Lincoln Southeast volleyball team captures national academic honor

July 27, 2023

Lincoln Southeast volleyball players aced their academic tests this school year by securing a national award for their classroom work.

The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced July 13 that the Knights had earned the United States Marine Corps/AVCA Team Academic Award. Lincoln Southeast was one of just 38 high school volleyball teams in Nebraska to capture the honor. There were 284 high school volleyball programs in the state in the 2022-23 academic year.

Collegiate and high school volleyball teams had to maintain a yearlong cumulative grade-point average of 3.30 on a 4.0 scale to be eligible for the award. All varsity team members were included in the overall GPA. There were 14 students who participated in varsity volleyball at Lincoln Southeast this year.

Head coaches at Nebraska schools had to be members of both the AVCA and the Nebraska Coaches Association (NCA) in order for their teams to secure the honor. They also had to submit award eligibility paperwork to the AVCA by July 5.

Kara Graham, director of athletics and activities at Lincoln Southeast, said she was thrilled with the team’s achievement.

“A national honor is not only great for the volleyball student-athletes at Southeast High School, but promotes the great things happening in Lincoln Public Schools athletics,” Graham said.

Lincoln Southeast head volleyball coach Rob Huebner said he was pleased with the way the Knights excelled in both academics and athletics throughout the school year. He submitted an application and the academic accomplishments of each LSE player for consideration for the award.

“I am very excited about the team being recognized for their hard work in the classroom,” Huebner said. “Given it’s a national award it even gives them more attention for the hard work that they do on and off the court.”

Graham said she was proud of the Knights for maintaining strong focus in the classroom. Many team members were on the school’s honor roll this past year. They also took advanced placement (AP) classes, were National Honor Society members and were involved in many other school and community activities.

“An award like this is a great example of the value of education-based athletics,” Graham said. “Student-athletes at LSE take pride in demonstrating excellence on and off the playing field.
“Our volleyball student-athletes represent what it means to be a Knight. They model the correlation between success in sports and success in other areas of life. They are students first, and understand the importance of time management, hard work, community impact and how to balance school and sports in order to carry on the great tradition of excellence at Southeast High School.”

The AVCA honored 1,333 collegiate and high school volleyball teams with this year’s award. Male and female squads came from all sizes of high schools across the United States. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) programs also captured accolades with their work.

Nebraska Coaches Association officials will honor the Knights with their AVCA award on Tuesday, July 25, at the NCA Multi-Sports Clinic. The presentation will take place in front of volleyball coaches from across Nebraska at Lincoln North Star’s south gym.

Huebner told the Knights about the potential for the national award during the season last fall. He said players were determined to earn the honor and knew their concentration in the classroom could lead to a happy outcome. Their ace-level effort paid off in the form of national-scale recognition.

“The team works really hard in the classroom and it’s important to them that they have high grades and have high standards for themselves,” Huebner said. “They always put the classroom first, which I completely supported in taking time to get help from teachers on making up tests, etc.

“They really are the complete package in terms of student-athletes. I couldn’t be more proud of this group of young women."

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