Tennessee’s Achievements Worth Noting
By Mark Nagi
Any Tennessee fan can tell you that there was a long time when nothing seemed to go right.
Coaching changes, NCAA investigations, heartbreaking losses… when you are staring into the abyss, you can’t see the brightness ahead.
So, when the times are good (and yes, they are good), we should take a moment and recognize the successes in front of us.
Let’s start with academics.
Yes, academics. These are “student-athletes” after all. And while you can’t get 100,000 fans to show up to watch a chemistry experiment, making sure these kids get a solid start to their adult lives should be the top priority.
The Vols and Lady Vols just recorded the top performance in the classroom ever for a single semester in the history of Tennessee Athletics. The Spring 2023 semester saw UT student-athletes achieve a cumulative grade-point average of 3.38, besting their previous record of 3.32 which was set in Fall 2022.
For the first time ever, all 16 Tennessee sports earned a team GPA of at least a 3.0 Grade Point Average. This spring also marked the 21st consecutive semester in which the Vols and Lady Vols combined to post a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
“Our student-athletes strive to be the best in everything they do, and I could not be more proud of their achievement in the classroom,” said Tennessee Athletics Director Danny White. “To capture the All-SEC Sports title and then see these results academically speaks to their drive and determination to be elite.”
Speaking of that All-SEC Sports title, the Vols and Lady Vols were at the top of the conference standings, and the title of SEC All-Sports Champion went to UT for the second year in a row.
Tennessee’s football team finished ranked sixth in the country. Tennessee’s men’s and women’s basketball teams played their final games in the Sweet 16. Tennessee’s softball team was knocked out of the College World Series in the semifinals while the baseball team made it to the Super Regionals (at press time they were getting set to play at Southern Miss).
Softball arrived as a sport in Tennessee in the mid-1990s. Since then, the Vols and Lady Vols have never seen their teams from the five most high-profile sports each end the season amongst the top 16 nationally.
Until now.
Tennessee hadn’t been to the Women’s College World Series since 2015. They should be in a position to make more runs at Oklahoma City in the future.
“I am just so grateful for this team,” said Lady Vols head coach Karen Weekly after Tennessee was knocked out of the Women’s College World Series. “They are the kind of team you live to coach…. They have made this such a joyful year for me, for our staff, for each other… and all I feel tonight is gratitude that I got to spend the entire season with them. It’s gonna be really hard to let them go.”
“I’m a Tennessee native, grew up about an hour from Knoxville,” said Lady Vols pitcher Ashley Rogers. “Being able to represent my home state and the team I grew up cheering for has been a dream come true. I’m just so thankful that Karen took a chance on me… having that opportunity to wear Tennessee across my chest, I hope I did it with a lot of integrity. It has just been a dream come true. My father who passed away when I was 16 was the biggest Tennessee fan. He was laid to rest in a Tennessee shirt and has a Power T on his headstone. I just think that says the most about what Tennessee has meant to me.”
Tennessee has coaches, players and administrators in place that don’t see UT as a mere stepping stone. They are truly invested in the program.
And the results prove that point every day.
