Wahine softball, volleyball perfect

Hawaii women ace the NCAA Academic Progress Rate for the 2005-06 school year

When it comes to perfect games, the Hawaii softball pitching staff had five last season. The Rainbow Wahine also had a perfect score when it came to the NCAA Academic Progress Rate for the 2005-06 school year, one of two UH teams to achieve a 1,000 when the national APR was announced yesterday.

Also scoring 1,000 was the Wahine volleyball team. All 21 UH sports scored above 900. Football, which lost five scholarships last year, will lose one this coming season due to an ineligible player who did not return to school.

The APR was established by the NCAA in the 2003-04 academic year to encourage improved academic performance and support, and examine admissions, retention and graduate rates of athletes on scholarship.

"That is something I am proud of, because that is something we work really hard at," Wahine softball coach Bob Coolen said yesterday. "The APR is a lot of things. One, you have to be satisfied that you're going to the University of Hawaii. Two, you have to stay eligible. Three, you have to want to graduate."

"We've been fortunate to get good students who really like it here in Hawaii and whose ultimate goal in coming here is to graduate," Wahine volleyball coach Dave Shoji added. "And they have (graduated)."

Jenny Matsuda, head academic advisor for the athletic department, said the success is owed to a combination of factors, including making sure freshmen start off in the right academic frame of mind, good role models among the athletes themselves and "a lot of support from the coaches."