Ventura College student athletes excelled once again in the classroom in 2022-23, achieving an overall 3.29 grade point average in the fall and following that up with a 3.19 overall GPA in the spring semester. A total of 108 Pirates achieved a 3.5 GPA or higher, earning mention on the Dean's List in the fall 2022 term while taking in 12 or more units of study, with 53 student athletes recording a perfect 4.0 GPA. In spring 2023, 110 VC student athletes were named on the Dean's List with 45 posting perfect GPA's. Overall, all 17 of 19 VC teams had above a 3.0 GPA in the fall, and 14 squads repeated that success in the spring.
Women's cross country, coached by Martin Maciel, led five teams over 3.5 overall in the fall, with coach Brad Lyan's beach volleyball student athletes earning a combined 3.536 mark. Men's tennis, under the direction of Nelson Emery, had a 3.532 overall GPA in the fall, followed by Mary Giles' women's swimming and diving team at 3.527 and Ned Mircetic's women's basketball team at 3.510.
In the spring, Emery's men's tennis (3.664) and women's tennis (3.601) teams led the way for VC athletics in the classroom. Softball (3.472), coached by Tisha Duran, women's cross country and women's swimming rounded out the Pirates' Top-5 programs academically.
The Pirates' women's basketball and tennis teams, along with the men's tennis and baseball teams received national recognition for their academic achievement by their respective national coaches associations.
VC football again ranked near the top of the Southern California Football Association's Scholar-Athlete Team with 24 student athletes honored.
All told, Ventura College registered 326 student athletes in the fall semester, each taking an average of 12.3 course units each while 314 student athletes carried an average load of 13.1 units in the spring term.
Ventura College Athletics has long been a champion of academic achievement among its student athletes. Many Pirate programs have earned state and national honors for their work in the classroom, and VC has had 40 California Community College Athletic Association State Scholar Teams since the award was created in 1996, a state record. VC has had at least one team honored academically by the CCCAA each year for the 21 years minus the Covid year of 2020-21.
Please see the complete lists of 2022-23 VC Athletics' Dean's List honorees below.