Six Pima College athletic programs named NJCAA Academic Teams of the Year

Pima Community College rolled out six athletic programs as NJCAA Academic Teams of the Year from the 2019-20 season, which was announced on Thursday. 

The Aztecs' mark of six teams — women's basketball, women's soccer, men's cross country, men's basketball, volleyball and baseball — is the most in Pima College history. Pima College's women's basketball team, which also won the Region I Division II championship, held a team GPA of 3.36, the highest among NJCAA Region I programs.

“I couldn’t be prouder of this team and everything they accomplished this year,” Pima women’s basketball coach Todd Holthaus said in a press release. “Region champs, earned a trip to Nationals and the cherry on top is to be an NJCAA Academic Team of the Year. A very special group of young women." 

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Pima's women's soccer had the second-highest GPA (3.31), followed by men's cross country (3.23), men's basketball (3.09), volleyball (3.07) and baseball (3.05). 

“This is as important as winning a national championship, we’ve never had this many teams earn NJCAA All-Academic. It’s incredible,” said Pima athletic director Jim Monaco. “I think everyone looks at this and says we can be better. Our goal is that every student-athlete has the opportunity to graduate. This goes to show how hard athletes and coaches work and how much comradery there is in the tutoring and learning centers. The teachers and instructors are excited about having our athletes; no more than any regular student. This is a big positive for our educational institution as a whole.”