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Standing Tall: Shorter lays claim to best Georgia sports year ever
By Matt Green
ROME -- Any way you look at it, Shorter University's 2011-12 athletic year was phenomenal. It could even be the best ever among all universities and colleges in the athletics-rich state of Georgia.
Three team national championships, three coaches recognized as National Coach of the Year, five individual national champions and five other top five national finishes -- those accomplishments along could have made this year special for one of the smallest schools in the state that also sponsors an intercollegiate athletic program.
What made 2011-12 historic, however, was Shorter's No. 2 ranking in the final standings of the NACDA Learfield Sports Directors' Cup.
The annual Directors' Cup rankings rate the nation's intercollegiate athletic programs based on each institution's national finish in their classification for up to 12 sports -- six men's and six women's.
While programs from the University of Georgia and Emory University have also finished in the runner-up position, no other Georgia university has ever come as close to winning the Cup as Shorter did this past year. The verdict: the Hawks can lay claim to having enjoyed the very best year ever by any athletic program in the state of Georgia.
Shorter became the fourth Georgia institution to finish as runner-up in the final Directors' Cup standings, joining Emory in both 2002-03 and 2003-04 and Georgia in 1998-99. But neither Emory nor the Bulldogs put up as many points or finished as close to the eventual No. 1 ranked school.
Shorter finished in second place with 856.00 total points, the highest total ever achieved by the program. The Hawks scored in 12 sports and claimed the softball and men’s outdoor track and field championships – Shorter won an outdoor track title for the second straight year. Shorter also placed second in men’s indoor track and field, third in men’s basketball, fourth in women’s indoor track and field and fifth in women’s golf.
The Hawks finished only 62 behind top-ranked Azusa Pacific, which had to hold off the highest scoring runner-up in Directors' Cup history in Shorter. Previously, only two other Directors’ Cup runner-ups have scored over 800 points, with Simon Fraser doing so twice with 818.00 points in 2008 and 817.00 points in 2010.
The 62-point final margin marked the tightest race by far among Georgia's other Directors' Cup runner-ups -- Georgia finished 250 points behind the Directors' Cup winner in 1998-99, while Emory finished runner-up by margins of 270.75 and 379.25 points in 2003-04 and 2002-03, respectively.
Top Five Finishes by Georgia Athletic Programs in Directors' Cup History
|
Georgia Rank |
Institution |
Directors' Cup Ranking |
Year (Margin) |
|
1 |
Shorter University |
2 |
2011-12 (62) |
|
2 |
University of Georgia |
2 |
1998-99 (250) |
|
3 |
Emory University |
2 |
2003-04 (270.75) |
|
4 |
Emory University |
2 |
2002-03 (379.25) |
|
T-5 |
University of Georgia |
3 |
2000-01 |
|
T-5 |
Shorter University |
3 |
2010-11 |
Since 2008, Shorter has compiled eight team national championships -- four NAIA and four in competitive cheerleading through NCA -- and 19 individual national championships. In addition to back-to-back top three Directors' Cup finishes, Shorter has also seen its coaches receive National Coach of the Year honors on five different occasions.
The end result? An athletic department that is now recognized as not only one of the best in the state of Georgia and the southeastern United States, but also in the entire country -- a reputation that is sure to follow the Hawks as they embark on their next challenge at the NCAA Division II level.
