Baseball team awarded for academic excellence

The Quakertown Community High School baseball team is again receiving national recognition for its success in the classroom. The Panthers received the American Baseball Coaches Association’s 2020-21 ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, which recognizes college and high school programs from across the country that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale for the entire 2020-21 academic year. More than 200 high school programs and 380 collegiate programs were recognized with this year’s award.

In Bucks County, only Quakertown and Central Bucks West qualified for the award.

“This was a difficult year for the guys, but we were excited to be able to play baseball again,” QCSD baseball coach Jonathan Pallone said. “Each year we make it a goal to earn this award and we emphasize that ‘student’ comes first in ‘student-athlete’. Our guys are not perfect, but watching their improvement in the classroom is as fulfilling as it is on the field.”

Superintendent “Dr. (Bill) Harner has always preached the ‘3 As’ (Academics, Arts, and Athletics) since coming to Quakertown and we embrace two of those,” he said.

Mr. Pallone’s squad also qualified for the award for their academic success during the 2018-19 school year.

Dr. Harner said he’s “thrilled” that the district’s coaches “emphasize academics as part of their work with students.” He also noted that students participating in sports and other extracurricular activities more often than not have higher grades in season than not.