Bridgeport’s Ashley Stevens received one of the top academic honors from the National Junior College Athletic Association recently after being tabbed a Pinnacle Award for Academic Excellence with a 4.0 GPA.
Stevens was just one of 171 NJCAA athletes to receive the highest honor of a 4.0 grade-point average.
Stevens was just one of three WNCC athletes that was honored with NJCAA Academic honors. Also earning national academic honors were volleyball players Morgan Broussard and Luiza Martins. Broussard, a Gering High graduate, earned Superior Academic Achievement with a 3.83 GPA, whole Martins earned Exemplary Academic Achievement with a 3.79 GPA.
To be considered an NJCAA academic all-American, student-athletes need to comply a 3.60 GPA or higher.
Besides the three individual honors, the WNCC women’s basketball and softball teams earned academic team honors. The women’s basketball team finished with a 3.15 GPA while the Softball team finished with a 3.28 GPA.
Stevens, who also earned a Phi Theta Kappa All-Nebraska Academic honor, said blessed to be recognized with academic honors.
“It just makes me ecstatic because I do put a lot of hard work into my school and into my basketball, and that it has paid off,” she said. “It is amazing to have the feeling of winning 2 region IX titles and it is an honor to have earned the 4.0 honor. Not everyone gets to experience that feeling.”
Broussard said to be recognized academically is a huge honor.
“It means a lot and being recognized for the hard work put into everything is great,” she said. “You know they always say, you only get out of it what you put into it. It takes a lot of dedication to be a student-athlete. Of course school is always first, but then once it’s time for practice that’s the new focus point. You don’t worry about how you did on a test or the paper you wrote; just volleyball.”
For both Stevens and Broussard, their two years at WNCC has been one of success.
Stevens led WNCC to back-to-back regional titles and solidified herself as one of, not only athletes, but students at WNCC. She said the academic honors come before the athletic honors.
“It means a lot that they acknowledge all the hard work we as students and athletes put into not only our athletics but also our school work,” she said. “We are students first then athletes. Being both a student and athlete there are lots of things a college student has to miss give up to be so successful in both.”
Broussard, who helped WNCC to it’s 15th straight Region IX tournament and national tournament appearance, is already at the University of Texas at San Antonio getting adjusted to the climate in the south and ready for the coming volleyball season. Broussard is hoping for the same type of success at UTSA that she accomplished at WNCC.
“I started training right away when I got here,” she said. “It’ll take sometime getting used to the climate change but I’m looking forward for our upcoming season and getting my new adventure started.”
Stevens, in the meantime, hopes to continue her academic and athletic success at her new school in Grand Junction, Colo. Stevens signed to play basketball at Colorado Mesa University and is excited for the new challenges. Stevens will team up with her Cougar teammate the past two years Laurin Rivera, who both signed to play at Colorado Mesa.
“I am very excited to continue on at CMU,” she said. “I think it is going to be more challenging both with academics and athletics. But I am up for the challenge and excited to see what this next year brings for me. And I’m really glad I get to play with Laurin for two more years.”
Overall, there were 1,799 student-athletes that earned Academic all-American honors out of over 58,000 that competed at the NJCAA level.