Central Catholic Earns Second-Straight ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award

Central Catholic baseball program has earned the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award for a second-straight year. The Fighting Irish are one of only 10 programs in the state to be recognized.

“I’m very proud of our program to earn this great award for a second-straight year,” said Head Coach Jeff Mielcarek. “It has become an annual goal for us.”

Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year's award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2020-21 academic year. Over 200 high school programs and more than 380 collegiate programs were recognized with this year's award.

Coaches were able to nominate their teams for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award following the conclusion of their spring semester. To be honored, teams had to meet the following criteria:

·       Must be a high school or college team

·       Head coach must be a current ABCA member

·       Team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale during the 2020-21 academic year

The American Baseball Coaches Association has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. The ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams are the nation's oldest, founded in 1949, and the ABCA's awards program also includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-America Awards, the ABCA/ATEC Regional & National Coaches of the Year and several other major awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award.

This past spring, CCHS posted a 15-11 overall ledger and captured its first district championship since 1990. Individually, 11 members of the team were named to the Academic All-Three Rivers Athletic Conference squad.