Athletics
SBU Bearcat Athletics #52 In Nation
By
May 27, 2008, 15:18

BOLIVAR, Mo. – The SBU Bearcats have reached their highest place ever in the Division II U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup Standings and rank in top 25% of all Division II schools.

NCAA Tournament play from men's basketball, women'st basketball, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, and golf has propelled SBU to the #52 spot in the Division II U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup Standings, which is SBU’s best ranking in school history. In fact, SBU only cracked the top 100 for the first time on April 3, when both basketball teams were invited to the national tournament.

SBU’s Director of Athletics, Brent Good, points back to a key meeting with Dr. Renae L. Myles earlier this season. As a result of that meeting, Good set a department-wide goal regarding Directors’ Cup.

“To be honest, this was something we tracked, but very loosely,” said Good. “Earlier this year at a full staff meeting, I was talking about our enrollment goals, our academic goals, and our graduation rates. But I wanted to send a message to our staff that winning really mattered here at SBU. We researched the Directors’ Cup, and learned that SBU had never been in the top 100, so that became our department-wide goal. Last week, before I knew the results of this latest poll, I sent an e-mail to our coaches congratulating our teams on great seasons. At the end of the e-mail, I reminded them of our goal of the ‘top 100’ of the Directors’ Cup. When I learned that we were #52 in the nation, I was very excited.”

“It’s a testament to our student-athletes, our coaches, and our athletics’ administration,” said SBU’s Assistant Director of Athletics for Academic Support and Senior Woman Administrator, Dr. Renae L. Myles. “This says that we are a program on the rise. We’re seeing a lot of ‘firsts’ here at SBU. Our women’s tennis team, for example, just became the first female team at SBU to win an MIAA Championship. As an administration team, one of our goals is to put our coaches in the best possible position to be successful. It’s rewarding to see us getting recognized for our success.”

“It’s just been a great year,” continued Good.  "And this poll doesn’t even include some of the great individual accomplishment’s (All-American honors) we’ve had in other sports. And I must take my hat off to our golf team. They are a regular in the NCAA Tournament."

The final Division II U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup Standings will be released on June 11, 2008.

For a complete list of the standings, please visit this link: http://nacda.cstv.com/directorscup/nacda-directorscup-current-scoring.html