APR News

The overall academic performance of UH athletics is improving dramatically.

Student-athletes at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa have posted new all-time high scores in the NCAA’s Academic Performance Rate (APR), according to figures released today by the NCAA.

Every UHM team but one (Women’s Tennis) had a one-year score for 2007-08 that surpassed either its preceding one-year score or its four-year average. The upward trend is confirmed across the board. Only two UHM teams now have a four-year average below 925, Baseball and Men’s Basketball, both at 922, and of these, only Baseball will lose a fraction of a scholarship next year. These are also the two teams that posted the biggest single-year improvement, Baseball going from 892 to 991 in 2007-08, and Men’s Basketball going from 821 to 1000.

Jason Kaneshiro has some APR news about the football team.

The football program avoided penalties for the first time in four years and had a single-year score of 956 to jump to 935 in the multi-year score.

Nash and football coach Greg McMackin credited the academic staff (advisors Conred Maddox in basketball and Jennifer Matsuda, Trina Kudlacek and Sara Nunes-Atabaki in football) and cited an emphasis on summer school for contributing to the academic improvements.

With the football program moving above the multi-year benchmark of 925 for the first time, McMackin said the Warriors' freshman class posted a grade-point average above 3.0 last season.

"The APR is here to stay and it's something we have to take seriously," McMackin said. "We have to continue to get better and we're headed in the right direction."

The Advertiser has an article about the APR reports.

And Dave Reardon writes a column about it.

Hawaii hit a buzzer-beater, turned it around in the fourth quarter, won it in extra innings.

A glowing news release from UH gushed about "across the board" improvement in its Academic Progress Report.

There's room for more improvement, but the achievement is indeed significant, and timely.

Congrats to all!