Softball Team Earns Academic Team Of The Year Honor From FCSAA
Miami Dade College’s softball team flexed its muscle on the field this season, winning 29 games.
The Lady Sharks proved to be just as potent in the classroom, boasting a 3.62 GPA and earning Female Academic Team of the Year honors from the Florida College System Activities Association, a distinction that was announced last week.
“We are going to push our student athletes to be successful in the classroom,” said Lady Sharks Head Softball Coach Gina De Agüero. “I am a firm believer of high academics and we have worked for it.”
In order to keep their academics on track, the softball team has its own study room at the Kendall Campus library. Players are required to spend six to eight hours a week in study sessions and additional tutoring is arranged on a per-need basis.
“At the end of the day, their academics come first,” De Agüero said.
In addition to the team award, Lady Sharks third baseman Raissa Bianco, who had a 4.0 GPA, was selected as the Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the FCSAA.
“[Our coaches] always put a lot of emphasis on us being student-athletes. It is proof that we can excel both in the classroom and [on] the field,” Bianco said. “All the work that everybody puts toward academics just shows that we did a good job.”
To qualify for the Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, athletes had to have earned 48 credit hours, registered a minimum 3.30 GPA and completed three full-time terms including at least one at an FCSAA institution. Athletic accomplishments and community service were also considered.
Bianco, who earned her associate’s degree in civil engineering from MDC in April, was selected as a 2020-2021 National Junior College Athletic Association All-Academic First Team member and was the most outstanding philosophy student at Kendall Campus this school year. Her community service includes work with the Lady Canes travel softball team, Live Like Bella Foundation and Special Olympics.
On the athletic field, she was named Southern Conference Player of the Year and FCSAA First team All-State. She had a .418 batting average, 46 RBI, 10 stolen bases, two home runs and a .562 slugging percentage.
Bianco received a scholarship to continue her studies in the engineering program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach. She will also resume her athletic career.
“I feel very happy and proud,” Bianco said. “It [shows that] all the hard work that I put into my education was worth it.”
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