LEXINGTON, Ky. - The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced today that the Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team has received the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2018-19 season for the 16^th year in a row.
 
The Golden Bears have earned the honor in each of their 16 seasons under head coach Brady Starkey. CSP is one of three schools at the NCAA Division II level, along with Wayne State (Neb.) and Findlay, to receive the award for 15 or more years consecutively.
 
This year, 1,125 teams have earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2018-2019 season. This number breaks the previous year's total of 977 to set an all-time high.
 
The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the school year by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.
 
The AVCA Team Academic Award is the single largest award offered by quantity of schools, players and coaches honored. Since the 2000-2001 season, the number of recipients has increased every single year but two, while more than doubling the total over the last eight academic years. Since the award's inception in 1993, the amount of award winners has increased from 62 to its current number of 1,125.
 
Girls high school led the way with 444 recipients, an increase of 86 over last year. NCAA Division I leaped ahead of NCAA Division III to bring in the second-most recipients adding 25 programs from a year ago for a total of 189. NCAA Division III is third with 175 (+2) while NCAA Division II is next with 141 (+13). One of the fastest growing sectors for this award is high school boys/collegiate men, notching a +10 increase for a total of 62 honorees. Collegiate beach is another fast-growing category with that area of the sport nearly doubling last year's total from 22 to 41.
 
Prior to 2018-2019, only 37 teams had attained the pinnacle of volleyball success in both earning the AVCA Team Academic Award and winning their respective collegiate national championship in the same academic year. This year, the AVCA is proud to recognize four programs that excelled in the classroom and on the court: Stanford University (NCAA Division I), Emory University (NCAA Division III), Park University (NAIA Women), and Coffeyville Community College (NJCAA Division II).
 
This also marks the third year honoring schools that have a minimum Team Academic Award streak of 15 years, and also for schools that scored the highest GPAs in their respective divisions. In order for a school to be awarded as an honor roll recipient, their division had to reach a minimum number of nominations. For NCAA Division I, II, III, and girls high school, their nomination number allows for a top-25 honor roll. For NAIA women, a top-10, with two-year college, collegiate men, collegiate beach, and high school boys garnering a top-5.
 
Over 1,000 different schools have earned the award in the program's 25-year history, with exactly 9,586 awards been given out in total.