OCC athletes posted combined 2.83 GPA

The 431 student-athletes who earned letters in 22 sports at Orange Coast College during the 2006-07 school year recorded a combined grade-point average of 2.83.

Pirates athletes in 12 men’s sports and 10 women’s sports helped the school win the Pepsi Cup, awarded to the top athletic program in the state by the Commission on Athletics and the National Alliance of Two-Year College Athletic Administrators.

OCC won state titles in women’s volleyball, women’s cross country and men’s swimming and diving. The Pirates also claimed Orange Empire Conference championships in men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s volleyball, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, as well as women’s tennis.

Coach Janice Maran’s women’s tennis team topped the list with a combined GPA of 3.26 (on a 4.0 scale).

Men’s swimming and diving (3.17), women’s basketball (3.09), men’s tennis (3.04), and men’s water polo (3.04) all topped the 3.0 mark typically associated with a B average.

The remaining sports, in descending order: women’s swimming and diving (2.99); men’s crew (2.97); women’s soccer (2.95); women’s crew (2.91); men’s track and field (2.89); baseball (2.85); men’s volleyball (2.81); women’s water polo (2.80); women’s track and field (2.79); women’s volleyball (2.78); women’s cross country (2.71); men’s soccer (2.58); men’s golf (2.54); softball (2.49); football (2.41); and men’s basketball (2.39).

“We are extremely proud of our athletes,” OCC Athletic Director Barbara Bond said. “They’ve demonstrated that they can get the job done on the field and in the classroom.”

OCC is the only community college in Orange County that makes public its athletes’ GPAs.

“Publicly announcing our team GPAs makes our coaches and athletes far more aware of the real reason they’re here,” Bond said. “It helps our students to realize that we care about how they’re doing in the classroom. It also creates a competitive atmosphere among our athletic teams, and that’s positive for everyone involved.

Since OCC started compiling team GPAs 18 years ago, they have hovered between 2.75 and 2.9, Bond said.

OCC athletes were enrolled in an average of about 13 units during their semester of competition.

— From staff reports