School officials say athletes at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke had a good year on and off the field.

The 2010 Peach Belt Conference recently recently recognized UNCP with its President’s Cup for Academic Excellence, according to Scott Bigelow, university spokesman.

The PBC President’s Cup recognizes excellence in academics concerning all of an institution’s student-athletes.

This spring, the Peach Belt Conference asked each of the league’s 13 members to submit grade point averages for the undergraduate student body and for all student-athletes.

The average GPA for all UNCP undergraduate students is 2.51, and for student-athletes, it is 2.82.

For comparison purposes, the two numbers were then used to create a ratio identifying which school’s athletes were performing the most ahead of the curve in comparison to the student body, Bigelow said. UNC Pembroke had the highest ratio at 1.106.

“This award is a direct result of the job each of our coaches, faculty and staff do in emphasizing academic excellence in their particular sports,” Athletic Director Dan Kenney said. “Thanks again and congrats on a job well done. Let’s go for two in a row.”

Chancellor Charles Jenkins said the ideal of the student-athlete is alive and well at UNCP.

“We are so proud of our student-athletes for achieving this award and recognition, which we think makes a most important statement about our athletics program,” Chancellor Jenkins.“Not only do we want to congratulate our student-athletes and their families, we congratulate our coaches, our director of athletics and faculty and staff for their emphasis on academic performance and the earning of a university degree.

“The UNCP family takes great pride in earning this distinction,” he concluded.

For the record, five UNCP teams had GPAs over 3.0 for the year and only two out of 16 teams had average GPAs below a 2.5.