During the spring of 2006, the semester grade point average for all Rider student-athletes was a best-ever 3.0, compared to the 2.92 grade point average for Rider’s non-student-athlete population. Fifty-three percent of Rider’s student-athletes received a 3.0 or better grade point average.

“We are extremely proud of the academic performance of our teams,” said Don Harnum, Rider Director of Athletics. “It is a credit to our coaches for recruiting quality student-athletes, to the efforts of the students, and a testament to the dedication of everyone involved in the area of academic support at Rider."

Rider’s male athletes compiled a 2.81 GPA last semester, the second best ever. Seventy percent of Rider’s female athletes compiled a 3.0 or better, and the women compiled a best-ever 3.22 GPA as a group, as the softball and track & field teams recorded best-ever GPAs.

The softball team placed 10 players on the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference All-Academic team. “Having 10 members of the team honored is pretty impressive,” said head coach Tricia Carroll, who has guided the Broncs to the MAAC playoffs in three of the past four seasons. “It is a true testament to these kids and how hard they work. They are true ‘student-athletes’.”

In the fall of 2004 Rider volleyball coach Emily Ahlquist was named the MAAC Coach of the Year. In the spring of 2006, her team compiled a 3.62 grade point average, the highest semester GPA ever recorded at Rider, to earn the Game Plan/American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award.

“This past year the team’s grades reflect that the student-athletes are students first,” said Ahlquist. “We strive to do our best in the classroom and in the gym, and we surpassed our classroom goals this year through hard work. I am very proud of what the student-athletes have done the past year, in and out of the classroom." All 10 volleyball players compiled a GPA of 3.00 or better last semester.

The field hockey team won the Northeast Conference regular season title in the fall of 2005, while recording the highest GPA of the 20 Rider varsity teams (3.28). In the spring of 2006 the field hockey team compiled a team GPA of 3.47, the third highest ever at Rider, and nine team members were named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division I National Academic Squad.

This winter the National Wrestling Coaches Association honored both the Rider wrestling team and graduating senior Joe Maroney. Maroney, who graduated from Rider in just three years as a biology major after qualifying for the 2006 NCAA Nationals, was named the Colonial Athletic Association Scholar Athlete of the Year for wrestling, and was one of 68 wrestlers to be named a NWCA Academic All-American. Rider, as a team, was ranked 18th in the nation with a team grade point average of 2.93.

The men’s track and field team finished runner-up in both the indoor and outdoor MAAC championships, and recorded its best semester team GPA ever (2.94). “We are extremely proud of our student-athlete’s work in the classroom,” said Rider track & field coach Rob Pasquariello. “We emphasize academics first from the time we start the recruiting process, and this past semester's results are extremely edifying to me and my staff. We consider ourselves educators first, and foremost, and the GPAs recorded confirm that we are being heard and making a difference.”

Rider’s Student Transitional Education Program (STEP) provides individual and group tutoring, as well as study tables, coordinates progress reports and monitors the student-athlete’s academic progress, while providing workshops on such topics as library skills, test taking and note taking. It appears to be working.

“For both the men and women, there was a dramatic decline in the percentage of student-athletes with a semester GPA below 2.0,” said Dr. Jonathan Husch, Rider’s Faculty Athletics Representative. “I believe this is a testament to the ongoing efforts of all department of athletics academic support personnel in assisting our academically at-risk student-athletes. They include (associate athletic director) Chet Dalgewicz, (academic support coordinator) Sonya Hurt, (director of Rider Learning Center) Kendall Friedman, the coaches, and the entire staff of the University’s Education Enhancement Program.”

In all, 75 Rider student-athletes earned MAAC All-Academic Team honors for the 2005-06 academic school year.

“Our student-athletes work really hard on and off the field and it shows,” said Hurt. “The success of our student-athletes in the classroom speaks volumes about the homework our coaches do when recruiting the best students for Rider University. I applaud our student-athletes and coaches for a job well done.”

“This is a story not often heard about Division I athletics and we should all be extremely proud,” said Husch. “It is academic results like this that allow us to say with all honesty, ‘We do Division I right’."