our men’s basketball student-athletes for earning NJCAA Men’s Basketball Academic Team of the Year honors,” EMCC Director of Athletics Sharon Thompson said. “This huge accomplishment takes a group effort to ensure that we continue our academic success. We would like to recognize our coaches, faculty and administration for their dedication to the success of all of our student-athletes.”

Along with men’s basketball’s top academic national honor, EMCC’s reigning national runner-up and two-time defending Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference champion football team finished second nationally in the classroom with a 3.05 team GPA this past academic year. Under the guidance of head coach Buddy Stephens, the five-time national champions and nine-time conference champs on the gridiron have also claimed three NJCAA Football Academic Team of the Year crowns in 2022, 2019 and 2017.

The EMCC softball team, under the direction of head coach Mackenzie Byrd, once again set the pace for EMCC’s sports teams with a department-best and MACCC-leading 3.79 team GPA to rank fifth nationally. The Lions previously earned NJCAA Softball Academic Team of the Year titles during the 2021 season and back-to-back in 2013 and 2014.

Head coach Billy Begley’s EMCC Lions, who captured men’s basketball conference tournament championships on the hardwood in 2022 and 2019, had previously ranked fourth nationally in the classroom during the 2019-20 academic year and 12th two years ago.

Under the tutelage of head coach Brett Kimbrel, EMCC’s baseball team established a program-best 3.57 team GPA to rank 10th nationally last season while also making a third consecutive postseason appearance on the diamond. The Lions have registered team GPAs of 3.27 or higher during each of the previous six seasons under Kimbrel’s leadership, including national academic rankings of seventh in 2021-22, 14th in 2020-21 and 19th two years ago.

Also having recorded program-best standards in the classroom for EMCC were head coach Isaiah Butler’s women’s basketball team, with a 3.55 GPA, and head coach Ashton Maddaloni’s men’s golfers, at 3.49, to rank 12th and 14th, respectively, among this year’s national academic team leaders.

Head coach Chris Rash’s women’s soccer team received NJCAA All-Academic team recognition by posting a 3.32 team GPA a year ago, while the EMCC men’s soccer squad just missed the coveted 3.00 mark with a 2.96 GPA.

Though not affiliated with the NJCAA or MACCC but instead members of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, head coach Morgan Goodrich’s 2023-24 men’s and women’s rodeo teams combined to record a collective 3.46 grade point average.

As a group among all student-athletes, including rodeo, East Mississippi’s sports teams combined to record a new department-best composite grade point average of 3.34 during the 2023-24 academic year.

Also headlining EMCC’s academic accomplishments this past school year were a school-record 68 recipients collecting NJCAA All-Academic Student-Athlete Award honors to top the previous mark of 49 individual honorees set the previous year.

Individually, of the school-record 68 recipients who were nationally recognized for their academic excellence during this past academic year, EMCC also posted a new standard with 27 student-athletes who were tabbed NJCAA All-Academic First Team for touting perfect 4.00 grade point averages in 2023-24.

EMCC also had 24 second-team, all-academic recipients for having GPAs between 3.80-3.99 as well as adding 17 third-teamers for posting GPAs between 3.60-3.79.

Highlighted by repeat academic first-team selections Trace Beard, Kylah Bell, Aiden Fancher, Coby Holmes and Brandon King with cumulative 4.0 GPAs during their EMCC career playing days, EMCC’s 27 NJCAA All-Academic First Team recipients (4.00 GPA) included: 11 in baseball (Jackson Crow, Fancher, Bishop Hardin, Holmes, King, Ryan Ladner, Ty Murphy, Riley Myers, Evan Radford, Jackson Rodgers and Jon Paul Yates); seven in football (Jordan Allen, Cole Arthur, Beard, Ty Crowell, DJ Hill-Smith, Marcus Ross and Luke Winstead); three in softball (Lana Atkins, Madelyn Cornelius and Morgan Mills); three in women’s basketball (Bell, Shalea Boddie and Je’Niecia Hill); two in women’s soccer (Asia Glass and Cindy Mendoza); and one in men’s golf (Haavard Haakensen).

EMCC’s 24 NJCAA All-Academic Second Team recipients (3.80-3.99 GPA) included: seven in softball (Brianna Byrd, Madalyn Dvorak, Carys Goodwin, Victoria Irby, Rachel Rommel, Layla Roper and Gail Wisher); four in baseball (Ayden Alsobrooks, Matthew Birdsong, Zac Butler and Chipper Moore); four in men’s basketball (Donovan Griffin, Phillip Hughes, Christian Noel and Nick Walker); four in football (Antreyvious Edwards, Mikel Hines, Jaylen Jennings and Tyrane Stewart); two in men’s golf (Lorenzo Ligabue and Walker Tedford); two in women’s soccer (Elizabeth Adesanya and Jaelyn Lust); and one in men’s soccer (Kaler Hill).

East Mississippi’s 17 NJCAA All-Academic Third Team honorees (3.60-3.79 GPA) included: five in baseball (Eli Basham, Hill Gainey, Gates Gerhart, Wyatt Johnson and Luke Sides); three in football (Devin Arrington, Colin Crowder and Tyrese Hopkins); three in men’s golf (Lane Goodman, Brian Ludden and Daniel Martin); two in men’s basketball (Tremaine Dixon Jr. and Sayerr Senghore); two in women’s soccer (Lyna Driouche and Skylar Flores); one in softball (Karen Wisher); and one in women’s basketball (Ramya King).