On Thursday, the East Coast Conference (ECC) announced their 2021 academic award honorees. St. Thomas Aquinas College Baseball player Andrew Jemison and Women's Tennis player Ayesha Burnett were selected as their individual sports' Scholar-Athletes of the Year.
Baseball – Andrew Jemison: Jemison earns the Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor after helping the Spartans to an ECC Regular Season Championship and an at-large berth in the NCAA Championship. A First Team All-Conference pick, he finished the 2021 season with a .367 batting average, 14 extra-base hits, and 28 runs batted in. In the classroom, Jemison has posted a 3.94 GPA as an Exercise Science major and was the ECC Baseball Elite 19 recipient.
Women’s Tennis – Ayesha Burnett: Burnett, also the 2021 ECC Women’s Tennis Elite 19 recipient, earns the Scholar-Athlete honor as well. On the court, she finished with a 9-3 singles record, as she helped the Spartans to their first-ever ECC Regular Season Title. In the classroom, she has compiled a 3.88 GPA as an Accounting major.
All ECC Scholar-Athlete of the Year recipients hold at least a 3.30 GPA, are a starter or key reserve and have reached at least sophomore standing both athletically and academically.
With athletic performance one of the criteria for earning Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the ECC only awarded the honor for sports that competed during the 2020-21 academic year.