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Fifty-Six Huskie Student-Athletes Earn Northern Illinois Degrees
May 11, 2010 DeKALB, Ill. - Forty-eight Huskie student-athletes earned their degrees from Northern Illinois University over the weekend, and by the end of the summer, 89 individuals who have worn the Cardinal and Black in 2009-10 will have become alums of NIU. The total number includes 33 December graduates and eight who will finish their undergraduate work this summer. Sixteen of Northern Illinois' 17 sports programs had at least one student-athlete graduate in 2009-10, led by 29 from the Huskie football program and 11 from women's soccer. Four men's basketball and five women's basketball players are among this year's graduates, and they join six men's soccer, five women's track and field, five women's tennis and four men's tennis student-athletes on this year's grad lists. Three members of the men's golf, volleyball and softball teams will finish the 2009-10 academic year with degrees and the roster of graduates includes two gymnasts, a wrestler and a cross country runner. "Our entire staff takes great pride in congratulating our 2009-10 student-athlete graduates," said NIU Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics Jeff Compher. "Achieving success in the classroom while competing in intercollegiate athletics takes a tremendous amount of discipline and hard work, and all of these graduates are to be commended. I'd also like to recognize the efforts of Francine St. Clair and our Student-Athlete Academic Support Services (SAASS) staff, who work so hard to keep the student-athletes on track to graduation." St. Clair also praised NIU's most recent graduates. "Congratulations to all of our spring and summer graduates," St. Clair said. "The end of the semester is always a proud and exciting time for our staff as another group of student-athletes leave NIU with their degrees in hand. While the success of our student-athletes in competition garners the headlines, it is their accomplishments in the classroom that will endure long beyond their playing days." For a few of the 2009-10 graduates, those college playing days have not ended. Among those seniors to be who graduated Saturday or will graduate this summer are football's Mike Sobol and Mike Krause, Sean Kowal, Marke Freeman and Bianca Brown of the Huskie basketball teams and golfers Andrew Frame and Tim Kay. They will take post-graduate and/or graduate courses while competing for the Huskies next year. Finally one individual on the spring graduates list -- Huskie quarterback Ryan Morris -- has the unique distinction of leaving NIU with not one, but two, degrees. Morris, a Carol Stream product who came to Northern Illinois as a walk-on before earning a scholarship, earned his MBA Saturday. The 2009-10 spring and summer student-athlete graduates represented 23 different majors, from organizational and corporate communications (11 graduates) to accountancy, finance, engineering, nursing, political science and art, among many others. The majors are listed next to each graduate's name below. NORTHERN ILLINOIS HUSKIES Click here to see NIU's December 2009 graduates. BASEBALL FOOTBALL MEN'S BASKETBALL MEN'S GOLF MEN'S SOCCER MEN'S TENNIS SOFTBALL VOLLEYBALL WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS WOMEN'S SOCCER WOMEN'S TENNIS WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
^Has eligibility remaining and will compete for NIU in 2010-11. -- NIU - Keep up with the latest on Northern Illinois sports, read "Huskie Happenings" daily on www.NIUHuskies.com. |