Players honored for GPAs

A surprise package arrived in the mail Wednesday addressed to the Laguna Beach High athletic department.

It came from the State CIF office in Alameda, and when Mike Churchill opened it and unfurled its contents, the gift made him proud.

That package contained a banner that recognized the Laguna Beach football team as having the highest collective team grade-point average in its sport among all California schools.

The Breakers had a collective team GPA of 3.51.

Laguna was one of 27 State Academic Awards team champions — 10 of those team champs were from the Southern Section — honored by the State CIF for the 2007-08 school year.

The CIF Academic State Championships, formerly known as the Scholastic State Championships, started in 1996.

The award was the first such honor bestowed on the program, Churchill said.

“It was unbelievable to read what was on that banner,” Churchill said Wednesday, not too long after the package arrived on campus. “Just think about how rare this is. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, really. The kids should be extremely proud.”

In addition, Laguna’s football team and its girls’ swim team were CIF-Southern Section academic team champions, as well in their respective sports for schools with a student body enrollment of 1,499 and below.

To be considered for an Academic Award, teams must have had a minimum cumulative GPA on a scale of 4.0 in all courses in the first semester of the 2007-08 school year.

The highest team GPA in each sport determined the winner.

The first-place teams in the Southern Section received banners to commemorate their achievement, and all teams who participated in the Academic Awards program received Academic Award certificate for their student athletes.

Churchill said all of Laguna’s varsity sports teams qualified for the minimum 3.0 standard, and the girls’ golf team (second place), coached by Val Quigley, girls’ water polo team (third place), coached by Chad Beeler and Ethan Damato, and boys’ cross country team (third place), coached last fall by Dave Brobeck , earned top-five academic standings in their respective sports in the Southern Section.

“This award is very prestigious,” he said. “It is an indicator of the perspective that our athletes, teachers and parents have on developing the total child. We are proud of the over 60% of our pupils who participate in athletics at Laguna Beach High School.“

Football coach Jonathan Todd said he was well aware of his team’s collective academic prowess early in the school year.

“I knew we had a good chance of finishing high because so many of our kids are really strong academically,” he said. “We do grade checks regularly, and I always would think, ‘My goodness, our team GPA is really up there.’ Academics is definitely one of our program’s top-11 core values.

“I think the team’s success in the classroom has a lot to do with this school and its teachers. Assistant coach Scott Wittkop and I have really stayed on top of the grades of our kids. Our team is pretty academically motivated, and that puts a good kind of peer pressure on everyone on this team to do well in the classroom.

”More than anything, I really appreciate Mike Churchill for pushing this through for consideration.”

Like Todd, Beeler, who coached the girls’ swim team this year, knew how keen members of his girls’ swim team were when it came to achieving in the classroom.

“I just think that this was a very smart and talented team (this year),” said Beeler of a squad that last month won an Orange Coast League championship. “We also have a group of parents that encourages academics. These parents really need to pat themselves on the back for how they’ve motivated and encouraged their kids to do well academically while still pursuing sports.”

The Academic Awards program is sponsored by the Anaheim Angels and Toyota. Southern Section team winners were honored in a pregame ceremony before an April 29 Angels game.

MIKE SCIACCA covers sports. He can be reached at (949) 494-4321 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.