by Alisa Boswell

Eastern New Mexico University student athletes distinguished themselves as the best of the best once again in 2017 with the results of the Lone Star Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll being announced earlier this month.

The LSC announced that ENMU held the highest number of student-athletes with a 4.0 GPA. The final count included 330 students with a perfect GPA for the fall 2017 semester with 48 of those students being from ENMU. This was an increase from the spring 2017 semester when the Hounds placed third with 36 total students.

The LSC announced that 1,213 student-athletes earned the honor roll for the 2017 fall semester, with ENMU tying with UT Permian Basin for third place in the number of student-athletes on the honor roll.

The Commissioner’s Honor Roll is announced at the conclusion of the fall and spring semesters. To be eligible for the honor roll, student-athletes must have a minimum 3.30 GPA for the current semester.

ENMU student athletes have been prominent on the honor roll as far back as 2006 with a steady increase in the number of students ever since. In 2006, 22 softball players were listed on the honor roll, and 10 baseball players.

Those numbers have now increased to 12 students for softball and skyrocketed to 38 students for baseball.

ENMU baseball Coach David Gomez said when he and Assistant Coach Brett Merritt came on board five years ago, they asked themselves what they could do to encourage their student athletes to thrive in academics as well as baseball.

“We started doing a study hall and holding them to a 3.0 standard, and a lot of guys fought it for a few years, but everyone’s kind of bought in (now),” said Gomez. “I can give a lot of credit to Coach Merritt, because he’s the one who runs the study hall, but really, all of the credit goes to the kids, because they could use their time wisely or they could not, and they do a very good job of utilizing that time (wisely).”

“The numbers are staggering for the amount of kids we have on the list, not to mention how many 4.0 kids we have,” he added. “It’s been a joy to watch the kids respond to the high expectations, and now that we’ve set that standard, from them getting nationally honored last year and having one of the highest GPAs in the country for baseball, now we’re still rising to the occasion.”

Senior Zach Shank, 23, said his days usually start around 5:30 in the morning with an hour and a half work out followed by either his internship with the Athletic Department, class or both. Not to mention, he is a double major in criminal justice and health and physical education.

“After class, sometimes I’ll go to the baseball fields early and hit in the batting cages, then we have actual team practice at 3 o’ clock,” said Shank.
“I usually go to my girlfriend’s house for dinner. My girlfriend (Kelly) is really good at pushing me to do my homework,” he said, laughing. “I have a serious case of senior-itis right now, and I am just ready to be done, but I still have to get my work done.”

Shank said he has exercised good time management by getting off his phone and social media for a while and by sacrificing some personal time with friends to do homework.
“Definitely, it’s been worth it,” he said. “(But) There are plenty of other student athletes that are more deserving of being acknowledged for this accomplishment than I am.”

The women’s track team also had a staggering number of student athletes on the honor roll with 22 women listed.
Junior Kiana Covington, 20, and Senior Anna Parker, 20, both said that good grades are very important to them, because that is the main reason they are in college, and they are paying for an education, so “you might as well get the most out of it,” said Kiana.

Parker said luckily four of her five classes are online, and she can often work on homework while waiting on people in the tutoring office.
Her outlet is her relationships.

“Relationships are super important to me, so just investing in people and reaching out to people — that community is a good outlet for me,” she said.

Covington has a different style of coping.

“I find peace, just being alone, just chill time where it’s quiet. Just me and my dog in my room, I’m golden for a good, long time,” she said. “I think sometimes I just need a chill moment by myself, and that’s what gets me refocused.”