Congratulations to all nine Garden City High School fall varsity teams who have been recognized as New York State scholar-athlete teams. The girls' field hockey team, with an awesome 96.3 combined grade point average, was named a New York State champion scholar-athlete team.

The administration and Board of Education honored the scholar-athletes at the Jan. 26 Board of Education meeting. Dr. James Tolle, past president of NYSPHSAA, presented the state championship banner to the Garden City High School girls' field hockey team.

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association, Inc. (NYSPHSAA) is the state organization which governs interscholastic athletic competition in New York. One program the NYSPHSAA oversees is the Team Scholar-Athlete Award. This program honors varsity level high school teams which are not only athletically gifted but that are academically gifted. In brief, the award sets an academic standard of a grade point average (GPA) of 90 percent or above. Depending on the type of sport, the number of players making up the group varies. It is usually the number of players it takes to field a starting team, plus one. For example, a football team must have 12 scholar-athletes with a 90 GPA or above to qualify. Only high school varsity teams are eligible for the program. Awards are given in each sports season: fall, winter and spring.

Congratulations to all the scholar-athletes on this extraordinary accomplishment. We applaud your academic excellence and athletic abilities.

Below are the names of the team members on the field hockey team who qualified for the State Championship Award:

Gillian Groarke, Lauren Seery, Michelle Boudart, Mary Beth Hogan, Ciara McFeely, Katie Boudart, Allison Wess.

The Scholar-Athlete Team Awards were presented to: