Aniecia Brewster
MC Practicum/Staff Writer
The Jackson State University Division of Athletics held its fourth annual Breakfast of Champions event to honor its scholar student-athletes who earned at least a 3.0 grade point average through the summer of 2015.
A total of 140 Tigers were recognized during the breakfast ceremony held on Feb. 11 held in the JSU Student Center Ballrooms A & B.
Genese Lavalais, associate athletic director for academics, began the Breakfast of Champions to honor student-athletes who succeed not only on the field of play but also in the classroom academically.
President Carolyn W. Meyers was in attendance to honor the student-athletes at the ceremony as well.
This ceremony also gives student-athletes the opportunity to present awards to the coaches and administration for job well done.
Breakfast of Champion keynote speaker, Steven Smith, director of JSU Alumni and Constituency Relations, is a three-time graduate of Jackson State University, earning his bachelor’s, in mass communication, master’s in education administration and supervision and a Ph.D. in educational leadership and supervision.
Javancy Jones, a junior physical education major from Macomb, Miss., has been honored at the Breakfast of Championship for three years straight. This year, Jones was a member of the panel and had the opportunity to speak about commitment to JSU Division of Athletics.
“It’s an honor that I take pride in by being on the panel. Just to be apart of the breakfast of champions, whether I’m on the panel or not, is a great blessing. I encourage people to just keep pushing to be apart of something great. Mind over matter, if it don’t matter then it don’t mind,” said Jones.
Student-athletes from each of JSU’s 18 sports teams were represented on the cereal box. The team breakdown is as follows: Baseball (9), Men’s Basketball (1), Women’s Basketball (9), Bowling (5), Football (33), Men’s Golf (4), Women’s Golf (7), Women’s Soccer (19), Softball (12), Men’s Tennis (10), Women’s Tennis (4), Men’s track (8), Women’s Track (14) and Volleyball (6).
Of the 140 student-athletes, 6 recorded a perfect 4.0 GPA, 57 finished between the 3.5-3.99 range and 77 recorded between 3.0-3.49. Each student-athlete received a commemorative Wheaties Breakfast of Champions cereal box with the group picture of the scholar athletes.
JSU athletics hopes to continue to see the numbers of scholar athletes grow in coming years.
