By Don Rush

At the end of July, Oxford High School Varsity Baseball Coach Dave Herrick received the good news; the 2022-23 Wildcats were named to the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Team Academic Excellence Award for the fourth consecutive year.

“It’s a great honor,” Herrick said. “The varsity team ended the year with a 3.68 GPA. We are one of 8 Michigan High Schools to earn this award.

The ABCA recognized nearly 800 member college and high school programs from across the country with the Team Academic Excellence Award. Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year’s award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members who have posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2022-23 academic year. According to the ABCA website, over 300 high school programs and more than 450 collegiate programs were recognized with this year’s award.

“They break the awards down by level — D1, D2, D3, NAIA, junior college, and high school,” Herrick said.

Criteria for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award include:

• Must be a high school or college team
• Head coach must be a current ABCA member
• Team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale during the 2022-23 academic year. GPA may not be rounded up.

“This award is very important to myself and the program,” Herrick said. “Each player in the baseball program is a student-athlete with the emphasis on student first. Being one of eight Michigan high school teams to earn this award is a tremendous honor for the players in the program. They take care of business in the classroom and on the field.”

The Wildcats have been awarded this each year starting with the 2019-2020 season.

“I am extremely proud of this year’s players for the diligent work they did. The whole group of players took their academics seriously,” Herrick said.

Players that earned academic awards in the 2022-2023 season were Academic All-district: Caden Bailey, Jay Cady, RJ Clark, Drake Krawczyk, Max Marsden; Bailey, Cady and Marsden also received Academic All-Region and All-State honors.

The 2022-2023 Wildcats ended the season with a 13-10 record.