The following excerpt from an article in the Ventura County (CA) Star tells of the academic, as well as athletic, success of the Grace Brethren High teams affiliated with the Grace Brethren Church of Simi Valley, CA (John McIntosh, pastor).
Ventura County teams winners in classroom, too
By Derry Eads,
April 12, 2006
Athletic championships aren’t the only CIF-Southern Section awards area student-athletes are bringing home to Ventura County.
They are winners in the classroom as well.
Fifty-three area sports teams qualified for the section’s academic awards program.
Oaks Christian and Camarillo had 16 and 15 teams honored, respectively, for their academic performances. Nine of Grace Brethren’s 11 sports teams made the grade scholastically.
To qualify for the CIF Academic Awards program, teams must have a minimum 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in college-prep courses in the first semester of the 2005-06 school year. There are divisions for schools with 1,500 or more students and one for 1,499 and below.
The nine team academic awards were the most won by Grace Brethren in a school year, said athletic director Terry Gourley.
“I thought the paperwork might take an hour or two,” said Gourley, “but it turned out to take longer because just about everybody was qualifying.
“It is awesome for our school. We have been trying to get the academics as challenging as the athletics.”
Grace Brethren was the only Ventura County football team to be honored academically.
A CIF-SS Division XI finalist last fall, the Grace Brethren football players maintained a 3.00 GPA.
“Next year, we have a chance to be the academic champion in football,” said Gourley.
