Tide?s Joseph Sykora Voted ESPN Academic All-America
6/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
TUSCALOOSA ?? Sporting a 4.0 grade point average and 74.97 stroke average, the University of Alabama’s Joseph Sykora has been named to the 2006 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America At-Large team.
The Daphne native was a 2005 United States Amateur participant. He is a junior at Alabama but just finished his sophomore season on the golf team. He was a red shirt as a true freshman in 2003-04. Sykora is majoring in business and made it into arguably the most difficult category for a student-athlete to make the Academic All-America team. Unlike single sport Academic All-America teams where student-athletes are only competing on a ballot against others in their own respective sport, student-athletes from 11 different sports are eligible in the at-large category. Only a total of 16 are named Academic All-America.
Sykora, who in April was named the 2006 Southeastern Conference Men’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year, has helped power Alabama to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in golf. He advanced to match play at the 2005 U.S. Amateur where, in the second round of match play, he drew his Alabama teammate, Matthew Swan. Sykora won the 2002 Future Masters Championship as a golfer at Mobile’s UMS-Wright.
Sykora was one of four award winners with a perfect 4.0 GPA. The award is voted upon by the membership of the Collegiate Sports Information Directors Association.
