Wow, Wow, WOW!

 

Congratulations to our RLC Men's Basketball team for being named the NJCAA Academic Team of the Year!

 

 

Local News Report below 

 

BY PAUL HINES
SENTINEL SPORTS STAFF

 

INA - The Rend Lake College men's basketball team wrapped up their on court season several months ago, but recently gained national rec­ognition for their efforts off the court.

 

The Warriors compiled a 3.61 team grade points average. RLC earned the best men's basketball team GPA across the country for any National Junior College Athletic Association school. The Warriors were named NJCAA Academic Team of the Year. Teams across 29 different sports achieved the national honor. Six War­riors were named to the President's List while two made the Vice Presi­dent's List.

 

"It makes all of us feel good that the recruiting, and the things that were important to us as far as boxes checked," RLC coach Brian Gamber said. "They all did what we thought they were going to do, and they lived up to their end of the deal. And that's something we're just hopefully going to continue as the years go on."

 

The team consisted of Devan Ed­wards (President's List), Jackson Creel (President's List), Jacob Scha­degg (President's List), Dylan Harkins (President's List), Ian Reith (Presi­dent's List), Carson Prost (President's List), Cawhan Smith (Vice President's List), Race Rynski (Vice President's List), Terry Pelczynski, Kane Hixen­baugh and Joe Melton.

 

The members of the President's List achieved a 4.0 GPA while Vice Presi­dent's List members were in the 3.5-3.9 range.

 

 

RLC finished the season with a 14-14 overall record. The Warriors ended the year fifth in the Great Rivers Athletic Conference with a 6-7 mark. Rend Lake advanced to the Central District semifinal before losing to Parkland 61-60. Parkland later quali­fied for the national tournament. 

 

"I also want people to understand we were a really, really good compet­itive basketball team," Gamber said. "It's not like we won one or two games. We finished (fifth) in the GRAC. 

 

"We're right there. We swept Wa­bash, and we swept Olney Central. Then obviously in our region we split with Parkland, who was rated in the top 10 all year."

 

Gamber said his players showed focus during the year. Several times throughout the season a long evening road trip would be followed by class the next morning.

 

"They might have a lab or a test or whatever it is," Gamber said. "To have this kind of honor, it just goes to show you the guys that we have, and the guys that we're recruiting. And hope­fully the direction that we're going at Rend Lake."

 

The Warriors coach added the play­ers from the past season have set a high standard for future groups to aim at duplicating.

 

"We want to be competitive and win games," Gamber said. "At the same time we want to do things right, go to class, make good grades. And again this group that we had that just left, it's going to be tough to find a group that can consistently do the things that they did. They've obviously set the bar really high, but I think that's a great thing."

 

 

• Devan Edwards (President's List)
• Jackson Creel (President's List)
• Jacob Schadegg (President's List)
• Dylan Harkins (President's List)
• Ian Reith (President's List)
• Carson Prost (President's List)
• Cawhan Smith (Vice President's List)
• Race Rynski (Vice President's List)
• Terry Pelczynski
• Kane Hixenbaugh
• Joe Melton
President's List 4.0 Grade Point Average Vice President's List 3.5-3.9 Grade Point Average