Team on track for 10th top GPA award

The women’s tennis team is on track to win its 10th Herbert Cup, which honors the IU athletic team with the highest cumulative GPA during the fall 2012 semester. The team’s GPA was 3.69 during the semester, IU Coach Lin Loring said.

“We are incredibly proud of our women’s tennis program for all that they have accomplished on the court and in the classroom,” IU Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Fred Glass said in an email. “The Herbert Cup was created to honor academic excellence, and no team has exemplified this more than our women’s tennis program. We are proud that they have an exemplary championship tradition, but are even prouder of what they have achieved academically.”

According to the NCAA’s website, “a commitment to academics and student-athlete success in the classroom is a vital part of the NCAA’s mission to integrate athletics into the fabric of higher education. The NCAA pledges to help student-athletes achieve their academic goals as well as their athletic goals.”

In short, student athletes attend colleges to not only compete athletically at the next level but to continue their education and pursuit of knowledge.

In the fall of 2008, IU took the next step to recognize the “student” in “student athlete” when it created the Herbert Cup. It is awarded to the athletic team with the highest cumulative GPA. Adam Herbert was the president of IU from 2003-07, when he retired and President Michael McRobbie took over.

“It means a lot to us because the academics are what is going to carry on for the rest of their lives and that’s why the academic success of the team is always the No. 1 emphasis,” Loring said.

The IU women’s tennis team has won the Herbert Cup nine of the 10 semesters of the award’s history,including the past three.

“I think it’s a nice note and it really rewards the fact that we’re working hard and studying hard,” senior Leslie Hureau said. “Now it’s kind of the tradition so when new girls come on the team we joke with them, ‘OK, we’ve won the Herbert Cup, so if we lose it this semester it’s because of you.’ We don’t tell them that, but there are some expectations and I think it helps us and motivates us to study.”

Hureau said the Herbert Cup is a great reward and she looks forward to hopefully going to a basketball game where the team will be presented with the award.

“There’s not much of a social life in the spring because we play every single weekend and we have school,” she said. “You just have to have your priorities straight. Sometimes we study together, which really helps, and we just need to manage our time.”

Loring said the women’s tennis team doesn’t talk about the women’s academic goals because they are understood in the team’s culture.

“We always emphasize it when we’re leaving for a road trip or how much time we’re spending at the hotel in the evening for studying,” he said. “It’s always something that we’re considering.”