Cleveland Heights-University Heights Student-Athletes Improve Collective GPAs

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH - The district recently shared the average GPA for its winter and fall sports teams. The number are high, as you'll see below, and a big part of the school's success with student athletes can be traced to its new Athletic Director Dwight Hollins.

Hollins is a Cleveland Heights-University Heights Schools' alumni and a former basketball player with Xavier University and was briefly signed to a contract by the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. He was also the poster-child for student-athletes that were solely focused on the athlete portion of their title.

"I did not have the strongest GPA in high school," Hollins said. "I was told I was not good enough to play basketball at the next level. I used that as my motivation to prove people wrong."

Before attending Xavier, Hollins spent two years at Hilbert, a junior college near Buffalo, New York. He says it was at that school that he learned the system he is now mimicking at Cleveland Heights-University Heights Schools.

"It was there that the kinds of things that I’m doing now were done for me," he says. "The individuals there put me in a system of support."

What does a system of support mean? The answer is fourfold, really. Hollins says that there needs to be active participation from students, teachers, parents, and coaches.

First, the student portion. At an orientation meeting with parents and students, Hollins emphasizes the importance of the next four years. High school performance dictates your choice of colleges, which dictates much of your future success.

To get a scholarship from a Division I or Division II school, Hollins reminds the athletes, you need to have a strong GPA and ACT. Division III schools won't give full rides for athletic performance. Getting your grades to a safe place will assure your academic and athletic future.

"At the beginning of a student's 9th grade year, we communicate the importance of getting good grades early on in the process," Hollins says. "If they get As and Bs, it makes the following years easier. We set a GPA goal of 2.75 to 3.0. Next year we’ll bump it up to 3.0."

The GPA goal is not a requirement for student-athletes, it's a "desired GPA."

Then Hollins gets teachers to buy in. Students that are struggling will meet with tutors within the district to get help on their Achilles' Heel subject. Those meetings will occur every day after school for about an hour or so, he says.

Plus, the student-athletes will have their grades monitored on a weekly basis. They carry around eligibility sheets, which are signed off on by teachers and parents, and are submitted once a week to coaches and the athletic department.

Teachers have the chance to provide a weekly grade for a student's performance on the sheet, and fill-in comments that may be relevant to a student's performance. For example, if an athlete failed to turn in a paper in his English class, his teacher could note that, and his coach could stay on the student about turning in his missing assignment.

That's a way for coaches to get involved as well. The eligibility sheets gives coaches insight into what their student-athletes are doing in the classroom and it allows the coaches to enforce the importance of academic performance. With a looming "desired" GPA bump, coach's participation will be as important as ever.

Finally, there's the parents. Besides attending the initial orientation with their students, parents must also sign-off on a student's eligibility sheet before it is turned in to a coach at the end of the week. That means parents should always be aware of when their daughters or sons are neglecting their classroom work.

Hollins' system has been in place since July 2015, when he took over the position of athletic director.

"Once I got here, I decided I would implement something similar to [the Hilbert system]. I wanted out kids to have opportunities to be successful. I worked with faculty and coaches and the results have come in," he says.

Here's the district's sports team's GPAs for the year:

• Cheerleaders - 3.24
• Cross Country - 3.41
• Football - 2.53
• Golf - 3.24
• Boys Soccer - 3.30
• Girls Soccer - 3.86
• Girls Tennis - 3.75
• Volleyball - 2.88
• Boys Basketball - 2.83
• Girls Basketball - 3.41
• Bowling - 2.89
• Ice Hockey - 3.38
• Swimming - 3.88
• Wrestling - 2.42

Next year, the district will look to see across-the-board improvements from its sports teams as the desired GPA jumps from 2.75 to 3.0.

Photos from Cleveland Heights-University Heights Schools and Shutterstock