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GATESVILLE – Members of the Gates County High School baseball team excelled on and off the field during the recently completed 2024 season.

The Barons, champions of the Four Rivers Conference, were recognized by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) for earning the Team Academic Excellence Award.

Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year’s award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the cumulative 2023-24 academic year.

“Please help me in congratulating your 2024 conference champions in earning one more accolade for the 2024 baseball season,” said GCHS head baseball coach Jacob Harrell. “The GCHS baseball team received the Team Academic Excellence Award from the ABCA! This makes consecutive years in which the baseball team has received this award.”

Members of the GCHS squad whose work in the classroom led the team to this national recognition are as follows:

James Rountree

Zach Stewart

Justin Powell

William Clarke

Owen Stallings

Trent Harrell

Lyric Pittman

James Riddick

Conner Rhodes

Jacob Nichols

Jacob Ross

Thomas Pierce

Jack Greene

Sean Rountree

Blayden Miller

Kent Askew

Tyler Cabral

The ABCA noted that nearly 350 high school programs and more than 470 collegiate programs across the nation were recognized with this year’s award.

Coaches were able to nominate their teams for the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award following the conclusion of their spring semesters prior to the nomination deadline of July 11. To be honored, teams had to meet the following criteria:

Must be a high school or college team;

Head coach must be a current ABCA member; and

Team must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 on a 4.0 scale for the 2023-24 academic year;

The American Baseball Coaches Association has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes. The ABCA/Rawlings All-America Teams are the nation’s oldest, founded in 1949, and the ABCA’s awards program also includes the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Awards, the ABCA/ATEC Regional & National Coaches of the Year and several other major awards such as the ABCA Hall of Fame and the Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award.