Two CSU teams post perfect four-year Academic Progress Rates

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Colorado State men's golf coach Christian Newton has always placed a premium on education.

Stemming from his upbringing and highlighted in his time at Georgia Tech, where he worked under a mentor who stressed the classroom, Newton carried that culture with him to Fort Collins when hired in 2012. He notes his Master's degree opened the door to his coaching career, now into his 15^th season.

"The original thing to me is, we make the academic component, the classroom, we just make it a priority," Newton said. "Our guys definitely know that stuff matters and we care about it. I've had awesome academic coordinators for our student-athletes ever since I've been here, and we've just set the bar and the priority that all this stuff mattered equally, that the golf, the academics and the character mattered equally."

The result: Newton coaches one of two programs at Colorado State which were highlighted by the NCAA on Wednesday as top-10 academic performers percentagewise in their sport nationally for the 2017-18 calendar. Men's golf and women's swimming and diving reached the standard by posting perfect Academic Progress Rates for a four-year period.

APR is calculated by teams receiving one point for each student-athlete receiving financial aid who remains academically eligible and a point for each who remains enrolled at school. Team points are divided by the total possible points and then multiplied by 1,000 to equal the rate. The rolling four-year APR is used to determine accountability, and teams falling below the 930 threshold are not allowed to compete in NCAA championship events.

This is the fifth consecutive season swimming and diving coach Christopher Woodard's team has hit a perfect APR score. He's not sure his crew understands what APR represents, but they are competitive when it comes to grade-point average.

"As far as the APR, I don't know if they pay as close of attention to that," he said. "They definitely look at the GPA, how many of our kids are a 4.0. I think they take a huge amount of pride in that. Their goal is always let's try to beat men's cross country, and I tell them that's difficult, but let's shoot for it.

"The APR, I think they take pride in that, but I don't know if they get into the minutiae of what that means. Our staff takes a sense of pride in that."

Newton has seen his team's GPA improve each of his seven seasons, progressing beyond the 3.20 range. The expectation has been set to a point he no longer feels he needs to constantly remind his roster.

"What we did was we just set the standard a long time ago, and all the sudden it just became what you do. When I first came here it was not what you did and it was not the cool thing to do," Newton said. "Now, we've set the culture, this is what you do. Now all the younger guys do what all the older guys do. It's all-encompassing, coach cares about it. I don't put a lot of pressure on them, but they know I care and I keep track of it pretty close."

Woodard finds himself in the same position. He doesn't have to prod his team to go to class or keep up with school work. Besides, with a group of high performers, an unnecessary anxiety can be created. It factors into his recruiting process, understanding an honor-roll student in high school can have trouble adjusting to the rigors of college.
Yet, the team's GPA sits around 3.30 without any coaxing, as even on the toughest of days Woodard sees his team studying.

"They'll be in the airport breaking out the books," he said. "Even after conference, when everyone is dead tired and the next morning we have a 6 a.m. departure and they have two hours in the terminal, they're busting out books and doing homework."

On May 8, the NCAA will release the yearly and four-year APR scores for each program.

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