LSUA News Articles

LSUA Earns Second Straight Gold Five-Star Champions of Character Award

Sep 13, 2019, 11:44 AM
Congratulations to the LSUA student-athletes for their work outside the courts and fields.

For the second straight year, the NAIA named LSUA a Gold Level Five-Star Champion of Character Institution for the 2018-19 academic year, the only institution in the Red River Athletic Conference and state of Louisiana to earn the gold designation.

The NAIA grades its member schools and conferences each year for this honor, based off the NAIA's five Champions of Character core values, which are integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, & servant leadership. Playing highly into the criteria are the student-athlete GPAs and the lack of ejections during competition. For the second straight year, and second time in program history, LSUA earned a top level grade to garner the gold status.

"Truly, I consider this one of our proudest achievements as a department," said LSUA Director of Athletics Adam Jonson. "Earning this status is only possible through a dedicated effort by all coaches and student-athletes, as well as fantastic partnerships throughout campus."

Once again, LSUA student-athletes took part in numerous civic events around central Louisiana, including volunteering at the American Heart Association's annual Heart Walk, visited patients at local hospitals, worked various fundraising events for non-profits here in the CenLA area, and even did some volunteer coaching for local baseball and softball leagues.

"This is a great honor for LSUA Athletics and our university," said LSUA Interim Chancellor Dr. Paul Coreil. "These student-athletes make us proud everyday in the classroom, on the playing fields, and in the community. They live up greatly to moniker of Champions of Character. We are so proud of them and this is well deserved."

While other institutions from the RRAC and the state of Louisiana appeared on other levels, LSUA was the only one from its conference and the state to receive the NAIA's top character honor.