More than 200 Student-Athletes Qualify
for ENMU Athletic Honor Roll in Fall 2004
Award Requires 3.0 GPA and 12 Hours during Semester

ENMU Athletic Honor Roll List for Fall 2004

PORTALES, N.M. — The athletic teams at Eastern New Mexico University had another outstanding semester in the classroom in Fall 2004, as a total of 202 student-athletes qualified for the ENMU Athletic Honor Roll. The Honor Roll recognizes individuals with at least a 3.0 grade point average (4.0 scale) and 12 or more hours during the semester. Each student was counted only once, although 12 student-athletes participated in two sports. An additional 23 students from the spirit squad and athletic training (25 total, but two also participated on athletic teams) qualified for the Honor Roll for a grand total of 225 award winners.

“We are very proud of the academic success experienced by our student-athletes,” said Mike Maguire, ENMU director of athletics. “Each semester, they excel in the classroom, as well as on the fields and courts in Lone Star Conference play. They represent ENMU very well, and give true meaning to the term ‘student-athlete’.”

The ENMU football team led the way with 54 athletes on the Honor Roll. Men’s soccer, in its first season of competition, had 19 players qualify for the Honor Roll, while baseball placed 18 players on the list. Women’s soccer, men’s track and field and women’s track and field each placed 16 players on the Honor Roll.

Ty Touchstone, a senior free safety on the ENMU football team, was named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America of the Year in 2004. He also was chosen First Team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America for the second year in a row, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Touchstone was named Second Team Academic All- America in 2002.

Touchstone was the only NCAA Division II player, and one of just 15 players overall, chosen as a National Scholar-Athlete for 2004 by the National Football Foundation. He will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship for receiving the award.

The fall semester also featured First Team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VI honors for Touchstone, as well as senior linebacker Jeff Howard, senior linebacker Courage Idemudia, senior defensive end B.J. Biggar and junior offensive guard Tyson Rush. Touchstone and Idemudia were named Academic All-District for the third consecutive season. Howard was chosen for the second year in a row. Biggar and Rush were named to the Second Team in 2003.

Also earning First Team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VI accolades were senior outside hitter Anna Bellum and senior libero Jessica Weeks from the volleyball team. Bellum was a First Team selection and Weeks was named to the Second Team. Laci Lee, a senior guard on the women’s basketball team, recently was named Second Team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VI for the second consecutive season. Additional players in spring sports may earn similar honors later this year.

ENMU supplied five of the 11 players named to the LSC South All-Academic Football Team. Touchstone was chosen LSC South Academic Athlete of the Year. He was joined on the LSC South All-Academic Team by senior linebacker Jeff Howard, senior linebacker Courage Idemudia, senior defensive end B.J. Biggar and junior offensive guard Tyson Rush in voting by the LSC South sports information directors. Touchstone was named to the All-Academic Team for the third consecutive year, while Howard and Idemudia were chosen for the second year in a row.

The five football players named to the All-Academic Team were joined by seven other Eastern players on the LSC South Commissioner’s Honor Roll. In volleyball, Bellum and Weeks were named to the LSC South All-Academic Team, and were included with four other ENMU players on the Commissioner’s Honor Roll. In cross country, Ricardo Hernandez was chosen for the LSC South All-Academic Team for the second year in a row. He also qualified for the Commissioner’s Honor Roll for the second straight year.